Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

On this date, GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman wrote to Maj. Gen. William Heath from headquarters: “If your health will permit, His Excellency wishes to have the pleasure of your Company at dinner, when you will meet Genl Whipple on his journey to the Eastward.

“His Excellency last evening recd a south Carolina paper of the 8th Inst. it appears from that, that an Officer had arrived at Charles town from Count D’Estaing announcing his being very near. A private letter says, The Count was to attack the British force at savannah on the 9th Inst. We every moment expect more particular accounts of this important matter. Be pleased to forward the inclosed by Flag to Verplanks point tomorrow Morning” (ALS, MHi: Heath Papers). The “private letter,” which has not been found, was from John Mitchell, deputy quartermaster general at Philadelphia (see GW to George Clinton, 1 Oct.). The enclosure has not been identified. William Whipple, delegate to Congress from New Hampshire, was journeying home (see Smith, Letters of Delegates, description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds. Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789. 26 vols. Washington, D.C., 1976–2000. description ends 13:534, and 14:32, 57).