Office of Army Accounts October 3, 1786 Sir In consequence of Colonel Shrieve's Letter which did me the Honor to hand to me a few days since I have attended to his Accounts and I find that those in 1777 have some Objections which may be proper to have removed previous to their being passed. The State of which are as follows — He stands charged with the sum of $1500 dollars received in that year; he produces receipts for $11468.90 [undecipherable] for that year. The allowance for recruiting of his Reg[iment] follows and made on a Calculation taken from the whole number of Men that served in the Regiment — Bounty of 513 Men .... 10,260 Recruiting ditto to the Officers .... 684 and some incidental expenses which will probably amount to the balance ..... 556 11,500 now Colonel Shrieve has exhibited his accounts since the settlement with the Lege and demands the sum of $2968.60 dollars a balance for advances made by him to his recruiting Officers which sum is not only beyond what the the Public advanced to him but above the probable recruiting expenses of the Regiment and therefore unless the same can be recovered must be a loss either to him or the United States in support of his claim for this balance he urges that he advanced this money as was the duty of the Commanding Officer of a Regiment, to his Officers for the Public Service and for whose conduct he cannot be answerable as they were not of his appointment; but let the full force of this reasoning be granted and that he was perfectly justifiable in making these advances in the first instance was it not his duty to give some of the Public Officers a knowledge of [these] advances to enable them to make the[m pay] and was it not his duty to pay such attention to the expenditures for the recruiting service as to prevent so considerable a loss on the recruiting Account of his Regiment? the Officers to whom he paid this money may be considered as under several views, such as died in the service such as resigned and such as had depreciation due to them or continued to the end of the War — he may say in respect to the first that he had no opportu[nity] to call them to account which reasoning undoubtedly ought to have weight — but still as he knew the sum they had received and the Number of Men inlisted by them it appears no more than reasonable that he should have secured the balance to the Public before their decease or from the Pay that was due them at their deaths or that he should make it appear it was not in his power — in respect to such as resigned the Commander in Chief decided that no Officer should be permitted to resign untill he brought a Certificate from the Commanding Officer of his Regiment that he had settled his recruiting Accounts and therefore a resignation could not take place without his having had an Opportunity to Obtain repayment of his advances and those Officers who continued to the time of depreciation or to the end of the War would have been obliged to account in their Settlement with the State or with me had the [latter] not neglected to make known that he had any advances against them. I should have been more satisfied in respect to such losses for Payments made to Officers who probably might have left the service without his knowledge; tho' this was seldom the case in other regiments whose Commanders were more Attentive to their own and the Public Interest; had he not suffered every Opportunity which might have been embraced by the Public to secure the money, to escape him and now declines giving himself any trouble to Oblige such Officers as are to be found to Account — The question now therefore is whether Colonel Shrieve shall be paid for this balance and the United States look to the Officers for repayment or he be obliged to call on them either to account. first to the Public for his advances or with him as a private debt — I delayed to decide on the question & still delay it in hopes he would have called on his Officers and that they would have appeared at This Office to Account with me But as he is dissatisfied at this delay and wishes the subject may be laid before Congress I have given you this information that he may be enabled to do as he pleases upon it — I have the Honor to be with great respect S^r Y^rs. [signature] [endorsement: Elect Col[onel] / [undecipherable] / Accountant / [undecipherable]] Honorable M^r. Sims —