Note 107 — Chapter XXXV

“Although I never wrote, nor even saw one of these letters until they issued from New York in print,” wrote Washington to a friend, in January, 1797, “yet the author of them must have been tolerably well acquainted in, or with some person of my family, to have given the names and some circumstances, which are grouped in the mass of erroneous details. But, of all the mistakes which have been committed in this business, none is more palpable, or susceptible of detection, than the manner in which it is said they were obtained, by the capture of my mulatto, Billy, with a portmanteau. All the army under my immediate command could contradict this, and I believe most of them know, that no attendant of mine, nor a particle of my baggage, ever fell into the hands of the enemy during the whole course of the war.”