vi Letter of Transmittal,.

at Elkton on their way down the Chesapeake. To secure the necessary supplies
he and other patriotic citizens actually pledged their private fortunes to obtain
cattle, flour, and boats.

The arrival of the French squadron under de Grasse in the Chesapeake late
in August, and its successful encounter with the British fleet, had not only
made safe the transport of Washington's army down the bay by water, but had
put an end to the depredations by raiding parties from the British ships upon
the settlements and plantations along the water front of the bay and its tribu-
taries, to which many of the letters refer. The letters also tell us of the occa-
sional revival of Tory activities, especially in Worcester and Somerset counties
on the Eastern Shore, but these never assumed formidable proportions and
were largely confined to the clandestine sale of cattle and supplies to the British
ships, while they were in control of the bay. After this volume went to press,
and unfortunately too late to include here, there came to light a number of let-
ters and other papers relating to the Tory conspiracy in Western Maryland
referred to in Orendorff's letter of June, 1781, printed on page 328. The
apprehension and execution of the ringleaders put an end to this abortive move-
ment. Letters from the south during the earlier part of the year tell us of the
magnificent service rendered by the Maryland Line at Cowpens, Guilford,
Camden, and other battles in the Carolinas.

When the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, on October 17th, 1781,
brought active military operations to an end, it became extremely difficult to
hold the American army together. The correspondence tells us of the efforts of
Washington and Congress to maintain the military organizations until peace
was definitely in sight, and of the cooperation which they received from the
Maryland authorities. Not only did the number of desertions increase, but it
now became more and more difficult to purchase with the rapidly depreciating
paper money the food and military supplies which Maryland was called upon
to send to the army in Virginia.

One of the difficulties encountered in the editing of this volume has been the
selection of the letters which it seems most worth while to print. Those that
appear here are really but a small fraction of the letters addressed to the Coun-
cil during the year 1781 which are still preserved in the State archives. As it is
impossible to print all of these, the editor's efforts have been directed to the
selection of those that are of some especial interest, from the great mass of
manuscript material of the period now on deposit with the Maryland Histori-
cal Society. The editor is indebted to Mr. Charles Fickus, Librarian of the
Society, for the conscientious care with which he has gone over these old letters