Lieutenant General Rochambeau to George Washington, 18 March 1781
From Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Newport, March the 18th 1781.
Sir,
I have the honor to send to your Excellency the Letter which I write to Sir Henry Clinton, by the Chevalier Destouches’s desire, and I beg of your Excellency to send it to him, as quickly as possible,1 as our frigate and our Transports remaining here are in an absolute want of seamen, which is the reason that the Frigate La Gentille did not [go]2 along with the other ships.3
Mr Hancock has desired Mr De La Perouse to ask me, what succours either in men or ships, we could give to the State of Boston, in case they should attempt an Expedition against Penobscot.4 I caused answer to be made to him, that in our actual state, I could only wait for the return of the Southern expedition5 and wait afterwards Your Excellency’s orders for the Ensuing operations.
The Captain of a Ship that set sail on the 10th instant from Eddington, in North Carolina,6 certifies his having Seen on the 8th a Gentleman of character that was just arriving from Halifax and who said that General Greene’s army amounted to eighteen thousand men and had surrounded Lord Cornwallis at Hillsboro’s7 That same Captain certifies that Arnold is very much perplexed at Portsmouth, and that it is said that he has always two pistols Loaded on his Table, swearing that he shall not be taken alive. As the Captain sailed at a distance from the coast, for the sake of the South-West wind, he has not Seen or heard of any of the fleets. I am with respect and personal attachment Sir, Your Excellency’s Most obedient humble Servant.
le Cte de Rochambeau
P.S. I have received your Excellency’s Letter of the 16th dated at Lebanon, I can assure your Excellency that if you was pleased with this Little Army of yours, every member of it, down to the meanest soldier, was charmed to see your Excellency.8
LS, DLC:GW; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 7; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 8. The postscript appears only on the LS.
1. Rochambeau wrote British general Henry Clinton about prisoner exchanges on this date (see , 5:429; a letter-book version is in DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 8). For another enclosure, see GW’s reply to Rochambeau on 21–22 March, postscript, and n.6 to that document.
2. There is no word at this point on the LS, but both letter-book copies have the word “emmené,” meaning to convey away.
3. Rochambeau refers to the French expedition that had sailed from Newport for the Chesapeake Bay (see Destouches to GW, 8 March, source note).
4. For French naval captain La Pérouse’s arrival at Boston, see Rochambeau to GW, 27 Feb., postscript.
5. See n.3 above.
6. Rochambeau means Edenton, North Carolina.
7. This report was false, but Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s army had marched from southern Virginia to Guilford County, N.C. (see Greene to GW, 28 Feb.).
8. See GW to Rochambeau, 16 March. For GW’s visit to Newport, see his letter to Alexander Hamilton, 7 March, source note, and Newport Citizens to GW, same date.