A copy of Cornwallis's letter dated August, 1780, to Lieut. Col. Nisbet Balfour, by Robert Hanson Harrison, is in the Washington Papers. In it Cornwallis says:

I have given Orders that all the Inhabitants of this province who have subscribed and have taken part in this Revolt should be punished with the greatest rigour and also those who will not turn out that they may be imprisoned and their whole property taken from them or destroyed. I have likewise ordered that compensation should be made out of their Estates to the persons who have been injured and oppressed by them. I have ordered in the most positive manner that every Militia Man who has borne Arms with us and afterwards joined the Enemy shall be immediately hanged. I desire You will take the most rigorous measures to punish the Rebels in the district in which You command and that You will obey in the strictest manner, the directions I have given in this Letter relative to the Inhabitants of this Country.