Discusses obtaining needed supplies, and even though this falls outside the scope of his department Knox asserts that in these times one must do more than mere duty. He hopes Major Bauman has succeeded and that he has embarked. Knox is sending an artificer officer named Mr. Thorp to obtain some ordnance items from General Mordecai Gist in Baltimore and to join Bauman on the upcoming operation. The items are urgently needed, and Knox has already been disappointed in obtaining them from Philadelphia. Bauman commanded an artillery corps that was a part of Colonel John Lamb's Second Regiment of Continental Artillery and had been recently appointed to his post by Knox. The Continental Army was preparing for the siege of Yorktown.