Documenting the American South Logo
Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Nathanael Greene to Horatio Gates
Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786
December 06, 1780
Volume 14, Pages 767-768

GEN. NATH. GREENE TO MAJ. GENL. GATES.

Camp Charlotte, Decemr. 6th, 1780.

Dear Sir:

Agreeable to my instructions, I have taken the opinion of the General, and other principal, Officers of this Army, upon the practicability of holding a court of enquiry into your conduct during your command in this department. They are unanimous in the opinion that it is not practicable agreeably to the tenor of my instructions, and that it would not be prudent to call the Baron de Steuben from Virginia without further information from that quarter, and that the circumstances of this Army would not admit of the enquiry's being made, even if the Baron was here.

Your earnest desire to have the court held would have induced me to call the Baron to this Army, had the Officers been of opinion that our circumstances would admit of the enquiry's being made unless the operations of the enemy in Virginia had rendered his continuance there very essential, in which case I am pursuaded you would neither wish or expect it.

I flatter myself you are fully convinced that I am equally anxious with yourself for having the Court convened, and no less desirous of giving you an early opportunity of justifying yourself to the world than you are of submitting your conduct to an impartial enquiry.

-------------------- page 768 --------------------

As soon as the State of this Army will admit of my convening a Court agreeable to the tenor of my instructions, I will give you immediate notice thereof.

I am, with esteem,
Your Most Obedient Humble Servant,
NATH. GREENE.
The Honble. Major Genl. Gates.