Major General Samuel Holden Parsons to George Washington, 20 April 1781
From Major General Samuel Holden Parsons
Redding [Conn.] April 20th 1781
Dear General
It is now five Days since I have first walked from my Bed to the Fire I have recovered as fast as I have any Right to expect since that Time but still continue very weak.1 I hope the first pleasant Day to go abroad; and when I gain Strength sufficient to ride I hope a Journey will restore my Strength as well as Health; I am at present unabl⟨e to⟩ attend to the Business you committed to my Charge, Captain Walker will take charge of those matters and doubtless communicate to Your Excellency what he finds important; I can only say that the Steps taken in that affair seem to have put the operations of the disaffected to a Stand at present they seem to be waiting Events,2 I cannot but wish your Excellency in the absence of the british Fleet to order an Expedition to Lloyds Neck, Two Frigates would be sufficient to cover the Operations And five Hundred Men will be quite sufficient to render the Attempt Succesful those with the Ships can perhaps be ordered from Rhode Island where no jealousy will be Occasioned by the movement, this Expedition if succesful will give peace to our Coast the whole Summer and in that point of Light will be important and very grateful to this Country;3 if your Excellency should order this Expedition, I think I have many Reasons to claim to Command it, And must beg Your Excellency not to deny me; but if Any Reasons should induce you to order Any other Officer to Command, I must beg your permission to go with the Expedition in Command or not as You see fit.4 I am Dear General your Obedient Humble Servant
Saml H. Parsons
LS, DLC:GW.
1. Parsons had suffered from a fever (see his letter to GW, 23–26 March, found at GW to Parsons, 14 March, n.7).
2. Parsons had acted on orders to investigate and interdict a Loyalist plot in Connecticut (see GW’s second letter to Parsons, 22 Feb.; see also Parsons to GW, 14 March).
3. For the same proposal, which did not receive French support, see Benjamin Tallmadge to GW, 6, 20, and 24 April; and GW to Tallmadge, 8 April; see also GW to Rochambeau and Destouches, 8 April, and Rochambeau and Destouches to GW, 25 April.
4. GW replied to Parsons from headquarters at New Windsor on 30 April: “I have had the pleasure to receive Your Letter of the 20th Inst. and am glad to find by it, that You are in a fair way of recovering Your health again, and that the Measures You had taken previous to Your illness, have been attended with some degree of success. As soon as the circumstances will possibly admit, I wish the Detachment of Continental Troops at Danbury may be sent back to the Army: The Quarter Master General, having it in contemplation to have a considerable quantity of Provisions, brought on, at once from Danbury to Peekskill, it will be well to make use of these Troops as an escort for it; and to give the Commanding Officer directions, to afford his aid and assistance, in every possible way, to facilitate the transportation.
“There are insuperable obstacles, which will at present prevent an attempt to carry into execution the Enterprize you have suggested: It may however be expedient, to keep even the proposal a secret” (Df, in David Humphreys’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; for the recipient’s copy, which has not been found, see GW to Timothy Pickering, 30 April, found at Pickering to GW, 1 May, n.1). Parsons replied to GW on 4 May.