To George Washington from Major Henry Lee, Jr., 11 June 1780
From Major Henry Lee, Jr.
Scotch-plains [N.J.] 10 O’clock A.M. June 11th 80
On receipt of your Excellency’s letter directing the cavalry to halt, the corps were billeted in the vicinity of chester-town.1
Your lettr of the 8th inst. reached us on the 9th in the afternoon2—The troops moved at three oclock, & arrived here this morning.
We mean to halt & refresh for a few hours & then pursue our route to springfield—Your Excellency will please to favor me with your orders by Adjutant Gordon who bears this, & will meet me at Springfield in the evening.3
I am happy in assuring your Excellency, that the zeal of both officers & soldiers is increased by the increase of difficulty; & that an universal anxiety has operated on us all, to hasten our participation of common dangers & distresses. The infantry had embarked for Portsmouth before the receipt of orders to halt, & are now in waiting on James’s river, Virginia.4 I have the honor to be sir, with the warmest attachmt your Excellys obt sert
Henry Lee Junr
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. See GW to Lee, 20 May, found at GW to Lafayette, that date, n.11.
2. GW’s letter to Lee of 8 June has not been found, but see GW to the Board of War, that date.
3. John Gordon (d. 1783) joined the 5th South Carolina Regiment as a lieutenant in 1777. In April 1778, he became adjutant and riding master of Lee’s 2d Partisan Corps with the rank of lieutenant. Gordon was wounded at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, S.C., on 8 Sept. 1781.
4. On 10 June 1780, Lee had written Capt. Allen McLane, commander of his infantry battalion, that he expected “Very serious operations … in which no doubt we shall have our full share.” Lee urged McLane to hurry his infantry to Springfield, but the battalion did not rejoin Lee’s corps until August (NHi: McLane Papers; see also Lee to GW, 15 Aug., DLC:GW).