[Sharpe to Forbes.] Mouth of Conegochiegh the 9^th of Iune 1758.
Sir
As I perceive by a Letter from S^r Iohn S^t Clair to the Com-
manding Officer of the Maryland Troops that your Excellency
has been pleased to order them to march & join the Rest of
his Majesty's Forces under your Command I am prevailed on
by the repeated Requests of the several Gentlemen that have
the Command of those Troops & of the Person that has
victualled them to submit their Case to Your Excellency
hoping you will take it into Consideration & by some means
or other relieve them from the Difficulties wherein they find
themselves at present involved. Your Excellency is not I pre-
sume to learn that when the Earl of Loudoun met the several
Governors of these Southern Colonies at Philadelphia in
March 1757 he proposed among other matters that the Prov-
ince of Maryland should raise & support 500 Men to garrison
Fort Cumberland & Fort Frederick on the Frontiers of that
Province or to be otherwise disposed of as Colo. Stanwix
should think best for His Majesty's Service. As this Pro-
posal of His Ldps appeared to me very reasonable I promised
to recommend it to the Assembly to augment our Troops to
that Number & when the Virginians evacuated Fort Cumber-
land which they did in April I ordered Capt Dagworthy to
march with some of the Maryland Troops & to take Possession
of it. No sooner was the Assembly apprized of Capt Dag-
worthys having left Fort Frederick than they expressed their
Disapprobation in the most publick manner & when they
framed a Bill for augmenting our Troops they carefully inserted
such a Clause in it as they imagined would restrain their
Service to Fort Frederick or at least put it out of the power
of the Commanding Officer of His Majesty's Forces in
America to post them at Fort Cumberland. When I found
that the Assembly had come to such a Resolution I advised
Colo. Stanwix thereof by a Letter dated the 8^th of May wherein
was the following Paragraph " I am sorry to inform you that
I cannot prevail with the Assembly of this Province to engage
to support Fort Cumberland but that on the Contrary they
have come to a Resolution to pay no Captains or Companies
that shall be posted there. By the Bill which they have framed
& which now lies before me for my Assent I can order
Detachments from our several Companies thither under the
Command of Subaltern Officers to be relieved from Fort
Frederick every month but they will not suffer one of our
Officers to have the Chief Command nor our Troops to be
posted there as a Garrison apprehending I presume that by