The Forgotten Years, 1778–1780
1. GW to Benjamin Harrison, Dec. 18 [–30], 1778, WW, 13:462–68.
2. H. Laurens to GW, July 11, 1778, ibid., 12:174n; GW to Sullivan, July 17, 22, and 27, 1778, ibid., 12:184, 201, 237; GW to Lafayette, July 22, 1778, ibid., 12:203; Paul F. Dearden, The Rhode Island Campaign of 1778: Inauspicious Dawn of Alliance (Providence, R.I. 1980), 38–39.
3. GW to Heath, Aug. 28, 1778, WW, 12:364–65; Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:587–93; Dearden, Rhode Island Campaign, 105, 107–108.
4. Willcox, Clinton, 249–54; GW to d’Estaing, Sept. 11, 1778, WW, 12:425–28; GW to John Augustine Washington, Oct. 26, 1778, ibid., 13:156.
5. Henry Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South (Columbia, S.C., 1981), 27–29; Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:679–84.
6. Lumpkin, From Savannah to Yorktown, 29–40; Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:688–94.
7. GW to Lafayette, Oct. 20, 1779, WW, 16:492; GW to Gov. Clinton, Oct. 1, 1779, ibid., 16:377.
8. Nelson, Gates, 189, 197–205; JCC, 12:1042–48.
9. GW to PC, Nov. 11, 1778, WW, 13:223–44; GW to H. Laurens, Nov. 14, 1778, ibid., 13:254–57; JCC, 13:11–13.
10. Gustave Lanctot, Canada and the American Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., 1967), 176, 184–85; Nathaniel Peabody to Nathaniel Folsom, June 14, 1780, Burnett, Letters of Members, 5:216; Richard Howley to Gates, June 13, 1781, ibid., 6:119; Lovell to Gates, Apr. 5, 1779, ibid., 4:142. Also see GW to Jay, Apr. 14, 1779, WW, 14:378–88.
11. GW to Comm. of Conf., Jan. 8 and 13, 1779, WW, 13:485–91; 14:3–12; GW to Stirling, Jan. 1, 1779, ibid., 13:474.
12. GW to Comm. of Conf., Jan. 13, 1779, ibid., 14:4–12; GW to Jay, Aug. 16 and Sept. 7, 1779, ibid., 16:115, 247.
13. GW to Minister Gerard, May 1, 1779, ibid., 14:470–73; GW to G. Morris, May 8, 1779, ibid., 15:24–25.
14. Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:638; GW to Bd. of War, Aug. 3, 1778, WW, 12:261–66; GW, Remarks to the Comm. of Conference, Jan. [?], 1779, WPPV.
15. Gates to GW, Mar. 16, 1779, Gates Papers, reel 9, no. 63; GW to Armstrong, May 18, 1779, WW, 15:47; GW to Jay, Apr. 14, 1779, ibid., 14:384; GW to Sullivan, Mar. 6, 1779, ibid., 14:201; GW to Comm. of Cong., Jan. 13, 1779, ibid., 14:9; GW to PC, Aug. 13, 1779, ibid., 15:107.
16. GW to Sullivan, May 4 and 31, 1779, WW, 14:492–93; 15:189–93; GW to Schuyler, Dec. 18, 1778, ibid., 13:430.
17. Smith, A New Age, 2:1172.
18. R.W.G. Vail, The Revolutionary Diary of Lieut. Obadiah Gore, Jr. (New York, 1929), 29, 31; Alfred Hazen Wright, comp., The Sullivan Expedition of 1779; Contemporary Newspaper Comment and Letters, Studies in History, nos. 5–8 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1943), 6:11, 15; 7:28; Howard Peckham and Lloyd A. Brown, eds., Revolutionary War Journals of Henry Dearborn, 1775–1783 (Chicago, 1939), 172–90; Barbara Graymont, The Iroquois in the American Revolution (Syracuse, N.Y., 1972), 123, 196, 231–32; Whittemore, Sullivan, 132–52; Smith, A New Age, 2:1173–77.
