nes nor instruments, and that
there was no possibility of getting them in Canada. Washington replied
that he would direct Dr. Morgan to send the required supplies, and ask
for additional help from Congress.[74] However, until early in June,
Morgan was in no position to outfit medicine chests for any of the
troops at New York, much less for the army in the north; and Congress
didn't even get around to directing "the committee appointed to
provide medicines ... to send a proper assortment of medicine to
Canada" until June 17.[75]

After Morgan had established the general hospital at New York, he
wrote to Samuel Adams on June 25 that

... the state of the Army in Canada ... for a supply of medicines
is truly deplorable. General Gates sets out to-morrow to take
command of the Army in Canada. Dr. Potts will accompany him. I have
therefore given orders to supply him from the General Hospital with
a large chest of such medicines as I can best spare, and which can
be got ready to-morrow before his departure.[76]

Until July 24, the only medicines to arrive at Fort George were the
"few that Dr. Potts brought with him" even though Morgan had,
according to Stringer, promised to send "by the first sloop twenty
half-chests of medicines" put up at New York for ten battalions in the
north. Stringer therefore asked permission of General Gates at
Ticonderoga to "go forth to York and see the medicines forthwith
forwarded by land, until they can be safely conveyed by water."
Permission was granted on July 29 and Stringer departed for New
York.[77] Meanwhile, Morgan had written Potts on July 28 that he had
sent Dr. James McHenry to Philadelphia for drugs, and that he was
sending Andrew Craigie to Fort George to "act as an Apothecary."
Morgan also asked for an inventory of drugs on hand in the Northern
Department.[78]

Stringer spent only a day or two in New York with Morgan--just long
enough to intensify their personal feud over responsibilities and
authority. Stringer determined that the "twenty half-chests"
apparently were a figment of someone's imagination, because supplies
in New York were almost as bad as they were in the north. Also, he
learned that Morgan was sending a box of medicine northward "under the
care of the Surgeon of Col. Wayne Regt."[79] that was undoubtedly
intended to serve only as a regimental chest. Stringer then hurried on
to Philadelphia just in time to intercept McHenry, who had