14th. Received dispatches from the Count de Barras announcing the intended departure of the Count de Grasse from Cape Francois with between 25 & 29 Sail of the line & 3200 land Troops on the 3d. Instant for Chesapeake bay and the anxiety of the latter to have every thing in the most perfect readiness to commence our operations in the moment of his arrival as he should be under a necessity from particular engagements with the Spaniards to be in the West Indies by the Middle of October—At the same time intimating his (Barras’s) Intentions of enterprizing something against Newfoundland, & against which both Genl. Rochambeau and myself remonstrated as impolitic & dangerous under the probability of Rodneys coming upon this Coast.1
Matters having now come to a crisis and a decisive plan to be determined on—I was obliged, from the Shortness of Count de Grasses premised stay on this Coast—the apparent disinclination in their Naval Officers to force the harbour of New York and the feeble compliance of the States to my requisitions for Men, hitherto, & little prospect of greater exertion in future, to give up all idea of attacking New York; & instead thereof to remove the French Troops & a detachment from the American Army to the Head of Elk2 to be transported to Virginia for the purpose of cooperating with the force from the West Indies against the Troops in that State.3
1. De Grasse’s letter to Rochambeau, 28 July 1781, announcing his plans to sail to the Chesapeake is in , 5:520–22. The original letter is in the collection of Mr. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Va. The letter arrived at Newport on board the frigate Concorde on 11 Aug. and was immediately dispatched by Barras to Rochambeau at Philipsburg where it arrived on 14 Aug. (see , 1:40).
Barras’s letter to GW, 8 Aug. 1781, is in DLC:GW. Upon receipt of the news of de Grasse’s projected departure from Cap Français in Saint Domingue, Barras concocted a scheme whereby, instead of joining de Grasse in the Chesapeake, he would launch a naval attack on Newfoundland (Barras to Rochambeau, 11, 12 Aug. 1781, , 5:522–23). On 15 Aug., Rochambeau wrote to Barras, remonstrating against this plan and pointing out that if Rodney should bring his fleet north and join Admiral Graves, de Grasse’s vessels would be outnumbered (, 5:523–24). GW added a postscript to this letter, urging compliance with Rochambeau’s request “that you would form the junction, and as soon as possible, with the Count de Grasse in Chesapeak bay” (DLC:GW). In face of this opposition, Barras agreed to abandon the attempt on Newfoundland and join de Grasse (Barras to Rochambeau, 17 Aug. 1781, , 5:524–26). Barras’s squadron left Newport for the Chesapeake on 23 Aug. with the French siege artillery and most of the troops which had been left at Newport under the command of the marquis de Choisy.
2. Now Elkton, Md.
3. “In consequence of the dispatches received from your Excellency by the Frigate La Concorde,” GW wrote de Grasse, 17 Aug., “it has been judged expedient to give up for the present the enterprise against New York and to turn our attention towards the South, with a view, if we should not be able [to] attempt Charles town itself, to recover and secure the States of Virginia, North Carolina and the Country of South Carolina and Georgia. We may add a further inducement for giving up the first mentioned enterprise, which is the arrival of a reinforcemt. of near 3000 Hessian Recruits. For this purpose we have determined to remove the whole of the French Army and as large a detachment of the American as can be spared to Chesapeake, to meet Your Excellency” (DLC:GW).