Washington, George, as Commander-in-Chief

Autograph letter signed (G:^{o Washington"), one page (10 5/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 322 x 197 mm), Headquarters, Passaic Falls, [New Jersey], 12 November 1780, to Lieutenant Col. John Laurens, being a warm personal letter of thanks and appreciation for his service in the Southern campaign and his approval for Laurens to rejoin the Southern army after his parole; browned, verso silked and mounted to another sheet of paper by means of two pieces of tape.}

Autograph letter signed (G:o Washington"), one page (10 5/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 322 x 197 mm), Headquarters, Passaic Falls, [New Jersey], 12 November 1780, to Lieutenant Col. John Laurens, being a warm personal letter of thanks and appreciation for his service in the Southern campaign and his approval for Laurens to rejoin the Southern army after his parole; browned, verso silked and mounted to another sheet of paper by means of two pieces of tape.
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Washington's  brief but warm letter of thanks and appreciation to his aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Col. John Laurens. "My dear Laurens: A Letter of yours dated Octobr (but which I believe ought to have been Novr.) the 6th came to my hands last Evening. Every fresh assurance of your personal regard and attachment to me, gives me pleasure.

"The motives which led you to the Southward are too laudable, and too important not to meet my approbation. In that, or any other quarter in which you may actd, my best wishes for your health preservation and glory will accompany you, being with sincere regard and Affect. Yr friend & obe^d Sev^t."

Laurens had served in the Charleston campaign with General Lincoln but was captured along wtih him in May 1780 and sent to Philadelphia. Washington's thanks for Laurens's "personal regard and attachment" alludes to a letter Laurens mistakenly dated 6 October in which he expressed his desire to return to the Southern theatre upon his release. Laurens, a native of South Carolina, rejoined Southern army after his parole on or about 7 November 1780 (see Washington to the President of Congress, 7 November 1780 in Fitzgeral 20:315). . He was killed on 27 August 1782 at the Battle of the Combahee River, which marked the last hostile engagement between British and American forces. His death also occurred a few weeks before the Americans recaptured Charleston, which Laurens had long struggled himself to regain.