George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 24 June 1781
To Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Head Quarters New Windsor 24th June 1781
Sir
I do myself the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s letter of the 20th Instant, from which I have the pleasure to observe the progress you make in the March of the Army under your Command, and your intention to come on to my Camp in Person from Hartford1—Be assured Sir I shall be very happy to see you whenever you arrive; you do not mention the route by which you shall come on, you will find me at Peckskill.2
In mine of the 19th instant directed to your Excellency I informed you of the intelligence I had received of the arrival of a large reinforcement from England at Chesapeak Bay—I have very good reason now to believe that information not to have been well founded having since received Letters from Congress and others of much later date in which nothing of this kind has been mentioned.3
My intelligence from the southward is too vague and uncertain to communicate to your Excellency—By the time of your arrival I hope to be able to give you some certain information of our situations in that Quarter.4 I have the honor to be with the highest Esteem & Consideration Sir Your Excellency’s most obedient and Humble Servant
Go: Washington
LS, in Peregrine Fitzhugh’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 Rochambeau to GW, 20 June. For the march of the French army, see Rochambeau to GW, 15 June, n.2.
2. GW’s secretary Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., who penned the draft, wrote and struck out at this point: “to which place it may be most convenient for you to arrive by the Way of Danbury.” GW’s army had moved to Peekskill (see General Orders, 18 and 19 June).
3. See GW to Rochambeau, 19 June, and notes 3–4, and to Barras, this date; see also GW to Barras, 27 June, n.1, and to Rochambeau, same date. GW’s latest letters from Samuel Huntington, president of Congress, were dated 15, 20, and 21 June.
4. GW met Rochambeau on 5 July (see GW to Rochambeau, 4 July, n.2).