Lieutenant General Rochambeau to George Washington, 9 June 1781
From Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Newport, June 9th 1781.
Sir,
The Count de Barras has the honor to send to your Excellency the result of a 2d council of war that he has held, at your request. The Council has persisted in his resolution of the 31st ulto and sends you the reasons of it shewn in a manner which I make no doubt, will be agreeable to your Excellency.1
of my corps of Troops, one half imbarks to morrow for Providence and I expect that the other half will soon follow,2 tho’ of the 500. rhode island militia the half be not yet arrived, and according to your Excellency’s orders, which I received yesterday by the Duke de Lauzun I sent only this day to call forth those of Boston.3 The Duke de Lauzun having told me that your Excellency would be satisfied if I set off from Providence on the 20th instant; If I should have intelligence of the arrival of the convoy, three vessels of which separated since three weeks are arrived in different harbours, I think that the recrues,4 and the treasure are well worth the being incorporated with the Army and that a stay of some days at Providence will agree very well with the dispositions of Colonel Wadsworth for the Subsistances, and his furnishing the horses and Waggons.5 however the Time of stay shall be always subordinated to more urgent orders from your Excellency and to all possible events.
My Letter and the extract of our conference at Wethersfield that I sent to the Chr De La Luzerne on the 28th Last were cyphered.6 But my Last and the result of the council of war that I sent to your Excellency by the Duke de Lauzun for the Chr De La Luzerne were not cyphered, because it was sent directly after,7 He has certainly begged of your Excellency, as I had desired of him, to send to him an officer or a sure person, as I desire you would do this.8 I am with respect and personal attachment, Sir, Your Excellency’s most obedient most humble servant
le Cte de Rochambeau
LS, DLC:GW; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 9; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 12. The postscript appears only on the LS, which French officers conveyed (see GW to Rochambeau, 13 June, source note; see also n.8 below).
1. See Proceedings of a Council of War, 8 June, printed as an enclosure with Barras to GW, this date; see also Rochambeau to GW, 31 May, and n.2 to that document, and Barras to GW, same date.
2. Rochambeau prepared to march his army to New York in accordance with campaign plans (see Document III with The Wethersfield Conference and Aftermath, 14 May–16 June, editorial note). In his journal entry for 10 June, Rochambeau’s aide-de-camp Ludwig von Closen recorded that “the First Brigade was embarked and carried the same day to Providence, which is only 30 miles from Newport; the 2nd followed on the 12th, and the two camped near Providence in terrain that was very convenient for water and wood” (, 82).
Rochambeau’s aide-de-camp Hans Axel von Fersen began a letter to his father, Fredrik Axel von Fersen, from Newport on 3 June: “At last we depart; in eight or ten days the army will be on the march. This is the result of the conference between the two generals. What the plan of campaign is and where we are going is a secret, and ought to be one. I hope we shall be in active service, and that they will not make us quit Newport only to put us in garrison in some other little town. Our fleet stays here, guarded by American militia and 400 of our own troops. I pity those who are selected for this detachment. The whole army is enchanted to depart” (, 46–47).
3. Rochambeau refers to Massachusetts. The militia were to aid in the defense of Newport (see Rochambeau to GW, 31 May). For the orders, see GW to Rochambeau, 4 June, and n.5 to that document.
4. This French word translates as recruits.
5. For this expected convoy, see the postscript and n.8 below.
6. See GW to Rochambeau, 3 June; see also Rochambeau to GW, 28 May, postscript.
7. See Rochambeau to GW, 31 May.
8. GW’s aide-de-camp David Humphreys wrote Q.M. Gen. Timothy Pickering from New Windsor on 13 June: “The Count De Rochambeau, has sent on by two different Officers Dispatches of great Moment to the care of Genl Washington, for the Minister at Philadelphia. The Count requested most earnestly they might be sent forward by some very confidential Person. and the General wishes it may be done if possible. The Man employed for this purpose, ought at least to be worthy of very great trust, as the miscarriage of these Letters might be productive of extremely disagreeable consequences. … P.S. The Count was the more particular & pressing in his request, as the Letters are not in Cyphers” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 25772; the docket reads: “Recd same [date] & acted upon”).
9. See Barras to GW, this date, n.5; see also Rochambeau to GW, 15 June, n.1.
10. Rochambeau evidently enclosed a letter to him from Lt. Col. William Ledyard, written from New London, Conn., at 6:00 A.M. on 2 June: “Inclosed is a number of Letters Brought by Capt. Sage from Martinico who arrived here last Evening in a Ship belonging to this place having Nineteen days passage. Imagine these Letters will give your Excellency particular Accounts respecting matters in those parts, particularly if they are of a Late date. Capt. Sages Acct of the two Fleets in the West Indies differ from those sent your Excellency the 29th Ulto which I obtaind’d from Capt. Ledyard who came from Guadaloupe—As Capt. Sage came directly from Martinico suppose his Account of matters may be much more relied upon—Capt. Sage says that when the Fleet first Arrived and went in pursuit of and came up with the Rear of the British Fleet a few Broadsides were exchanged between some of the Ships, but it appeard the British Fleet did not Choose to come to a General Engagement as reported before but steered off to the South West with Crouded Sail—it appears that the French Fleet did not return to Martinico from the pursuit of the British Fleet after their first pursuing them untill the third day, when they Immediately sailed for St Lucie with a large body of Troops which they landed at that Island, and when Capt. Sage left Martinico he understood the French troops had after Landing Obtained a very advantageous Emminence, and it was thought the Island would Surrender soon to the Arms of his most Christian Majesty.
“I have not been able to obtain any further Knowledge of Arbuthnots Fleet since writing Your Excellency the 29th Ulto.
“Capt. Sage on his passage from Martinico here took a Brig from Charles town South Carolina, and brought her in with him, she is Laden with rice, turpentine &c.—A Carolina paper taken in this prize I now Inclose Your Excellency” (DLC:GW). For Ledyard’s letter to Rochambeau dated 29 May, see Rochambeau to GW, 31 May, n.1. The newspaper has not been identified.
Rochambeau also appears to have enclosed a letter that Joseph de Valnais, French consul at Boston, wrote him from that place on 4 June. Valnais included news from the crew of a brigantine just arrived from Martinique that confirmed the arrival at that island of a French fleet and the subsequent landing of a French army on the British-held island of St. Lucia (DLC:GW).