Colonel Richard Caswell,

Your Dispatches of the 17th and 18th instant have been punctually received with the enclosures. I am much obliged to you for the prudent disposition you have made of your men and the active spirit you discover in these critical times. The assurances you give me of the cheerful resolution of your own and the neighboring Regiments in support of Government afford me the fullest assurance that we shall by their united aid be enabled to chastise the insolence of any who shall dare to offer any future violence to the persons or Properties of His Majesty's subjects in this Province. The Laws in force I trust in their operation will countenance us in that cause as well as redress the injuries already committed.

I hope to hear from you to-morrow by noon, whether the Insurgents are actually on their march or not, as I purpose to-morrow afternoon to dismiss the Craven Regiment at present assembled, if I do not hear the Insurgents are on their march concluding I shall have sufficient time to reassemble them at a short notice should there be future occasion for them.

I think it is not impossible the Insurgents may attempt to come down in a Body with such of their Party as they find stand indicted under the late Law in order to protect them on their Tryals.

When you are upon a certainty that the Insurgents are not on their march you may dismiss your men cautioning them to hold themselves in readiness to turn out again on the first notice you may find it necessary to give them, which at the distance I am from you must be left discretionary with yourself.