Letter Bk.III
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[Sharpe to Hardy.]
Annapolis the 13th of May 1757.
Sir
At the same time that I do myself the honour to acknowl-
edge the Receipt of your Letters dated the 30th of April & 2d
Inst. I beg leave to congratulate you on your Receipt of orders
to hoist your Flag & most heartily wish you Success, I also
return you thanks for forwarding the Packett from Mr Secre-
tary Pitt & am &c
[Sharpe to Loudoun.]
13th May 1757 —
My Lord
I do myself the honour to acknowledge the Receipt of your
Ldp's Letters from N York dated the 3Oth of April & the 5th
Inst. I observe what your Lordship says concerning your
Disposition of the Troops as well Regulars as Provincial that
you propose to leave under the Command of Genl Webb & Colo
Stanwix & shall use my utmost Endeavours to raise the Men
that are expected from this Province. In Obedience to your
Ldp's Commands I have issued a Proclamation requiring all
Officers of the Militia to exercise the Men under their Com-
mand & to see that they provide themselves with Arms &
Ammunition I have also sent more particular Instructions to
the principal Militia Officers in the Frontier Counties as your
Ldp will see by the inclosed Copy. Our Assembly have at
length impowered me to augment the Troops in the Pay of
this Province to 500 Men & I have given Commissions for
that purpose but really I do not think it will be possible to
compleat the two Additional Companies this Summer Men
disposed to enlist are become so exceedingly scarce. It was
not without great difficulty that I prevailed with the Assembly
to come into this Measure & I am sorry to inform your Ldp
that they have now done it with such a Reservation as pre-
vents the Men's being disposed of exactly in the manner that
your Ldp was pleased to propose. Upon my Return from
Phila the Virginians being ordered to evacuate Fort Cumber-
land I sent Orders to Capt Dagworthy to march with a
Detachment of the Troops in the pay of this Province to take
possession of that place, but he had scarcely arrived there
before the Assembly gave me to understand that they did by
no means approve of the Orders I had given & that they
would never agree to support a Garrison in that Fort. No
Endeavours of mine were wanting to convince them of the
Impropriety of such a Resolution at this time but I had the
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