Benjamin Franklin Papers

To Benjamin Franklin from ——— de Buffot de Millery, 1 June 1778: résumé

From ——— de Buffot de Millery

ALS: American Philosophical Society

<Autun in Burgundy, June 1, 1778, in French: The vicomte de Mauroy, réformé two and a half years ago as lieutenant colonel of grenadiers, contracted with Mr. Deane and left for America in April, 1777, as a major general. Before his departure he gave me, his intimate friend, his power of attorney. In June he wrote me from Charleston, where he had just landed, and in August from Derby, near Philadelphia; his last letter, from Boston in October, said that he had not found service and was coming home in March.8 Since then I have heard nothing, and a rumor is circulating here that he has lost a leg. I have inquired of his family and of the comte de Broglie, who knows him well; no one has had word of him. He was going to spend the winter in Boston and had no premonition of the treaty of alliance; that development perhaps led him to join the American army.9>

[Note numbering follows the Franklin Papers source.]

8. Congress refused to confirm Charles-Louis, vicomte de Mauroy, in the rank promised him, despite strong pressure to do so. He returned home in 1779, and in the spring of 1781 rejoined the French army. Lasseray, Les Français, I, 316–18.

9. BF wrote at the foot of the last page: “That we know nothing of M. de Mauroy but as soon as I learn any thing of him will communicate it.” Buffot de Millery answered it on Oct. 9 from his Burgundian vineyard near Chagny, asking why more than four months had passed with no news and whether he should give up hope. Call upon him, he added, if BF had any use for good Burgundy. APS.

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    Franklin Papers
    Title
    To Benjamin Franklin from ——— de Buffot de Millery, 1 June 1778: résumé
    Author
    Buffot de Millery, —— de
    Recipient
    Franklin, Benjamin
    Date
    1 June 1778

    Reference

    Cite as
    “To Benjamin Franklin from ——— de Buffot de Millery, 1 June 1778: résumé,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-26-02-0499. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 26, March 1 through June 30, 1778, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987, p. 562.]