James McHenry letter 1797

1797
James McHenry to William Smith
Inquires on the numbers of troops needed in order to properly defend coastal forts and garrisons in the event of an invasion. McHenry asks what the House plans to do in order to adequately provide this need; he also seriously questions the ability of a voluntarily militia to do the job.

Fort Norfolk Documents

Before 1794, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865

Source of Information

Papers of the War Department 1784 to 1800

Papers of the War Department is a project of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, George Mason University with funding from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Fire destroyed the War Department office in 1800. For decades historians believed that its files, and the window they provide into the early federal government, had been lost forever. This collection unites copies of the lost files in a digital archive that reconstitutes this invaluable historical resource.