Washington's Engineer Norman Desmarais (best e book reader .TXT) 📖

chief immediately sent his aides to notify the several states and the commanders of troops concerned. Massachusetts was asked to send 2,000 militiamen at once; New York, 2,500; and Pennsylvania, to provide transportation and all kinds of supplies, so her militia quota was only 1,500. General Sullivan was ordered to return from his Indian expedition in a hurry, and General Gates was to hold the continental troops under his command in readiness to direct them against New York if the cooperation with d’Estaing could be effected.

General Washington sent a letter to Admiral d’Estaing describing the situation. He gave it to Major Lee, who was sent to wait for the arrival of the French fleet at Sandy Hook. He gave a second letter to General Duportail and sent him to Philadelphia with Colonel Alexander Hamilton to confer with the French minister regarding further plans. He was given orders to select some spot on the coast to the southward where the fleet could be seen as it approached. When all this was accomplished and before retiring the night of October 4, thirty-six hours after receiving the resolution of Congress, General Washington wrote a report of what he had done and sent it to the president of Congress by special messenger: “New York is the first and capital object upon which every other is to depend.”27

It was decided that Duportail and Hamilton should wait for the French fleet at the Delaware capes. They chose Lewes, near Cape Henlopen, as their stopping place. The letter they carried to the count was merely a note of introduction, leaving it to them to explain the situation of the American army and the intentions of its chief. The letter said in part,

Head Quarters, West Point, 7 October 1779

I have appointed Brigadier General Duportail and Colonel Hamilton to wait upon your Excellency . . . and explain to you fully my ideas of the proposed cooperation. . . . I have instructed them to disclose to you every circumstance and every consideration with which it is necessary you should be acquainted. . . . [Y]ou may repose the most implicit confidence Duportail and Colonel Hamilton, and accordingly I recommend them to your kind civilities and attention.28

General Washington’s first letter to his officers instructed them as follows:

I have been favored with Col. Hamilton’s letter, mentioning your arrival early on the 11th at Philad .a and your being about to set off for Lewistown the morning on which it was written.

I have attentively considered the object to which you particularly refer, and am now to authorize you, (provided the Count will not determine on a co-operation to the full extent of my instructions), to engage the whole force described in my letters to him, comprehending the continental troops and militia, in such an enterprise against the enemy’s shipping as the Count and you may agree to undertake—In a word I will aid him in any plan of operations against the enemy at New York or Rhode Island in the most effective manner that our strength and resources will admit. He has nothing more to do therefore than to propose his own plan if time will not permit him to accede to ours, weighing thoroughly the consequences of expence and disappointment.

Enclosed is some intelligence received from Elizabethtown since your departure. You will observe the preparations of the enemy for throwing every possible obstruction in the Count’s passage.

A chain of alarm ships are stationed in the sound to communicate the first approaches of the Count’s fleet to the garrison at Rhode Island. they can propagate in a few minutes by signal guns.—In a letter from Gen. Gates of the 13th inst. he advises me of the arrival of the fleet which some time ago sailed from New York. It amounts, to 56 sail, and appeared to be only in a set of ballast. This was confirmed by one of the vessels which fell into our hands for a few hours. The opinion is that it is designed to take off the garrison.

Genl. Gates makes the marine force at New Port, one fifty and a thirty-two gun frigate. The refugee fleet and wood fleet about thirty-seven sail mostly armed, at the head of which is the Restoration, late the Oliver Cromwell of 22 guns. One frigate is also taken notice of in the fleet from New York.

Should the operations against New York in either case be undertaken, it will be of the utmost consequence to block up the garrison at Rhode Island. You will consider the propriety of suggesting to the Count the detatching of a superior sea force for this purpose previous to his approaching the Hook. For should the measures be deferred till his arrival there, it may not then be possible to prevent their junction with the army at New York as the notice can be so very suddenly transmitted by means of the signals which they have established.

Every proper attention has been given to preparing the necessary number of fascines, and such other materials as may be required in this quarter.

Fascines Gabions etc. are also held in readiness at Providence in case of an operation against New-port. I had thought of the fire ships and have taken order in this matter. I do not however choose to go to the great expence they must run us into until something is decided with his Excellency Count d’Estaing, but every thing relative shall be provided, so as to occasion no delay when such matters become necessary.29

STONY POINT AND VERPLANCK POINT

General Washington announced to General Duportail and Colonel Alexander Hamilton on October 21 that the British evacuated Newport. Before sending the letter, he also received news that the Crown forces had withdrawn from Stony Point and Verplanck Point, leaving the passage of the Hudson free at King’s Ferry. He immediately sent General Gates to take possession of Newport and sent Colonel Gouvion to “throw up some small works at Stony Point to protect communication” there.

He wrote the following letter