LS, DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 25496; ADfS, MHi: Heath Papers. For the forwarding of the LS and the unidentified enclosure, see GW to Henry Hughes, 24 April, source note.

GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys wrote Heath from headquarters on this date: “The General has gone to Poughkeepsie, as soon as he returns I will lay Your Letter of this date, before him” (MHi: Heath Papers). GW saw New York governor George Clinton at Poughkeepsie (see Clinton to GW, 26 April).

Heath wrote in his memoirs for 26 April: “Gen. Washington visited West Point with Monsieur Bieville, &c. The next day, the latter set out on his return to Rhode Island” (Wilson, Heath’s Memoirs description begins Rufus Rockwell Wilson, ed. Heath’s Memoirs of the American War. 1798. Reprint. New York, 1904. description ends , 296). Heath’s aide-de-camp Henry Sewall wrote in his diary entry for the same date: “Genl. Washington and Genl. Beville Q.M. Genl. of the French army, his two sons, another French officer &c. &c, dined here” (Maine Farmer [Augusta], 19 Oct. 1872). For the French quartermaster general’s sons, see Béville to GW, 2 May, n.4. Under 24 April in his memoirs, Heath explained that “Bieville Quarter-Master of the French army at Newport” had come “to view the roads, and determine on the best route, should the French army move that way, and to fix on proper places for magazines, &c.” (Wilson, Heath’s Memoirs description begins Rufus Rockwell Wilson, ed. Heath’s Memoirs of the American War. 1798. Reprint. New York, 1904. description ends , 296).