The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

366 WASHINGTON'S WRITINGS. [AlET. 50.
from taking a public leave of your Excellency, operated
equally against my signifying to the army now under
your command not only the reluctance with which I
parted with them, but the grateful sense, which I entertain, of the very essential services they have rendered
to America. Your destination being no longer a secret,
permit me to request the favor of your Excellency to
make the necessary apologies for me; to express to
both the officers and men how warmly I feel myself
interested in whatever concerns their honor and glory;
and to assure them it is my ardent wish, that victory
may attend them wherever the orders of their sovereign may direct their arms. Accept my thanks for
the very many polite marks of attention I have received from you, and believe me to be sincerely your
Excellency's, &c.*
TO THE CHEVALIER DE CHASTELLUX.
Newburg, 14 December, 1782.
MY DEAR CHEVALIER,
I felt too much to express any thing the day I parted
from you. A sense of your public services to this
country, and gratitude for your private friendship, quite
overcame me at the moment of our separation. But I
* Answer from the Baron de Viomenil. — " The veneration with which
this army was penetrated, from the first moment they had the honor of
being presented to your Excellency by Count de Rochambeau, their confidence in your talents and the wisdom of your orders, the remembrance
of your kindness and attention, and the example you set them in every
critical circumstance, the approbation, regret, and wishes you have honored them with at their departure; these are considerations, by which
you may be assured there is not an individual officer in this army, who
is not as. sensibly touched, as he is flattered by your approbation; or who
does not exceedingly regret, that the secret of our destination deprived
them of the pleasure of being again presented by Count de Rochambeau