Head Quarters [Providence, R.I.] August 1st 1778.
Dear Sir,
You will please to proceed to Boston, Marblehead and such other places as you may think proper, to engage two or three hundred Seamen or other persons well acquainted with Boats, who are to act as Boatmen in the Expedition against Rhode Island. You will please to use all possible expedition in forwarding them on. Their pay shall be three Dollars per day & their expenses borne upon the Road. Their engagement is to be for fifteen days, if not sooner discharged; they will be allowed three days for coming & three for going Home. You are to advance each man one week's pay upon his engaging. Upon this encouragement I think you will have a sufficient number who will at this important Crisis, step forth to assist in the glorious Enterprise on hand & share with their Brethern the Honor of giving the last Blow to British Tyranny.1 I am, Dear Sir, [&c.]
JOHN SULLIVANN
Brig'r Gen'l Glover
Historical Collections of the Essex Institute 5: 107.
1. Glover recruited a large number of seamen: one hundred from Marblehead, eighty from Boston, sixty from Newburyport, twenty-five from Salem, and lesser numbers from various smaller communities in Massachusetts. George Williams to Timothy Pickering, 20 Aug. 1779, Pickering Papers, MHi.
