May 22, 2014 - Sale 2351

Sale 2351 - Lot 5

Price Realized: $ 16,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) GEORGE WASHINGTON. Letter Signed, "G:Washington," as Commander-in-Chief, to the President of Congress Henry Laurens ("Sir"), requesting that Congress's decision about the ranks of Woodford and other officers be deferred. Text in the hand of Washington's aide-de-camp Robert Hanson Harrison. 1 page, 4to, with integral blank; minor toning at edges, horizontal folds, docketing on terminal page. "Valley Forge," 26 December 1777
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"The reason of my troubling you at this time is to request that Congress will defer their decision on Genl Woodfords claim of rank for the present. I find that the Gentlemen affected by it are much averst to it, and therefore shall direct the whole to state their Objections, which I shall transmit by the earliest Opportunity, that Congress may be fully possessed of the subject and apprized of the difficulties involved in matters of this sort."
Brigadier General William Woodford objected to Washington that the date of his commission did not account for his appointment as colonel (which he had resigned). Woodford would not tolerate a rank behind George Weedon, Peter Muhlenberg, and Charles Scott. In the present lot, Washington requests that Congress hold off deciding the matter while he collects statements from the interested parties. On March 19, Congress resolved to rank Woodford before the others, prompting Weedon to leave the service.