To George Washington from the Vicomte de Rochambeau, 23 December 1795
From the Vicomte de Rochambeau
Havre de Grace [France] 23 Dec. 95.1
sir,
I have the pleasure of announcing to you my arrival at this place. Not being able myself to deliver the letter you did me the honor to confide to me, to Citizen Montesquieu, I have lodged the same in the mail for Bordeaux and recommended it to the care of the Representatives of the people in that City.2 Knowing the interest you take in the welfare of my father, I inform you with satisfaction that he has been an indifferent spectator of the prodigious success of the last Campaign,3 and that I have been perfectly well received by my fellow Citizens. I have the honor to be &a
Dtn Rochambeau
Translation, DLC:GW; ALS (in French), DLC:GW.
1. Rochambeau wrote on the ALS: “2 Nivos L’an 4e = (23 Xbre V.s.).”
2. When Rochambeau left the United States in November, he carried a letter from GW to Jean-Baptiste de Secondat de Montesquieu, possibly the letter dated 7 September.
3. The original French here reads, “les succès prodigieux de la derniere Campagne ne lui Sont pas etrangers”—a more literal translation might say that the successes were not unfamiliar to him.