21From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau and Rear Admiral Ternay, 15 December 1780 (Washington Papers)
Two days ago, I did myself the honor to inform His Excellency the Count de Rochambeau, that Sir Henry Clinton was making another embarkation —this is since confirmed by other accounts, but I have received none yet which fix the particular Corps or numbers, with certainty—though all agree, that this detachment is intended as a reinforcement to Lord Cornwallis—that it is to consist of about 2500...
22From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 23 December 1780 (Washington Papers)
I have been honoured with your Excellency’s favors of the 8th Instt from Newport and 13th from Boston—I am obliged by your communication of the Letter from the commanding Officer at St Domingo but cannot help being anxious for the safety of Monsr Monteiuls Squadron. The intelligence brought by the Vessel from Nantes to Boston is very interesting I am in hopes that the Captn has good grounds...
23From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 3 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have received your Excellency’s favor of the 19th of December. Since my last, which was on the 23d of December, I have gained intelligence, thro’ a channel on which I can depend, that the detachment which sailed from New York the 20th of last Month consisted of about 1600 Men, and was chiefly composed of drafts from the different British—German—and provincial Regiments. The Queens Rangers...
24From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 9 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been honored with your Excellency’s favors of the 22d and 25th of December and 1st instant. The reasons assigned by your Excellency for declining, at this time, the enterprize, which I took the liberty to refer to your consideration, are weighty, but the representation made by the Chevalier Destouche, of the impossibility of going to Sea for want of Bread, renders the measure...
25From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 20 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
I should have done myself the honor of writing sooner to your Excellency on the late disturbance in the Pennsylvania Line, had I not relied, that General Knox first, and afterwards Count Des Deux ponts would give you the most accurate account of this affair —and had I not been waiting to hear the event of it and collect the particulars to enable me to give you a more perfect idea of it. The...
26From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 24 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been duly honored with your Excellency’s letter of the 10th and 13th instant. The 20th I had the pleasure of writing to you fully, principally on the subject of the Pensylvania line. It is with equal mortification and regret, I find myself obliged to add to that, the account of a second mutiny, which I had apprehended and which has lately taken place in the Jersey troops—When the...
27From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 29 January 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have the pleasure to inform your Excellency that the detachment sent against the Mutineers as Mentioned in my last, surrounded them in their Quarters on the Morning of the 27th and demanded an immediate surrender, which was complied with on their part without the least attempt to resist—Two of the principal actors were executed on the spot & the remainder pardoned. From the appearances of...
28From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 7 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I am much obliged to you for the agreeable intelligence contained in your letter of the 29th of January. I hope the confirmation will have enabled Mr Des-touches to take advantage of the event, in a manner as advancive of his own glory, as of the good of the service. I impatiently wait further advices. By the last accounts from Virginia which come down to the 20th Arnold had reimbarked from...
29From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 14 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been honored with your Excellency’s favor of the 2d, and am much obliged by the confidential communication of your dispatches from St Domingo. It is with pleasure I transmit your Excellency the Copy of a letter from Brigadier General Morgan to Major Genl Greene, giving an account of a decisive Victory gained by him over Lt Colo. Tarleton on the 17th of January. I am in hopes that this...
30From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 15 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
The Count de St Mesmes, last evening, did me the honor to deliver me your letter of the 3d instant. It appears by the report of the Naval Officer, that the enemy were inferior to the Chevr Des Touche, and from the situation of the Bedford and the America would probably remain so for some time—It appears also to have been your Excellency’s expectation that Mr Des Touche would either go with his...
31From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 19 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to congratulate Your Excellency on the safe arrival of the Viscount De Rochambeau at the Court of Versailles. My authority is derived from the President of Congress who in a letter of the 14th instant writes me thus: “By letters just come to hand from Mr Carmichael at Madrid, I am informed that the son of Count De Rochambeau is safe arrived in France”—I hope every thing...
32From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 24 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I am honored with Your Excellency’s letters of the 8th 12th and 18th since mine to you of the 19th. The important intelligence you do me the favour to communicate comes so many ways and with so many marks of authenticity that we have the greatest reason to hope it is true. If so, without the interference of other powers of which there seems to be no probability, I think we may regard it as an...
33From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 26 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to inclose Your Excellency under a flying seal my letter to the Chevalier Des Touches in answer to his of the 20th instant, in which I explain more precisely the grounds and import of the propositions which I had the honor to make to him through you. I shall add to the observations contained in this letter, that so far as related to my proposition for a detachment of land...
34From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 27 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I thank you for the immediate communication contained in your letter of the 24th of the agreeable intelligence of the success of the naval detachment in Chesapeak bay—& I am happy to find at the same time that Mr Destouches was preparing a second detachment for an ulterior cooperation. I have renewed my orders to the Marquis De la Fayette who Commands the Corps sent from hence to push forward...
35From George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 2 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
The third day after he left you, the Baron de Closen did me the pleasure of delivering me Your Excellency’s letter of the 25th. His diligence and zeal perfectly equalled your expectations. The important and agreeable intelligence, the dispatches by him contained, determined me to lose no time in setting out, to enjoy the satisfaction which I have been so long promising myself. I hope to arrive...
