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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
"IT IS HIGH TIME GENERAL WASHINGTON . . . WERE IN FULL MARCH" GATES, HORATIO. Autograph Letter Signed as Major General, to Brigadier General George Weedon, warning that the British appear to be preparing for a major offensive, and hoping General Washington can come south to meet the threat. 2 1/2 pages, small 4to, on a single sheet; minor wear at folds, tiny holes at intersections with one above signature. Salisbury [NC], 14 November 1780
Written three months after Gates's humiliating defeat at Camden, which cost him his command of the Southern Department. Nathanael Greene had already been ordered to replace him, though he had not yet arrived. "By the enemy's taking post, and fortifying at Portsmouth, I am in a manner convinced, the troops under General Lesley are only the advance of a more respectable body that will soon appear with Sir Harry Clinton at their head in your bay. The heavy cannon, the cavalry, the quantity of intrenching tools, their raising works, &c are to me so many convincing proofs that I am right in my conjectures. . . . The moment Sir Harry sees the season for campaigning to the northward is over, he will embark for the southwards." Gates was not far off on this point, as the British soon commenced a series of raids in Virginia under Benedict Arnold. Gates adds that he has passed on this warning to Jefferson and Congress, and hopes for reinforcement from his old rival George Washington: "In my opinion it is high time General Washington, and five thousand of our best troops, were in full march from the Head of Elk for James River! I say General Washington, because his influence, authority, and support are to the full as much wanted as his abilities." Gates also reports on a recent failed British raid on Sumter's forces, in which British General Wemyss "had his thigh broke, and with twenty-five others was taken prisoner; in his pocket was found a list of all the Whiggs houses he lately burnt." Quoted in Ward, Duty, Honor or Country, pages 159-160.
