To George Washington from Brigadier General Anthony Wayne, 9 November 1779
From Brigadier General Anthony Wayne
Acquakeneunk Bridge [N.J.]
9th Novr 1779 8. OClock. A.M.
Dear General
I was honored with your two favors of the 5th Instant & in Obedience thereto marched & took post here, but could wish to be a few miles lower down towards Newark.1
I am fully of Opinion with your Excellency that Govr Levingstons Information was nothing more than that which Colo. Seeley Communicated to me,2 but in place of two Regiments, I believe that all the troops from Rhode Island were landed on Staten Island, at least an Inhabitant from Bergen Town assures me that he knows it to be the case3—& that a Capital Embarkation is going on at New York4—however I expect to know more of this matter very soon—as I have furnished him with means to get admission to that City & look for his return either this Evening or tomorrow.
there has been a very heavy firing towards New York all this Morning—more like an action than a Salute—it possibly may be a landing of the Enemy from Staten Island—(I dare not hope—that it proceeds from the Count De Estaing) should anything meterial turn up you may Depend upon the earliest Intelligence.5 Interim I am with much Esteem Your Excellency’s most Obt & very Hume Sert
Anty Wayne
ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, PHi: Wayne Papers.
1. Newark, N.J., was about six miles south of the bridge at Aquakinunk. GW wrote Wayne from Pompton, N.J., on 10 Nov., 7:00 A.M.: “Yours of yesterday morning reached me here just as I was getting on Horseback, the Express having gone round by Kings ferry. Mine of yesterday gave you liberty to move lower down if necessary, keeping to the Mountain” (LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, PHi: Wayne Papers).
2. See William Livingston to John Sullivan, 2 Nov., found at Sullivan to GW, 4 Nov., n.1; and Silvanus Seely to Wayne, 1 Nov., found at Wayne to GW, 4 Nov., source note.
3. For the British evacuation from Rhode Island on 25 Oct., see GW to Duportail and Alexander Hamilton, 30 Oct., and notes 1 and 2 to that document. Only one evacuated regiment took post on Staten Island, N.Y. (see the first letter from Sullivan to GW, 6 Nov., n.2).
4. This intelligence may have pertained to the fleet mentioned in a circular letter sent from New York City on 10 Nov. by Stephen Payne Adye, aide-decamp to Maj. Gen. James Pattison. The circular sought to identify “Women & Children left in New York, by the different Regiments,” for passage to Cork, Ireland, “in the first Fleet which will Sail in a few days” ( 295).
5. The cause of the firing that Wayne reported has not been identified. GW intended to attack the British in and around New York City after rendezvousing with a French fleet under Vice Admiral d’Estaing. For an overview of GW’s preparations and ideas, which never were fully executed because of d’Estaing’s decision not to come north after being defeated at Savannah, see Planning for an Allied Attack on New York, c.3–7 Oct., editorial note; see also Samuel Huntington to GW, 10 Nov., and GW to Huntington, 20 and 24 November.