[Docket notation on cover:] Cushing Thom.^s H. Maj: Insp. of [undecipherable] does Rel. from [undecipherable] Sep. 6 [undecipherable] [undecipherable] 1 [undecipherable] Inclosing a certificate to [undecipherable] 1797 [Cover address panel:] Thomas H. Cushing [undecipherable] N^o D Electic 1^st August 1797. I have the honour to enclose you a list of absentees who have been struck from the muster of the troops of the United States at the late muster, agreeable to The General order of the 12^th of May, the copy of which is endorsed on the back of the list. It is far from being so accurate as I could wish, but the broken and disperse situation of the companies heretofore, has put it out of the power of the Officers to keep regular accounts, and the absence of many Officers with the old Company books and papers they were kept [undecipherable: probable reading "adds"] to the deficiency already mentioned. None of the persons included are in this country except one [strikethrough: Wm] John Bennet an infirm old man who could not be removed from Greenville. He was supposed to be nearly expiring when the muster was made and was then [strikethrough: put] struck off the role without being discharged, as in that case the Pay Master of the [undecipherable] Regiment would have been obliged to make a move from the Ohio to Greenville in the muster could not have been prepared. As the case now stands, if the man lives there will be a partial Muster [strikethrough: undecipherable] of him, and he [strikethrough: will then] be discharged, but the probability is that he will never leave Greenville. [correction mark] I am Sir your Most Obea Ser.^t The accountant of the War Department T.H.Cushing Major 1.^st Reg.^t & Inspector