Your friendly letter of the 18th of April affords me peculiar satisfaction. If my conduct meets your approbation it will console me amidst the hissing murmurs of ten thousand of the ignorant rabble.1 The honor you did me in the appointment is an additional motive to exert my self to the satisfaction of the public.2 My public letters will inform your Excellency of the situation of things here.3 Our Movements Southward have been attended with great advantage as a stay to the hopes and expectations of North Carolinia and Virginia. For if this Army had moved Northerly Virginia would have been considerd as a frontier State and her prospects must have been much more gloomy and her exertions of consequence much less. My fears for the Marquis are all alive, tho I have left him all the force coming to the Southward. I am in a distressed situation my self, but am afraid to call for any aid from the Northward. If the enemy continues to reinforce the Southern Army on their part, and we receive little or none on our side, our ruin is inevitable. I shall keep the peoples hopes alive all in my power; but what can I do without men?

I am greatly oblige[d] to you for the trouble you give your self on forwarding my letters to Mrs Greene. I must increase the obligation by soliciting a continuance. I hope Mrs Washington is with you as her situation at home in the present confusion of Virginia would be rather disagreeable.4 Please to present my respectful compliments to her and to the Gentlemen of your family. Most respectfully yours