[Cover endorsement, upper right corner: From [undecipherable] / [undecipherable] July 15^th / 1796 / Answered [undecipherable]] [William Shirtley's [undecipherable] / Accountant's Dept. / Philadelphia] [Responded July 15^th 1796] Sir Before my Departure from Philadelphia you must remember my going to Mrs Balfour (with your consent) an order to receive the whole [strikethrough: [undecipherable]] part of my pay & forage as she might wish. In consequence of this Order as soon as I came on this ground, I desired Captain Bipsell not to include me in his pay roll as such order had been given agreeable to this, I never was [undecipherable: probable reading "paid"] for any of the months in 1795 nor should I have been to this day, but for the following circumstances — In the last part of the month April 1796 Sergeant Michaels came to this post with the money for the Detachment for the months of January & Febry he brought with him a paper of appropriations of [which] the enclosed is an attested Copy — I immediately [undecipherable] to Captain Bipsell the apparent impropriety of sending the money unasked for, under such circumstances, indeed it appears a problem which I could not solve, but as I had was entirely ignorant how much money Mrs Balfour had drawn, having never [undecipherable] written to him [undecipherable], I imagined it was perhaps sent either by his wish or [undecipherable] [undecipherable] could not have received for three months otherwise it would not have been sent. At this time Captain Bipsell's pay Rolls for these [undecipherable] were not made out [undecipherable] as he had received such sums particularly for such [undecipherable] purposes he [undecipherable] make out his pay Role accordingly. I was therefore obliged to receive receipts for my pay [undecipherable] against my [undecipherable] otherwise Captain Bipsell could not have sent out the pay role [undecipherable] — I therefore immediately wrote to Mrs Balfour requesting she would inform me how much she had received, for what months & wishing to be informed the reason the pay was sent on without any application from me — I was surprised on receiving a letter from her by the last post informing me she had received pay for three months & her equal astonishment at its being sent on, she informed me likewise that, in the [undecipherable] she had received ten months pay & forage [undecipherable] as it was in two months I received the letter I find the last two months ([undecipherable]) unaccounted for, which would balance the two I had received. There was therefore no necessity of making a refund, which I should immediately have sent to you had it been due — I make no Doubt Mrs Balfour has either had my letter made known to you or has not received for these two months last past, therefore all that is necessary to be done is to have the receipts exchanged for the proper months & [undecipherable] receipts on the pay rolls remain — It now remains for me to observe how the two last pay rolls sent out came to have my name to them — [undecipherable] an [undecipherable] he came to this post some time since [undecipherable] to him his rolls ready for him to carry down with him. The Captain as is usual in the army gave the orderly Sergeant the former Rolls to make the necessary ones by the Sgt without my knowledge (making them alike) [undecipherable] me in them, it was too late to make [undecipherable] as Mr Parks was immediately going & they were sent, tho' against my wish — But as I had not yet received Mrs Balfour's account I could not tell whether a mistake had been made or not — There Sir I think I have accounted for this business on my part plainly enough, but if you think otherwise I have only one favor to ask of you & that is to point out the deficiency. There Sir remains for me to mention the reason of my writing this letter & my opinion of that reason — Captain Bipsell yesterday received an extract of a letter said to be from you to Isaac Craigs D. Q. M. G. dated Phila^a June 10^th 1796, enclosed in a letter to him — The construction the tenor of this extract excited in me, determined me to write you about the circumstances. I had concluded you had by this time seen the mistakes if [any?] I had [undecipherable], as I suppose you would certainly have dropped a line to myself or Captain Bipsell requesting an explanation. Pardon me Sir but think in a case of ambiguity happening in your department with an Officer who has been as many years a public [undecipherable] as I have been, & who of course must have had frequent settlements with that Department, you ought, when not well acquainted with that Officer yourself, to have first made yourself acquainted with his character from those around you before such a Paragraph could have been [penned?] — I should be glad to know from the written appropriations, as the money must originally have come through your hands the [undecipherable] by [undecipherable], was not his presumption such as to [undecipherable] the Opinion you meant the money to be received, else why sent without a prior pay [undecipherable], especially when Mrs Balfour having received for three months was not known — Such Sir is my Opinion & if it is not perfectly clear & satisfactory I will visit Philadelphia should I even be obliged to proceed to do so, to support that Opinion — I am Sir Your hum^ble Ob^t Serv^t [undecipherable] Balfour M[undecipherable] [Enclosure] [Copy] Detachment Pay for January & Febry 96                                                         Dol[lars] 1 Captain 2 Months @ 40 Dol      80 1 Ensign    "        @ 20 D[o].      40 1 Surgeons Mate.                      72 1 [undecipherable] N Surg[eon].     16 5 Sug[ts].                                70 2 Musicians .                          20 7 Corporals .                          84 50 Privates .                         400                           Dollars  7[8]2 Bill of Cash forwarded 402 Dollars [undecipherable] 300 Bank Notes 702 Cop[undecipherable] April 9^th 1796                         Signed [undecipherable] Butler Col[?] I certify the above to be a true Copy R. Bissell Cap^t 2 Sub Legion