Nov 29, 2012 - Sale 2296

Sale 2296 - Lot 14

Price Realized: $ 3,120
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 2,000
"THE ENEMY ARE AGAIN FORTIFYING STONY POINT" (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) GLOVER, JOHN. Letter Signed, to Colonel E[phraim] Bowen, suggesting that hanging would have prevented the most recent mutinying of Angell's regiment, describing in detail the heroic ambush by Captain Pope's infantry of 400 cavalry causing the enemy to rout, remarking that desertion rages among the enemy, and relating a brief survey of the position of enemy and American forces in New York. 3 pages, 4to, written on a single folded sheet; faint scattered foxing, remnants of prior mounting at center vertical fold on terminal page. (JMR) Lower Salem, NY, 11 August 1779

Additional Details

". . . I am sorry to learn Angell's Regt. is so lost to all sense of Honor & Gratitude, in Mutinying again, the third time after having so much Sanity shewn. . . . I hope the one under confinement will receive a punishment due for his crimes.
"A few days ago sent down 40 of Moylan's & Sheldon's Dragoons & 40 Infantry from Shepards Regt. . . . They . . . were pursued by 400 of the Enemy's Horse, which came up with & Charg'd them with great Spirit, but the Bravery and good Conduct of Capt. Pope . . . (otherwise the whole of our Horse must have been cut to pieces, the Enemy being ten to one) he dispos'd of his men to such advantage, form'd an Ambuscade while the Enemy were coming on, lay undiscovered till they came within pistol shott then rose up & gave them the whole Charge. . . . The Action was very Sharp for several minutes till the Enemy gave way, leaving about 20 dead on the Spot.
". . . The Enemy are again fortifying Stony Point, they have a post at Verplanks Point, their main Army are within Kingsbridge--their advance posts at Valentines Hill. The Contagion of Desertion Rages very much amongst them. . . . Our Main Army is all in the Highlands, but Moylan's Sheldon's and Armand's Dragoons about 350 & my Brigade; our stationary post is at Lower Salem, . . . with posts advanc'd to Bedford, Horse Neck & Crompond, in short we have an extent of Country 40 miles to guard; . . . O Providence, Providence when shall we return is the general Voice."
Glover (1732-1797) ferried Washington's army across the Delaware to Trenton in 1776, later achieving the rank of brigadier general.