1. Settlers founded Newport in 1639.

2. The Rhode Island government then rotated legislative sessions among four locations: Newport, Providence, South Kingstown, and East Greenwich. Each place was considered a capital. Providence became the official and sole state capital in 1900 (see Wright and Sullivan, Rhode Island Atlas description begins Marion I. Wright and Robert J. Sullivan. The Rhode Island Atlas. Providence, 1982. description ends , 48).

3. British forces occupied Newport in early December 1776 and did not evacuate until late October 1779. For an overview of the British occupation, with losses “estimated at over one hundred and twenty-four thousand pounds” and more than 500 houses destroyed, see Bayles, Newport County description begins Richard M. Bayles, ed. History of Newport County, Rhode Island. From the Year 1638 to the year 1887, including the Settlement of its Towns, and their subsequent Progress. New York, 1888. description ends , 353–92, quote on 392; see also Donald F. Johnson, “Occupied Newport: A Revolutionary City under British Rule,” Newport History: Journal of the Newport Historical Society 84 (Summer 2015): 1–23. For the evacuation, see GW to Duportail and Alexander Hamilton, 30 Oct. 1779, and notes 1 and 2 to that document.

4. This word appears as “wisdon” in the document.

5. The French expeditionary force had arrived at Newport on 11 July 1780 (see William Heath’s second letter to GW, that date, and Rochambeau to GW, 12 July; see also Simpson and Simpson, “Army in Newport” description begins Alan Simpson and Mary M. Simpson, “A New Look at How Rochambeau Quartered His Army in Newport (1780–1781),” Newport History 56, part 2 (Spring 1983): 30–67. description ends ).

6. The Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina on 17 Jan. 1781 was a decided Continental victory (see Nathanael Greene’s first letter to GW, 24 Jan., and n.3 to that document).

7. French ships had engaged a British squadron in the Chesapeake Bay during February and captured the frigate Romulus (see Destouches to GW, 25 Feb., and n.2 to that document).

8. GW replied to this welcome on 8 March: “Among the distinguished honors which have a claim to my gratitude since my arrival, I have seen with peculiar satisfaction those effusions of esteem and attachment which have manifested themselves in the Citizens of this antient Town. My happiness is complete in a moment that unites the expressions of their sentiments for me with their Suffrages in favor of our Allies.

“The conduct of the French Army and Fleet, of which the Inhabitants testify so grateful and so affectionate a sense, at the same time that it evinces the Wisdom of the Commanders and the discipline of the Troops, is a new proof of the magnanimity of the Nation. It is a further demonstration of that generous zeal & concern for the happiness of America which brought them to our assistance—a happy presage of future harmony—a pleasing evidence that an entercourse between the two Nations will more & more cement the union by the solid and lasting ties of mutual affection.

“I sincerely sympathize with you Gentlemen in lamenting the depredations suffered by this Town while in possession of the Enemy and heartily join you in those liberal wishes the accomplishment of which would soon more than restore it to its former flourishing condition.

“Accept my acknowledgements for the polite and obliging manner in which you have been pleased to communicate to me the sentiments of your fellow Citizens and the assurances of my warmest esteem for them and for you personally” (ADS, RNHi; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; GW inserted “antient” on the draft; see also GW to Alexander Hamilton, this date, and the source note to that document).

9. Newport merchant Christopher Ellery (1736–1789) frequently served as a Rhode Island legislator and held other official positions.

Ellery hosted a tea party during GW’s visit to Newport. At this gathering, GW reportedly learned that Ellery’s daughter suffered from a severe cold and volunteered his remedy—“onions boiled in molasses”—for sore throats that frequently troubled him (Stone, French Allies description begins Edwin Martin Stone. Our French Allies. Rochambeau and his Army, Lafayette and his Devotion, D’Estaing, DeTernay, Barras, DeGrasse, and their Fleets, in the Great War of the American Revolution, From 1778 to 1782, including Military Operations in Rhode Island, the Surrender of Yorktown, Sketches of French and American Officers, and Incidents of Social Life in Newport, Providence, and Elsewhere. Providence, 1884. description ends , 366–68).

George Olney, formerly an auditor in the quartermaster general’s department, wrote GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman from Providence on 11 March: “My not seeing you after the Ball at Newport obliges me to take this method of requesting a favour of you, which I flatter myself your good-nature will induce you to comply with, and which I shall ever most gratefully acknowledge as an obligation: It is to ask His Excellency, and acquaint me with his answer, whether, at Colo. Biddle’s Quarters in Morris Town, or elsewhere, ‘Mrs Olney, in a violent rage, told him, if he did not let go her hands, she would tear out his eyes, or the hair from his head; and that tho’ he was a General, he was but a Man;’ or whether she ever said a word to him that border’d upon disrespect.

“You will doubtless be surpris’d at this extraordinary request, unless you have heard that such a report has been industriously spread thro’ the Country by some ilnatur’d, malicious person, which has greatly injured Mrs Olney’s reputation; but as I know it to be absolutely false, I cannot but hope you will kindly grant me a ready compliance, to enable me to justify her by producing an indubitable written proof of its untruth. … P.S. If this should not reach you before you set out for Head Quarters, I shall send it after you; and beg you will write me by the first private or public conveyance, directing for me at Providence” (PHi: Society Collection).

