George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 3 June 1781
To Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Head Quarters New Windsor June 3d 1781
Sir
I am sorry to inform you that one of our Messengers has been taken between this place and Morris-Town—Among other Dispatches he had that which your Excellency enclosed in yours of the 28th of May for the Minister of France—The Enemy can gain no material information from my Letters, and I shall be happy to hear that they will be disappointed in yours.1
By Letters of the 24th of May from the Marquis de la Fayette, Lord Cornwallis had formed a junction with General Arnold at Petersburg—and as a number of Transports with Troops had arrived in Hampton Road, I take it for granted they were the same which sailed from New York the 13th of May.2 With the most perfect respect I have the honor to be Sir Your Excellency’s Most Obedient Humble Servant
Go: Washington
LS, in David Humphreys’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. See GW to Lafayette, 4 June, n.1. Rochambeau’s letter to French minister La Luzerne was written in cipher (see Rochambeau to GW, 9 June).
2. GW surmised accurately (see Lafayette’s first letter to GW, 24 May, and n.3).