Lieutenant General Rochambeau to George Washington, 1 July 1781
From Lieutenant General Rochambeau
Ridgebury [Conn.] 1st July. 8. o’clock P.M. 1781
Sir,
In this moment, I have received your Excellency’s Letter of this day in the morning.1 The Duke de Lauzun shall certainly be to morrow at noon at Bedford, ready to receive your orders. I hope to be there myself at the same hour and my 1st Brigade will arrive in the afternoon.2 The 2d Brigade cannot join me at soonest before after to morrow.3 To morrow in the evening, I shall expect at Bedford your Excellency’s orders, as to my marching beyond Bedford as soon as you think proper, either with the first Brigade, or all my corps united if the circumstances allow time enough for it.4 I am with respect and personal attachment Sir, Your Excellency’s Most obedient and humble Servant
le Comte de Rochambeau
Our greatest difficulties are always about our subsistances, but we will endeavour to overcome them, if at Peek’s kill, we can be helped, either by waggons or boats.
LS, DLC:GW; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 9; LB, in French, DLC: Rochambeau Papers, vol. 12.
1. Rochambeau had marched with the first brigade of his army from Newtown, Conn., and arrived at Ridgebury on this date (see Rochambeau to GW, 30 June, and the entry for 1 July in French lieutenant Clermont-Crèvecœur’s journal in , 1:31; see also GW to Rochambeau, this date).
2. In his journal entry for 2 July, Clermont-Crèvecœur described the march of the first brigade and its arrival at Bedford, N.Y.: “The roads were execrable, the day was very long, and the wagons and artillery had a great deal of trouble in reaching their destination. The Lauzun Legion, which up to now had marched on our left, joined us. We occupied an excellent position; our camp was pitched on this side of Bedford, with the grenadiers and chasseurs and the Legion in front. We had, besides, 160 American dragoons … who are incontestably the best troops on the continent. … We can consider that this moment marked the opening of our campaign.
“We learned on arrival in Bedford that the previous evening an English patrol had burned several houses just outside the village, which had already suffered much damage and, in fact, hardly had any houses left standing” (, 1:31–32).
3. French captain Berthier described the march of the second brigade in his journal entry for 2 July: “The Second Brigade left Newtown and marched 15 miles to Ridgebury, where it arrived at eleven o’clock. It was preceded on its march to the camp by an advance detachment of grenadiers and chasseurs. I was ordered to lead them and to choose a good position for them a mile ahead of the brigade on the road to New York, where they camped after stationing sentries at all points leading in from enemy territory” (, 1:248).