RC (NHi); addressed by TJ: “Majr. Genl. Baron de Steuben”; endorsed. Tr (NHi); this appears to be the actual copy enclosed by Steuben to Greene in a letter dated Richmond, 31 Dec. 1780, which was intercepted and is now (along with its enclosure) in NHi: Benedict Arnold Papers; see below.

TJ’s information respecting the British fleet was derived from a letter written by Jacob Wray, a merchant of Hampton, to Gen. Thomas Nelson and by him transmitted to TJ; this letter has not been found, but for its contents see, further, Va. Council Jour., ii, 269; TJ to Harrison, 1 Jan., enclosing Wray’s letter; to Nelson, 2 Jan.; and to Wray, 15 Jan. 1781. Steuben, in his intercepted letter to Greene of this day transmitting a copy of the present letter, reported that Gen. Nelson had gone down “this side James River and I have dispatched Mr. Fairlie [Maj. James Fairlie, Steuben’s aide] down the River on the other side to procure intelligence”; Col. Senf, who at this time was escorting the French officers Custine and Laval to Portsmouth, had also been ordered to gather and transmit “every possible information of the movements of the Enemy”; from Washington’s letter to Steuben of 10 Dec., the latter estimated that the invading force “must amount to 2500 Men.” The cover of Steuben’s letter bears, among other notations now partly torn away, the following instruction: “This letter is to [sic] immediately as its matter [is] of great consequence. S Southall. D Q M G.”