From George Washington to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 15 July 1778
To Jeremiah Wadsworth
Haverstraw [N.Y.] 15th July 1778.
Sir
I desire you immediately to select Fifty of your best Bullocks, and give orders to have two hundred Sheep if to be procured and a parcel of poultry purchased in the most convenient part of the Country. They are intended as a present to the Count D’Estaing Admiral of the French Fleet now laying off Sandy Hook. You are to send them to the Coast as expeditiously as possible, and upon giving notice to the Admiral he will contrive means of taking them off. A letter from me will be delivered to you for the Count which you are to forward with the provision.1 You are to write to him in your public Character and offer him any assistance that he may want in victualling the Fleet under his command. I am Sir Yr most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, Gary Hendershott Sale 34 (April 1986), item 1; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. GW wrote to Vice Admiral d’Estaing on this date: “I take the liberty, in behalf of the United States, to present you with a small quantity of live stock, which I flatter myself, after a long sea voyage, will not be unacceptable. I have directed the commissary, who will deliver them, to execute any orders you will be pleased to give him, for procuring such further supplies as the country may afford for the accommodation of the fleet under your command” (Df, DLC:GW).