George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 19 June 1781
To Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Head Quarters New Windsor June 19th 1781
sir
I have the Honor of your Excellency’s Letter of the 15th.1 Being fully persuaded of your active Zeal & Wish to join the Army under my Command, I have only to intimate to you my Desire that you will not hurry your Troops by too rapid a March—but suffer them to make such Halts on their Rout, as you shall find convenient & necessary.
By Information received from the Enemy at N. York, It seems they are taking a Position not far from East Chester, where they are markg out an Encampment.2 this Movement I conjecture to be formed with a Design of covering their foraging Parties—which will probably at this Season, be very busily employed.
Inclosed you will find an Extract from a Letter I have this Moment received from Genl Sullivan—the Intelligence it contains is not official; but from some other concurrent Information, I have but too much Reason to fear it is too well founded.3 A Prize was lately taken & carried into Philadelphia, the Captain of which mentions his Sailing from Cork, some Time near the last of March—& that a Fleet like that mentioned in the Extract, with 4000. Troops on Board, bound for the Coasts of America, had sailed from the same Port on the 27th March. If this Intelligence should prove true, the Enemy may give us much Trouble in the Southern Quarter, untill they are seriously opposed in Force, or their Intentions are diverted to some other Object.4 I have the Honor to be with the utmost Respect & Esteem Your Excellency’s—Most Obedient Servant
Go: Washington
LS, in Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.’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. French translations of an enclosed extract accompany the letter-book copy and Rochambeau’s translation (see n.3 below).
1. See Rochambeau to GW, 15 June.
2. See Robert Howe to GW, 18 and 20 June.
3. The extract with intelligence regarding the arrival of British warships and transports in the Chesapeake Bay came from John Sullivan to GW, 11 June (see the source note to that document).
4. The Pennsylvania Packet or, The General Advertiser (Philadelphia) for 12 June reported the arrival on 10 June of a prize brig that carried “a valuable cargo of provisions, &c. on board, and sailed from Cork the 28th of March.
“The captain of the prize says, that a fleet of about 170 transports and victuallers, having on board near 4000 troops, bound to Charlestown, Cheasapeake, and New York, sailed from Cork on the 27th of March.”
British major Frederick Mackenzie, stationed in New York City, reported that the fleet, escorted by two warships and carrying three British regiments and some reinforcements, arrived at Charleston on 2 June. A small number of recruits landed in Virginia and New York (see the entries for 16 and 26 June in , 2:545, 553; see also Lafayette to GW, 18 June, and n.7, and GW to Barras, 27 June).
Rochambeau replied to GW on 23 June.