[postal stamp: BOST[undecipherable]] [date stamp, undecipherable] The honourable The Secretary of War Philadelphia [top of letter heavily damaged and largely illegible] I have received your [undecipherable] [undecipherable] informing me that the President of [undecipherable] and with the advise and consent of [undecipherable] pleased to appoint me a Major General in the Army [undecipherable] as I am with the [undecipherable] our Country is about to enter into a contest, in w[undecipherable] [undecipherable] as an independent Nation will be involved; [undecipherable] [undecipherable] have accepted the appointment however [undecipherable] [my] Private affairs had not the following paragraph [of] your letter peculiarly attracted my notice It may be proper to mention that the [undecipherable]nations to the Senate for General Officers, of the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Provisional Army were prepared on [undecipherable] day order in which they [undecipherable] [on] the [list] and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] them in this [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the names placed before mine on the list are those of Generals Hamilton and Pinckney It is to be presumed, that you are not uninformed of the military precedence I sustained in the late War relatively to those Gentlemen General Hamilton was a Captain in the year 1776 in the corps of Artillery which I commanded; and in the latter part of the same year I had the rank of Brigadier General. In 1777 He was appointed an aide [undecipherable] to the Commander in chief with the incidental rank [undecipherable] [Lt.] Col. which was his highest grade — I was established a Major [undecipherable] from Nov^r 1781. The precise state of General Pinckney, [undecipherable] is not at present recollected — He was a Colonel the greater part of the War, and obtained the rank of Brigadier General either by actual appointment, or by virtue of the general resolve respecting brevet rank in the Year 17[undecipherable] [undecipherable] Whether the order of names as specified [undecipherable] is intended to [undecipherable] the precedency of rank [undecipherable] in no [undecipherable] relates [undecipherable] entered into [undecipherable] country, to [undecipherable] principles [undecipherable] [undecipherable] appointments made in [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the [same] day [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] as [undecipherable] from [undecipherable] intends [undecipherable] the perfect right of [undecipherable] Secretary to accept [undecipherable] affairs, and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] manner [undecipherable] [undecipherable] opinion, [undecipherable] [undecipherable] accepted [undecipherable] Should be wanting, no military tribunal would confirm the order of names as a [undecipherable] cause [undecipherable] or reverse the [undecipherable]ative situations. If the rules for deciding rank founded upon [the] resolves or laws of [the] Congress under the Confederation and which have once [undecipherable] [to] operate as a [undecipherable] military code [undecipherable] been repealed or annulled — it would be acceptable [to] me to be informed by [undecipherable] when and by [what] [authority] therefore [undecipherable] was effected — If [those] rules [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the [present] instance on a special purpose the officer is [undecipherable] that [undecipherable] the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] as [the laws] [undecipherable] to decide the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] between officers of the [undecipherable] [who were] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [brought into] the Army about to be [raised] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] my Country and its Governm[ent] on a cau[se] [undecipherable] pure and just, I shall never regret [undecipherable] encumbrance which may oppose insupermountable [undecipherable]les to the measure unless upon terms which mus[t] [undecipherable] excite [undecipherable] of public degradation I have the honor to be [undecipherable] with consideration Your Humble Servant Knox [address panel:] The honorable The Secretary of War