- The Writings of George Washington.
- 1778.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To Major-general Mcdougall.
- To General Schuyler.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette. Instructions.
- To Gouverneur Morris, In Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Richard Henry Lee.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Landon Carter.
- To Major-general Lee. Instructions.
- To Sir Henry Clinton.
- Thoughts Upon a Plan of Operations For the Campaign of 1778. 1
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Dickinson.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To Major-general Charles Lee.
- To James Hunter, Esq., Near Fredericksburg, Va.
- To Joseph Reed, Delegate In Congress From Pennsylvania.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To Major-general Arnold.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette. Instructions.
- To Major-general Lee.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To Major-general Lord Stirling and the Members of the General Court-martial For the Trial of Major-general Lee.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Clinton.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To Major-general Arnold.
- To the Board of War.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Lund Washington. 1
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Brigadier-general Nelson, Virginia.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To Major General Greene.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To John Augustine Washington.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Brigadier-general Andrew Lewis, Virginia.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Mr. James Hill.
- To Count D’estaing.
- To Burwell Bassett.
- To Count D’estaing,
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed, President of Pennsylvania.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Lund Washington.
- To Benjamin Harrison, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Virginia.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- 1779.
- To the Committee of Congress Appointed to Confer With the Commander-in-chief.
- To the Committee of Congress.
- To Major-general Putnam.
- To the Committee of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Mcintosh.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Jay, President of Congress.
- To Governor Livingston.
- To President Reed.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette, Paris.
- To Sir Henry Clinton.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Henry Laurens, In Congress.
- To Colonel Daniel Brodhead, At Fort Pitt.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To George Mason.
- To President Reed.
- To James Warren, In Massachusetts.
- To President Reed.
- To John Jay.
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To Colonel Daniel Brodhead.
- To Burwell Bassett.
- To Governor Livingston.
- To John Jay.
- To President Reed.
- To Monsieur Gerard, Minister Plenipotentiary From His Most Christian Majesty to the United States of America.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Governor Livingston.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Benjamin Harrison.
- To Brigadier-general Maxwell.
- To Brigadier-general Maxwell.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Armstrong.
- Circular to the States.
- To Major-general Sullivan. Instructions.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Gates.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major Benjamin Tallmadge. 1
- To Major-general Sullivan.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Wayne. 2
- To Brigadier-general Wayne.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Brigadier-general Wayne.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Joseph Reed.
TO MAJOR-GENERAL SULLIVAN.
Head-Qrs.,White Plains,
1st Sept., 1778.
Dear Sir,
I have not received any letter from you since the 23d Ulto., which I attribute to some mishap of the messengers with whom they were sent. I was anxious to learn the determination and designs of the Council of Officers, that so I might be prepared for eventual measures.—the success or misfortune of your army will have great influence in directing the movement and fortune of this.
The disagreement between the army under your command and the fleet has given me very singular uneasiness. The Continent at large is concerned in our cordiality, and it should be kept up by all possible means, consistent with our honor and policy. First impressions you know are generally longest remembered, and will serve to fix in a great degree our national character among the french. In our conduct towards them we should remember, that they are a people old in war, very strict in military etiquette, and apt to take fire, where others scarcely seem warmed. Permit me to recommend, in the most particular manner, the cultivation of harmony and good agreement, and your endeavors to destroy that ill humor, which may have got into the officers. It is of the greatest importance also, that the minds of the soldiers and the people should know nothing of the misunderstanding, or, if it has reached them, that ways may be used to stop its progress and prevent its effects.
I have received from Congress the enclosed, by which you will perceive their opinions with regard to keeping secret the protest of the general officers. I need add nothing on this head. I have one thing however more to say. I make no doubt but you will do all in your power to forward the repair of the Count’s fleet, and rendering it fit for service, by your recommendations for that purpose to those, who can be immediately instrumental. I am, dear Sir, &c.
