Lieutenant General Rochambeau had suggested in August that he and Rear Admiral Ternay meet GW to devise a strategy for taking New York City from the British. GW promised to meet them when it was safe to do so and directed Rochambeau to specify a location. Rochambeau chose Hartford, and GW then picked 20 Sept. for the gathering.1

Erroneously convinced that a fleet under French rear admiral Guichen would soon arrive from the West Indies and enable an attack

against the enemy at New York City, GW left Bergen County for Hartford by 18 September. GW brought his aide-de-camp Alexander Hamilton, major generals Henry Knox and Lafayette, Lieutenant Colonel Gouvion, guards, and forty horses, leaving Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene in charge of his army.2 Congress knew of GW’s impending departure, but he informed few in what proved an ineffective effort to maintain secrecy.3 GW reached Peekskill, N.Y., on 18 Sept., and his party arrived at Hartford on 20 Sept., likely following the road connecting Fishkill, N.Y., and Danbury, Connecticut. Rochambeau and Ternay departed Newport on 18 Sept., and they probably took the road from Providence to Hartford.4

The conference began at Jeremiah Wadsworth’s home on 20 September. Rochambeau’s aide-de-camp Hans Axel von Fersen left a contemporary description of GW and the proceedings when he wrote his father from Newport on 16 Oct.: “Rochambeau sent me in advance to announce his arrival, and I had time to see that illustrious, not to say unique, man of our era. His noble and majestic, but at the same time gentle and honest face agrees perfectly with his moral qualities; he has the air of a hero; he is very cold, speaks little, but is polite and civil. An air of sadness pervades his whole countenance, which is not unbecoming to him, and makes him the more interesting. … The two generals and the admiral were shut up together during the whole day we stayed at Hartford. The Marquis de Lafayette was called in as interpreter, for General Washington can neither speak French nor understand it.”5 Rochambeau later wrote that “the operations were fully discussed and agreed upon, under the supposition of the arrival of our second division, or of a reinforcement of our naval forces being sent or brought out to us by M. de Guichen. But our plans were soon frustrated by the arrival (of which we were almost immediately informed) at New York of the English fleet, under Admiral Rodney.” The “unexpected intelligence” abruptly ended the conference because “the French generals were anxious to return to their respective posts,” and GW likewise “was anxious to get back to his army, where his presence was indispensable.”6

Rochambeau and Ternay left Hartford on 22 Sept.; GW departed the next day. The Connecticut Journal (Hartford) for 28 Sept. reported: “Both Parties, on their going in, and returning from Hartford, were saluted by a Discharge of thirteen Cannon. General Washington, had also a Conference with Governor Trumbull.”7 Rochambeau’s chief commissary, Claude Blanchard, commented after the French officers had returned to Newport on 24 Sept.: “They had had an interview with General Washington, from whom they returned enchanted: an easy and noble bearing, extensive and correct views, the art of making himself beloved, these are what all who saw him observed in him. It is his merit which has defended the liberty of America, and if she enjoys it one day, it is to him alone that she will be indebted for it.”8

The Norwich Packet; and the Weekly Advertiser (Conn.) for 3 Oct. printed a notice datelined Fishkill, 28 Sept.: “On Monday last [25 Sept.] his Excellency General Washington, passed through this town on his way from Hartford, and his arrival at West-Point was announced by the discharge of thirteen cannon, about eleven o’clock same day.” GW’s return to his army was delayed when he learned about the treachery of Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold, who had conspired with the British to betray the West Point garrison and perhaps even capture GW.9