Henry Babcock to George Washington, 26 March 1781
From Henry Babcock
Stonington [Conn.] 26th March 1781
Sir
I hope your Excellency is arrived safe at your Head Quarters in Windsor.1 Last Wednesday a British Officer (who was in Newport in Disguise when Your Excellency was there, and had a Party in Connecticut to have seized you, and carried You Prisoner to long Island) was carried by a whale Boat from Groton to long Island:2 the Persons who carried the British Officer over, were pursued by two of our Boats, but as he went up the Bank at Sag Harbour, our Boats were within ¼ of a Mile of him, so that he but just escaped. Tho’ I should have been abundantly happy to have been honoured with your Excellencys Presence at my House, but as it now appears your Person would have been in Danger—I am happy that you did not.
The Persons from Groton that carried the British Officer over are taken into Custody.
I am told by one Mr Hazard who returned last Week from wrecking the Culloden Man of War, from which they have taken some Thousands £ Mony, in Cordage, Sails, Provisions, & a vast Quantity of Copper, that the Inhabitants of Long Island assured him, that the Bedford Man of War, after being dismasted, sunk with all her Guns & Stores.3 I have this Day wrote Count Rochambeau mentioning the Affair to him, & imagine she may be weighed by two large Transport Ships.4 I have the Honor to be with every Sentiment of the highest Esteem & profoundest Respect Your Excellencys most obedient & most humble Servant
Henry Babcock
P.S. I have just receeved a Letter from Oliver Wolcott Esqr. Member of Congress from the State of Connecticut that the coining the Plate is now under Consideration. If your Excellency would just mention it in a Letter to the President I dare say Congress would recommend it to the different States, the lower House of Connecticut have voted it.5
If You have any Accounts from Monsieur Detouche’s Squadron will be extreamly obliged to your Excellency to desire Major Humphrys or some Gentleman of your Family to write me an Account of the same—Please to give my Compliments to Mr Harrison & Major Humphrys.6 I am as mentioned above your tres humble et tres obeisant Serviteur
H. Babcock
ALS, DLC:GW; LB, PPAmP.
1. For GW’s return to headquarters at New Windsor after visiting the French forces at Rhode Island, see GW to Rochambeau, 16 March, n.1.
2. The previous Wednesday was 21 March.
3. The British warship Culloden had been driven aground on Long Island, N.Y., by a storm, which damaged but did not actually sink the British warship Bedford (see Rochambeau to GW, 29 Jan., n.2; see also Rochambeau to GW, 18 Feb., n.3). The Connecticut Journal (New Haven) for 26 April reported that crews of vessels sailing to Long Island from New England skirmished with Loyalists when salvaging from the Culloden.
Babcock may refer to Samuel Hazard (1750–1787), who fled New York City in September 1776 for Newtown, Conn., with other patriot members of his mercantile family. The Connecticut Council of Safety resolved on 24 Oct. 1780 that Hazard “have liberty to go to Long Island in a boat, with a suitable number of hands to navigate said boat, for the purpose of bringing off some moveable household and wearing apparel belonging to his mother and family; and B. General Silliman is directed and empowered to appoint some suitable person to inspect him going and coming, and see that he brings off nothing but what he ought” (, 3:219–20).
4. Babcock’s letter to Lieutenant General Rochambeau has not been identified, but it apparently advised an attempt to raise the ostensibly sunken Bedford.
5. The letter from Oliver Wolcott, Sr., has not been identified. He had written Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., from Philadelphia on 9 Jan. 1781 that calling “upon the States for their Plate” would likely be among “the principal Objects of Deliberation” in Congress (, 16:583–84). Congress had postponed resolutions on 18 Dec. 1780 that were to have directed states to collect “silver plate” and other metals by subscription and send them to Congress for coining (, 18:1160). For earlier correspondence on converting silver plates to coin, see Babcock to GW, 24 Oct., and n.4 to that document; see also Babcock to GW, 5 December. No formal action in the Connecticut legislature on this subject has been identified.
6. GW’s, and his staff’s, correspondence with Babcock apparently ended with this letter until Babcock again wrote GW on 6 Dec. 1783, when his periodic insanity had landed him in jail (DLC:GW). For the French fleet, see Destouches to GW, 19 March 1781, source note.