Major General Steuben to George Washington, 4 May 1781
From Major General Steuben
4 May [1781]
To Genl Washington
Maj. Lomagne will represent to your Excellency the present State of Colo. Armands Corps1—the distress I was in for Cavalry in Jany last obliged me to employ this Corps on the Lines at Portsmouth, where by the Activity of Mons. Lomagne they were extremely servicable, till they were so harrassed that I was under the necessity of withdrawing them from Service & sending them to Quarters to refresh.2
The State of Virginia can with difficulty Equip their own Troops how Colo. Armand’s Corps will be Equippd I know not—they have 54 Men & 48 Horses which might be of Service could they be Equ[i]pped.3
I beg your Excellencys directions how I am to provide for this Corps.4 I am with great respect.
LB, NHi: Steuben Papers. With Steuben ceding his command in Virginia to Major General Lafayette, the recipient’s copy may never have reached GW (see Steuben to GW, 5 May, and n.1 to that document).
1. Jean-Baptiste Lomagne, vicomte de Terride (b. 1754), volunteered in a French army regiment from 1769 to 1772. After coming to the United States, Lomagne joined Brig. Gen. Casimir Pulaski’s independent corps as a captain. In April 1778, he became acting major of Colonel Armand’s partisan corps, later legion (see Armand to GW, c.9 Nov. 1778, n.1). When left to command in his absence, Armand found Lomagne unequal to the duty and sought the appointment of a lieutenant colonel for the legion to displace him (see Armand to GW, 11 Jan. 1781; see also GW to Armand, 12 Jan.). Lomagne left the army in September 1781, fought with the French forces in the West Indies during the remainder of the war, and returned to France at the start of the French Revolution. He retired from the French army in 1810 and was still living in 1815.
2. See Steuben to GW, 29 Jan. and 1 February.
3. Armand had received authorization to travel to France to obtain clothing and equipment for his legion (see Samuel Huntington to GW, 27 Jan., and n.3).
4. No reply from GW to Steuben has been found, but see the source note above.