1. The text varies significantly from this point on the copy in DNA:PCC, item 152, probably because the letter Wayne sent GW reflected the arrival of anticipated intelligence. It reads: “These are called the southern fleet on Board of which Colo. [Van] Buskirk with his Regiment is embarked. They had not left the Hook this Evening, and it is said they are to be joined by a number more before they sail.”

2. New York City printer Hugh Gaine wrote in his journal entries for 20 and 21 Dec.: “The weather continues cold and some of the British Fleet drop down to the Hook. … More Vessels drop down, and the Camilla arrives from Halifax” (Ford, Journals of Hugh Gaine, description begins Paul Leicester Ford, ed. The Journals of Hugh Gaine, Printer. 1902. Reprint. [New York] 1970. description ends 2:73; see also Sabine, Smith’s Historical Memoirs description begins William H. W. Sabine, ed. Historical Memoirs . . . of William Smith, Historian of the Province of New York. 2 vols. New York, 1956–58. description ends [1971], 194–95).

3. For commands that had embarked on 19 and 20 Dec. for departure on the British expedition, see Ritchie, “New York Diary,” description begins Carson I. A. Ritchie, ed. “A New York Diary [British army officer’s journal] of the Revolutionary War.” New-York Historical Society Quarterly 50 (1966): 221–80, 401–46. description ends 445; see also Ewald, Diary, description begins Johann Ewald. Diary of the American War: A Hessian Journal. Translated and edited by Joseph P. Tustin. New Haven and London, 1979. description ends 190.