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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Order from Henry Clinton to Alexander Leslie concerning troop movements
Clinton, Henry, Sir, 1738?-1795
October 10, 1780
Volume 15, Page 283

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INSTRUCTIONS TO THE HON. MAJOR GENERAL LESLIE.

Head Quarters, New
York, October 10, 1780.

Sir:

You will be pleased to proceed with the troops embarked under your command to Chesapeak Bay; and upon your arrival at that place you will pursue such measures as you shall judge most likely to answer the purpose of this expedition, the principal object of which is to make a diversion in favour of Lieutenant-general Earl Cornwallis, who, by the time you arrive there, will probably be acting in the back parts of North Carolina. The information you shall procure on the spot, after your arrival at your destined port, will point out to you the properest method of accomplishing this; But from that which I have received here, I should judge it best to proceed up James River as high as possible, in order to seize or destroy any magazines the enemy may have at Petersburg, Richmond, or any of the places adjacent; and, finally, to establish a post on Elizabeth River. But this, as well as the direction of every other operation, is submitted to Earl Cornwallis, with whom you are as soon as possible to communicate, and afterwards to follow all such orders and directions as you shall from time to time receive from his Lordship.

H. CLINTON.