From George Washington to Major General Robert Howe, 13 April 1780
To Major General Robert Howe
Morris-town 13th of Apl 80
Dear Sir,
Your private letter of the 11th came safe to hand.1 The rumour of my going to the Southward has nothing, at this time, to support it. In consequence of the2 preparations which were making at New York to embark Troops; & the intelligence I had received of the destination of them, I gave information to Congress—accompanied with a state of our strength, & the disagreeable circumstances under wch we laboured submitting it to them to determine (after maturely considering the several matters I had communicated) on the propriety of Marching the Maryland division (including the Delaware Regiment) to the aid of the Southern States.3
About the sametime that your letter came to hand, directions from Congress respecting the March of these Troops arrived4—Accordingly—this division as it is, is preparing to March, but how they will get on for want of Provisions—Transportation—&ca—Heaven alone can tell—I cannot.
In the private conversation you allude to, as having passed between you & me in the Winter, respecting your going to the Southward, I think I then said—but sure I am I meant to say—that however desirable & proper it might be to send a Gentn of influence who was well acquainted at the sametime with the temper & disposition of the people—the resources of the Country—&ca—the doing of it lay wholly with Congress & I had never interfered in any appointment in that department.5 I again mention this matter lest there should have been any misconception—& I am the more inclined to do it as your coming from that quarter was the result of a particular act of Congress entered into without my privity or knowledge.6
If the theatre of War should be transfered to the Southward & my remove thither consequent, I should be very happy in having you along with me,7 being Dr Sir—Yr Most Obedt &ca
Go: W——n
ADfS, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Howe had written GW from the Highlands, N.Y., on 11 April: “In a private Conversation I had with your Excellency just before I left Morris Town, You Were so kind as to tell me that you would give me some intimation should farther movements of our Troops to the southward become necessary, that I might take measures with my friends, which I had hopes you sir would second, to follow the war to that Quarter should it translate itself thither, and inactivity prevail here. I would not presume to mention this to your Excellency again did not a Rumour Sir prevail here that you in Person were going to the southward, which tho’ I pay not the least Credit to, yet as it is within the bounds of possibility, my anxiety to attend you should it happen compels me to trouble you with this application, and I conceive my intimate knowledge of the Places & People of Both Carolina’s, and I flatter my Self my influence in one, if not both, Would make me not an Unuseful Actor upon the theatre of Either State, and which, lastly induces me Earnestly to wish to be taken with you should you go there” (ALS, DLC:GW).
2. At this place on his draft, GW wrote and then struck out the word “apparent.”
4. See Huntington to GW, 6 April, and n.2 to that document.
5. GW apparently conversed with Howe shortly before 11 Feb. 1780. Howe departed Morristown on that date to undertake his new command in the New York Highlands after having served as president of the court-martial that tried Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold (see GW to Howe, 5 Feb., and Howe to GW, 17 Feb.).
6. Congress had replaced Howe with Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln as commander of the southern department in September 1778 and ordered him to join GW’s army (see , 12:951; see also Lincoln to GW, 28 Jan. 1779, and GW to Howe, 8 May 1779).
7. GW did not venture south until late summer 1781, when he marched with Continental and French forces to Virginia for a campaign that resulted in the British surrender at Yorktown on 19 October. To his great dismay, Howe was left behind with his division (see , 139).