On July 21 Secretary Knox wrote St. Clair at Fort Washington: "The president is greatly anxious that the campaign be distinguished by decisive measures." A letter of August 4 reads: "The president still continues anxious that you should, at the earliest moment, commence your operations;" and another under the date of September 1 reads: "[The president] therefore enjoins you, by every principle that is sacred, to stimulate your operations in the highest degree, and to move as rapidly as the lateness of the season, and the nature of the case will possibly admit." It is a matter of record that at the time this letter was written neither General Butler or Quartermaster-general Hodgdon had so much as reached the rendezvous. The latter's delay was never explained and General Butler was utterly dependent upon quartermaster and contractor. Butler was at last ordered to Fort Washington by Secretary Knox in the following peremptory words, which implied neglect and carelessness--a rebuke which was, perhaps, as undeserved as it was sharp: "I have received your letter of the 18th instant, which has been submitted to the President of the United States, and I am commanded to inform you that he is by no means satisfied with the long detention of the troops on the upper parts of the Ohio, which he considers unnecessary and improper. And it is his opinion, unless the highest exertions be made by all parts of the army, to repair the loss of the season, that the expenses which have been made for the campaign, will be altogether lost, and that the measures, from which so much has been expected, will issue in disgrace."[92] However the quartermaster-general had been ordered as early as June 9 to "consult Major General Butler upon all objects of the preparations and as soon as possible repair to headquarters."[93]