Lieutenant General Rochambeau to George Washington, 6 April 1781
From Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Newport, April 6th 1781.
Sir.
I have communicated to the chevalier Destouches some proposals made to me by the Council at Boston about an attack on Penobscot, together with the Answer made to me by your Excellency upon that Subject.1 The Chevalier Destouches Appeared to have a great mind to it. he ordered Mr De la Perouse to ask a Plan of it which was brought to us yesterday by deputies from Boston; after examining it, he proposes sending two 64. gun Ships one Pink2 and two frigates, and has asked me what number of Land forces I thought it would be necessary to join thereto. I See that the fort is square with 4. small bastions, in which there is only 350. men for garrison, as the Deputies from Boston assure. I thought that 600. men of Land forces, with the Artillery soldiers necessary for 4. mortars of 13.3 inches and 4. twenty four pounders, were Sufficient for that expedition, that some militia of the neighbouring country could be assembled, and that if a greater number of great guns were necessary, the Ships could furnish them, but I have told the Chr Destouches, that tho’ I was persuaded as well as he that the moment was very favorable for that expedition, which will be the more agreeable as it4 if undertaken directly after his engagement on the 16th ulto5 I was under your command and consequently would wait for your Excellency’s approbation before I could give him a positive answer.6 It is with a great deal of sorrow, that I see the Departure of our Transports resolved on, The Chevalier Destouches has shewn me the positive orders which he has received about it from his Minister, by the frigate L’Astrée and they are to set sail for a certain destination escorted by a Frigate.7 The Minister in his Letter assures that the Convoy which will arrive very soon will replace them, and that the King will give us all means plentifully when once the plan of the Campaign is resolved on.8 I am with respect and personal attachment, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient & most humble Servant
le Comte de Rochambeau
LS, DLC:GW; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 7; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 9.
1. See GW to Rochambeau, 21–22 March, postscript; see also Rochambeau to GW, 18 March.
2. A pink is a ship with a narrow, overhanging stern. This word is “flutte” in both letter-book versions. A fluyt, or flute, was a Dutch merchant ship with a wide, boxlike hull and a high, narrow stern. Rochambeau evidently refers to one of the transports with the French naval squadron at Newport.
3. This number is “12” in the letter-book versions.
4. On the LS, “may” is struck out after this word.
5. Rochambeau refers to the Battle of Cape Henry on 16 March (see Destouches to GW, 19 March, source note).
6. GW had objected to an earlier proposal for an expedition against Penobscot (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 9 April 1780, and GW’s second letter to Huntington, 17 April). An actual expedition against Penobscot had proven disastrous (see GW to the Massachusetts Council, 3 Aug. 1779, n.3; see also Henry Babcock to GW, 20 Nov. 1779).
7. For the arrival of the French frigate Astrée, see Rochambeau to GW, 27 Feb. 1781, postscript. French war commissary Claude Blanchard wrote in his journal that on 18 April, “the merchantmen, which had left Brest with us, and on which we had embarked a part of the troops and of our property, left us and repaired to Saint Domingo, under the escort of a frigate” (, 102; see also Rochambeau to GW, 18 April). In his journal entry for 20 April, Rochambeau’s aide-de-camp Ludwig von Closen reported “18 empty transports” being convoyed to the West Indies (, 76). The orders for this movement had come from French minister of marine Castries.
8. GW replied to Rochambeau on 10 April.