George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 4 July 1781

To Lieutenant General Rochambeau

Camp near White plains [N.Y.] 4th July 1781.

Sir

A few Minutes after my arrival upon this Ground, I received Your Excellency’s favor of this morning.1 Were I to give way to the anxiety I feel to see the Union between your Army and that of mine, I should request you to march tomorrow morning from North Castle, but when I consider the fatigue which your troops have undergone from their long and rapid marches, at this very hot season, I am much inclined to wish you to give them one more day’s rest in your present quarters, and the more so, as there is now no real occasion for making an uncommon degree of haste. I shall however leave the matter intirely to your Excellency’s determination, only wishing you to give me notice of your approach, that I may have the happiness of meeting and conducting you to your Camp which will be about four Miles on this side the Village of White plains.2 With perfect consideration and Esteem I have the honor to be Your Excellency’s Most obt Servt

Go: Washington

LS, in Tench Tilghman’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, this date.

2. Rochambeau’s aide-de-camp Cromot du Bourg wrote in his diary entry for 5 July: “General Washington came to see M. de Rochambeau. Notified of his approach, we mounted our horses and went out to meet him. He received us with the affability which is natural to him and depicted on his countenance. He is a very fine looking man, but did not surprise me as much as I expected from the descriptions I had heard of him. His physiognomy is noble in the highest degree, and his manners are those of one perfectly accustomed to society, quite a rare thing certainly in America. He paid a visit to our camp, dined with us, and later we escorted him several miles on his return and took leave of him” (Cromot du Bourg, “Diary,” description begins [Marie François Joseph Maxime, Baron Cromot du Bourg]. “Diary of a French Officer, 1781.” Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries 4 (1880): 205–14, 293–308, 376–85, 441–52; 7 (1881): 283–95. description ends 4:296). GW inspected the French troops during the five hours he spent with Rochambeau (see the entries for 5 July in the journals of French lieutenant Clermont-Crèvecœur and French captain Berthier, in Rice and Brown, American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., and Anne S. K. Brown, eds. The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J., 1972. description ends , 1:32, 249).

The French army joined GW’s army near White Plains on 6 July (see Berthier’s journal entry for that date in Rice and Brown, American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., and Anne S. K. Brown, eds. The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J., 1972. description ends , 1:249, and the entry for the same date in Closen, Journal description begins Evelyn M. Acomb, ed. The Revolutionary Journal of Baron Ludwig von Closen, 1780–1783. Chapel Hill, N.C., 1958. description ends , 90–91; see also maps 40–41 in Rice and Brown, American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army description begins Howard C. Rice, Jr., and Anne S. K. Brown, eds. The American Campaigns of Rochambeau’s Army, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783. 2 vols. Princeton, N.J., 1972. description ends , 2:235–36).

Index Entries

You Are Looking At

Source Project: Washington Papers
Title: George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 4 July 1781
Author: Washington, George
Recipient: Rochambeau, Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de
Date: 4 July 1781

Reference

Cite as: “George Washington to Lieutenant General Rochambeau, 4 July 1781,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-32-02-0533. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 32, 6 May–4 July 1781, ed. William M. Ferraro. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2023, pp. 682–683.]

More between these correspondents