Alexander Hamilton Papers

George Washington to Brigadier General Louis Le Bèque Du Portail and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton, 30 October 1779

George Washington to
Brigadier General Louis Le Bèque Du Portail and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton1

West point October the 30th. 1779

Gentn.

I inclose you an Extract of a Letter of the 26th which General Greene has just received from Mr Bowen.2 D.Q.M. Genl, dated in New port, announcing the evacuation of Rhode Island by the Enemy on Monday night last. The intelligence is not to be doubted, altho by some means or another it has happened, that I have not received any advices from Genl Gates upon the subject, or a Letter from him since One of the 15th of which I transmitted you a Copy on the 21st.

By a private Letter which Mr Laurens the late president was so obliging as to write me on the 24th, he gave me the intelligence you will find in the Inclosure No. 2,3 which is most principally for your own satisfaction.

I have the Honor to be   with great regard   Gentn   Your Most Obed Ser

Go: Washington

Genl Portail & }
Colo Hamilton

LS, in writing of Robert Hanson Harrison, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress; Df, in writing of Robert Hanson Harrison, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress. This letter was forwarded by Major Henry Lee. See Washington to H and Du Portail, November 1, 1779.

1H and Du Portail were at Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey on a mission to D’Estaing. This mission is described in H to Major General Nathanael Greene, October 7, 1779, note 1.

2Ephraim Bowen to Major General Nathanael Greene, October 26, 1779 (copy, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress). Bowen was deputy quartermaster general. The letter describes evacuation of Rhode Island by the British.

3This enclosure was an undated two-page extract from Henry Laurens’s letter describing the movements of “The Allies” and the enemy in the South (D, in writing of Robert Hanson Harrison, Hamilton Papers, Library of Congress).

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