George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 30 April 1781
To Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Head Quarters New Windsor 30th April 1781.
Sir
I have had the honor of receiving your Excellency’s and the Chevalier des Touche’s joint letter of the 25th and your own of the 26th.1 The absence of your light Frigates renders the plan which Major Tallmadge proposed impracticable for the present. We will, however, keep the enterprise in view, and may, perhaps, at some future time, find an opportunity of carrying it into execution with success.2
I will, in due season, send a proper Officer to make himself acquainted with the defences of Newport.
General de Beville will, I presume by this time, have reported to your Excellency the substance of his conference with me, and his own opinion of the different Routes from Newport to the North River.3 I can only—as I have done before, recommend to you to proceed in making the necessary preparations for the Feild, and assure you again that you shall have the earliest notice should any movements of the Enemy make yours necessary by land. The detachment which is preparing at New York had not sailed by my last accounts from thence.4 May they not be waiting for the repair of the damaged Ships of War?5
In the inclosed paper you will find several interesting intelligences from Europe and the West Indies, under the Philadelphia head. The letter of the 18th March from Martinico is said to be from one of our Agents to the president of Congress6—The intelligence from the Havanna is the substance of a letter from the Governor7 to Don Francisco Rendon the Spanish Agent at Philadelphia.8
I shall in future address myself on naval Affairs to the Chevalier des Touche by the method which your Excellency has been pleased to point out.9 I have the honor to be with great consideration and Esteem Your Excellency’s Most obt and hble Servt
Go: Washington
LS, in Tench Tilghman’s writing, CtY-BR:R; Df, DLC:GW; Rochambeau’s French translation, CtY-BR:R; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 7; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. See Rochambeau and Destouches to GW, 25 April, and Rochambeau to GW, 26 April.
2. Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge planned an operation that captured Fort Slongo, N.Y., on 3 Oct. 1781 (see William Heath to GW, 5 Oct., DLC:GW).
3. For GW’s time with French quartermaster general Béville, see Heath to GW, 23 April, source note; see also GW to Jeremiah Wadsworth, 30 April, and Béville to GW, 2 May.
4. GW eagerly sought news about this detachment (see his letters to Tallmadge, this date, and to Elias Dayton, 1 May; see also Heath to GW, same date, n.1).
5. Tilghman, who also penned the draft, wrote and struck out the next paragraph: “I have received information from the Spanish Agent at Philada that Don Galvez had commenced his operations against Pensacola—and that upon Eight British ships of the line appearing off Cape Anthonis and bearing down towards the Main, Nineteen French and Spanish ships of the Line sailed from the Havannah in order to intercept them—We may therefore shortly expect interesting intelligences from that quarter.” For this intelligence, see Francisco Rendon to GW, 24 April.
6. GW probably enclosed The Pennsylvania Packet or, the General Advertiser (Philadelphia) for 24 April. Under the heading “Philadelphia,” for the same date, it printed part “of a letter from St. Pierre, (Martinique)” dated 18 March: “‘Arrived here the 5th instant, from Brest, in 44 days, a lugger with dispatches from the minister to the general the marquis de Bouillie, advising him of an approaching arrival of a large fleet, consisting of 400 sail, or thereabouts, among which he expects 30 sail of the line. I hope soon to be able to give you a more particular account of this piece of news.’” The same extract appeared in The Pennsylvania Evening Post (Philadelphia) for 24 April.
7. Tilghman wrote “of Cuba” at this point on the draft.
8. See n.5 above.
9. Rochambeau replied to GW on 5 May; see also Rochambeau to GW, 26 April.