36From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 16 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
By letters which I have met at this place from the Marquis de la Fayette I find that he was embarked and had determined to fall as low down the Chesapeak as Annapolis as the passage is more certain from thence than from Elk River. I have received advice from Colo. Dayton an intelligent Officer stationed near Elizabeth town that the British transports at New York fell down to the Hook on...
37From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 18 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
I received intelligence last night from General Heath—that the British Transports which were supposed to have sailed from New York on the 9th returned again to the watering place on the 11th. Various are the conjectures and reports in New York upon the occasion, but I hope the true reason is, that finding the French Fleet a head of them, they did not chuse to risque the detachment. I shall...
38From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 21 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
I arrived at this place yesterday at Noon. Upon my return I found intelligence contradicting that which I gave your Excellency from Hartford. The British Transports, I suppose, had made some change of disposition, which gave rise to the report of their having sailed and returned again to New York. I believe it may now be depended on that they sailed from the Hook the 13th instant. I am in...
39From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 29 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been honored with your Excellency’s favor of the 21st: I have not received any intelligence from the Southward since the letter of the 15th from the Marquis de la Fayette, the substance of which I communicated to your Excellency in my last. I cannot but look upon this as very unaccountable; for, I think, had either Fleet reached the Chesapeak by the 20th, I should have heard of it,...
40From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 31 March 1781 (Washington Papers)
I last night received your Excellency’s favor of the 27th announcing the return of the Squadron under the command of the Chevalier Des Touche to the Harbour of New-Port. A few minits before your Letter reached me, the inclosed, which His Excellency the Minister of France had the goodness to send under an open cover to me, informed me of the action which had happened on the 16th off the Capes...
41From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 3 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
In my Letter of the 31st Ulto I informed Your Excellency, that there had been an Action between General Greene and Lord Cornwallis on the 15th of March; the particulars of which had not then been received. I have now the honor of enclosing the Copy of a Letter from Major General Greene, in which he gives the circumstances of that Engagement in detail: from this, and other Accounts, I cannot...
42From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 7 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been honored with your Excellency’s favor of the 31st ulto. Your remarks upon the uncertainty of operations which depend upon a combination of Land and sea Forces, except there is a decisive superiority over the enemy as to the latter, are judicious, and consonant to the Ideas which I had ever entertained upon the subject. Upon maturely considering the offer which your Excellency has...
43From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 8 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
Major Talmadge an Officer of great merit who will have the honor of delivering this letter, will inform your Excellencys minutely of the State of the Enemys Refugee Post on Loyds Neck (Long Island) and will suggest the practicability of cutting off this Corps, and destroying the Enemys Shipping in the Sound, while the British fleet is absent. This would be a very desireable event on every...
44From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 10 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I had the pleasure of receiving yr Excellency’s letter of the 6th instant only two hours ago. We are greatly indebted to The Chevalier Des Touches for the disposition he shows to undertake the expedition to Penobscot and to you for your readiness to furnish a detachment of troops for the same purpose. The object is certainly worth attention and if it can be effected will be very agreeable to...
45From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 16 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I was last night honored with a letter from your Excellency bearing date the 7th instant, which I presume must have been a mistake, as you acknowledge the receipt of mine of the 6th. The intelligence communicated in mine of the 10th respecting a further embarkation from New York is confirmed by a variety of accounts. The number or exact destination is not yet ascertained, but all agree that it...
46From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 22 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have been honored with your Excellency’s favors of the 15th and 18th instants. I am obliged by the care which you promise to take of my packet for Mr Laurens. Major Tallmadge, who your Excellency will have seen before this reaches you, has been upon Long Island, and there obtained intelligence that the British Fleet had returned to New York. From whence I conclude that the whole are there. I...
47From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 26 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
Since my letter of the 22d, I have received intelligence, which I think may be depended upon, that Admiral Arbuthnot with this Fleet was in New York harbour, and that three or four of the Ships which suffered in the late action were near the town repairing their damage. Transport were fitting and preparations were making as if for an embarkation, but I can yet gain no satisfactory account upon...
48From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 30 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor of receiving your Excellency’s and the Chevalier des Touche’s joint letter of the 25th and your own of the 26th. The absence of your light Frigates renders the plan which Major Tallmadge proposed impracticable for the present. We will, however, keep the enterprise in view, and may, perhaps, at some future time, find an opportunity of carrying it into execution with...
49From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 30 April 1781 (Washington Papers)
I assure your Excellency, that I feel extreme pain at the occasion of that part of your letter of the 26th Inst. which relates to an intercepted letter of mine published by the enemy. I am unhappy, that an accident should have put it in their power to give to the world any thing from me, which may contain an implication the least disagreeable to you or to the Chevalier Des-Touches. I assure...
50From George Washington to Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 3 May 1781 (Washington Papers)
I have had the honor of receiving Your Excellency’s Letter of the 28th of April, and of forwarding the Dispatches for the Chevalier de la Luzerne, which were transmitted to my care. I will expect the pleasure of Mr De Menonville’s Company in his route to Philadelphia. Nothing Material has occurred since my last Letter. With the highest esteem & respect I have the honor to be Sir Your...