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To George Washington from Major General Chastellux, 12 January 1781

From Major General Chastellux

newport January 12 1781

dear general

being arrived at newport, I find myself very happy; not because my health is rather improved than impaired by a long and fatiguing journey, nor because I have seen the vast and interesting theatre of the most memorable transactions, but because I had the opportunity to Know the first personage who shines upon it, and to add the feelings of my heart to those with which he had inspired my soul long time before.1 your excellency commands the respect and the admiration of both hemispheres, but to love you is the peculiar privilege of those who enjoyed your society. I Know, dear general, that your modesty do not allow your friends the pleasure that they should find in expressing their sentiments; but give me leave to observe that those are only apt to forget that you are great who Know how you are good. I have experienced your indulgence, and when I wish to satisfy my vanity And to hope that I dese[r]ve it some way, I think that You distinguished in me a true friend to your country and to the great cause of liberty.

I am happy, dear generl, in the opportunity that is offered to me to present my respects to your excellency. count de charlus the son of Marqui de castries, our new minister, is a young gentleman endowed with the best and most Amiable qualities, but i may do him justice in a word by saying that he is a worthy friend to Marquis de la fayette. he resigned a colonelship of horse to serve in America and left in france a very handsome lady whom he had married six month before.2 I hope that he will testify to your excellency the respect and the attachment of the whole french army, but peculiary that of your Most obedient and humble servant

Cvlr de chastellux

Captain lynch and baron de Montesquieu desire to be respectfully remembered to your excellency and to acknowledge all the goodness you have showed them.3

1Chastellux, one of the three major generals in the French expeditionary army, had just completed a tour of the northern and middle states, during which he explored the sites of several battles fought earlier in the war. He had visited GW at his headquarters on 23–27 Nov. and 20–21 Dec. 1780 (see GW’s first letter to Samuel Huntington, 27 Nov., and n.1, and to James Clinton, 19 Dec., and n.1; see also William Heath to GW, 21 Nov., and n.1; Lafayette’s first letter to GW, 5 Dec., and n.9; and Chastellux, Travels in North America description begins Marquis de Chastellux. Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782. Translated and edited by Howard C. Rice, Jr. 2 vols. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963. description ends , 1:63–232).

2Charlus was colonel en second of the expeditionary army’s Saintonge Regiment (see also Lafayette to GW, 13 Nov. 1780, postscript). For Castries’ appointment as France’s minister of marine, see Vergennes to Lafayette, 1 Dec. 1780, in Lafayette Papers description begins Stanley J. Idzerda et al., eds. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790. 5 vols. Ithaca, N.Y., 1977-83. description ends , 3:238–39; see also Lafayette to GW, 9 Dec., and n.3 to that document, and Rochambeau to GW, 19 Dec., and n.5.

3Isidore Lynch and Montesquieu were Chastellux’s aides-de-camp (see Chastellux, Travels in North America description begins Marquis de Chastellux. Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781 and 1782. Translated and edited by Howard C. Rice, Jr. 2 vols. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963. description ends , 1:248–49).

Isidore Lynch (1755–1838) was from an Irish Catholic family. Educated in Paris, he began his career as a lieutenant in a French regiment commanded by his uncle. At this time a captain, he eventually attained the rank of lieutenant general in the French army.

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu et de La Brede (1749–1824), a grandson of the philosophe Montesquieu, also eventually became a lieutenant general in the French army.

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