LAFAYETTE, Gilbert Motier, Marquis de (1757-1820). Autograph letter signed ("Lafayette") to Col. Anthony Walton White, Malvern Hill, 27 July 1781.

Two pages, bifolium, 215 x 166mm. (light foxing, seal tear loss and pinholes along fold on integral leaf). Encapsulated.

In the months preceding Yorktown, Lafayette gathers new regiments of dragoons for himself and Baron von Steuben. Writing to Colonel Anthony White after White's reassignment under Lafayette in 1781, the French general requests that "you may be accompanied with all the dragoons either yours or Washington’s that May Be immediately equipped." Lafayette adds that Major General Baron de Steuben has appointed a Major Call to recruit new cavalrymen, and while he intends that no partiality between his and von Steuben's cavalry regiments, "both regiments shall be completed to their Full Number, and you may be certain they are the first object of their kind the Baron and myself Have in View". Lafayette so orders Colonel White to go with Major Call to von Steuben's quarters to "come Rapidly with the number of dragoons that can be equipped - preferring old Horsemen, and old soldiers, to the New Raised Recruits – and you will Remember that I am anxiously waiting for a Body of Cavalry."

Before his assignment to serve under Lafayette, Anthony Walton White (1750-1803) would serve as Washington's aide-de-camp for less than one month in 1775, lead dragoons at the Battle of Monmouth, and equip two dragoon regiments against Lord Cornwallis in South Carolina. White would remain under the Marquis de Lafayette’s light corps during the Battle of Yorktown. Provenance: Anthony Walton White — by descent to the consignor.