From George Washington to Major Henry Lee, Jr., 5 July 1779
To Major Henry Lee, Jr.
[New Windsor] 5th July 1779
Dr Sr
Your letter of yesterday I recd this day—& have only to thank you for it and its inclosure1—except that I wish you to pay the strictest attentn to the movements of the enemy below, lest they may undertake an excursion into the Jersey—by the way of ta[p]pan or elswhere; of this should it take place, I must request the earliest information—it may be well in order to accomplish this knowledge to employ country people2 for the purpose. Yrs &.
G.W.
Df, in Richard Kidder Meade’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Lee’s letter to GW of 4 July has not been found. Its enclosure may have been the sketch of the British position at Stony Point, N.Y., which GW had requested from Lee in his letter to him of 28 June.
2. At this place on the draft manuscript, Meade first wrote “proper persons.” He then struck out those words and wrote “country people” above the line.