To George Washington from Jean Marie de Bordes, 13 November 1795
From Jean Marie de Bordes
November 13, 1795
General,
You may not have forgotten, perhaps, a French Officer, who had the Advantage of following you in the memorable Campaign of 1776 and 1777, the Epoch of American Liberty, the Triumph of your Arms, and the Glory of your Talents. This Officer was at first a Volunteer in the Company of Artillery of Capt. Hamilton,1 afterwards Aide-de-Camp and Major of Brigade to General Roche-fermoy, and continued till the Year 1778 in the American Service, in the southern Part of the Continent, under Colonel John White, and Samuel Elbert, General Commandant of the Province of Georgia.2 At that Period, persuaded, that in consecrating his Blood to the Defence of his Country, he should not serve less the Interests of America, he returned to St Domingo, obtained a Situation in the French Army, and at the Siege of Savannah, was one of the Officers who proposed Count d’Estaing to the Favour of the Court.
A Victim of the cruel Revolution which will reduce his flourishing Country, the Isle of St Domingo, to a Heap of Ashes, he is now at Philadelphia, destitute of Succour. Long Time he thought on military Emoluments, but, according to your Example, resolved these should not tarnish, in the Hands of its Defender, the noble, the great Cause of Liberty.
The more than embarrassing Circumstances, however, in which he at present finds himself, oblige him to make a Sacrifice, which he should not have been able to have done, had he not been impelled by imperious Necessity. May he flatter himself that you will deign to support in Congress, the Reclamations which he makes to it, the Legitimacy of which he will fully justify?3 He hopes he may. But, as the legislative Body do not meet until December, and his Necessities are pressing, he farther supplicates your Excellency to be so good as to grant him such temporary Succour as the Exigence of his Situation may appear to you to require.
His Confidence in this Request has a better Foundation, than on the Warrior who was the Model and Father of his Soldiers: he now finds in you the Magistrate become the Soul of a Legislation established on the most choice Virtues of Humanity. I have the Honour to be, Your Excellency’s Very hble & very obt Sert
de Bordes
LS, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters.
1. Bordes wrote a similar letter to Alexander Hamilton on 15 Nov., in which he claimed to have served with Hamilton “when we opposed the crossing of the British army on the river below Trentown” (DLC: Alexander Hamilton Papers).
2. In November 1776 Congress appointed Matthias-Alexis, chevalier de La Rochefermoy (1725–1782), a brigadier general in the Continental army. He served a few weeks as a brigade commander under GW before being stationed at Ticonderoga, N.Y., where in July 1777 he disgraced himself during the American evacuation of that post. La Rochefermoy’s defense of his actions was rejected by Congress, which on 31 Jan. 1778 gave him leave to resign his commission and liberty to go to France.
John White (d. 1780) became colonel of the 4th Georgia regiment in February 1777. He was wounded at Savannah, 9 Oct. 1779.
Samuel Elbert (1740–1788), a Savannah merchant and landowner, was colonel of a Georgia Continental regiment and held a Georgia militia rank of brigadier general. In 1777 he succeeded Brig. Gen. Lachlan McIntosh as Continental commander in Georgia, following McIntosh’s departure for the northern theater. He served as governor of Georgia, 1785–86.
3. On 4 Jan. 1796 the U.S. House of Representatives received a petition from Bordes and referred it to the committee of claims. After the committee reported on that and other petitions, it was recommitted on 29 Jan. and another report was made on 26 May 1796, but no further action was taken ( 8:70, 135, 489–90).