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John Laurens dies early in the morning on 27 August 1782 in a skirmish on the Combahee River.
That same day, Brigadier General Mordecai Gist writes a report of the battle from Chehaw Neck to General Nathanael Greene, the commander of the Southern Department stationed at headquarters in Ashley Hill. Gist writes:
…the troops were put in motion to prevent their landing & support Col. Laurens, but before my arrival they effected a landing & brought him to action in the field, in which that brave & gallant Officer fell, much regretted & lamented.
Greene writes several letters about the action on 29 August, including ones to Governor John Mathews, George Washington, and to Congress. In his letter to Washington, he says:
Since I wrote your Excellency a day or two ago Lt Colo. Laurens has been killed in an Action on the Combahee River about fifty miles south of our Camp. […] Enclosed is a copy of Genl Gists Letter containing an account of the different operations. Colo. Laurens’s fall is glorious, but his fate is much to be lamented. Your Excellency has lost a valuable Aid de Camp, the Army a brave Officer, and the public a worthy and patriotic Citizen.
The letter reaches Washington at Verplanck’s Point on 18 October 1782. He replies:
The Death of Colo. Laurens I consider as a very heavy misfortune—not only as it affects the public at large—but particularly so to his family, and all his private friends & Connections, to whom his Amiable and usefull Character, had rendered him peculiarly dear.
The news reaches Philadelphia on or just before 1 October 1782. Arthur Lee writes to John Adams in Paris, telling him:
It is with sorrow, I inform you of the death of young Col: Laurens, who was killd lately in a skirmish with the British near Charles-town. He is as much a public as a private loss; and I am much afraid it will be an accumulation of misfortune on his most worthy Father too great for him to bear.
During the sitting of Congress on 2 October “was read a letter of Major General Greene, dated August 29, enclosing a report of Brigadier General M. Gist” - this would have included the news of Laurens’ death, after which it would have spread widely to the surrounding regions.
Alexander Hamilton in Albany hears the news from an unnamed source around 12 October 1782.
The news reaches Paris in early November. John Adams forwards the news to Henry and Harry Laurens in London, writing:
I know not how to mention the melancholy intelligence by this vessel which affects you so tenderly. I feel for you more than I can or ought to express. Our country has lost its most promising character in a manner, however, that was worthy of her cause.
Henry receives the news on 12 November 1782 - eleven weeks after John’s death.