The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

122 WASHINGTON'S VRITINGS. [2IT. 45.
in order to lay before him the state of this army and
the situation of the enemy, and to point out to him the
many happy consequences, that will accrue from an
immediate reinforcement being sent from the northern
army, I have thought proper to appoint you to that
duty, and desire that you will immediately set out for
Albany, at which place or in the neighbourhood, I
imagine you will find General Gates.
You are so fully acquainted with the two principal
points on which you are sent, namely, the state of our
army and the situation of the enemy, that I shall not
enlarge on these heads.* What you are chiefly to
attend to is, to point out in the clearest manner to
General Gates the absolute necessity that there is for
his detaching a very considerable part of the army, at
present under his command, to the reinforcement of this;
a measure that will in all probability reduce General
Howe to the same situation in which General Burgoyne
now is, should he attempt to remain in Philadelaphia
without being able to remove the obstructions in the
Delaware, and open a free communication with his
shipping.'The force, which the members of the council of wT-ar' To the council of war General WVashington made the following report, as to the strength of the two armies, namely, that the troops under
Sir William Howe present and fit for duty amounted, according to the
best intelligence lie could obtain, to ten thousand rank and file, stationed
at Philadelphia and in its immediate vicinity; and that the force under
his command, present and fit for duty, was eight thousand three hundred and thirteen Continental troops, and two thousand seven hundred
and seventeen militia. There were, in addition, seven hundred and fifty
Continental troops at Red Bank and Fort Mifflin, and a detachment of
three hundred militia on their way to reinforce those posts. A body of
five hundred militia under General Potter was likewise on the other side
of the Schuylkill. This was his whole force, and it was likely soon to
suffer a diminution of nineteen hundred and eighty six militia, by the
expiration of the term of service for which those from Maryland and Virginia had been engaged.- MYinutes of the Council of War, October 29th.