Jun 21, 2018 - Sale 2483

Sale 2483 - Lot 81

Price Realized: $ 1,430
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) An anonymous intelligence report on British troop movements smuggled to a New Jersey patriot. Manuscript letter, anonymous and unsigned, addressed to Jonas Crane of Newark, NJ. 1 page, 7x7 1/4 inches, with partial address panel (and no postal markings) on verso; missing the lower portion of the letter with no apparent loss of text other than part of the address panel. [New York?], circa late December 1779
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A remarkable example of military intelligence smuggled out of British New York. The letter was addressed to Jonas Crane, a New Jersey patriot who later died in a raid on Fort Delancey in April 1782 (see History of Essex and Hudson Counties, page 368). It is unsigned but demonstrates close familiarity with British activities. It reads in full: "Gen. Clinton sailed with 8000 men last Thursday, said for Rhode Island, last Saturday even'g lay wind bound at [blank] off Long Island. The Cork fleet is not come in. There was but 2 vessels came in on Sunday even'g viz, a frigate taken at Charles Town and a sloop from the West Indias. Arbuthnot & his fleet are absolutely sent for to the West Indias. Left in New York 1 Hess. reg't, the new Scotch & 1 reg of artillery. On the main battery 27 guns of 24 pounders, 1 smaller & 3 pc of field artillery, 6 pounds, no mortars but a vast number of shells. They have nearly finished the battery between Byards Hill and the North River. No talk of any movements this way. Left New York yesterday Monday about 12 o'clock."
Some of this intelligence can now be corroborated; other bits turned out to be inaccurate. Clinton did indeed leave New York with about 8,000 troops on Sunday, 26 December 1779, but they were bound for Georgia and South Carolina rather than Rhode Island. Arbuthnot's fleet accompanied them, rather than making for the West Indies. The author's description of regiments and guns remaining in the city was likely more accurate, and more useful. Provenance: Sold by Mary Benjamin via her Collector magazine to Henry E. Luhrs and his private Lincoln Library, July 1950; Heritage's Luhrs sale, February 2006, to the consignor.