19. GW to Schuyler, June 9, 1779, WW, 15:243; GW to PC, June 11, 1779, ibid., 15:261–62; Willcox, Clinton, 275–76.
20. GW to Gates, June 11, 1779, WW, 15:260; GW to Wayne, July 10, 1779, ibid., 15:396–99.
21. Wayne to GW, July 16, 1779, ibid., 15:427n; Nelson, Wayne, 97–100.
22. Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:596–603; GW to PC, July 21, 1779, WW, 15:449; GW to Gates, July 25, 1779, ibid., 15:477–78; GW to Lund Washington, May 29, 1779, ibid., 15:180.
23. Royster, Light-Horse Harry, Lee 20–21, 25; GW to Stirling, Aug. 28, 1779, WW, 16:190–91.
24. GW to Lee, Sept. 10, 1779, WW, 16:73; GW to PC, Aug. 23, 1779, ibid., 16:155.
25. GW to Reed, Aug. 22, 1779, ibid., 16:150–52; GW to Heath, Aug. 21, 1779, ibid., 16:144; Gen. Orders, Sept. 11 and Oct. 8, 1779, ibid., 16:265, 433; GW to Gordon, Aug. 2, 1779, ibid., 16:38.
26. GW to Heath, Aug. 21, 1779, ibid., 16:144; Willcox, Clinton, 279; Freeman, GW, 5:137.
27. Freeman, GW, 5:88–89, 95; Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army, 293–303.
28. GW to Harrison, Oct. 25, 1779, WW, 17:20–21; GW to Pendleton, Nov. 1, 1779, ibid., 17:52.
29. GW to Harrison, Oct. 25, 1779, ibid., 17:20–21; GW to Bd. of War, Oct. 2, 1779, ibid., 17:389; GW to Magistrates of New Jersey, Jan. 8, 1780, ibid., 17:362–63; Scheer, Private Yankee Doodle, 166, 172; Thayer, Greene, 268, 270; Risch, Supplying GW’s Army, 228, 305; Ives, GW’s HQs, 204–08; Acct. Bk., GWP ser. 5, reel 117.
30. Greene to Reed, May 10, 1780, Reed, Reed, 2:191; GW to PC, Oct. 4, 1779, and Mar. 26, 1780, WW, 16:406; 17:152n; GW to Pres. Jeremiah Powell, ND [Nov. 22, 1779?], ibid., 17:161n; GW to Bd. of War, Oct. 2, 1779, ibid., 16:389–90; GW to Sullivan, Nov. 20, 1780, ibid., 20:371–72; GW to Lafayette, Mar. 18, 1780, ibid., 28:125; GW to R. Morris, Mar. 2, 1777, ibid., 7:225; Carp, To Starve an Army, 171–72; Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army, 228, 306–307; Thayer, Greene, 268, 273.
31. GW to Govs. Trumbull, Clinton, and Livingston, Sept. 27, 1779, WW, 16:344–45; GW to Govs. Trumbull and Clinton, Nov. 16, 1779, ibid., 16:107–10.
32. GW to Joseph Jones, May 31, 1780, ibid., 18:453; Richard H. Kohn, “American Generals of the Revolution: Subordination and Restraint,” in Don Higginbotham, ed., Reconsiderations of the Revolutionary War: Selected Essays (Westport, Conn., 1978), 110, 116.
33. Risch, Supplying Washington’s Army, 229–32; GW to PC, May 27, 1780, WW, 18:428–29; GW to Reed, May 28, 1780, ibid., 18:434–35.
34. Freeman, GW, 5:167.
35. Willcox, Clinton, 295–99.
36. Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:695–703; Lumpkin, Savannah to Yorktown, 41–50; Clifford K. Shipton, “Benjamin Lincoln: Old Reliable,” in Billias, GW’s Generals.
37. Higginbotham, War of American Independence, 357.
38. Nelson, Gates, 216–18, 224–36; Higginbotham, War of American Independence, 359–60; Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:723–30.