Tilghman replied to Olney from Providence on 14 March: “I received your favor of the 11t[h] while at Newport. I am sorry to find that Mrs. Olney should have experienced a moments pain from the circulation of a story, which, if rightly represented, would have shewn, that instead of an affront being given or taken at the time alluded to, the highest good humour and gaiety prevailed. For the information of those who may think you would give a partial account of the matter, and for the confusion of those who have propagated so malevolent a report, I will, upon honor, briefly relate the circumstances, which I am authorised to do by his Excellency to whom I have shewn your letter.

“The Winter before the last, when the Army was cantonned near Morristown, a large Company, of which the General and Mrs. Washington—General and Mrs. Greene—Mr. and Mrs. Olney were part, dined with Colo. and Mrs. Biddle. Some little time after the Ladies had retired from Table, Mr. Olney followed them into the next room. It was proposed that a party should be sent to demand him, and if the Ladies refused to give him up, that he should be brought by force. This party His Excellency offered to head. They proceeded with great formality to the adjoining room and sent in a summons, which the Ladies refused—such a scuffle then ensued as any good natured person must suppose. The Ladies, as they always ought to be, were victorious. But Mrs. Olney, in the course of the contest, made use of no expressions unbecoming a Lady of her good breeding, or such as were taken in the least amiss by the General.

“If the foregoing, which I have dressed in the stile of jest (for the whole matter was a jest) will answer your purposes, it will afford the highest pleasure” (Marian Sadtler Hornor, “A Washington Affair of Honor, 1779,” Pa. Mag. description begins Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 139 vols. to date. 1877–. description ends 65 [1941], 364–65).

Olney sought to defend his wife, Deborah Paget Olney (1752–1824), who wrote Catharine Littlefield Greene from Providence on 17 March 1781: “On a late visit to Boston several of my friends inform’d me of a very extraordinary story, current there, extreemly prejudicial to my Character, which, upon tracing, I found to come originally from you; and since my return from thence I have been told of it by several in this Town, who not believing it, and fearing it might give me pain, omitted saying anything to me about it. As I find this is not the only story you have fabricated or misrepresented, by several, to injure my reputation, (for what cause I cannot conceive) it is necessary to inform you, that the one I mean, is your ungenerous and untrue account of the affair at Colo. Biddles in Morristown, about which, at the time, you discover’d so much unbecoming temper; which by the best information I can obtain, you took a great Deal of unfriendly pains to circulate thro the Country when you came on from Camp last Spring.” Olney enclosed copies of the correspondence between her husband and Tilghman and concluded: “I am not ambitious of nor do I wish the acquaintance of any Person, however high their rank and station in Life may be who, by painful experience, I have found can in one moment; with a seeming pleasure, smile in my face, and the next sacrifice my character” (Hornor, “Affair of Honor,” 365–66).

Greene adopted a righteous posture in her reply to Olney from Coventry, R.I., on 18 March but admitted that she did tell one of Olney’s friends without “agravating one tittle” of the story. Greene continued, “as to your tearing out the Genls Eyes I heard, nor said nothing off but you did say you would tear out his hear—and I can bring sworn evidence to the truth of it. It might have been jest, as Col Tilghman says, but I believe he is the only one that was there Who thought so—and indeed after Mr. Olneys letter to him positively denying it, he could say no less than he did—if it is false why did I shew so much unbecoming temper, or why did Genl Greene as a friend to you boath, take you into a room talk to you very ceriously upon it” (Hornor, “Affair of Honor,” 366–68, quotes on 366–67).

Deborah Olney responded to Greene from Providence on 28 March that “it must be folly in me to pretend to dispute with you when you have so solemnly sworn to the truth of your story, in direct and positive contradiction to Colo. Tilghmans letter, written by the authority of General Washington himself, (who surely ought to know whether I affronted him or not) which however you may affect to call a jest, has so much seriousness in its introduction, that I am perfectly willing to risk my reputation, respecting the affair at Colo. Biddles, upon that single evidence—in addition to which I must observe that his Excellency, on his late visit this way, noticed me more, and was more sociable with me than he ever was before; which has not the appearance of his being offended with me, as you said he was.” Olney denied the accuracy of Greene’s memory and explained how George Olney’s “refusing to drink” with the men prompted the incident (Hornor, “Affair of Honor,” 368–70, quotes on 368–69; see also GW to Providence Citizens, 14 March). When Olney’s daughter sealed these letters, she wrote on the wrapper: “Let them not to be exposed to anybody, unless some misstatements should hereafter appear in some gossiping memoirs of the time” (Hornor, “Affair of Honor,” 363). For secondary accounts of the incident, see Irving, Life description begins Washington Irving. Life of George Washington. 5 vols. New York, 1857–59. description ends , 4:538–39, and Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty description begins John F. and Janet A. Stegeman. Caty: A Biography of Catharine Littlefield Greene. 1977. Reprint. Athens, Ga., 1985. description ends , 76, 87–88.

10. William Taggart (1733–1798), slaveholder and merchant, spied for the Continentals when the British controlled Aquidneck Island, and he served as major in Maj. Gen. John Sullivan’s boat service between summer 1778 and March 1779. The British had destroyed Taggart’s farm in neighboring Middletown, Rhode Island.