23d. Count de Rochambeau set out on his Return to Newport,1 while I prepared and forwarded dispatches to the Governors of the four New England States calling upon them in earnest & pointed terms, to compleat their Continental Battalions for the Campaign, at least, if it could not be done for the War or 3 Years—to hold a body of Militia (according to the Proportion given them) ready to march in one Week after being called for and to adopt some effectual mode to supply the Troops when assembled with Provisns. & Transportation.2
I also sollicited the Governors of the States of Massachusetts & Connecticut earnestly for a Loan of Powder & the means of Transporting it to the Army.3
A Letter from Genl. St. Clair came to hand with accts. of an apparent intention of the enemy to evacuate New York.4
1. Rochambeau reached Newport on 27 May (, 80).
2. A copy of GW’s circular letter to the governors of the New England states, dated 24 May 1781, is in DLC:GW.
3. On 25 May 1781 GW wrote to Massachusetts governor John Hancock requesting that “as great a loan of powder from the State of Massachusetts as can possibly be spared” be sent to Fishkill, N.Y. A similar letter was sent to Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., on the same day (Ct).
4. In May 1781 Maj. Gen. Arthur St. Clair (1736–1818) was at Headquarters at New Windsor. His letter to GW, 21 May 1781, also transmitted a report that Sir Henry Clinton had been making inquiries “whether there was any probability that Congress would listen to Terms of Accommodation separately from France” (anonymous donor).