Peter T. Curtenius (Commissary) to New-York

v2:1537

New-York, July 3, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: I have made an inquiry about the articles the Congress gave me an order for, and find that I can get coarse cloth, of different colours like the patterns, for two battalions, at seven shillings and six pence, to eight shillings per yard, and a few of them from eleven to thirteen shillings per yard, which last will do for sergeants' coats; if you think the colours differ too much, they can be dyed a dark brown at one shilling and six pence per yard. Mr˙ Pey, one of your members, can inform you whether it is too much. As to blue cloth I can get enough for two battalions more, that is, if the Congress will permit Robert and John Murray to take fifteen or sixteen pieces blue strouds out of their store at Elizabethtown.

Muskets that are good I find very scarce; not fifty ready made that are good for any thing. I might get about one hundred made in a month, at eighty or eighty-two shillings a piece.

Raven' s duck, none to be had as yet; but I can get about severity pieces drilling, at two shillings and four pence per yard, which is eight pence higher than I gave for duck; and ten pieces Russia sheeting, very stout, at five pounds, ten shillings per piece, which is about three shillings per yard, but then it is a quarter of a yard wider than duck or drilling.

Canteens I can get ready made, about twenty-five hundred, of Mr˙ Levy, at one shilling a piece, but I would not venture to buy them, as they are something tarnished, until

v2:1538

English spades, none to be had; socket spades can be made by our blacksmiths, which are better than English ones.

Lead in bars, none to be had. Shot I can get at forty-four shillings per hundred weight; but I can get bullets cast to any size that shall he wanted, at fifty shillings per hundred weight, which is cheaper than shot at forty-four shillings, because it wastes fourteen pounds per hundred weight.

Flints, cartouch paper, gun-worms, screw-drivers, camp kettles, haversacks, hatchets, felling axes, and pick-axes, I can get the whole quantity.

I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,

PETER T˙ CURTENIUS.