George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Saint-Jean, 24 June 1789

From Saint-Jean

à Bordeaux le 24 juin 1789

Monseigneur

permettes moi de profiter des bontés de Monsieur le colonel eustace1 pour vous demander une faveur à la quelle j’attache infiniment de prix: c’est l’honnorable croix de cincinnatus à la quelle mes Services à la nouvelle angleterre pendant le Siege de Savannah et principalement pendant celui d’york town me donnent quelques titres. il est possible Monseigneur que vous vous rappellies du chev. de Saint jean officier de la marine que Mr le Comte de grasse vous envoia pendant le Siege d’york pour former un établissement d’hopitaux à hampton pour mettre Son armée navale en état de vous être utile.2 vous voulutes bien faire disparaître les difficultés que j’éprouvais de la part des habitans d’hampton. par les effets de la protection que vous voulutes bien m’accorder les habitans de cette ville consentirent à me recevoir avec les malades nombreux de l’armée navale. mes Soins envers eux furent non Seulement heureux, mais l’ordre que je Sçus maintenir parmi ces équipages dont le nombre ⟨mutilated⟩ avait effrayé les habitants de hampton, inspira asses de reconnaissance à ces citoyens là qu’ils voulurent bien vous députer quelques uns des plus considérables d’entr’eux pour vous faire connaître les bons Services que je leur avais rendu.

voila mon titre des réclamations monseigneur, pour prendre la liberté de Solliciter auprès de vous l’honneur de porter la croix de cincinnatus. la disgrace de Mr le comte de grasse mon protecteur et mon ami, Sa mort ensuite, m’ont empeché de Suivre les moyens d’obtennir une grace honnorable que j’ai toujours desirée. de fréquents commandements de frégates dans des pays éloignés, m’ont également arrettés dans cette poursuite. je l’ai faite Solliciter en dernier lieu auprès de Mr le comte d’estaing, par Mr le chev. d’albert de Rioms qui commandait le vaisseau le pluton à chesapeak Sous vos yeux.3 Mr le comte d’estaing ne lui a pas répondu.

l’offre obligeante que veut bien me faire Mr le colonnel eustace—de vous faire parvennir ma priere, en l’appuyant de Ses bons Services auprès de vous Monseigneur, me fait encore tenter ce moyen. je desire ardenment que vous acceuillies ma priere avec bonté. j’ajouterai alors le Sentiment de la reconnaissance à celui de la respectueuse admiration que je partage avec les deux continents pour vos vertus et pour vos talents. je Suis avec Respect Monseigneur votre très humble et tres obeissant Serviteur

Le chev. de Saint jean
Major des vaisseaux du Roy.
de france

ALS, DNA:PCC, item 78.

Saint-Jean had served as lieutenant de vaisseau aboard La Ville-de-Paris, Admiral de Grasse’s flagship, during the Yorktown campaign.

1John Skey Eustace (1760–1805) was a youthful aide-de-camp and protégé of Maj. Gen. Charles Lee from 1776 until 1777 when, after a stormy break with Lee, he became aide to John Sullivan. From 1779 until his resignation from the army in 1780 he served as aide to Nathanael Greene, ending his service with the rank of major. In the early 1780s Eustace settled briefly in Georgia where he held the post of colonel and adjutant general of the Georgia militia. In the mid–1780s he spent some time in Venezuela and, probably with the encouragement of his friend Francisco de Miranda, went to Spain to complain to the Spanish court of abuses he had suffered at the hands of colonial officials. By 1789 he was living in Bordeaux, forming plans for the establishment of a snuff factory and concocting, without authorization from the United States government, a scheme for the redemption of American seamen held captive in Algiers (see Mathew Irwin to GW, 9 July 1789, and Eustace to John Jay, 15 July 1789, DNA: RG 59, Miscellaneous Letters). Eustace wrote to GW from Bordeaux on 24 July 1789 forwarding Saint-Jean’s letter. Knowing that Eustace planned to return soon to the United States, Saint-Jean had given him his letter to GW and left Bordeaux, but Eustace soon changed his mind about leaving France. Skilled at ingratiating himself with officials both in Bordeaux and in Paris, Eustace succeeded in securing a colonel’s commission in the French army. For over a year he served actively and with some distinction with the French forces until, quarreling with his military colleagues, he returned to Paris where he took up the study of ancient and modern languages, wrote a number of pamphlets, became involved in the movement to create a Dutch republic, and grew steadily more eccentric. He was ordered out of France in 1797 and returned to the United States in 1798 (Lee, “John Skey Eustace and the French Revolution,” 29–43).

2During the Yorktown campaign in September and October 1781 both the French army under Rochambeau and the fleet under Admiral de Grasse were decimated by illness. De Grasse requested that GW arrange for “an establishment in Hampton for the squadron’s sick, who number 1,500 to 1,800 men. The squadron will furnish medicine, flour, bakers, and surgeons, but houses and beds of some kind will be needed, as well as a contractor who at an agreed price in hard cash will provide the sick with meat, vegetables, and dairy products” (“Observations by the Comte de Grasse during his Conference with the Marquis de Lafayette,” c.26 Sept. 1781, in Idzerda and Crout, Lafayette Papers, description begins Stanley J. Idzerda et al., eds. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776–1790. 5 vols. Ithaca, N.Y., 1977-83. description ends 4:405–7). A hospital, operating under French administration, was established in the Elizabeth City County courthouse at Hampton, Va. (see 10 Hening description begins William Waller Hening, ed. The Statutes at Large; Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia, from the First Session of the Legislature, in the Year 1619. 13 vols. 1819–23. Reprint. Charlottesville, Va., 1969. description ends 495; Calendar of Virginia State Papers, description begins William P. Palmer et al., eds. Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts. 11 vols. Richmond, 1875–93. description ends 2:535).

3François-Hector d’Albert, comte de Rions (1728–1802), who had served in the French navy since 1743, took part in French naval operations in the West Indies and at Yorktown during the American Revolution. In 1781 and 1782 he commanded the Pluton in de Grasse’s squadron and from 1785 to 1789 was naval commander at Toulon.

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