[1031] The Marquis of Rochambeau, in his Memoirs, took to himself the credit of appointing the Chesapeake as a rendezvous for the fleet. He also claims to have intimated to De Grasse that perhaps it would be best to attack the English in Virginia. At all events, the French admiral sent word that he should go into the Chesapeake, and he hoped, as his stay on the coast would be short, that the land forces would be ready to coöperate with him. This decided the matter. There is in print (dated Mount Vernon, July 13, 1788; Carey's Museum; also in Niles, Principles and Acts, 1st ed, p. 273) a letter from Washington to the effect that, although the point of attack was not decided on at the outset, the movement against New York was a feint.
[1032] The documents recently printed by the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts convey the impression that Rodney preferred not to act in conjunction with Sir Henry Clinton.
[1033] It was while reconnoitring on the morning of this day that Col. Alexander Scammel, of the New Hampshire line, was captured by a party of Legion dragoons, and mortally, though accidentally, wounded after he had surrendered.
[1034] History of the Revolution of South Carolina from a British Province to an Independent State, Trenton, 1785,—cited in this chapter as Rev. in S. C.
[1035] There is no formal biography of Moultrie. Brief sketches of his career may be found in Hartley's Heroes of the South, 231-268, and in A New Biographical Dictionary or Remembrancer of Departed Heroes, compiled by T. J. Rogers, Philadelphia, 1829, pp. 317-322. Cf. also ante, p. 171, 229.
[1036] Memoirs of the American Revolution, so far as it related to the States of North and South Carolina, and Georgia. By William Moultrie. New York, 1802. This work, though written long after the event, consists so largely of letters and other original material that it may be regarded almost as a contemporary work.
[1037] Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, by Henry Lee, lieutenant-colonel commandant of the Partisan Legion during the American War, Philadelphia, 1812; reprinted in 1819. In 1827 appeared A New Edition, with corrections left by the author, and with Notes and Additions by H. Lee, the author of the Campaign of '81. Many years later, in 1869, A New Edition, with Revisions, and a Biography of the Author, by Robert E. Lee, was published in New York. This is the best memoir of "Legion Harry" that has yet appeared. Cf. also G. W. P. Custis's Recollections, p. 354, and Rogers, Biog. Dict., p.271. There are portraits of Henry Lee as a young man in Continental uniform in the Penna. Hist. Society. Cf. Irving's Washington, quarto ed., iii. 197; Lossing's Field-Book, ii. 591; R. E. Lee's ed. of the Memoirs. Cf. C. C. Jones, Last days, death, and burial of General Lee (Albany, 1870).—Ed.
[1038] And the same criticism applies with still greater force to the writers who have based their narratives on this work.
[1039] Cf. Charles C. Jones, Reminiscences of the Last Days, Death, and Burial of General Henry Lee, Albany, 1870.
[1040] For Washington's opinion of Lee, see Mag. of Amer. Hist., iii. 81.