Alexander Hamilton Papers

From Alexander Hamilton to Colonel Hugh Hughes, 25 July 1781

To Colonel Hugh Hughes

[Dobbs Ferry, New York] July 25, 1781

My Dear Sir

I beg your Care of the enclosed. I can inform you of Nothing which I believe will be new to you.1 You have heard of our late reconnoitre?2 You have seen the Accounts from Green of the Reduction of Augusta.3 He was obliged by the approach of Rawdon to abandon the Seige of 96, when on the Point of Success—but he was resolved Still to Maintain the Contest in that Quarter.4 Fayette has had a severe brush with Cornwallis.5 He lost an hundred and odd Men Killed, wounded and Missing, and two Pieces of Cannon—in all probability the Enemy’s loss in Men was not less. Cornwallis had recrossed James River and was supposed to be proceeding to Portsmouth—thence perhaps in whole or in part to N York & South Carolina. All this & more I suppose you know.

Adieu.   your’s

A Hamilton

LC, New-York Historical Society, New York City.

1See Hughes to H, July 18, 1781 (printed in this volume).

2For George Washington’s description of this reconnoitre of what is now the Bronx, see John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Diaries of George Washington, 1748–1799, II (Boston and New York, 1925), 241–45.

3On June 6, 1781, the Tories and Indians surrendered Fort Cornwallis in Augusta, Georgia, to the American forces under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee.

4On June 18, 1781, Major General Nathanael Greene began a siege of the fort in the town of Ninety-Six, Greenwood County, South Carolina. A larger British force under Lieutenant Colonel Sir Frances Rawdon came to relieve the fort, but Greene withdrew on June 20, the day before Rawdon arrived. See Greene to the President of Congress, June 20, 1781 (ALS, Reel 175, Item 155, II, p. 175, Papers of the Continental Congress, National Archives).

5On July 6, 1781, General Cornwallis defeated Lafayette at Green Spring, Virginia, near Jamestown.

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