Brigadier General John Glover to George Washington, 31 May 1781
From Brigadier General John Glover
Marblehead [Mass.] 31 May 1781
Dear Sir
I had the Honor to recive your Excellencys Letter of the 9th instant, but not till this day.1 I have for Six weeks past been Confined to my house with a Slow fever, a part of the Time to my bead Dureing which, had no expectations, of being able to Joine the Army this Campaign; but Thank God am now Geting better; your Excellency may be Assuerd, I Shall Set off, for Camp as Soon as I find myself able, to Prosecute the Journey.2
By a Ship which arrived3 two days Ago; we have the agreeable intilligence, That a fleet of Twenty two Saile of the Line & 200 Transports were arrived at Martineco, from france, and that ten days before they arrived, they parted with foure Saile of the Line, a number of transports 6000 Troops, on board; bound for Newport.4 I have The Honor to be Dea[r] Sir Your Excellencys Most Obdt Hbl. Sert
Jno. Glover
ALS, DLC:GW; ADfS, PHi: Etting Collection. GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys docketed the LS: “An Ansr Only.”
1. See GW to Glover, 9 May.
2. Glover evidently reached camp before the end of June (see General Orders, 1 July; see also , 185).
3. The draft reads “at Newbury Port” following this word.
4. This intelligence was partly erroneous. For Lieutenant General de Grasse’s fleet, see Barras to GW, this date, and n.1 to that document. Five ships of the line separated from de Grasse’s fleet and were bound for the East Indies (see Chastellux to GW, 12 May, and n.7). A convoy under escort of a French warship arrived at Boston in early June (see Barras to GW, 9 June, n.5).
The Connecticut Journal (New Haven) for 7 June published an extract from a letter written at Newburyport, Mass., on 29 May: “Yesterday arrived here the ship General Titcomb, Capt. Pearson, in 14 days from Gaudaloupe. The Capt. informs, that 5 days before he sail’d, 25 ships of the line (all French and very heavy) besides frigates and a large convoy of transports and merchantmen, arrived in those seas.” The Connecticut Gazette; and the Universal Intelligencer (New London) for 1 June reported “accounts that a fleet of 24 sail of the line, with about 240 sail transports and merchantmen, and 10,000 troops, arrived at Fort Royal, Martinico, the 29th of April. … The French fleet was commanded by Count de Grace, the second in command was M. La Motte Piquet.” The report included “advice that a fleet of 6 sail of the line, and about 6,000 troops, under the command of M. de la Touche Traville, parted with this fleet in the latitude of the islands, bound to these states.”