1. Augustin-François Des Epiniers (d. 1782) was a nephew of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799), a French playwright (author of Le Barbier de Séville, Le Mariage de Figaro, and numerous other plays) and French government agent whose Paris firm Roderigue Hortalez & Cie. supplied secret military aid to the United States during the Revolutionary War. Des Epiniers had held the rank of captain in the French army and sought to serve the American cause by late 1776, when Silas Deane, an American commissioner at Paris, signed an agreement that called for the Frenchman to “serve in the corps of Artillery and Engineers.” The document signed by Deane also specified the time frame by which Des Epiniers would receive promotion to major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel, and guaranteed him a pension (Isham, Deane Papers description begins Charles Isham, ed. The Deane Papers. 5 vols. New York, 1887-91. In Collections of the New-York Historical Society, vols. 19–23. description ends , 19:406-7). Des Epiniers arrived in the United States in the summer of 1777, and on 21 Aug. of that year, Congress commissioned him a captain in the Continental army (see JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 8:663). On 2 Feb. 1778, Congress promoted Des Epiniers to major “in consideration of the services rendered by his uncle, Mons. de Beaumarchais, and of his having served with reputation in the American army” (JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 10:108). After having served as aide-de-camp to major generals Lafayette and Steuben, Des Epiniers returned to France in 1779.

2. No reply to Morris from GW has been found. In May 1778, Des Epiniers was again introduced in a letter to GW from Jean-Baptiste-Lazare, Théveneau de Francy, an agent of Beaumarchais (see Francy to GW, 10 May 1778).