Paul Bentalou correspondence, 1780-1781

Paul Bentalou correspondence, 1780-1781

Baltimore, Md December 10, 1780 - August 1, 1781.

[7] items

MSS L2023F8

Paul Bentalou was a French-born volunteer in the Continental Army, joining the "German Regiment" (8th Maryland) in 1776. In 1778 he became a captain in the 1st Cavalry of Pulaski's Legion and served as an aide-de-camp to General Pulaski. Bentalou, who was himself wounded at the Battle of Savannah, October 9, 1779, carried Pulaski’s body from the battlefield. He retired from service in 1781 and became an original member of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati. He married Katherine "Kitty" Keeports in late 1780 and settled in Baltimore, Maryland.
Six letters are written in French. Five are by Bentalou to his friend Gautier, who was in Philadelphia; Another letter is from Gautier to his sister in France.
One letter was written in English, by Kitty Bentalou to Gautier.
Among the war news covered: Benedict Arnold had received reinforcements from the British command in New York; British ships travelling up the Potomac to Alexandria had "burned and pillaged everywhere that they passed."
In letter dated, April 19, 1781, Bentalou writes that Lafayette, having lost several men in the crossing at Head of Elk on their march south, was in Baltimore: "the merchants ... are loaning him three thousand pounds of gold to be paid in Two years. This Sum Must Be Employed in Buying shirts and pants for his Division."

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