1. The letter to Howe about troops on Lloyd Neck, Long Island, has not been identified, but see Benjamin Tallmadge to GW, 19 June, source note, and Howe to GW, 20 June, n.1.

2. Howe enclosed a letter from Martha Mortier to GW written at New York on 15 June: “Mrs Mortier presents her Compliments to Mrs Washington, has been Informd that some Intercepted Letters mention her being Indisposed and that she finds a difficulty in procuring some Necessary Articles for her recovery. Mrs M: has taken the liberty to send her such as this place affords, by means of a flag of truce, which she has procured for that purpose; & begs leave to offer Mrs W: any other Assistance her situation may require” (L, DLC:GW; for GW’s reply, see n.3 below). For GW’s intercepted mail, see GW to Lafayette, 4 June, n.1. The intercepted letters included one from GW to John Parke Custis that mentioned Martha Washington’s ill health (see GW to Custis, 31 May). A list appended with Mortier’s letter itemizes the goods sent from New York under a flag of truce: “1 Box Limons[;] 1 Box Oranges[;] 200 Limes[;] 2 Dozn Capilaire[;] 2 Do Orgeat[;] 4 Boxes Sweetmeats[;] 1 Keg of Tamarinds[;] 2 Dozn Pine Apples[;] 2 lb. Fine Hyson Tea.” Capillaire is a “syrup or infusion of maidenhair fern” (OED description begins James A. H. Murray et al., eds. The Oxford English Dictionary: Being a Corrected Re-Issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. 12 vols. 1933. Reprint. Oxford, England, 1970. description ends ). Orgeat is a “syrup or cooling drink made originally from barley, subsequently from almonds, and orange-flower water” (OED description begins James A. H. Murray et al., eds. The Oxford English Dictionary: Being a Corrected Re-Issue with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. 12 vols. 1933. Reprint. Oxford, England, 1970. description ends ). Sweetmeats refer to sweet food, preserved or candied fruits, or sweet lozenges.

Martha Mortier (d. 1786) was the widow of Abraham Mortier, former deputy paymaster general of the British forces in America. GW occupied the Mortier mansion on Richmond Hill in New York City in spring 1776 (see General Orders, 14 April 1776, source note). The Independent Journal: or, the General Advertiser (New York) for 18 Oct. 1786 printed a death notice: “Lately died at the seat of Goldsborow Banyar, Esq; in Dutchess-County, Mrs. MARTHA MORTIER. … She was a most excellent, much valued, and exemplary gentlewoman, lived to a good old age.”

3. GW replied to Howe from New Windsor on this date: “I am favored with yours of this date, enclosing a Note from Mrs Mortier—to whom a Billet is also forwarded under cover to you, which I request you to transmit to her by the return of the Flag.

“You will have the goodness to suffer nothing at all to be landed from the flag, and to give Orders for the departure of it as soon as may be with convenience; You will be pleased to give directions to have the Officer & Men who came with the flag treated with due attention & civility without being suffered to come on shore, on any account whatever. … P.S. Be pointed in directing that nothing should be landed” (Df, in David Humphreys’s writing, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW).

GW enclosed a letter to Mortier written at headquarters on this date: “General Washington presents his Compliments to Mrs Mortier and thanks her for her very polite attention to Mrs Washington, who has so perfectly recovered, as to be able to set out for Virgina in a day or two—This being the case—General Washington hopes Mrs Mortier will excuse his returning the several articles which she in so kind a manner sent up by a Flag, assuring her at the same time that he shall ever entertain a grateful sense of this mark of her benevolence” (AL, MiU-C: Clinton Papers; Df, DLC:GW). GW’s aide-de-camp Tench Tilghman, who penned the draft, wrote “far” initially, struck out that word, and inserted “perfectly” above the line. Martha Washington left headquarters for Virginia on 25 June (see GW to Timothy Pickering, 24 June, and n.5).