Captain Lewis Garanger to George Washington, 21 April 1781
From Captain Lewis Garanger
New windsor 21st april 1781.
sir
I have waited a long time for a favourable moment to be employed in the corps of artillery of the united states in the rank and under the conditions agreed upon between Mr Deane and Mr du Coudray, in the hope that it might take place without exciting any discontent among the artillery officers:1 but the operations which I have been in the last instance charged to execute in concert with some of them, having procured me a certainty that those officers would with regret see me connected with their corps, it appears to me that I have ⟨n⟩othing better to do than to pray your Excellency to permit me to return to france.2
The only favour I have to request is that your Excellency will be pleased to grant me a certificate testifying the manner in which I have conducted myself since I Joined the army in the month of December 1778. the pains I have taken and the Zealous disposition I have shown to procure opportunities of distinguishing myself in the service of the united states. I dare flatter myself from your Excellency’s Known Justice and goodness, that you will not refuse a compliance with a request which as an officer of france I owe not less to the service to which I belong than to myself: your Excellency by casting your Eye upon the inclosed papers will see the authenticity of my pretensions; and I am not conscious of having done anything to forfeit my right to those marks of consideration which have been bestowed on every foreign officer and what I may expect with the greater propriety as I came to this Country under the faith of treaty.3 With every sentiment of respect and attachement I have the honor to be your Excellency’s Most obedient and most humble servant.
Lewis Garanger Capt. of bombardiers in the french service
ALS, DLC:GW. GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman docketed this letter: “Copy of Certificate granted is inclosed” (see also n.3 below).
1. Garanger had received a captain’s commission in the Continental army but no command or rank within the artillery (see GW to the Board of War, 27 July 1779, and n.3 to that document; see also GW to John Hancock, 6 June 1777).
2. Garanger had conducted “some experiments in gunning” at West Point on 16 April 1781 that GW observed with “a number of gentlemen” (entry for that date in Henry Sewall’s diary, Maine Farmer [Augusta], 19 Oct. 1872; see also Henry Knox to GW, 18 April, and n.2).
3. The enclosures have not been found, but GW prepared a certificate for Garanger while at New Windsor on 27 April: “Monsieur Lewis Garanger Capt. of Bombardiers in the Army of France entered the American service with the Rank of Captain in the Army of the United States in December 1778—from which time he has waited an opportunity of being employed in the particular line of his profession, but none having occurred he has requested and obtained liberty to return to France.
“Capt. Garanger has ever been extremely sollicitous to render himself serviceable and has upon several occasions behaved with address and bravery as appears by the Certificates of Major Genl Howe and Colonel Armand Marquis de Rouirie under whom he immediately served at those times” (Df, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW; see also the source note above).
Maj. Gen. Henry Knox drafted a certificate for Garanger at the artillery park near New Windsor on 28 April. It begins: “This certifies That Monsieur Lewis Garranger Captain of Bombadiers in the service of France, enterd the Army of the United States of North America in the latter end of 1778 as a Captain, and That he has, ever since that period been anxious to be employd in his particular profession, but no opportunity having presented he has sollicited, and obtained permission, of his Excellency General Washington to return to France.
“Captain Garranger has manifested an Ardent Zeal to be employ’d in actual service, but has not been so fortunate as to have it gratified on a large scale” (NNGL: Knox Papers).