As soon as the French fleet returned to the coast of Rhode Island after its dispersion in the storm, Count d’Estaing wrote the following letter to General Sullivan:
“Our cables were cut, and the fire of the batteries, which we were about to pass to attack the enemy’s squadron, had commenced, when I received the letter, which you did me the honor to write on the 9th instant. It was not then possible for me to answer it any otherwise than by pursuing the English fleet, and preventing it from landing any succours. The Count de Cambis has been charged to acquaint you with my present situation, and of the necessity which compels me to go to Boston. I could not myself discharge this melancholy duty, because with a vessel deprived of all her masts, her rudder broken and unshipped, one is extremely uncertain of his destiny. I have nevertheless as yet the consolation of being sufficiently master of it to fulfil the promise verbally made, that I would in any event return to you dead or alive. This promise, and the advantage, which our momentary presence may render to you, have caused me to shut my eyes to all other considerations. In this perhaps I have been imprudent, and my zeal may have blinded me. I have thought that I could not run too great a hazard to prove, in the name of the King, how much his Majesty is attached to his allies; but I should be culpable in my duty to America herself, if I could for a moment think of not preserving a squadron destined for her defence. I regretted to Colonel Fleury, that you should have landed on the Island a day before the time agreed upon between us, and I should be greatly afflicted to know, that you are in danger. I was informed, that you had then only two thousand men. To decide upon your motives is a wrong, which I have not committed. I have refrained from censure; and the twelve thousand men now under your command will probably prove the correctness of the step by a success, which I desire as a citizen, and an admirer of your bravery and talents.”—MS. Letter, August 21st.
Before this letter was despatched, Count d’Estaing received one from General Sullivan, written the day preceding, and immediately after the squadron appeared, in which he urged the Admiral to unite in an attack upon the enemy. This he answered in a postscript declining the proposal, and giving as his reasons the disabled and dispersed condition of his fleet, the naval strength of the enemy, the chance that reinforcements might at any moment arrive, and the positive orders of the King that, in case of any disaster, or of being pursued by a superior force, his squadron should rendezvous in the harbour of Boston. Greene and Lafayette went on board, and, as we have seen, were unable to change this purpose.
As a last resort the officers bethought themselves of another expedient. A paper was written in the form of a Protest, and signed by all the general officers except Lafayette. It was rumored that the Count himself was in favor of remaining at Newport, but that he was overruled by his officers, who had no good-will towards him because he originally belonged to the land service, and were actually in a cabal to ruin him. This was the report; and it was supposed, that a spirited protest of all the American officers might have the effect to change the decision of the council of war. In the meantime the fleet had sailed, and the protest, dated the 22d of August, was sent off by Colonel Laurens, who soon overtook Count d’Estaing’s ship. The paper consisted of a recapitulation of the principal arguments against the departure of the French fleet; but unfortunately parts of it were so worded as to give offence, and particularly the closing paragraph. “For the reasons above assigned,” say the officers, “we in the most solemn manner protest against the measure, as derogatory to the honor of France, contrary to the intentions of his Most Christian Majesty and to the interests of his nation, destructive in the highest degree of the welfare of the United States, and highly injurious to the alliance formed between the two nations.” The performance throughout was marked by a tone of complaint and censure, and was by no means suited to the occasion, and could hardly have been put forth had time been allowed for more cool reflection.
When the protest and the correspondence relating to the subject were read in Congress, it was ordered that their contents should be kept secret, but that the President should communicate them to the French Minister, M. Gerard, informing him at the same time of the injunction of secrecy. It was likewise ordered that General Washington should take every measure in his power to prevent the Protest from being made public.—Secret Journal, vol. i., p. 89.
Colonel Laurens, in a letter to General Washington, said: “The Count’s sensibility was much wounded by the manner in which the American Protest was delivered to him. He declared, that this paper imposed on the commander of the King’s squadron the painful but necessary law of profound silence.” Again, Colonel Laurens added: “I foretold to the Marquis the influence, which the Count’s departure from the road of Newport would probably leave upon the minds of the people, and the danger of its reviving those absurd prejudices, which we inherited from the British nation. Unhappily the mischief has become more extensive, by the unguarded expressions of some men of rank, who listened to their chagrin rather than to good policy. Reflection, however, begins to induce a more cautious behavior, and I am in hopes, that the confidence of the people in our new allies will be restored.”—MS. Letter, September 2d.
Titles (by Subject) 
