From Benjamin Franklin to Elisha Hart, 29 September 1779
To Elisha Hart8
Copy: Library of Congress
Passy, Sept 29. 1779.
Sir
I received yours,9 and I do by this Post request M. Schweighauser to furnish you with the Same Supply that has been received by other officers in your Situation. It is not much, but the great Number we have to relieve from time to time obliges us to be more Sparing than we Should otherwise be. I wish you safe home to you friends and Country, and I have the honour to be Sir,
Capt Eisha at Mr. Schweighauser, Nantes
8. BF’s letter to Schweighauser of the same date, below, implies that Hart had arrived with the second cartel. We assume he is the Capt. Elisha Hart of Saybrook, Conn., who returned to command the sloops Retaliation and Restoration in 1780 and 1781: Claghorn, Naval Officers, p. 142; Louis F. Middlebrook, History of Maritime Connecticut during the American Revolution 1775–1783 (2 vols., Salem, 1925), II, 204–6.
9. Missing.