39. Nelson, Gates, 239, 242; GW to Greene, Oct. 22, 1780, WW, 20:238–40.
40. GW to Reed, June 19 and 25, 1780, WW, 19:32, 70–71; GW to PC, July 10 and 15, 1780, ibid., 19:150, 181; GW to Fielding Lewis, May 5 [–July 6], 1780, ibid., 19:129–34; GW to John Augustine Washington, June 6 [–July 6], 1780, ibid., 19:135–37; GW to Col. Brodhead, July 4, 1780, ibid., 19:120.
41. GW to Bd. of War, July 18, 1780, ibid., 19:206–207; GW to Pres. Weare, June 30, 1780, ibid., 19:106.
42. Lee Kennett, The French Forces in America, 1780–1783 (Westport, Conn., 1977), 36–37, 13; GW to Heath, May 15, 1780, WW, 19:361; GW to Gov. Rutledge, May 16, 1780, ibid., 19:375–76; GW to Lafayette, May 16, 1780, ibid., 19:370.
43. Kennett, French Forces, 12–14, 29–31; Freeman, GW, 5:n.p. (between pp. 275–76).
44. Kennett, French Forces, 48–49; GW to Howe, July 27, 1780, WW, 19:271; 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), 1:18, 120.
45. GW, “Memorandum,” July 15, 1780, WW, 19:174–76; Kennett, French Forces, 48–56; Mackesy, War for America, 350.
46. Kennett, French Forces, 51–52.
47. GW to Samuel Washington, Aug. 31, 1780, WW, 19:481–82; GW to Reed, July 27, Aug. 20, and 26, 1780, ibid., 19:263, 399, 442; GW to Lafayette, Aug. 3, 1780, ibid., 19:314; GW to Comm. of Cooperation, Aug. 17, 1780, ibid., 19:391; GW to PC, Aug. 20 and 28, 1780, ibid., 19: 405, 462.
48. GW to Chevalier de Bouchet, Oct. 1780, ibid., 20:275; Gen. Orders, June 18, 1780, ibid., 19:21–22.
49. “Conf. at Hartford,” Sept. 22, 1780, ibid., 20:76–81; GW to Duane, Oct. 4, 1780, ibid., 20:118; GW to Cadwalader, Oct. 5, 1780, ibid., 20:122.
50. GW to Reed, Oct. 18, 1780, ibid., 20:213–15.
51. Gen. Orders, Aug. 1 and 3, 1780, ibid., 19:302, 313; GW to Arnold, Aug. 3, 1780, ibid., 19:309–310.
52. Wallace, Traitorous Hero, 160–259.
53. Smith, A New Age, 2:1584; Freeman, GW, 5:202–203; GW to Bd. of War, Oct. 25, 1780, WW, 20:170–71; GW to PC, Sept. 26, 1780,
ibid., 20:91–93.
54. GW to Greene, Sept. 25, 1780, WW, 20:84.
55. GW to Gen. Clinton, Sept. 30, 1780, ibid., 20:103–104.
56. Gen. Orders, Sept. 26, 1780, ibid., 20:95; GW to H. Laurens, Oct. 13, 1780, ibid., 20:173; GW to Rochambeau, Sept. 27, 1780, ibid., 20:97; GW to Cadwalader, Oct. 5, 1780, ibid., 20:123; GW to J. Laurens, Apr. 9, 1781, ibid., 21:438; Royster, Light Horse Harry Lee, 20; Charles Royster, “‘The Nature of Treason’: Revolutionary Virtue and American Reactions to Benedict Arnold,” WMQ, 3d. Ser., 36, (1979), 163–93.
57. Martin and Lender, A Respectable Army, 150–52; Royster, A Revolutionary People, 333.
58. GW to Duane, Oct. 4, 1780, WW, 20:117–18; GW to PC, Aug. 20 and Oct. 11, 1780, ibid., 19:408; 20:157–67; GW, “Circular to the States,” Oct. 18, 1780, ibid., 20:204–12; JCC, 18:839, 844.
59. GW to Duane, Oct. 4 and Dec. 26, 1780, WW, 20:118; 21:14–15; GW to Trumbull, Dec. 19, 1780, ibid., 20:495; GW to Capt. Buchanan, Dec. 19, 1780, ibid., 20:498.
