Whitehall 5^th July 1780.

Sir,
After I had closed my Letters to You of Yesterday's date I received Your Dispatches numbered 92, 93, 94 and 95, and One marked Separate of the 1^st June, by Lieutenant Colonel Bruce, and immediately laid them before The King.

The Accounts they contain of the happy Consequences of Your Success, though not unexpected, gave His Majesty great Satisfaction, and the very judicious and well time Publications You issued after the Surrender of Charles Town, were so well calculated to excite the Zeal, and give Confidence to His Majesty's faithful Subjects, and at the same time hold out the Terrors of Due Chastisements to all such as should persist in their Revolt, that they could not fail of producing the Effects You expected from them, and of being approved by The King.

It is a great Pleasure to me to have another Occasion of obeying The King's Commands by desiring You to convey to Major Tarleton His Majesty's Approbation of His Conduct, and of the behaviour of the Corps he commanded in the Affair at Wacsaw. The Celerity of the March, and the Vigor of the Attack, do them equal Honor, and merited the complete Victory with which they were crowned.

You will find by my Separate Letter of Yesterday, that it is not His Majesty's Intention to confine You to so strict an observance of the general Rule of no Officers being permitted to hold Commissions in the Regular and Provincial Corps at the same time, as to prevent You from deviating from it in extraordinary Cases, and that Your having done so in favor of Majors Simcoe and Tarleton was approved by His Majesty. I also informed You that the general Rule was not meant to affect the Brevet Rank of Officers; it is therefore, a great Concern to me to find Lord Rawdon had resigned his Rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army, when he made his Option of Colonel of the Provincials. The King is fully sensible of His Lordship's Merit, and of the great advantage which the Corps under his Command has derived from His Lordship's Attention to it, and is well pleased His Lordship has chosen to continue at the head of it; but His Majesty commands me to signify to You His Royal Pleasure that You do immediately acquaint His Lordship that he still retains his Rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant,

GEO: GERMAIN.

Sir Henry Clinton, K.B.

[Source: Benjamin Franklin Stevens, The Campaign in Virginia, 1781, 2 vols. (London, 1888), 1:229-230.]