The following is an installment of “On This Day,” a series celebrating America’s 250th anniversary by following the actions of Gen. George Washington, the Continental Congress, and the men and women whose bravery and sacrifice led up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
April 9, 1776
Gen. George Washington has now reached New London, Connecticut.
We know the exact time as 1 p.m because of an expense account kept by one of his aides-de-camp, William Palfrey, who recorded payment for food, ferries, and baggage handling, along with other associated costs of a journey from Cambridge to New York.
From 4 to 13 April GW was on the road from Cambridge to New York. He was accompanied on this journey by his aides-de-camp William Palfrey and Stephen Moylan and the adjutant general of the Continental army, Horatio Gates. GW’s other two aides, Robert Hanson Harrison and Richard Cary, escorted Martha Washington, her son John Parke (“Jack”) Custis, and his wife Eleanor Calvert (“Nellie”) Custis to New York by way of Hartford and New Haven, while GW, in order “to see and expedite the embarkation of the Troops” going to New York, proceeded on the “lower” road through Providence, Norwich, and New London to New Haven where the two roads met (GW to Hancock, 15 April 1776).
Harrison’s and Cary’s total expenses for their journey, £45.6.1, are recorded in Accounts with U.S., 1775–83, 13. The traveling expenses of Mrs. Washington and the Custises were apparently paid out of GW’s private funds. They were not charged to his public accounts. GW entered the £53.15.2 that Palfrey accounted for in this document in his public ledger under 13 April and added immediately below that entry another entry for £12.10.9 cash “paid by myself in Providence &ca exclusive of the above”
ON THIS DAY: URGENT REQUEST FOR SEAMEN FOR THE CONTINENTAL ARMY IS SENT OUT
As Washington arrives in New London, he boards the Alfred, a warship, with the intent to confer with Commodore Esek Hopkins, whose squadron has just returned from a raid in the Bahamas.
Washington also spends the day inspecting the coastal defenses being built in the likelihood of a British attack. The British had recently fled Boston for Nova Scotia, but they have by no means given up the fight against the Continental Army.