60. GW to PC, Dec. 22, 1780, ibid., 21:1; GW to Col. Shreve, Dec. 29, 1780, ibid., 21:35; GW to Pickering, Dec. 29, 1780, and Jan. 25, 1781, ibid., 21:36, 141; “Circular to the N. Eng. States,” Jan. 5, 1781, ibid., 21:62; Kennett, French Army, 80.
61. GW to Wayne, Jan. 3–9, 1781, WW, 21:55–58; “Circular to the N. Eng. States,” Jan. 5, 1781, ibid., 21:61; GW to PC, Jan. 6, 1781, ibid., 21:65.
62. On the mutiny, see: Carl Van Doren, Mutiny in January (New York, 1943); Hugh F. Rankin, “Anthony Wayne: Military Romanticist,” Billias, GW’s Generals, 277–80; Smith, A New Age, 2:1600–23; James Kirby Martin, “A ‘Most Undisciplined, Profligate Crew’: Protest and Defiance in the Continental Ranks, 1776–1783,” in Hoffman and Albert, Arms and Independence, 119–40; Nelson, Wayne, 115–31.
63. GW to Howe, Jan. 22, 1781, WW, 21:128–29.
64. GW to Greene, Feb. 2, 1781, ibid., 21:172.
65. Gen. Orders, Jan. 30, 1781, ibid., 21:159; GW to PC, Aug. 20, 1780, ibid., 19:406–407; GW to Jackie Custis, Feb. 28, 1781, ibid., 21:319–20; Mackesy, War for America, 385.
12
Victory and Retirement
1. GW to J. Laurens, Jan. 15, 1781, WW, 21:105–10.
2. Ibid., 21:108–109.
3. Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:867–69.
4. GW to Rochambeau, Jan. 29 and Feb. 7, 1781, WW, 21:152, 197–98; GW to Jefferson, Feb. 6, 1781, ibid., 21:191–92. See Ira D. Gruber, “British Strategy: The Theory and Practice of Eighteenth-Century Warfare,” in Higginbotham, Reconsiderations, 28–30.
5. Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:751–62; Don Higginbotham, “Daniel Morgan: Guerrilla Fighter,” in Billias, GW’s Generals, 304–10.
6. GW to Rochambeau, Feb. 14, 15, and 19, 1781, WW, 21:225, 229–32, 247; GW to Destouches, Feb. 22, 1781, ibid., 21:278.
7. GW to Lafayette, Feb. 20 and Mar. 1, 1781, ibid., 21:253–56, 322–23; Freeman, GW, 5:262–63.
8. GW to Armstrong, Mar. 26, 1781, WW, 21:378.
9. GW to Greene, Mar. 21, 1781, ibid., 21:346; GW to Schuyler, Mar. 23, 1781, ibid., 21:361; GW to Jones, Mar. 24, 1781, ibid., 21:378; GW to Lafayette, Apr. 5, 1781, ibid., 21:419.
10. Kennett, French Forces, 98–101; GW to Lafayette, Apr. 5, 1781, WW, 21:419; Freeman, GW, 5:279.
11. Don Higginbotham, “Reflections on the War of Independence, Modern Guerrilla Warfare, and the War in Vietnam,” in Hoffman and Albert, Arms and Independence, 21–24.
12. Wickwire, Cornwallis, 274–311; Thayer, Greene, 307–31.
13. GW to Rochambeau, Apr. 3 and June 7, 1781, WW, 21:403; 22:171. On the dearth of provisions in the Carolinas, see: Intelligence Report to GW, Sept. [?], 1780, WPPV.
14. “Conference . . . ,” May 23, 1781, WW, 22:105–107; Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774–1787 (Princeton, N.J., 1975), 239. On Washington’s postwar statements, see: GW to Noah Webster, July 31, 1788, WW, 30:26–27.
15. GW to Laurens, Jan. 15, 1781, WW, 21:105–10; GW to Jones, June 7, 1781, ibid., 22:179; GW to Luzerne, May 23, 1781, ibid., 22:103–104; “Conf.,” May 23, 1781, ibid., 22:107; GW to Reed, May 27, 1781, ibid., 22:117–18; GW to Lafayette, May 31, 1781, ibid., 22:143.
