Head Quarters, July 19, 1780
Dr Sir:
I have received your letter of the 16th. You mistook the point of giving me intelligence1 as by recurring to your instructions you will find. I now depend on you for information of every occurrence which will save General Foreman the trouble of a business which I could only with propriety request the favour of him to discharge ’till another could be sent to undertake it. For the future you will make a report every two days of the appearances at the Hook in which the more detail the better. ’Tis almost as important for us to know what does not happen as what does happen. In case of any thing extraordinary, it is instantly to be dispatched, particularly the sailing of the fleet in or out. It has become unnecessary for the present that Captain Dennis and the Gentlemen with him should remain at Monmouth. I wish to see them at Head Quarters in their way home, when I shall give them some further explanations.
I am etc.
1 Lee in his letter of July 16 wrote that he presumed General Forman had sent Washington the intelligence of the arrival of Admiral Graves, and that "no intelligence from him (Lee) was expected. That my business here was to expedite his (Forman’s) dispatches, to collect provision for the fleet and to protect the guides." He referred to the matter again in his letter of July 20: "I conceived it a matter of delicacy in communicating with H quarters, unless advised to do so by Gen. Forman to whom the business had been committed." Lee’s letters are in the Washington Papers.
2 The draft is in the writing of Tench Tilghman.