Memoirs, Correspondence and Manuscripts of General Lafayette Part 50

1. I hear that you have, at Lorient, three vessels of the India company, of forty guns and eight hundred tons. These caracks, if I recollect rightly, are fifty-gun ships, of nine hundred and sixty tons all number of vessels would be sufficient; they might soon be got ready, and their force would diminish the required escort. As for frigates, you will find in readiness, at Lorient, the _Alliance_, the _Pallas_, and others.

However, if you are determined to employ the vessels which are fitted out, in the expedition against England, it would be necessary to take ours from St. Malo in preference. (Note from M. de Lafayette.)

2. Virginia and Carolina would be the scene of our operations during the months of December and January, and we should pa.s.s the remainder of the winter at Boston. I greatly prefer this project to waiting until the last of January.

3. To deceive the enemy, pilots might be a.s.sembled from different parts, under pretence of sending them to the Islands, at the request of the French. This business, as well as the preparations and signals, might be entrusted to a lieutenant-colonel of the royal corps of engineers, an officer of great merit at the head of the American corps of engineers, who, under cover of working to the fortifications of the Delaware, might remain near Sandy Hook.

4. The frigates or vessels necessary to protect the landing, either real or pretended, of the Americans, should anchor in those channels. The enemy would then be obliged either to disperse among the forts, and thereby to weaken their lines, or else to leave the field open to the Americans, who, by a diversion upon the lines, would force the enemy to have them fully manned, and prevent them attending to their rear.

5. It is necessary, however, to consider all the unfortunate contingencies that may occur. If the expedition to Rhode Island should be prevented, or if it should not succeed, or if nothing can be attempted at New York, we ought then to proceed on our expeditions against Virginia, or Georgia, or Carolina, and winter afterwards at Boston, leaving Rhode Island to the next season, as proposed in our plan of sailing in the month of October.

6. If the capture of the Bermudas, or some expedition of the kind, should be considered necessary, the rest of the winter might be employed in carrying it into effect.

7. The last time I was at Boston, I saw there a respectable man, a member of the council in Nova Scotia, who had secretly entered into the service of General Gates, and who a.s.sured us of the favourable disposition of the inhabitants.

8. General Gates, who is popular in New England, and perfectly acquainted with Halifax, has often proposed to make an expedition, in concert, against that town, with French and American troops combined.

9. In the present hara.s.sed state of the English, I doubt if they will have in port any vessel capable of joining the squadron.

10. I have not made any allowance for the diversion in the north, of which, however, I feel certain, and if the troops should not go to Annapolis, would, at least, compel a part of the British garrison, and such of the inhabitants as adhered to the royal party, to remain in the fort.

11. Fifteen hundred or two thousand select troops thrown into America might aid General Washington, and enable him to act on the offensive, by supplying him with good heads to his columns, and by uniting the French with an American division for combined operations. This plan would be of some use, but it appeared to me that you wished for one offering results of greater importance.