TO MADAME DE LAFAYETTE.
Camp, between the branches of York River, August 24, 1781.
The residence of Virginia is anything but favourable to my correspondence. I do not accuse public affairs of this evil; and as I find so much time to think of my affection for you, I could doubtless find some, also, to assure you of it; but there are no opportunities here of sending letters, and we are obliged to despatch them to Philadelphia and expose them to many hazards; these dangers, in addition to those of the sea, and the increased delay they occasion, must necessarily render the arrival of letters far more difficult. If you receive a greater number from the French than from the Virginian army, it would be unjust to imagine that I have been to blame.
Your self-love has, perhaps, been gratified by the part I have been obliged to act: you may have hoped that I could not be equally awkward on every theatre; but I should accuse you of an egregious degree of vanity (for all things being in common between us, there is vanity in rating me too highly) if you have not trembled for the perils to which I have been exposed. I am not speaking of cannon balls, but of the more dangerous master-strokes with which I was threatened by Lord Cornwallis. It was not prudent in the general to confide to me such a command. If I had been unfortunate, the public would have called that partiality an error in his judgment.
To begin, even from the deluge, I must speak to you of that miserable Portsmouth expedition. General Rochambeau had intended sending a thousand Frenchmen there, under the Baron de Viomenil. You must have heard that the French squadron gained a great deal of glory, whilst the English attained their desired end. Admiral Arbuthnot will since have informed you that I was blockaded; but, although we were not sailors, that blockade did not detain us four hours. You will have learnt, afterwards, that General Phillips having made some preparations at Portsmouth, we marched in all haste to Richmond, where we arrived nearly at the same time; but I arrived first. They then came from New York and Carolina to unite with the Virginian troops; the whole was commanded by the formidable Lord Cornwallis, who abandoned his first conquests to fulfil the ministerial plan by the conquest of Virginia. It was not without some difficulty that we avoided the battle he wished for; but, after many marches, we became stronger than we were at the commencement, and we pretended to be stronger than we were; we regained what we had lost without risking a battle, and, after two trifling affairs, the hostile army proceeded to Portsmouth, which it has since evacuated, and whose fortifications we have destroyed. That army is now in York River, whither they repaired by water. If the naval superiority which we are so fully expecting should arrive, I shall rejoice at the campaign closing by the English army's assuming that position.
The French and American troops before New York are under the orders of the generalissimo. My friend Greene has had great success in Carolina, and that campaign has taken a far better turn than we had any reason to expect or hope. It may perhaps end in a very favourable manner. It is said that the British ministry are sending here the Governor of Virginia; I fancy they have founded rather too many hopes upon the success of their army. The Pennsylvanians, who were to have joined them, are at present here with us. But for the virtue, zeal, and courage of the regular troops who were with me, it would have been impossible for me to have saved myself. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to those with whom I have undertaken this fatiguing campaign. The militia have done all they could. I have been well pleased, with our little army, and only hope it may have been also pleased with me.
I must speak of my health, which is a monotonous subject,—for I need only repeat favourable accounts of my own constitution: the sun of Virginia has a very bad character, and I had received many alarming predictions; many persons, in truth, have had fevers; but this climate agrees with me as well as any other, and the only effect fatigue has upon me is to increase my appetite.