Berkeley County, Virginia, ss.On Monday, December 3, 1787, I was requested to see an experiment on Potowmack river, made by Mr. JAMES RUMSEY'S Steam Boat, and had no small pleasure to see her get on her way, wich near half her burthen on board, and more against the current at the rate of three miles per hour, by the force of steam, without any external application whatever. I am well informed, and verily believe, that the machine at present is very imperfect and by no means capable of performing what it would do if completed : I have not the least doubt but it may be brought into common and beneficial use, and be of advantage to all navigations, as the machine is simple light and cheap, and will be exceedingly durable, and does not occupy a space in the boat of more than four feet by two and a half.

HORATIO GATES
Late Major General in the Continental Army.

• Statement of Horatio Gates taken from version printed in Rumsey's pamphlet, A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam. The public version of the Fitch-Rumsey debate began in 1788 with Rumsey's A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam, followed by Fitch's The Original Steamboat Supported, and Remarks on Mr. John Fitch's Reply by Joseph Barnes, who was representing Rumsey. These documents are hosted on-line at the Riverweb archive.
• Diaries of George Washington, Volume IV, edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig, The University Press of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, 1978. [Contains Washington's account of meeting Rumsey and seeing a model of his "streamboat" in September 1784 during his trip across the Appalachian divide.]
• James Rumsey, Pioneer in Steam Navigation, by Ella May Turner, Mennonite Publishing House, Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 1930.
• Steamboats Come True: American Inventors in Action, James Thomas Flexner, Viking Press, 1978 (updated from 1944 edition printed by Little, Brown, and Co., Boston, Massachusetts, and reprinted by Collier Boooks as Inventors in Action.)
• "James Rumsey and his Role in the Improvement Movement," by Emory Kemp, in West Virginia History, published by the West Virginia Department of Culture and History, Volume XLVIII, 1989
• "James Rumsey, Pioneer Technologist," by Edwin T. Layton, Jr,. in West Virginia History, published by the West Virginia Department of Culture and History, Volume XLVIII, 1989
• "James Rumsey and the Rise of Steamboating in the United States," by Brooke Hindle, in West Virginia History, published by the West Virginia Department of Culture and History, Volume XLVIII, 1989.