1. GW again wrote James Clinton from New Windsor on 21 Dec.: “This letter will be handed to you by the Chevr de Chatteleaux Major Genl in the French Army and an Officer of great merit whom I recommend to your particular attention—and request that he may be furnished with Guards for any tour he may incline to make towards Lake George or &ca” (ALS, NyNyMVHM).

Major General Chastellux wrote in his journal entry for 20 Dec. that he left an inn “as early as possible … to spend the greater part of the day with General Washington. I met him two miles from New Windsor; he was in his carriage with Mrs. Washington, going on a visit to Mrs. Knox, whose quarters were a mile farther on, near the artillery barracks. They wished to return with me, but I begged them to continue on their way. The General gave me one of his aides-de-camp (Colonel [David] Humphreys) to conduct me to his house, assured me that he should not be long in joining me, and he returned accordingly in half an hour. I saw him again with the same pleasure, but with a sentiment different from that inspired by our first interview. I felt that inner satisfaction, in which self-love may perhaps have some share, but which we always experience in finding ourselves in an intimacy already formed, in real society with a man we have long admired without being able to approach him. It then seems as if this great man more particularly belongs to us than to the rest of mankind. Heretofore we desired to see him; henceforth, so to speak, we exhibit him; we know him, we are better acquainted with him than others, have the same advantage over them, that a man having read a book through, has in conversation over him who is only at the beginning.

“The General again insisted on my lodging with him, though his house was much smaller than the one he had at Preakness.” Chastellux dined and conversed with GW and other officers “till supper. War was frequently the subject: on asking the General which of our professional books he read with the most pleasure, he answered me that they were the King of Prussia’s Instruction to his Generals, and the Tactics of M. de Guibert; from which I concluded that he knew as well how to select his authors as to profit by them” (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 , 1:189–90, brackets in source; see also GW to Samuel Huntington, 27 Nov., and n.1). GW apparently had read Military Instructions, Written by the King of Prussia, for the Generals of his Army: Being His Majesty’s own Commentaries On his former Campaigns. … (London, 1762), and referenced with language assistance, Comte de Guibert, Essai Général de Tactique, Précédé D’un Discours Sur l’état actuel de la Politique & de la Science Militaire en Europe. … 2 vols. (n.pl., 1772), or a subsequent edition. The earliest English translation of Guibert’s work was published in 1781.

Chastellux wrote in his journal entry for 21 Dec.: “I should have been very happy to accept General Washington’s pressing invitation to pass a few days with him, had I not made a solemn promise, at Philadelphia, to the Vicomte de Noailles and his traveling companions, to arrive twenty-four hours after them at headquarters, if they stopped there, or at Albany if they went straight on. … I was thus far faithful to my engagement, for I arrived at New Windsor the same day that they left West Point; I hoped to overtake them at Albany, and General Washington, finding he could not retain me, was pleased himself to take me in his barge to the other side of the river. We went ashore at Fishkill Landing Place, to reach the eastern road, which travelers prefer to the western. I now took leave of the General, but he insisted that Colonel Smith should accompany me as far as Poughkeepsie” (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 , 191; see also William Heath to GW, 20 Dec., n.3). Chastellux missed meeting George Clinton at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on 21 Dec. and arrived at Albany on 24 Dec., when he delivered his letters of recommendation to James Clinton, “an honest man, but of no distinguished talents.” Clinton provided Chastellux’s party with horses and directed Majs. William Popham and John Graham to served as guides (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 , 191–92, 199–200, quote on 199).

James Clinton wrote his brother from Albany on 27 Dec. that Noailles had handed him “Letters from His Exc’y Gen. Washington” and that he had “been as attentive to [his French visitors] as Circumstances would admit” (Hastings and Holden, Clinton Papers description begins Hugh Hastings and J. A. Holden, eds. Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804. 10 vols. 1899–1914. Reprint. New York, 1973. description ends , 6:525).