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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Letter from Alexander Martin to Jethro Sumner [Extract]
Martin, Alexander, 1740-1807
October 13, 1780
Volume 14, Pages 787-788

COL. ALEXANDER MARTIN TO GEN. JETHRO SUMNER.

“Gen. Gates has laid before the Board of War a letter, addressed from you to him, asking his approbation to decline the militia service, as you conceive yourself, with other Continental officers, maltreated by the General Assembly, requesting Gen. Smallwood to take the Militia Command. This country, we are sensible, has a just sense of you and your officers' merit, and desire to have you employed in the defence of it, suitable to your wishes, not wounding your

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feelings, and should you leave the service at this critical juncture, in the face of your enemy, the Board will sincerely regret it. We wish that the brave and virtuous soldier will dispense with immediate inconveniences, and will not, for the little punctilios of honor, suffer his country to be given up into the hands of a merciless enemy.”