Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 128

Price Realized: $ 12,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 10,000 - $ 15,000
WASHINGTON, GEORGE. Letter Signed, "G°:Washington," to Brigadier General George Weedon, introducing Brigadier General Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun. Body of letter in the hand of Jonathan Trumbull Jr. 1 page, 8vo, with integral address leaf; slight fading to signature and text, minor soiling on address leaf. "In James River" [aboard the Queen Charlotte en route to Williamsburg, VA], 20 September 1781

Additional Details

Washington was returning from a shipboard conference with the French admiral Comte de Grasse, where they coordinated the final siege of Yorktown. This letter of introduction was given by Washington to the Duc de Lauzun, who was serving in the French expeditionary forces under Rochambeau, and who presented the letter to Weedon. Washington asks Weedon to show the Duke 'all that respect & attention that his rank & services justly demand.'
Lauzun's forces joined with Weedon's four days later, but their working relationship was uneasy. Lauzun would later describe Weedon as 'an officer of sufficient merit, but who detested fighting . . . and lived in deadly fear of coming under fire' (quoted in Greene, Guns of Independence, 2005). Published in Fitzpatrick, Writings of Washington, 23:127.