From George Washington to Major General John Sullivan, 15 August 1779
To Major General John Sullivan
Head Quarters West Point 15th Augt 1779
Dear Sir
I have recd your favors of the 6th and 7th instants. I hope your next will inform me of your arrival at Tioga without interruption,1 and of your having formed a junction with General Clinton, of which event I am exceedingly anxious to hear.2
I have furnished the Commissary General of Purchases with such parts of your letters as respect your Magazine of provision, and have directed him to ord⟨er⟩3 his Deputy to the Westward to exert himself in forwarding a further supply to a place of safety, from whence you may draw it, should you be able to keep your communication, with the Country below you, open.4
We have recd certain information of the taking of St Vincents and Grenada by the Count D’Estaing, between whom and Admiral Byron there had been an Engagement on the 6th July.5 By the accounts which we have hitherto received it appears that the English Fleet was worsted and had fallen down to St Kitts. The French Fleet appeared off that Island on the 22d July—so that we may every day expect the most interesting intelligence from that Quarter.
I hope the disorder with which you are troubled will not increase to a degree that will interrupt your personal attention to the service. I am Dear Sir Your most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, NhHi: Sullivan Papers; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. On the draft, which is in the writing of GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman, GW wrote the remainder of this paragraph.
2. Sullivan had arrived at Tioga, Pa., on 11 Aug. (see Sullivan to GW, this date), and Brig. Gen. James Clinton joined him there with his brigade on 21 Aug. (see Sullivan to GW, 20 and 30 Aug.).
3. The letter is mutilated at this point, and the text in angle brackets is supplied from the draft.
5. GW is presumably referring to the letter sent to Congress by William Bingham, the Continental agent at Martinique, an extract of which John Jay had forwarded to GW on 10 August. For the engagement between the British and French fleets off Grenada, see Jay to GW 10 Aug., n.1.