Varick transcript, DLC:GW.

GW’s secretary Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., wrote Q.M. Gen. Timothy Pickering on this date with a request from GW “that the Letters going to Phila. may be dispatched so early that may reach there by Monday night or Tuesday Morng early at farthest—that they may go into the Southern Mail—such as are for that Conveyance” (DNA: RG 93, manuscript file no. 26959; Pickering docketed the letter: “Express went off with the letters at noon the 29th precisely with the requisite orders”).

French war commissary Claude Blanchard wrote in his journal: “On the 29th, I got on horseback to see some barracks which had been occupied by an American regiment during the winter; my purpose was to establish a hospital there. On the road I met General Washington, who was going to review a part of his troops. He recognized me, stopped and invited me to dine with him at three o’clock. I repaired thither; there were twenty-five covers used by some officers of the army and a lady to whom the house belonged in which the general lodged. We dined under the tent. I was placed alongside of the general. One of his aides-de-camp did the honors.

“The table was served in the American style and pretty abundantly: vegetables, roast beef, lamb, chickens, salad dressed with nothing but vinegar, green peas, puddings and some pie, a kind of tart, greatly in use in England and among the Americans, all this being put upon the table at the same time. They gave us on the same plate beef, green peas, lamb, &c. At the end of the dinner the cloth was removed and some Madeira wine was brought, which was passed around, whilst drinking different healths, to the king of France, the French army, etc. I rose when I heard General Washington ask for his horses, because I desired to have a conversation with him and Mr. Coster, the purveyor of our army, who had arrived and spoke French well. We all three left the table; the other officers remained; the lady also withdrew at the same time as we. Our conference being ended, the general proposed to us to return again to the table for a moment, whilst waiting for the time of departure. Again some healths were drunk, among others that of the Count de Grasse; then everyone rose from the table. I have dwelt upon the details of this dinner, because everything that relates to General Washington seems interesting to me.

“I have already described his figure. His physiognomy has something grave and serious; but it is never stern, and, on the contrary, becomes softened by the most gracious and amiable smile. He is affable and converses with his officers familiarly and gaily. I was not sufficiently accustomed to the English language to maintain a connected conversation with him; nevertheless we exchanged some words, for instance, respecting the battle of the Chesapeake, which he considered glorious to our arms. He excused himself respecting the entertainment which he had given me, to which I replied that I found myself in good case in America, better than in Corsica, where I had been for a long time. As to this subject he told me that the English papers announced that the Corsicans were about to revolt and create a diversion against us. I replied that I had no fear of it, that the Corsicans were not dangerous, and that Paoli was not Washington. In the evening I saw him again; he had come to see General Pearson [Parsons], in whose house I was lodging. He invited me to come and dine with him as long as I remained in his quarters” (Balch, Blanchard Journal description begins Thomas Balch, ed. The Journal of Claude Blanchard, Commissary of the French Auxiliary Army Sent to the United States during the American Revolution. 1780–1783. Translated from a French Manuscript, by William Duane. Albany, 1876. description ends , 115–17; see also the general orders for 1 July, source note). Blanchard had described GW’s stature during the latter’s visit to Newport (see GW to Alexander Hamilton, 7 March, source note). For the Battle of Cape Henry on 16 March, see Destouches to GW, 19 March, and the source note to that document.