16. GW to PC, May 27, 1781, ibid., 22:119.
17. GW to Rochambeau, June 4, 19, and 30, 1781, ibid., 22:157, 234, 293.
18. GW to PC, June 6 and July 6, 1781, ibid., 22:168, 329–31; Freeman, GW, 5:297–99; Kennett, French Forces, 107, 115–17.
19. GW to Rochambeau, June 13, 1781, WW, 22:208; GW to de Grasse, July 21, 1781, ibid., 22:400–402.
20. Samuel Flagg Bemis, The Diplomacy of the American Revolution (New York, 1935), 172–88; William C. Stinchcombe, The American Revolution and the French Alliance (Syracuse, N.Y., 1969), 153–69.
21. GW to Lund Washington, Apr. 30, 1781, WW, 22:14–15; GW to Lafayette, May 4, 1781, ibid., 22:31–32; Wall, GW, 163.
22. Wickwire, Cornwallis, 325–33; GW to Greene, July 30, 1781, WW, 22:430; GW to R.H. Lee, July 15, 1781, ibid., 22:384.
23. Wickwire, Cornwallis, 336–53; Willcox, Clinton, 401–18.
24. Kennett, French Army, 129.
25. DGW, 3:397, 405; GW to Lafayette, July 30 and Aug. 15, 1781, WW, 22:432–33, 501; Freeman, GW, 5:309, 311.
26. Dull, French Navy, 243.
27. Gen. Orders, Aug. 22, 1781, WW, 23:38; Kennett, French Army, 131–34.
28. Willcox, Clinton, 418–23; DGW, 3:416n.
29. Kennett, French Army, 137.
30. GW to Lafayette, Sept. 10, 1781, WW, 23:110; Wickwire, Cornwallis, 358–64.
31. GW to de Grasse, Sept. 15, 1781, WW, 23:116; “Questions . . . ,” Sept. 17, 1781, ibid., 23:122–25, 122n; GW to Heath, Sept. 23, 1781, ibid., 23:132; DGW, 3:420–21; Dull, French Navy, 242–26.
32. DGW, 3:422; Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 484.
33. Scheer, Private Yankee Doodle, 230–32.
34. Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 484; Thacher, Journal, 283.
35. Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:886–95; Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 484, 488; Wickwire, Cornwallis, 374–84; Kennett, French Army, 149.
36. GW to Scammell, Sept. 26, 1781, WW, 23:142; GW to Weedon, Sept. 20, 1781, ibid., 23:126; Gen. Orders, Oct. 6 and 10, 1781, ibid., 23:182–83, 205; GW to PC, Oct. 12, 1781, ibid., 23:213; “Questions . . . ,” Sept. 25, 1781, ibid., 23:136–37.
37. Gen. Orders, Oct. 6, 1781, ibid., 23:182–83.
38. GW, “Military Expenses,” ser. 5, reel 17, 281–82.
39. GW to de Grasse, Sept. 29, 1781, WW, 23:13.
40. GW to Rutledge, Oct. 6, 1781, ibid., 23:186; GW, “Questions . . . ,” Oct. 17, 1781, ibid., 23:125; GW to Lt. Col. Anthony White, Oct. 8, 1781, ibid., 23:138; Ward, War of the Revolution, 2:798–99, 810, 825, 834.
41. GW to Th. McKean, Oct. 6, 1781, WW, 23:189; GW to de Grasse, Oct. 1, 11, and 16, 1781, ibid., 23:161, 208, 225; GW to Weedon, Oct. 12, 1781, ibid., 23:215.
42. Wickwire, Cornwallis, 385.
43. Flexner, GW, 2:460.
44. Freeman, GW, 5:378–93; Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 494; Scheer, Private Yankee Doodle, 240–41; Thacher, Journal, 288–90.
45. Gen. Orders, Oct. 20, 1781, WW, 23:245; GW to Gov. Nelson, Oct. 27, 1781, ibid., 23:271–72; GW to PC, Oct. 27 [–29], 1781, ibid., 23:295–97; DGW, 3:433–35.
