Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 to Lucy Knox

Responds to Lucy's most recent letter (see GLC02437.00364), discussing her hasty departure from New York. Henry is upset by her distress. He reiterates that he did not want her in New York before something decisive occurred in the war. In response to her complaint that Nathanael Greene's wife returned to New York, he explains that General Greene did not want her there for the same reasons and had just sent her to Newark and she will later go to either Fairfield or Providence. Comments that if Mrs. Pollard comes to New York, she will distract her husband Jonathan Pollard, Knox's quarter master. Reiterates that he wants to keep her away from the war and describes his conduct as that "of the most disinterested friendship cemented by the tenderest love." He emphasizes the gravity of the New York campaign, "on which the happiness or misery of Millions may depend." Asks her to give Fairfield another chance, mentions that smallpox is spreading by inoculation in Boston, and reports recent sightings of British ships. After his signature, makes an attempt to raise her spirits with an aphorism about gender: "I ever wish'd my Lucy to soar above the Generality of her Sex many of whom to be sure are trifling insignificant animals, dreading what never will come to pass."