Mar 22, 2018 - Sale 2470

Sale 2470 - Lot 5

Price Realized: $ 25,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
PREPARING FOR THE SULLIVAN-CLINTON CAMPAIGN (AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) WASHINGTON, GEORGE. Letter Signed, "G:Washington," as Commander-in-Chief, to General James Clinton, requesting that he inform Goose Van Schaick that he is to bring his regiment to Fort Schuyler [Stanwix] and relieve Peter Gansevoort; also conveying his intention to send Philip Van Cortlandt and his regiment on an expedition to the frontier. Text likely in the hand of Richard Kidder Meade or Caleb Gibbs. 1 page, folio; silked recto and verso, minor bleedthrough affecting signature from docketing verso in the hand of Clinton, minor loss from separations at folds (not affecting text), faint scattered foxing. "Head Quarters" [Fredericksburg], 17 October 1778
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"I have determined to send Col. Van Schaicks regiment to Fort Schuyler to relieve Col. Gansevoort. You will signify this to Col. Van Schaick that he may be prepared for it--So soon as the Cloathing, expected in Camp, arrives, he shall have an order for a competent supply and will then proceed. He can mention the matter to Col. [A. Hawkes] Hay, who will be looking forward to a provision of Vessels to convey the Regiment to Albany.
"It is also my intention to send Col. Cortland [sic] on an expedition to the Frontier. His regiment will proceed immediately to Poughkeepsie, and he himself will go on before to consult Governor Clinton--I have written to him on the subject."
In anticipation of a campaign to disrupt the repeated raids on frontier settlements in NY and PA by Loyalists and those Iroquois who were sympathetic to the British, Washington sent Goose Van Schaick to Fort Stanwix in the fall of 1778. In the spring of 1779, Van Schaick led a successful 6-day expedition against the Onondaga near Oneida Lake. That expedition began what became known as the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign, in which troops under the command of Generals John Sullivan and James Clinton destroyed over 40 Iroquois villages and their crops, mostly along the Susquehanna River in PA, during the summer and fall of 1779. Philip Van Cortlandt took part in the campaign, commanding the Second New York regiment.