[J. Thomas Scharf (1886)] by him to the end of the war.1 From this time until the summer of 1781 he was kept busy by the raids of the enemy and in " grand forages " which he frequently made for stores and provender. In the summer of 1781 plans were matured by Washington and Rochambeau for concerted action on the part of the American and French armies. During the winter of 1780-81 the American forces had been in various cantonments in New York and New Jersey; the headquarters were at New Windsor. In the latter half of the month of June the troops as-sembled at Peekskill to the number of five thousand effective men, for the purpose of effecting a junction with Rochambeau's army. On the 26th Washington established his headquarters at the Van Cortlandt house, north of Peekskill, as the following extract from the journal of Claude Blanchard, commissary-general of the French army shows : " I set out [from Crompond] very early on the 26th and reached the American Army. I stopped at Peekskill, a small village. I could hardly find a room in the inn, which was occupied by Mr. Pearson, one of the American 1 Heath's "Memoirs." Generals. Peekskill [present village] is situated on the North River, which is very broad; it is almost an arm of the sea, which vessels of war ascend.... I went to speak to General Pearson, who gave me an aide-de-camp to conduct me to General Washington, whose headquarters were at a distance of two miles...