Accordingly by circular letters to the county lieutenants dated Fort Washington, July 16, 1790, St. Clair called upon three hundred men from Nelson, Lincoln, and Jefferson Counties, Virginia, to rendezvous at Fort Steuben (Steubenville, Ohio) September 12; seven hundred men from Madison, Mercer, Fayette, Bourbon, Woodford, and Mason Counties to rendezvous at Fort Washington September 15; and five hundred men from Washington, Fayette, Westmoreland, and Allegheny Counties, Pennsylvania, to rendezvous four miles below Wheeling on September 3. From this on affairs moved swiftly. On July 14--the day before the circular letters were sent off--General Harmar contracted with Elliott and Williams of Kentucky for one hundred and eighty thousand rations of flour, two hundred thousand rations of meat, eight hundred and sixty-eight horses equipped, one horse-master general, eighteen horse-masters, one hundred and thirty drivers, to be delivered at Fort Washington by October 1. On August 23, Secretary of War Knox wrote Governor St. Clair that he had ordered two tons of best rifle and musket powder, four tons of lead bullets, cartridge paper, case shot for five and a half inch howitzers and for three- and six-pounders to be hurried on from Philadelphia to the Ohio River. A thousand dollars was forwarded to Fort Washington for contingent expenses. Knox hurried a letter on to the governor of Virginia asking him to use his influence to induce the veteran Kentucky colonels Logan and Shelby to join the army at Fort Washington as volunteers for "the accomplishment of the public good," and a letter to Harmar requesting him to invite "those characters," and to treat them with "the greatest cordiality." St. Clair wrote immediately to the British commander at Detroit explaining candidly the nature of the campaign now on foot, explicitly stating its object and asking that the enemy should receive no assistance from British traders "from whose instigation," he made bold to add, "there is good reason to believe, much of the injuries committed by the savages has proceeded."