War department January 12, 1793 Sir. I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 4^th instant. I have not received the letters you mention by M^r Swan from Brigadier Gen^l Wilkinson. I am assured to hear of M^r Swan's arrival, as now there will be no further impediment to the completion of the pay for the troops up to the first day of the present month, & in future it will be regularly paid, as far as the situation of the troops will possibly admit. The motion for the reduction of the troops having been for some time past agitated before the House, it would not have been proper to have completed the promotions among the troops— the motion having failed, twenty for, and thirty six against it— the promotions will soon take place as far as it shall be possible to ascertain the rank by the established principles.— I cannot discover that there is a disposition to raise the pay of the troops. How the recruiting service will progress is to be ascertained. The detachment lately marched from this city will be increased by the recruits at Lancaster & Carlisle to one hundred & sixty noncommissioned and privates. I pray in future that precise returns to forwarded to me of all parties of recruits which may arrive on [undecipherable], accounting for any deficiencies of the number of which the party originally consisted. It is highly satisfactory to hear from you of the progressive discipline of the troops, according to the nature of the warfare for which they are designed. It is the close pursuit of this principle alone, that will give the ascendancy to troops called regulars over Militia— after the troops shall have learned their trade perfectly, there will be as much difference between them and raw militia as between a master workman and his raw apprentice.— Adhere therefore to the line in which you have set out; and the result must be honor & glory to you & your army. Five of the Wabash Indians have died of the small pox. La Gesse and Grand Joseph are among the number. three took it in the natural way, and all dead— One, died by drinking cold water, who had been inoculated— and the other the disease would not mature. the rest will do well.—— I have the honor to be Sir with great respect your most obed^t Serv^t Knox— Major Gen^l Wayne.—