From George Washington to Major Samuel Hayes, 30 September 1779
To Major Samuel Hayes
Hd Qrs West-point 30th Sepr 1779.
Sir
I have been duly handed your favor of the 27th with the intelligence which it covered.1
Major Lee of the Light dragoons is placed at English Town in Monmouth County to answer a particular purpose which I have in view at pres[e]nt.2 It is necessary that he should till my further orders be furnished as soon as possible with the copy of the information as you may obtain of the enemy’s embarkations or movements. You will therefore at the same time you make a communication of such matters to me—dispatch a messenger to Major Lee with a duplicate. I am, sir Your.
P.S. please to forward the inclosed letter to Major Lee.3
Df, in James McHenry’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. McHenry docketed the draft: “To Major Hayes or officer commanding at Elizabeth town.”
1. This letter has not been found, but the intelligence report was most likely the one GW forwarded to Samuel Huntington on this date (see n.3 to that document). An undated summary of intelligence reports received from 11 Sept. through 2 Oct.—which GW later prepared for Vice Admiral d’Estaing and titled “Substance of intelligence from the Enemy”—noted that this intelligence had been received “by way of Staten Island” (DLC: Alexander Hamilton Papers).
2. GW had stationed Maj. Henry Lee’s corps near the coast in Monmouth County, N.J., to gather intelligence and to give warning of the expected arrival of d’Estaing’s naval squadron; see GW to Lee, 13 September.
3. GW probably enclosed his letter to Lee of this date.