Richard Henry Lee A.L.S., Chantilly, [Va.] April 20, 1781 : to "Dear Sir"

Richard Henry Lee A.L.S., Chantilly, [Va.] April 20, 1781 : to "Dear Sir"

Chantilly, VA 1781

[4] p. on 2 conjugate leaves ; 23 cm x 19 cm.

MSS L1988.190.207

News of, and comment on, military progress, including Corwallis arrival at Wilmington, N.C., and Greene's march toward South Carolina: "Cornwallis has at length reached the environs of Wilmington much crippled and encumbered with wounded men." Gen. Greene has begun his march, "but I fear that unless he is more powerfully reinforced than by 1500 men of the Penn. Line, it will not be in his power to maintain his ground against Cornwallis."
Lee also comments on the Chesapeake Bay "and rivers so full of, and so incessantly harrassed by the enemies privateers & piratical vessels committing every kind of outrage along our shores."
Lee remarks on the need for French assistance, writing, "We are too slow & too little animated in our proceedings -- thus the English with rather inferior force carry things too much away."
Contains further mention of two privateering vessels, the Surprise and the Trimmer, topsail schooners "lately up Potomac that have committed the most abominable outrages."
Also mentions the British recruitment of American prisoners at Charleston for a raid against Spain. Lee suggests that Congress should separate foreign soldiers from their officers, "and put recruiting American German officers among the former."

Library Catalog > Manuscripts
All Cataloged Material
All records