- The Writings of George Washington.
- 1780.
- To Governor Reed.
- To Major Lee.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Greene. Instructions.
- To George Mason. 1
- To Major-general Gates.
- To the Board of War.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Abner Nash, Governor of North Carolina.
- To Robert Carter Nicholas.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To William Fitzhugh.
- To Governor Jefferson.
- To Major-general Heath. [private.]
- To John Sullivan, In Congress. 1
- To Sir Henry Clinton.
- To John Sullivan, In Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Gouverneur Morris.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To Major-general Lincoln.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Count De Rochambeau and the Chevalier De Ternay.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To John Sullivan, In Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Benjamin Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary At the Court of Versailles.
- To Lieutenant-colonel David Humphreys. 1 Instructions.
- To James Duane.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Governor Jefferson.
- 1781.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Wayne.
- To the New England States.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Brigadier-general Wayne.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To Major-general St. Clair.
- To Lieutenant-colonel John Laurens. 2
- To the President of Congress.
- To Mrs. Sarah Bache. 2
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To the Executives of the States. 1
- To the Officer Commanding the British Fleet At New York.
- To the Commissioners For Redressing the Grievances of the New Jersey Line.
- To Major-general Howe.
- To Robert R. Livingston.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general St. Clair.
- To John Sullivan, In Congress.
- To Governor Jefferson.
- To Mrs. Francis, Mrs. Hillegas, Mrs. Clarkson, Mrs. Bache, and Mrs. Blair.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To Brigadier-general Knox. Private Instructions.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Abraham Skinner.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette. Instructions.
- To Elbridge Gerry.
- To Governor Jefferson.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To Major-general St. Clair.
- To Major-general Parsons.
- To the Chevalier Destouches.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To Governor Clinton.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To John Mathews, In Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Lincoln.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To John Park Custis.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Governor Hancock.
- To Benjamin Harrison.
- To Major-general Heath.
- To William Fitzhugh.
- To Major-general Armstrong.
- To Benjamin Harrison. 1
- To the Board of War.
- To Major-general Lincoln.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Count Rochambeau.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Colonel John Laurens, At Paris.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To Lieutenant-colonel Alexander Hamilton.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To Major Benjamin Tallmadge.
- To Lund Washington, At Mount Vernon.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Sullivan, In Congress.
- To Philip Schuyler.
- To the President of Congress.
- Substance of a Conference Between General Washington and Count De Rochambeau At Weathersfield, 22 May, 1781. 2
- To the Chevalier De La Luzerne.
- Circular Letter to the States.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Sullivan, In Congress.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To the President of Congress.
- To John Mathews, In Congress.
- To Governor Jefferson.
- To Colonel William Crawford.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To Governor Clinton.
- To President Reed.
- To Count De Rochambeau.
- To Major-general Lincoln. Instructions.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the Superintendent of Finance.
- To Major-general Lord Stirling. Instructions.
- To Richard Henry Lee 1 .
- Questions and Replies.
- To Brigadier-general Waterbury.
- To Thomas Mckean, President of Congress. 1
- To John Parke Custis.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- Circular Letter to States.
- To the Superintendent of Finance.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the Count De Grasse. 2
- To the Superintendent of Finance.
- To Major-general Heath. Instructions.
- To Robert Morris and Richard Peters. 1
- Circular Letter to the States.
- To the Superintendent of Finance.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Count De Grasse.
- To Major-general St. Clair.
- Questions and Answers.
- To the Count De Grasse.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Count De Grasse.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To Don Francisco Rendon. 3
- To the President of Congress.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Lord Cornwallis.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Count De Grasse.
- To David Ross.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Count De Grasse.
- To Major-general St. Clair. Instructions.
- To Major-general Lincoln. Instructions.
- To the President of Congress.
- To the Marquis De Lafayette.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Benjamin Dulany.
- To George Plater, President of the Senate, and Thomas Cockey Dey, Speaker of the House of Delegates, of Maryland.
- To Governor Trumbull.
- To James Mchenry.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To the President of Congress.
- 1782.
- To Thomas Chittenden, Vermont. 2
- To the Marquis De Lafayette, At Paris.
- To Colonel Christian Febiger.
- Circular Letter to the States.
- Circular Letter to States. 1
- To Major-general Schuyler.
- To the Count De Rochambeau.
- To the President of Congress.
- To Lieutenant-colonel John Laurens. 2
- To the President of Congress.
- To Major-general Heath.
- Circular to the Eastern and Middle States.
- To Brigadier-general William Irvine. Instructions.
- To Brigadier-general Knox and Gouverneur Morris. Instructions.
- To James Mchenry.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To Brigadier-general Knox and Gouverneur Morris, At Elizabethtown.
- To Colonel Matthias Ogden. Instructions.
- To the General Officers.
- To John Lewis (fredericksburg).
- To the General and Field Officers of the Army.
- To Bartholomew Dandridge.
- To Sir Henry Clinton.
- To Major-general Greene.
- To the Secretary At War.
- To the Chevalier De La Luzerne.
- To the President of Congress.
- Plan of Campaign.
TO COUNT DE ROCHAMBEAU.
Head Quarters,New Windsor,
13 June, 1781.
Sir,
I am honored by your Excellency’s favors of the 9th and 10th instant, and with their very interesting communications, which you may be assured will be kept perfectly secret. I flatter myself, that the whole convoy will arrive in safety in some of the eastern ports, as I believe the British ships are all cruising off the Hook.