46. John P. Custis to MW, Oct. 12, 1781, MVL; GW to Nelson, Oct. 27, 1781, WW, 23:271; GW to Lafayette, Nov. 15, 1781, ibid., 23:340; DGW, 3:437–38n.
47. Wall, GW, 170.
48. GW to Lafayette, Nov. 15, 1781, WW, 23:341–42; GW to Gen. Parsons, Jan. 8, 1782, ibid., 23:433; GW to Sec. of War, Jan. 20, 1782, ibid., 23:454–55; JCC, 21:1179–80; Freeman, GW, 5:405.
49. GW to Greene, Mar. 18, 1782, WW, 24:73; GW to PC, June 24, 1782, ibid., 24:384; Thayer, Greene, 395; Mackesy, War for America, 494.
50. GW to Greene, Mar. 18, 1782, WW, 24:73; Mackesy, War for America, 434.
51. GW to Greene, July 9, 1782, WW, 24:409; GW to James M
cHenry, July 18, 1782, ibid., 24:432; GW to Franklin, Oct. 18, 1782, ibid., 25:273.
52. GW to Sec. for For. Aff., May 22, 1782, ibid., 24:271; GW to Rochambeau, June 27, 1782, ibid., 24:382.
53. “Conf.,” July 19, 1782, ibid., 24:433–35; Freeman, GW, 5:418. On his Canadian plan, see: GW to Hazen, Apr. 10, 1782, WW, 24:107–10; “Memorandum,” May 1, 1782, ibid., 24:197–99.
54. Kennett, French Army, 161–62.
55. GW to Greene, Oct. 17 and Dec. 18, 1782, WW, 25:255–56, 448–49; GW to Lafayette, Dec. 15, 1782, ibid., 25:434.
56. GW to Sec. of War, Oct. 2, 1782, ibid., 25:226–29.
57. Hamilton to GW, Feb. 13, 1783, Syrett and Cooke, Papers of Hamilton, 3:253–55.
58. JCC, 24:295–97. On Gates’s role in these machinations, see: Nelson, Gates, 270–76.
59. GW to Jones, Mar. 12, 1783, WW, 26:213–16; GW to PC, Mar. 12, 1783, ibid., 26:211–12; Gen. Orders, Mar. 11, 1783, ibid., 26:208.
60. JCC, 24:298–99.
61. GW, “To the Officers of the Army,” Mar. 15, 1783, WW, 26:222–27; Josiah Quincy, ed., The Journal of Major Samuel Shaw (Boston, 1843), 101–105.
62. Quincy, Journal of Shaw, 105; Freeman, GW, 5:435–36. On the Newburgh Conspiracy, see: Richard H. Kohn, Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783–1802 (New York, 1975), 17–39; Royster, Revolutionary People at War, 333–41; Nelson, Gates, 269–77; C. Edward Skeen, “The Newburgh Conspiracy Reconsidered,” WMQ, 3d ser., 31 (1974), 273–90; Richard H. Kohn, “Rebuttal,” ibid., 31:290–98.
63. GW to Hamilton, Mar. 31, Apr. 4 and 16, 1783, WW, 26:276–77, 291–93, 323–26; Wills, Cincinnatus, 104.
64. GW to Theodorick Bland, Apr. 4, 1783, ibid., 26:285–91, 293–96; GW to PC, Mar. 18, 1783, ibid., 26:230–32; GW to Lund Washington, Mar. 19, 1783, ibid., 26:246.
65. GW to Jefferson, Feb. 10, 1783, ibid., 26:118; GW to Luzerne, Mar. 19, 1783, ibid., 26:236.
66. GW to Carleton, Apr. 9, 1783, ibid., 26:307.
67. David Howell to Gov. Greene, Sept. 9[?], 1783. Burnett, Letters of Delegates, 7:292.
68. Ives, GW’s Headquarters, 292–300; Charles H. Metzger, The Prisoner in the American Revolution (Chicago, 1971), 203–20; Larry Bowman, Captive Americans: Prisoners During the American Revolution (Athens, Oh., 1976), 69, 72–74, 100–15.
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