From George Washington to Jeremiah Powell and the Massachusetts Council, 3 November 1779
To Jeremiah Powell and the Massachusetts Council
Head Quarters West point 3d Novemr 1779
Gentlemen
I have been honored with your favs. of the 12th and 16th ulto in answer to mine of the 4th and 7th You have my warmest thanks for your ready attention to the several requisitions contained in them. I am particularly obliged by the loan of 100 Barrels of Gun powder, which I would not wish to be removed from Boston, untill we are under a certainty of operating.1 I have heard nothing from the Southward since the 2d ulto to which time, the prints will inform you of the operations of the allied Arms. I flatter myself that, from the favorable prospects them, we shall soon receive intelligence of compleat success.2 I have the honor to be with the greatest Respect Gentn Your most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, M-Ar; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. A notation on the LS indicates that the council read GW’s letter on 11 November.
1. This correspondence between GW and Massachusetts officials involved preparations for a potential attack against New York. After he received official notice that the French fleet under Vice Admiral d’Estaing had suffered a reverse and would not come north for combined operations, GW set aside the plan (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 10 Nov., and GW to Huntington, 20 and 24 Nov.; see also Planning for an Allied Attack on New York, c.3–7 Oct., editorial note, and GW to Duportail and Hamilton, 11 Nov., to Henry Knox, 12 Nov., and to Philip Schuyler, 24 Nov.).
2. For erroneous reports of American military successes in South Carolina and Georgia, see GW to Horatio Gates, 22 Oct., and n.6, and Henry Laurens to GW, 24 Oct., and notes 7 and 8.