1. Sullivan was referring to the plan of operations suggested in his letter to Vice Admiral d’Estaing of 25 July, enclosed in Sullivan’s letter to GW of 26 July (see note 3 to that letter). For d’Estaing’s reply to Sullivan’s plan, dated 30 July, see Hammond, Sullivan Papers description begins Otis G. Hammond, ed. Letters and Papers of Major-General John Sullivan, Continental Army. 3 vols. Concord, 1930-39. In Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, vols. 13–15. description ends , 2:151–53.

2. D’Estaing wrote to Sullivan on 31 July that “The frigate [sloop] Kingfisher, having 18 nine-pounders, and 2 three-pounders, as well as the galley Spitfire, carrying two eighteens, two twelves, and six sixes, with the galley Lamb, carrying two eighteens, two nines and two sixes, were burned under an English battery at the approach of my frigates, which were … infinitely weaker, owing to the enormous difference in the calibre of the guns” (ibid., 2:154; see also Mackenzie Diary description begins Diary of Frederick Mackenzie Giving a Daily Narrative of His Military Service as an Officer of the Regiment of Royal Welch Fusiliers during the Years 1775–1781 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1930. description ends , 2:321; Robert Pigot to Henry Clinton, 31 July–1 Aug., P.R.O., Colonial Office, 5/96, Military Correspondence of the British Generals).

3. According to the diary of Capt. Frederick Mackenzie of the Royal Welch Fusiliers, after the French fleet appeared off Rhode Island on 29 July, “Boats were immediately sent over to Connonicut, from whence the Two Battalions of Anspach and Brown’s Regiment of Provincials were withdrawn, leaving small detachments only in the Batteries on Fox-hill and The Dumplins.” Private Johann Conrad Döhla of the Anspach Regiment recorded that those detachments evacuated the island on 30 July after the French ships fired on the batteries (ibid., 2:319; Döhla, Hessian Diary description begins Johann Conrad Döhla. A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution. Translated and edited by Bruce E. Burgoyne. Norman, Okla., and London, 1990. description ends , 81; see also Prechtel, Diary description begins Johann Ernst Prechtel. A Hessian Officer’s Diary of the American Revolution. Translated and edited by Bruce E. Burgoyne. Bowie, Md., 1994. description ends , 22, 143; “Newport in the Hands of the British,” description begins “Newport in the Hands of the British. A Diary of the Revolution.” Historical Magazine, and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History, and Biography of America, 4 (1860): 1–4, 34–38, 69–72, 105–7, 134–37, 172–73. description ends 72).