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Sir:

I have received yours of yesterday. Inclosed you have a Copy of my Orders by Major Hogg, whom I have appointed to Command

an Expedition in which the State Troops and others are to be Employed. If you, Sir, are the Officer now Commanding the Detachment of those Troops at Franklin, I expect you will obey my orders without disputing them. If you do not Choose it you will Consider yourself at liberty to retire from the Service or in Arrest for Disobedience of those Orders.

Your having a Commission in the State Troops neither entitles you to the Sole Command of those Troops nor to the Conduct of any Expedition in which they may be employed, and if you do not Choose to perform your duty under the Command of such Officer as I judge proper to entrust with the Conduct of an Expedition, be assured I will not suffer the public Business to be deranged or delayed while Officers are disputing about frivolous distinctions. I want the Service of the Troops Immediately, and I judge that Service Essential. I, therefore, insist that upon receipt of this you Immediately proceed in your duty, agreeably to the rank you bear, under the orders of Major Hogg, or that you leave the Command to the next Officer in Rank in either of the Views above mentioned. Should you decline the Service you will give the Orders to the next Officer.

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