Apr 16, 2019 - Sale 2505

Sale 2505 - Lot 17

Price Realized: $ 12,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 12,000 - $ 18,000
"WE SOON FOUND A WAY TO GET SOME MEN TO ALARM THE COUNTRY" (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1775.) Issue of the Virginia Gazette with coverage of Lexington and Concord. 4 pages, 17 3/4 x 11 inches, on one folding sheet; disbound, minor edge wear; uncut. [Williamsburg, VA]: John Dixon and William Hunter, 6 May 1775
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A large portion of the first page is devoted to three firsthand accounts of the Battles of Lexington and Concord which had taken place on 19 April. The first piece is a letter dated 19 April--the day of the battles--which describes how the British advance guard "stop'd every person going over the Neck or any ferry, however we soon found a way to get some men to alarm the country"--a direct reference to Paul Revere's ride. It is followed by a 20 April letter which also describes how "the men appointed to alarm the country on such occasions got over by stealth as early as the troops, and took their different routs." Its detailed description of Lexington can be depended upon, as the author "stood upon the hills in town, and saw the engagement very plain, which was very bloody, for 7 hours. It is conjectured, that one half of the soldiers at least are killed . . . they are this morning entrenching themselves upon Bunkin Hill till they could get a safe retreat."
If these rousing narratives are not enough, the title page also contains a local meeting approving the minutes of the historic second Virginia Convention of 20 March, where Patrick Henry uttered "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A long article recounts the events leading up to the 7 November 1774 Yorktown Tea Party, where a tea merchant claims that if "it was disagreeable to the inhabitants that the tea should be landed, stored or returned in the ship, he was then to propose destroying it." Two long pieces by Governor Dunmore relate to the recent Gunpowder Incident. Content aside, the Virginia Gazette is a scarce title during the Revolutionary era. Massachusetts and Virginia were in many ways the principal hotspots of the rebellion. This newspaper was the first substantial report in Virginia of the rebellion's first battle.