ent destined for the West Indies; and the
ports from which it had been intended to draw others, being blockaded,
only the first division, consisting of five thousand men, had arrived
at Newport; but letters from France contained assurances that the
second division of the army might soon be expected.

To obviate those difficulties which had occurred on former occasions
respecting rank, the orders given to Lieutenant General Count de
Rochambeau, which were inclosed in his first letter, placed him
entirely under the command of General Washington. The French troops
were to be considered as auxiliaries, and were, according to the
usages of war, to cede the post of honour to the Americans.[41]

[Footnote 41: These orders were given at the instance of General
Lafayette.--_Correspondence with General Lafayette._]

Convinced that cordial harmony between the allied forces was essential
to their success, both generals cultivated carefully the friendly
dispositions felt by the troops towards each other. Warm professions
of reciprocal respect, esteem, and confidence, were interchanged
between them; and each endeavoured to impress on the other, and on all
the military and civil departments, the conviction that the two
nations, and two armies, were united by the ties of interest and
affection. On this occasion, General Washington recommended to his
officers, as a symbol of friendship and affection for their allies, to
engraft on the American cockade, which was black, a white relief, that
being the colour of the French cockade.

Late as was the arrival of the French troops, they found the Americans
unprepared for active and offensive operations. Not even at that time
were the numbers ascertained which would be furnished by the states.
Yet it was necessary for General Washington to communicate a plan of
the campaign to the Count de Rochambeau.

The season was already so far advanced that preparations for the
operations contemplated eventually, on the arrival of the second
division of the French fleet, must be immediately made, or there
would not be time, though every circumstance should prove favourable,
to execute the design against New York. Such a state of things so ill
comported with the engagements of congress, and with the interests of
the nation, that, trusting to his being enabled, by the measures
already taken by the states, to comply with what was incumbent on him
to perform, he determined to hazard much rather than foreg