George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 2 June 1781
To Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Head Quarters New Windsor 2d June 1781.
Sir
I am honored with your Excellency’s favor of the 28th ulto. I flatter myself1 The Count de Barras will meet with no interruption upon his passage,2 as I have reason to think the British Fleet are off the Hook.3
I have deferred writing to Your Excellency, in hopes that I should have been able to have learnt, with certainty, whether there was any thing in the report which General St Clair forwarded to me at Weathersfeild, of a further embarkation of Troops and an intention to evacuate New York. By the best information which I have received, I do not find that either is in agitation.4 A Fleet of Merchantmen will shortly sail for Europe.5
When at Weathersfeild, I gave your Excellency a sketch of what force I imagined we should be able to bring into the feild this Campaign. As my calculation was founded upon probability and not upon any assurances from the States that they would furnish the Men, I beg your Excellency will not consider that Estimate as official or6 definitive.7
Your dispatches for His Excellency the Minister were immediately forwarded.
The opportunity for the entrance of the expected Convoy is so favorable, that I think there is little danger to be apprehended upon this Coast.
General Greene, by letters from him of the 27th of April, was still before Campden in south Carolina. Lord Rawdon had, on the 25th made a vigorous sally with his whole force, in which he only succeeded so far as to oblige General Greene to remove a Mile or two—Our loss on the occasion was 17 killed and 96 wounded. The Enemy confess their loss about 200.8 We took and brought off about 50 prisoners.
General Marian and Colo. Lee had reduced one of the enemy’s posts of communication call’d Fort Watson, in which they took 109 prisoners.9 If Lord Cornwallis does not march to the releif of his Frontier posts in South Carolina, more of them will probably fall.10
The enemy remained at Petersburgh in Virginia on the 18th of last month.11 The Marquis de la Fayette with his detachment lay near them watching their motions.12 I have the honor to be with the highest Esteem Your Excellency’s Most obedt and humble 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. 12; Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. Tilghman, who also penned the draft, initially wrote “am in hopes.” He then struck out those words and wrote “flatter myself” above the line.
2. See Rochambeau to GW, 28 May, and n.1 to that document.
3. See David Forman to GW, 29 May.
4. The report was false (see Arthur St. Clair to GW, 21 May, and n.2 to that document; see also Benjamin Tallmadge to GW, 29 May, n.1, and the entry for 31 May in , 3:374–75).
5. The merchantmen sailed on 14 June (see the entry for that date in , 2:544–45, and the entry for 15 June in , 2:120).
6. GW wrote the preceding three words on the draft.
8. See GW to Nathanael Greene, 1 June, and n.2 to that document.
9. For Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s report on the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill and the capture of Fort Watson in South Carolina, see Greene to Samuel Huntington, 27 April, and notes 5–8 to that document, printed as an enclosure with Greene to GW, that date. GW reported to Rochambeau only the killed and wounded among the Continental infantry’s rank and file. According to Greene’s report, total combined losses for the Continental infantry and the militia, excluding officers, were 18 killed, 103 wounded, and 135 missing.
10. British lieutenant general Charles Cornwallis marched his army into Virginia (see Lafayette’s first letter to GW, 24 May).
11. In the place of the preceding five words, Rochambeau’s translation reads “le dix du mois dernier.”
12. See Lafayette to GW, 18 May.