merican seas. Twenty ships
of the line, to be commanded by the Count de Grasse, were destined for
the West Indies, twelve of which were to proceed to the continent of
America, and might be expected to arrive in the month of July.

[Sidenote: Designs of General Washington against New York.]

An interview between General Washington and the Count de Rochambeau
immediately took place at Weathersfield, in which it was determined to
unite the troops of France to those of America on the Hudson, and to
proceed against New York. The regular army at that station was
estimated at four thousand five hundred men,[80] and though it was
understood that Sir Henry Clinton would be able to reinforce it with
five or six thousand militia, it was believed that the post could not
be maintained without recalling a considerable part of the troops from
the south; in which event, the allied army might be employed
advantageously in that part of the union.

[Footnote 80: Sir H. Clinton in a letter to Lord Cornwallis, dated
June 11, 1781, states his effective force at ten thousand nine hundred
and thirty-one.]

The prospect of expelling the British from New York roused the
northern states from that apathy into which they appeared to be
sinking, and vigorous measures were taken to fill their regiments. Yet
those measures were not completely successful. In the month of June,
when the army took the field, and encamped at Peekskill, its
effective numbers did not exceed five thousand men.

Such was the American force in the north, with which the campaign of
1781 was opened. It fell so far short of that on which the
calculations had been made at Weathersfield, as to excite serious
doubts respecting the propriety of adhering to the plan there
concerted, although some compensation was made for this deficiency on
the part of the states by the arrival of a reinforcement of fifteen
hundred men to the army of Rochambeau under convoy of a fifty gun
frigate.

To supply even this army with provisions, required much greater
exertions than had ever been made since the system of requisitions had
been substituted for that of purchasing. The hope of terminating the
war produced these exertions. The legislatures of the New England
states took up the subject in earnest, and passed resolutions for
raising the necessary supplies. But until these resolutions could be
executed, the embarrassments of the army continued; and, for some time
after the troops had taken t