Digital Commons @ Wofford

Title

Letter in which Daniel Morgan refuses Henry Knox's request for assistance in fighting Native Americans. 1792.

Authors

Daniel Morgan

Files

Description

In this letter Daniel Morgan, a Virginian famous for his victory at Cowpens, S.C. duing the American Revolution, replies to Secretary of War Henry Knox's request for assistance in fighting Native American. Morgan demures, citing the qualities of the U.S. officer corps and the "peculiar" nature of fighting Native Americans.`

Transcription

[recto] I am Honored with your letter of the 12th Instant In which you inform me of my appointment to the command of a Brigade in the army of the united states. I am truly sensible of the Honor which the President + Senate have Done me by this appointment, and am sorry I cannot accept of it. - and these are my reasons. The war with the Indians is a peculier one, and Differs so widely from the usual & regular system of warfare, that in my opinion few amongst the Brave officers of our Late army, are acqainted with it - I can not therefore, think of putting myself, and the Brave men who would Risque themselves with me, under the command of any man whose conduct, and abilities for this service, I am not acqainted with - you will therefore be pleased to consider me as not accepting this appointment - at the same time, I must once more Express the High Sense which I entertain of the Honor conferred upon me - By the President and Senate of the united states. I have the Honor to you obedt. Hble servt Dan’ Morgan The 23rd April 1792 [Addressed to Henry Knox]

Creation Date

4-23-1792

City

Unknown

Country

United States

Creator Life Dates

1736-1802

Keywords

Daniel Morgan, Henry Knox, brigade, Indians, Native American, appointment, 1792, war

Resource Identifier

080616-92

Date Digital

11-7-2013

Document Type

Manuscript

Disciplines

Archival Science | Indigenous Studies | Military History | Social History | United States History

Publisher

Wofford College

Format (medium)

manuscript

Format (IMT)

PDF

Language

En-us

Digitization Specifications

800ppi 24-bit depth color; Scanned with an Epson 15000 Photo scanner with Epson Scan software; Archival master is a TIFF; TIFFs converted to PDF with Adobe Acrobat XI Pro.

Source

The original from which this digital representation is taken is housed in The Littlejohn Collection at Wofford College, located in the Sandor Teszler Library.

Recommended Citation

Morgan, Daniel, "Letter in which Daniel Morgan refuses Henry Knox's request for assistance in fighting Native Americans. 1792." (1792). Broadus R. Littlejohn, Jr. Manuscript and Ephemera Collection. 94.
https://digitalcommons.wofford.edu/littlejohnmss/94

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.