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at Fort Cumberland, but I assure you mine would have been very
great if they had urged any Thing but the Want of Money in
Excuse for not having immediately complied with my Request. The
Agents Accounts will, I suppose, shew you, that they have hitherto
furnished those Troops with Provisions; and they will, I presume,
if called upon, inform you, that they have been well advised the Law
made it their Duty to supply them so long as any of the Money,
which was appropriated by the Act passed last Session, remained
unexpended.
I am sorry you should question the Earl of Loudoun's Authority
to place in Fort Cumberland any of the Men that were raised here,
in Consequence of his Requisition: I am satisfied that his Lordship
was by his Majesty's Commission, as well as by our Act of As-
sembly, impowered to do so; and however it may become you, I do
not think it was my Duty to declare, that they should not be employed
in such a Manner as the Commander in Chief of all his Majesty's
Forces in America thought most conducive to his Majesty's Service.
As it is notorious that while Numbers of People have been cut off
in the Two Neighbouring Provinces, we have only lost Two or Three
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L. H. J.
Liber No. 49
Oct. 21
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Persons at most, exclusive of Soldiers, and their Attendants, and that
our People owe their Preservation in great Measure to the Disposi-
tion that the Earl of Loudoun was pleased to make of our Forces, I
am surprized at your saying that for Want of their Service, the
Frontier Inhabitants have been exposed to the Incursions of their
cruel and savage Enemies : But if you complain so grievously of the
Earl of Loudoun's having ordered a Part of our Troops to Garrison
a Fort within the Province, What Answer might his Lordship have
expected, if, when he gave Orders for some of the Troops that were
raised in North-Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, to embark
for South-Carolina, he had required us likewise to send a Company
or Two thither ?
As I persuade myself, Gentlemen, that you would not choose to
distinguish yourselves by obstructing the Measures, that the General
whom his Majesty has intrusted with the Command of all his Forces
in America thinks it for his Majesty's Service to pursue, I hope
you will not oblige the Troops that are now at Fort Cumberland, to
abandon it, with all it's Artillery and Stores, to his Majesty's Ene-
mies : And as you alone will be answerable for the Consequences, I
once more recommend it to you to make immediate Provision for the
Support of that Garrison, as well as for the Support of the Troops
that remain at Fort Frederick, and that are, agreeable to the Direc-
tions of our Act of Assembly, kept Ranging at a small Distance
beyond the Frontier Settlements.
21st of October, 1757. Hor.o Sharpe.
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p. 52
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