(AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1776) Leaves from a memorandum book d

Sale 2404 - Lot 21

Price Realized: $ 2,125

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

"THE 28TH OF OCT 1776 THE BATTELL AT THE WEST PLAINS" (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1776.) Leaves from a memorandum book / diary of a Flying Camp officer under Washington. 9 manuscript pages on 6 loose sheets, each 6 x 4 inches, including a few notes in different hands; folds and moderate wear. Vp, 1775-76

Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

These memoranda were apparently kept by an officer in the 1st Regiment Flying Camp of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, part of the roving Flying Camp battalions which were formed by Congress as a quick-response unit for the mid-Atlantic states in July 1776. They soon joined the main body of Washington's Continental Army for the New York and New Jersey campaigns until disbanded in December 1776. The book may have been kept by Captain Daniel Oldenbrush, though the identification is uncertain.
Four of the leaves record the movements of the regiment in something approaching diary form, although the dating is irregular and the chronology uncertain. The author was just barely able to write phonetic English and was very likely a German-American, judging by the Pennsylvania origin and the heavy accent which comes through the spelling. Through these obstacles, however, comes a narrative of a Continental Army patriot who fought under Washington at the Battle of White Plains.
Page 1 seems to list a series of encampments for the regiment from August 31 to September 9:
31 Reding [Reading] in cam.
1. Lakgrove in cam.
2. Drab in cam.
3. Cruced billed in cam.
4. New Toun [Newton] in cam.
5. Drentoun [Trenton?] in cam.
8. Prinstown [Princeton] in cam.
Lounshvig [Brunswick?] in cam the 9.

Page 2, the most descriptive, mostly records the regiment's movements from 9 October to 10 November, though not in order:
Crost the North [Hudson] River agin Nov 10th 1776
Major [Thomas] Edwards dr 11/6 Sept 9th 1776.
The 9th of Oct 1776 crost the North River on a rivet at Dulanses [Delancy's] Mills the 12th
The 16th the Regulars land at Frog's Point [Throg's Neck]. We had the battell at Westchester.
The 18th of Oct, the battell at East Chester
The 28th of Oct 1776 the battell at the West [White] Plains.

Pages 3 and 4 have three regimental orders:
Wombles Toun in cam 28th 1776. Regimental orter from the General to keep in readines to march at 11 o clock the moro.
Wombles toun in cam, 29th 1776. Regimental orter to keep at readines to march the moro at 9 o clock.
Wodbrich [Woodbridge] in cam 10th [November?] 1776. Retchimentel orter to stay her thel forder orders.
Setled down reg com the 15 1776.

Also inscribed on these pages are three receipts made out to regimental officers (Colonel Samuel Cunningham, Captain Daniel Oldenbrush, and Colonel Curtis Grubb) for bounty money issued at "Fleing Camp" on 28 August 1776 and at Fort Constitution, 18 September 1776 and one earlier receipt made out to Bernhard Laverswyler in June 1775 (in German, possibly misdated).