The Count de Barras has furnished me with the result of the second council of war. I have so high a respect for the opinions of the gentlemen, who composed it, that I should have been satisfied had they barely mentioned their adherence to their former determination; but the new arguments, which have been introduced in favor of the detention of the fleet at Rhode Island, leave me no room to doubt the propriety of the measure.
I am so fully convinced, that your Excellency will make no unnecessary delay in your march, that I have only occasion to repeat my former request, that it may be commenced as soon as circumstances will admit. My last accounts from the Marquis de Lafayette were of the 3d of June. The British army, in very considerable force, were then between Richmond and Fredericksburg; their destination was uncertain; but from their superiority they were at full liberty to go wherever they pleased. The enclosed copy of a letter from the President of Congress to me will give your Excellency the latest intelligence from South Carolina.
Your requisitions to the Count de Grasse go to every thing I could wish. You cannot, in my opinion, too strongly urge the necessity of bringing a body of troops with him, more especially as I am very dubious whether our force can be drawn together by the time he proposes to be here. Now four thousand or five thousand men, in addition to what we shall certainly have by that time, would, almost beyond a doubt, enable us with the assistance of the fleet to carry our object. It is to be regretted, that the Count’s stay upon the coast will be limited. That consideration is an additional reason for wishing a force equal to giving a speedy determination to the operation.
Your Excellency will be pleased to recollect, that New York was looked upon by us as the only practicable object under present circumstances; but should we be able to secure a naval superiority, we may perhaps find others more practicable and equally advisable. If the frigate should not have sailed, I wish you to explain this matter to the Count de Grasse; as, if I understand it, you have in your communication to him confined our views to New York alone. And, instead of advising him to run immediately into the Chesapeake, will it not be best to leave him to judge, from the information he may from time to time receive of the situation of the enemy’s fleet upon this coast, which will be the most advantageous quarter for him to make his appearance in? In the letter, which was written to the minister from Weathersfield, in which he was requested to urge the Count to come this way with his whole fleet, Sandy Hook was mentioned as the most desirable point; because, by coming suddenly there, he would certainly block up any fleet, which might be within; and he would even have a very good chance of forcing the entrance, before dispositions could be made to oppose him. Should the British fleet not be there, he could follow them to the Chesapeake, which is always accessible to a superior force. I am, &c.
This was the convoy of French vessels, with recruits sent by Count de Grasse, under the escort of a fifty-gun ship, and mentioned in a note to the letter above, dated June 4th. Two thirds of the convoy and the ship had arrived at Boston; the other third had been dispersed in a gale near the coast.
Words in italics were written in cypher.
Count de Grasse wrote as follows to Count de Rochambeau:
“His Majesty has entrusted me with the command of the naval force destined for the protection of his possessions in South America, and those of his allies in North America. The force, which I command, is sufficient to fulfill the offensive plans, which it is the interest of the allied powers to execute, that they may secure an honorable peace. If the men-of-war are necessary for fulfilling the projects, which you have in view, it will be useful to the service, that M. de Barras or M. Destouches be apprized of it, and that pilots be sent to us skillful and well instructed, as the French ships have a larger draft of water than the British. It will not be till the 15th of July, at the soonest, that I shall be on the coast of North America; but it will be necessary, by reason of the short time that I have to stay in that country (also being obliged to leave it on account of the season), that every thing necessary for the success of your projects should be in readiness, that not a moment for action may be lost.”—MS. Letter, dated at Sea, March 29th.
The above letter was sent by the convoy. Count de Rochambeau despatched a vessel immediately for the West Indies, with full intelligence to Count de Grasse concerning the plans in view, and also the strength, situation, and apparent designs of the enemy. He recommended to him to enter the Chesapeake on his way, as there might be an opportunity of striking an important stroke there, and then to proceed immediately to New York, and be ready to co-operate with the allied armies in an attack upon that city. He likewise requested, that, if possible, five or six thousand land troops might be brought from the West Indies.
He writes thus to General Washington; but in his Mémoires he takes somewhat more credit to himself respecting the proposed operation in the Chesapeake.
“I presented to M. de Grasse,” says he, “a picture of the distresses of the southern States, and above all of Virginia, which had nothing to oppose the inroads of Lord Cornwallis but a small body of troops under Lafayette, who was sustained only by his good conduct and the nature of the country intersected by many rivers. I transmitted to M. de Grasse the articles of the conference at Weathersfield. I observed to him, that he ought to know better than myself the possibility of forcing a passage into the harbor of New York, since, in circumstances nearly similar, M. d’Estaing, under whose orders he had served, had made an ineffectual proposal to the pilots, in offering them an enormous sum to take his vessels across the bar, which they did not venture to attempt. In short, I represented to him, as my private opinion, that an enterprise in the Chesapeake Bay against Lord Cornwallis would be the most practicable, and the least expected by the enemy, who counted on our distance from that quarter. I requested him to solicit strenuously from the governor of St. Domingo the use for three months of the French brigade under M. de St. Simon, which was destined to act with the Spaniards, who, it appeared to me, would have no employment for it during the campaign. I desired him, also, to effect a loan in our colonies of twelve hundred thousand francs, which might insure the success of this operation. I concluded by entreating him to dispatch to me a frigate as soon as possible, with his answer, that I might arrange with General Washington our march by land to join him at the point assigned in the Chesapeake.”—Mémoires, tom. ii., p. 277.
These schemes of Count de Rochambeau do not appear in his letters to General Washington. There are several indications, that he did not approve an attack upon New York, and only yielded his assent to what he discovered to be the wish of the American commander.—Sparks.
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