Details
WASHINGTON, GEORGE, President. Letter signed ("G:Washington") to [Governor William Livingston], text in the hand of Lt. Col. Tench Tilghman, Washington's Secretary, Head Quarters, Springfield, [New Jersey], 20 June 1780. One page, folio, slightly frayed at lower edge, affecting name of addressee in extreme lower left-hand corner.
THE BRITISH RAID NEW JERSEY
A good letter written at the height of Washington's uncertainty over the British raids into New Jersey. "I yesterday recd. your Excellency's fav[or] of the 18th. The intelligence which you were pleased to communicate to me had been previously transmitted to me by General [David] Forman from Monmouth [New Jersey]. I have not yet learned whether [British Commander in Chief] Sir Henry Clinton came with the Fleet or whether any or what number of troops were on board.
"The enemy remain upon the same position upon the point" [De Hart's Point, near Elizabethtown, New Jersey]."
General Henry Clinton and a large British force had taken Charlestown, South Carolina and its entire garrison on , and, after receiving word that a French fleet had sailed with arms and troops under Rochambeau to aid the Continentals, had returned from the South to New York. Hessian General Knyphausen had been left in charge of British forces at New York. In the belief that Washington's army was on the verge of mutiny and that the civilian population, tired of war, might renounce the American cause, Knyphausen led an incursion known as the Springfield Raid against Washington's army. He and a force of 5,000 men landed near Elizabethtown on 7 June and marched toward Morristown. They burned homes at Connecticut Farms (now Union), and when they met strong resistance from Continental troops retreated to De Hart's Point near Elizabethtown and dug in. "Washington...suspected [the British] were up to something...such as feinting in N.J. before making a main effort up the Hudson (at Stony Point and West Point)....When Washington learned on the 20 June [the day of the present letter] that six British warships had sailed up the Hudson...he had to redeploy...so as to meet an attack against West Point and also to watch for a main effort against N.J. (Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p.1045). Clinton, who returned on the 17th, ordered Knyphausen to attack Springfield again on the 23rd, and again met spirited resistance from Washington's garrison, commanded by Greene, Lee and Dickinson. After burning most of Springfield, Knyphausen abandoned the battlefield and withdrew to Staten Island. "Jerseyites, far from being swayed back toward King George, were aroused by the destruction of Connecticut Farms and Springfield" (ibid. and New Jersey had once again been cleared of British troops.
Apparently unpublished, not in Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, which prints a large number of letters of this date, on the same concerns.
THE BRITISH RAID NEW JERSEY
A good letter written at the height of Washington's uncertainty over the British raids into New Jersey. "I yesterday recd. your Excellency's fav[or] of the 18th. The intelligence which you were pleased to communicate to me had been previously transmitted to me by General [David] Forman from Monmouth [New Jersey]. I have not yet learned whether [British Commander in Chief] Sir Henry Clinton came with the Fleet or whether any or what number of troops were on board.
"The enemy remain upon the same position upon the point" [De Hart's Point, near Elizabethtown, New Jersey]."
General Henry Clinton and a large British force had taken Charlestown, South Carolina and its entire garrison on , and, after receiving word that a French fleet had sailed with arms and troops under Rochambeau to aid the Continentals, had returned from the South to New York. Hessian General Knyphausen had been left in charge of British forces at New York. In the belief that Washington's army was on the verge of mutiny and that the civilian population, tired of war, might renounce the American cause, Knyphausen led an incursion known as the Springfield Raid against Washington's army. He and a force of 5,000 men landed near Elizabethtown on 7 June and marched toward Morristown. They burned homes at Connecticut Farms (now Union), and when they met strong resistance from Continental troops retreated to De Hart's Point near Elizabethtown and dug in. "Washington...suspected [the British] were up to something...such as feinting in N.J. before making a main effort up the Hudson (at Stony Point and West Point)....When Washington learned on the 20 June [the day of the present letter] that six British warships had sailed up the Hudson...he had to redeploy...so as to meet an attack against West Point and also to watch for a main effort against N.J. (Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, p.1045). Clinton, who returned on the 17th, ordered Knyphausen to attack Springfield again on the 23rd, and again met spirited resistance from Washington's garrison, commanded by Greene, Lee and Dickinson. After burning most of Springfield, Knyphausen abandoned the battlefield and withdrew to Staten Island. "Jerseyites, far from being swayed back toward King George, were aroused by the destruction of Connecticut Farms and Springfield" (ibid. and New Jersey had once again been cleared of British troops.
Apparently unpublished, not in Writings, ed. Fitzpatrick, which prints a large number of letters of this date, on the same concerns.