Drinker, Elizabeth Sandwich. Elaine Forman Crane, ed. The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker: The Life Cycle of an Eighteenth-Century Woman. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994.

“[4/6/1778] left J. Roberts after Breakfast, and proceeded on to the American Picket guard, who upon hearing that we were going to head-quarters, sent 2 or 3 to guard us further on to another guard where Colll. Smith gave us a pass for Head Quarters where we arriv’d at about ½ past one; requested an audience with the General—set with his Wife, (a sociable pretty kind of Woman) until [sic] he came in; a number of Officers there, who were very complient, Tench Tillman, among the rest, it was not long before GW. came [sic] and discoursd [sic] with us freely, but not so long as we could have wish’d, as dinner was serv’d in, to which he had invited us, there was 15 of the Officers besides the General and his Wife, Gen. Green, and G. Lee we had an eligant [sic] dinner, which was soon over; when we went out with the General Wife up to her Chamber, and saw no more of him….” (297)

diary

Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. New York: Knopf, 2005.

Thacher, James. Military Journal of the American Revolution. New York: New York Times, 1969.

“[Middlebrook, New Jersey] Yesterday [Thursday, 2/25/1779] I accompanied Major Cavil to head quarters, and had the honor of being numbered among the guests at the table of his Excellency, with his lady, two young ladies from Virginia, the gentlemen who compose his family, and several other officers.…Mrs. Washington combines in an uncommon degree, great dignity of manner with the most pleasing affability, but possesses no striking marks of beauty. I learn from the Virginia officers that Mrs. Washington has ever been honored as a lady of distinguished goodness, possessing all the virtues which adorn her sex, amiable in her temper and deportment, full of benignity, benevolence and charity, seeking for objects of affliction and poverty, that she may extend to the sufferers the hand of kindness and relief. These surely are the attributes which reveal a heart replete with those virtues which are so appropriate and estimable in the female character….” (152-153)

Mercy Otis Warren Papers, 1709-1841, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Massachusetts Historical Society

Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.

Marquis de Lafayette, and Stanley J. Idzerda, ed. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977.

“…Several general officers have brought their wives to camp, and I am very envious, not of their wives [who are rather dull], but of the pleasure they have in being able to see them. General Washington has also just decided to send for his wife, a modest and respectable person, who loves her husband madly….” (1: 225)

26. From: The Marquis de Lafayette to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, 8/20/1784, in Stanley J. Idzerda and others, editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790, Volume 5 (Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press, 1983), 237-238.
“Though I do not know if my letter will reach you, my dear heart, I had to write you that I am at Mount Vernon and that I am reveling in the happiness of finding my dear general again…I arrived here on the seventeenth…To describe to you the life that we lead here, I shall tell you that after breakfast the general and I chat together for some time. After having thoroughly discussed the past, the present, and the future, he withdraws to take care of his affairs and gives me things to read that have been written during my absence. Then we come down for dinner and find Mrs. Washington with visitors from the neighborhood. The conversation at table turns to the events of the war or to anecdotes that we are fond of recalling. After tea we resume our private conversations and pass the rest of the evening with the family. That, my dear heart, is how we spend our time, and we often talk of you, of our children, and of anything that has to do with the family. There are in the house two small children of Mrs. Washington, who you know was married once before. The general has adopted them and loves them with great tenderness. It was rather amusing, when I arrived, to see the curiosity of these two little ones, who had heard me spoken of all day and were very anxious to see if I looked like my portrait. The general read with great pleasure your letter and Anastasie’s. I have been asked to send the fondest regards from the whole household, and Mrs. Washington was saying the other day that since they were old, we must not defer the pleasure they would have in entertaining you and our whole little family here. On my earlier trip, my dear heart, I made the most solemn promise to bring you with me.”

Bakker, William Spohn. Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775 to December 23, 1783. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1892.

“I have lately been several times invited abroad with the General and Mrs. Washington. He always inquires after you in the most affectionate manner, and speaks of you highly. We danced at Mrs. [Elizabeth Willing] Powell’s your birthday [January 6, (O.S.) 1706], or night I should say, in company together, and he told me it was the anniversary of his marriage [January 6, (N.S.) 1759]; it was just twenty years that night.” (149)

“Tuesday morning [February 2], His Excellency General Washington set off from Philadelphia to join the army in New Jersey. During the course of his short stay (the only relief he has enjoyed from service since he first entered into it), he has been honored with every mark of esteem which his exalted qualities as a gentleman and a citizen entitle him to. His Excellency’s stay was rendered the more agreeable by the company of his lady, and the domestic retirement which he enjoyed at the house of the Honorable Henry Laurens, Esquire, with whom he resided.” (151)

Chinard, Gilbert, ed. and trans. George Washington as the French Knew Him. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940.

“[Valley Forge, late February 1778]…From Lancaster, we proceeded directly to Valley-Forge, where we arrived on the 23d of February. On the next day, I had the honor of being presented to Genl Washington, and to dine with him that day, and the next….I had frequent opportunities of seeing him, as it was my duty to accompany the Baron when he dined with him, which was sometimes twice or thrice in the same week. We visited him also in the evening, when Mrs Washington was at Head-quarters. We were in a manner domesticated in the family….In the midst of all our distress, there were some bright sides to the picture, which Valley-Forge exhibited at that time. Mrs. Washington had the courage to follow her husband in that dismal abode; other ladies also graced the scene….They often met at each others quarters, and sometimes at General Washington’s, where the evening was spent in conversation, over a dish of tea or coffee. There were no levees or formal soirees; no dancing, card-playing, or amusement of any kind, except singing. Every gentlemen or lady who could sing, was called upon in turn for a song. As I had a tolerable voice, and some knowledge of music, I found myself of consequence in these reunions. I soon learned the favorite English songs, and contributed my share to the pleasures of the company….” (14, 16)

Claude Blanchard -- “On the 20th we stopped at Alexandria…General Washington’s residence…is situated between Colchester and Alexandria. Mrs Washington is a woman of about fifty years of age; she is small and fat, her appearance is respectable. She was dressed very plainly and her manners were simple in all respects; she had with her three other ladies, her relations….In the evening, we left her respectable company after having spent a very agreeable and truly interesting day.” (67)

Thompson, Mary. "MW-Revolutionary War." Unpublished paper, Mount Vernon Ladies Association.

Mary Thompson

Norton, Mary Beth. Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1996.