George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 16 March 1781
To Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Lebanon [Conn.] 16th March 1781
Sir
By letters which I have met at this place from the Marquis de la Fayette I find that he was embarked and had determined to fall as low down the Chesapeak as Annapolis as the passage is more certain from thence than from Elk River.1
I have received advice from Colo. Dayton an intelligent Officer stationed near Elizabeth town that the British transports at New York fell down to the Hook on Tuesday the 6th inst. that they had been prevented from sailing the 7th and 8th on account of the Weather but that he beleived they went to sea on the 9th as many signal Guns were heard on that morning.2 If so, I hope Mr des Touche may have the good fortune to fall in with them—I am just mounting my Horse and must therefore take the liberty of referring you to the Duke de Lauzun for further particulars.
I must entreat your Excellency to accept my warmest acknowledgements for all your attentions to me while at New port,3 and beg you will be assured that I am with most perfect Esteem Yr Excellency’s Most obt Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, CtY-BR:R; Rochambeau’s French translation, CtY-BR:R; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 7.
1. See Lafayette’s two letters to GW on 9 March.
GW had commenced his return to New Windsor upon leaving Providence early on 15 March (see GW to Providence Citizens, 14 March, n.1). Brigadier General Lauzun accompanied GW “as far as Stafford,” Conn., before returning to his regiment in winter quarters (, 197; see also Rochambeau to GW, 29 Oct. 1780, n.6). The Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer (Hartford) for Tuesday, 20 March 1781, printed an item: “Last Friday afternoon his Excellency General Washington arrived in town from Newport, and on Sunday morning proceeded on his journey to the Army.” GW issued an execution order while in Hartford (see Heman Swift to GW, 22–31 March, and n.1). Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., provided other details in his diary entry for 17 March: “Dined at Mr. Platt’s with Gen. Washington, and spent the afternoon—he came to my lodgings—communicated Mr. Southwick and Com. General’s letters—conversed on various subjects” (, 529; see also Ephraim Blaine to GW, 9 March, and Solomon Southwick to GW, 13 March). In his memoirs for 20 March, Maj. Gen. William Heath wrote: “In the afternoon, Gen. Washington arrived at head-quarters at New Windsor, from the eastward” (, 293). GW briefly described his trip when he wrote Major General Chastellux on 21 March. For another account of his travels, see 15–17.
A traveler heard a report on GW’s visit to Newport. He did not learn that GW had decided to return through Providence, and the prevailing report that he would go “by the sea side” led Yale College president Ezra Stiles in New Haven, Conn., to “conjecture” in his diary entry for 13 March that GW had “sailed on board the French Fleet for Virginia. If so may a gracious Heaven keep him amidst all Dangers, & give him the possession of Arnold” (, 2:521–22; see also GW to Alexander Hamilton, 7 March, source note, and Destouches to GW, 8 March, source note).
3. Rochambeau replied to GW on 18 March, postscript.