George Washington to Lund Washington, 28 March 1781
To Lund Washington
New Windsor Mar. 28th 1781.
Dear Lund,
Since my last, your letter of the 14th Instt is received.1 If Mr Triplet has got as much Land as he has given, & you have paid him the cash difference with a proper allowance for the depreciation since the bargain was made, I am at a loss to discover the ground of his complaint—and if men will complain without cause, it is a matter of no great moment. it always was, and now is my wish to do him justice, and if there is any thing lacking in it, delay not to give full measure of justice, because I had rather exceed, than fall short.2
We have heard nothing certain of the two Fleets since they left their respective ports—we wait with impatient anxiety for advices from Chesapeake, and the Southern Army—God send they may be favourable to us—a detachment from New York has made two or three attempts to put to Sea (for the purpose, it is said, of reinforcing either Arnold or Cornwallis) and as often returned—My last accts from New York mention another attempt on the 25th; but whether with truth, or not, it is not in my power to say.3 It was unfortunate—but this I mention in confidence—that the French Fleet & detachment did not undertake the enterprize they are now upon, when I first proposed it to them—the destruction of Arnolds Corps would then have been inevitable before the British fleet could have been in a condition to put to Sea. instead of this the small squadron, which took the Romulus & other Vessels was sent, and could not, as I foretold, do any thing without a Land force at Portsmouth.4
How many Lambs have you had this Spring? How many Colts are you like to have? Is your covered ways done? what are you going about next? Have you any prospect of getting paint and Oyl? are you going to repair the Pavement of the Piaza? is any thing doing, or like to be done with respect to the Wall at the edge of the Hill in front of the House? Have you made good the decayed Trees at the ends of the House, in the Hedges, &ca. Have you made any attempts to reclaim more Land for meadow? &ca &ca—An acct of these things would be satisfactory to me, and infinitely amusing in the recital, as I have these kind of improvements very much at heart—As soon as you can conveniently do it after receipt of this letter, give me a list of the number and kind of Mares I possess. the number of Colts from 4 years old (inclusive) to those of this spring with the ages—colour—kind—and Sexes—Mrs Washington (from report only, I believe) has taken a fancy to a Horse belonging to Mr James Cleveland, brother to the one had from him before (and wch I think a fine horse)—if you can get him in the way of barter, provided he is as handsome, and as fine a horse as represented—& the colour of the set she drives—I shall be very well pleased with your doing it.5 She joins me in best wishes for you Mrs Washington, and Milly Posey.6 I am Yr Affecte friend & Servt
Go: Washington
ALS, MiU-C: Clinton Papers; ALS (extract), DLC:GW; copy (extract), P.R.O.: C.O. 5/102; copy (extract), MHi: Pickering Papers; copy (extract), in French, CtY-BR:R; Varick transcript, DLC:GW. GW signed the cover of the ALS, which was addressed to Lund Washington at Mount Vernon. For this letter’s interception, see GW to Elias Dayton, 4 April, and n.2 to that document. Gen. Henry Clinton enclosed the copy in P.R.O. when he wrote Lord George Germain a letter dated 5–20 April (see , 19:82, 20:102–6). GW wrote at the top of the ALS (extract): “Copy of a Letter to Mr Lund Washington—as Published in Rivingtons Gazette of the 4th of April 1781.” The ALS (extract) and copies contain only the letter’s first two paragraphs, which were published in James Rivington’s Royal Gazette (New York) for 4 April. William Smith, royal chief justice of New York, wrote in his memoirs for 3 April that he and Clinton chose to publish this letter “immediately as it reflects on the French at Rhode Island” (Sabine, Smith’s Historical Memoirs [1971], 395–96; see also n.4 below). For the difficulties that the letter’s publication caused GW, see Rochambeau to GW, 26 April, and n.1 to that document; see also GW to Lafayette, 22 April (second letter).
1. The letter of 14 March from Lund Washington to GW has not been found. GW’s most recent extant letter to Lund is dated 17 July 1780.
2. Ongoing negotiations with William Triplett involved the exchange of land adjoining GW’s tumbling dam and millrace (see Lund Washington to GW, 17 Jan. 1776, n.3, and 28 Jan. 1778, n.4; GW to Lund Washington, 24–26 Feb. 1779, and n.4 to that document; and the entry for 15 Feb. 1785 in , 4:90).
3. GW refers to the British expeditionary fleet, which had sailed for Virginia on 20 March. This fleet reinforced Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold’s forces (see Elias Dayton to GW, 9, 15 and 26 March and 20 April, and Lafayette to GW, 23 March, n.6).
4. GW refers to two expeditions of the French fleet to the Chesapeake Bay (see GW to Philip Schuyler, 23 March, and notes 5 and 6 to that document; see also GW to Joseph Jones, 24 March, to William Fitzhugh, 25 March, and to John Armstrong, 26 March).
Washington’s remarks drew comment from Hessian major Carl Leopold Baurmeister when he wrote a dispatch from New York City on 26 April: “A package of letters intercepted at The Clove near New Windsor in Jersey on the 29th of March shows distinctly how much General Washington is displeased with the slow movements of the French. In a letter of March 28th written to his cousin, Lund Washington, at Mount Vernon, Virginia, he says that General Arnold’s coup can be attributed solely to the hesitancy of their allies and that consequently but little can be gained from this year’s campaign” (, 425; see also the source note above).
5. GW had purchased a horse in 1764 from James Cleveland, then his overseer at River farm (see Cash Accounts, December 1764, in 7:342–43). In 1778, Lund Washington bought a “Bay Horse” from Cleveland (, p. 154).
6. Lund Washington’s wife, Elizabeth, and Amelia “Milly” Posey received compliments.
Lund Washington’s letter to GW on 18 April, presumably his reply, has not been found (see GW to Lund Washington, 30 April).