1From George Washington to Captain Destouches, 26 February 1781 (Washington Papers)
I am this day honored with your letter of the 20th. I beg you to be persuaded that in my propositions to you through His Excellency The Count De Rochambeau, nothing was more remote from my wish than that you should take any step, which might in the least endanger the fleet under your command. Supposing you to have possessed a temporary superiority if you had thought it safe to employ it in the...