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.He fumed over tardy deliveries, ranted about spoiled provi-sions, darkly charged corruption in the commissary, and even more ominouslywarned of the impending failure of his expedition should his exorbitant de-mands for clothing, food, horses, cattle and let us not forget liquor not befilled, precisely as ordered.52Amazingly, historians have bought into his charade, blaming Sullivan s lag-gardly pace on Washington, by claiming that the commander in chief had beenbehindhand in deciding on the expedition.53 This was clearly not the case,however, as demonstrated both by the deliberations and authorizations of 1778and by the expeditious Van Schaick rampage through Onondaga, which wasgotten up and prosecuted on Washington s schedule in April 1779.Further-more, some of the unobtainable yet crucial provisions Sullivan demanded were,at the time, dainty luxuries no one could have procured, or kept unspoiled if hehad, such as eggs and tongue.54 Sullivan almost derailed the entire enterprise byfocusing on provisioning over genocide.The exchange of letters between Sullivan and Washington between May andmid-August, when Sullivan finally lumbered into action, is a historical hoot, withSullivan piling extenuations higher and deeper as Washington moved frompolite commiseration to explosive ire.At first, Washington tried to be under-standing, sending Sullivan new orders on 31 May followed by a direction on 58 George Washington s War on Native America1 June for Sullivan to commence your operations the moment you have gotyourself in readiness. 55 On 4 June, annoyed by questions instead of action,Washington urged him to proceed.56 On 12 June, Sullivan responded with along whine as to why he just could not be expected to move yet.57 Still some-what supportive, on 21 June Washington sympathized but encouraged Sullivanto overcome the obstacles.58 Missing the undertone of irritation, Sullivan repliedon 29 June with a chatty note about boats and provisions, but without move-ment as an apparent goal.59Sensing that this correspondence might idle in neutral till hell froze over, on 1July Washington exploded, dispatching a furious missive that reamed Sullivan ontwo scores: those of Clinton s movements and Sullivan s excessive provisioning.General James Clinton was Sullivan s immediate subordinate and colleague, whowas to lead half of the army out of Cherry Valley to complement and connect withSullivan s other half out of Wyoming Valley.Clinton had moved his men in aclumsy, noisy way on poor orders from Sullivan that had actually countermandedWashington s astute orders.Washington also ladled hot sarcasm over Sullivan salleged lack of clothes and provisions, observing that Clinton s overstuffed armycould no doubt supply his deficiency.60 His fury not yet spent, on 5 July,Washington expressed further displeasure that Clinton had acted on Sullivan sorders in overprovisioning.He exhorted Sullivan to get on with the expedition.61Moody egotists do not respond well to constructive criticism.On 10 July,instead of sucking it up and moving it out as ordered, Sullivan composed a self-righteous epistle to Washington, defending his actions, or, rather, lack thereof.62From 9 July 1779 to 24 July 1779, Sullivan flatly refused to budge from Wyominguntil his demands for supplies were met to his satisfaction, very likely misreportingthe spoilage and amounts missing to force his point.63Washington apparently threw up his hands in exasperation at that point, for on21 July the Congressional Board of War jumped into the fray, scolding Sullivan forhis tardiness and laying any mix-up on provisions to his charge.64 On that veryday, Sullivan ripped off a reverberating self-defense to John Jay, then president ofCongress.65 Having received Congress s thrashing in the meantime, on 26 July,Sullivan again wrote Jay, accusing Congress of sending his soldiers out naked.66By 29 July, on the verge of justifiable homicide, Washington shot off a reply so hotas to have singed Sullivan s fingertips, ordering him in no uncertain terms to movehis anatomy.67 Perhaps realizing that he was placing his career and reputation injeopardy, Sullivan replied a little more contritely on 30 July that he was com-mencing his march the next day.68 (He did not move till 9 August.)It is fairly clear that Washington was correct in suspecting Sullivan of beingoverstocked and fearing his difficulty of moving so heavily in unknown terri-tory.69 Even the soldiers complained of the heavy wagons, bundles, and packsthey had to lug with them
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