fatigue, and that you are now perfectly well. That successes equal to your merits and wishes may attend you, is the ardent desire of, dear Sir, &c. TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. MY DEAR MArquis, Head-Quarters, 21 April, 1781. Though the situation of southern affairs would not permit me to recall your corps to this army, yet it was with great reluctance I could resolve upon seeing you separated from head-quarters. My friendship for you makes me desirous of having you near me, and there will occur frequent occasions in coöperative measures, in which it would be of the greatest utility I should have it in my power to consult you. These motives would have induced me to propose to you to return personally to head-quarters, had I not believed you would not choose to quit your corps, and had I not foreseen a difficulty in giving you a command in the remaining troops. A select corps you could not have, and there are so many major-generals, who conceive themselves in a manner wedded to the different lines, and who are to be provided for, that it would not be easy at present to accommodate matters to your having a command in the line. But this difficulty might be overcome, and I cannot forbear, late as it is, leaving it at your option to proceed with your corps or return personally to head-quarters. If the last should be your choice, you will give orders to the officer you leave in command to march with all the necessary precaution, and take the orders of Baron Steuben. You will at the same time write to the Baron, communicating to him your instructions, and to General Greene informing him of your return. If you resolve to proceed forward, I shall have one consolation, which is, that from the present aspect of things it is perhaps most probable the weight of the war this campaign will be in the southern States, and it will become my duty to go there in person, where I shall have the pleasure of seeing you again. Of this I would not have you say any thing. April 22d. The reasons assigned in some of your letters, and others which have occurred to me, chiefly of a political nature, assure me that great advantages will be derived from your being wherever the French army and the American head-quarters are. I therefore not only repeat the offer contained in the enclosed letter, but accompany it with a wish, that you may return, if you can consistently with your own inclination relinquish your present command for the prospects I have mentioned; not else, as it always has been and ever will be my wish to make things as agreeable to you as the nature of the service will admit. I cannot recall the detachment for reasons, which in my judgment are conclusive. The accidents to which letters are liable forbid me, unless I could write to you in cipher, to go into a full explanation of some matters, of which you seem not to be well informed, and in which I wish to set you right; but I dare not attempt it in a common letter, nor will there be any necessity for it if you return.* * Lafayette to Washington.—"A letter from you, relating to the delays of the French, makes a great noise at Philadelphia. Indeed, it gives me pain on many political accounts. There are many confidential communications, which you once requested from me, and which my peculiar situation with both sides of the alliance would enable me to make; but having been ordered from you, and many things I had to say not being of a nature, which would render it prudent to commit them to paper, these personal services must be out of the question, so long as the war continues in Carolina."-Susquehanna Ferry, April 15th. I am very sorry, that any letter of mine should be the subject of public discussion, or give the smallest uneasiness to any person living. The letter, to which I presume you allude, was a confidential one from me to Mr. Lund Washington, with whom I have lived in perfect intimacy for nearly twenty years. I can neither avow the letter, as it is published by Rivington, nor declare that it is spurious, because my letter to this gentleman was written in great haste, and no copy of it was taken. All I remember of the matter is, that, at the time of writing it, I was a good deal chagrined to find by your letter of the 15th of March, from Yorktown in Virginia, that the French fleet had not at that time appeared within the Capes of the Chesapeake; and I meant in strict confidence to express my apprehensions and concern for the delay. But as we know that the alteration of a single word does oftentimes pervert the sense, or give a force to the expression, unintended by the letter-writer, I should not be surprised if Rivington, or the inspectors of his gazette, have taken that liberty with the letter in question; especially as he or they have, I am told, published a letter from me to Governor Hancock and his answer, which never had an existence but in the gazette. That the enemy fabricated a number of letters for me formerly is a fact well known; that they are not less capable of doing it now, few will deny. As to his asserting, that this is a genuine copy of the original, he well knows that their friends do not want to convict him of a falsehood, and that ours have not the opportunity of doing it, though both sides know his talents for lying.* * A mail had been intercepted and carried into New York, in which was a private letter, dated March 28th, from General Washington to Lund Washington at Mount Vernon. That letter was printed in Riv The event, which you seem to speak of with regret, my friendship for you would most assuredly have induced me to impart to you in the moment it happened, had it not been for the request of Hwho desired that no mention should be made of it. Why this injunction on me, while he was communicating it himself, is a little extraordinary. But I complied, and religiously fulfilled it.* With every sentiment of affectionate regard, I am, &c. TO THE MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. MY DEAR MArquis, New Windsor, 22 April, 1781. I have received your several letters, and am extremely concerned at the temper of your detachment, and the desertions that are taking place. I imagine however that these would have been nearly as great ington's Royal Gazette, April 4th, and contained the following extract. "It was unfortunate (but this I mention in confidence) that the French fleet and detachment did not undertake the enterprise they are now upon, when I first proposed it to them. The destruction of Arnold's corps would then have been inevitable before the British fleet could have put to sea. Instead of this, the small squadron which took the Romulus and other vessels was sent, and could not, as I foretold, do any thing without a land force at Portsmouth." The same ideas, in nearly the same language, are expressed in the letter to General Schuyler, March 23d, attached to which will be found an explanatory note. * Alluding to a personal difference, that had occurred between Washington and his aid-de-camp Colonel Hamilton. The particulars may be seen in the Life of Hamilton, Vol. I. p. 333. 16 From Lafayette's Letter. Considering the footing I am upon with your Excellency, it would perhaps appear to you strange, that I never mentioned a circumstance, which lately happened in your family. I was the first who knew of it, and from that moment exerted every means in my power to prevent a separation, which I knew was not agreeable to your Excellency. To this measure I was prompted by affection for you; but I thought it was improper to mention any thing about it, until you were pleased to impart it to me.” — April 15th. in any other corps that might have been sent, and, after the Pennsylvania line, I think it would be ineligible to detach any other State line. We find by experience, that they are not only dissipated on the march, but, being at a great distance from their States, are almost entirely neglected. Few recruits are raised for them, and these few are lost on the way. We see how totally the Maryland line has declined, and how little is doing to reestablish it; a line formerly among the most numerous and respectable in the army. Our plan at present appears to me to be to commit the defence of the southern States to the States as far as Pennsylvania inclusive, and to make up by detachment any additional succours, that may be necessary. We must endeavour to compensate these detachments for the loss of State supplies by giving them a larger proportion of Continental. On this principle I am sending to you the articles mentioned in the enclosed list; twelve hundred shirts, twelve hundred linen overalls, twelve hundred pairs of shoes, twelve hundred pairs of socks, and one hundred hunting-shirts, which set out two days ago from this place. I have also urged the Board of War to do their best for you. Colonel Vose shall be relieved. If there is any good officer of an eastern line here desirous of the command, he must have it. I mentioned to you, that I had a warm remonstrance soon after your departure from the Massachusetts line, on the manner of appointing officers for your corps. If there should be no officer of the proper rank desirous of the command, I shall be glad to employ Lieutenant-Colonel Smith. I will see what can be done in the case of Major Galvan. I wish at all events to retain Gimat; but it will be difficult to remove the one without the other. It appears to me extraordinary, that your advices |