1. Nicolas d’Avaux (d’Avout, d’Avoust; b. 1740), who was an uncle of one of Napoleon’s marshals, Louis-Nicolas Davout, was commissioned a lieutenant in the Carabiniers in June 1762 and promoted to captain in August 1767. D’Avaux left Nantes for America in May 1777 and arrived in Boston in mid-July 1777 (see GW’s second letter to Hancock, 25 July 1777, and note 1). The Freedom, a 12–gun Massachusetts navy brig commanded by Capt. John Clouston, arrived at Boston with a load of military stores on Sunday, 6 July 1777, from Nantes, France, after a voyage of forty days. The Freedom had captured sixteen vessels since it had sailed from Marblehead, Mass., on 8 March. See the Boston Continental Journal, 10 July 1777, in Naval Documents description begins William Bell Clark et al., eds. Naval Documents of the American Revolution. 12 vols. to date. Washington, D.C., 1964–. description ends , 9:255.

2. Ebenezer Francis (1743–1777) of Medford, Mass., who served as a captain in Col. John Mansfield’s Massachusetts Regiment from May to December 1775, was appointed colonel of the 11th Massachusetts Regiment in November 1776. Francis was killed when the British attacked the rear guard of St. Clair’s retreating army at Hubbardton, Vt., on 7 July 1777. Nathan Hale (1743–1780) of Tyringham, Mass., was commissioned major of the 3d New Hampshire Regiment in April 1775. He became lieutenant colonel of the 2d New Hampshire Regiment in November 1776 and was promoted to colonel in April 1777. Hale was captured at Hubbardton on 7 July and not exchanged until September 1780.