Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 43

Price Realized: $ 3,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1778.) Gray, Samuel. Letter warning a commissary officer of the imminent arrival of thousands of hungry troops. Autograph Letter Signed as Deputy Commissary of Issues, to Captain Asa Waterman, Assistant Commissary of Purchases in Providence, RI. 2 pages, 8 1/4 x 6 3/4 inches, plus integral address leaf on one folding sheet; minor wear along center fold touching one word, separation along one fold of address panel only. (MRS) Camp White Plains, NY, 30 July 1778
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Samuel Gray (1751–1836) of Windham, CT spent most of the war as a leading commissary officer in the Continental Army. He wrote this letter as thousands of Continental troops gathered in Rhode Island to support d'Estaing's French fleet in an attack British-held Newport, RI. The Battle of Rhode Island took place a month later. "Before this reaches you tis probable the French fleet will be at Rhode Island, the consequence of which remains uncertain. Genl. Washington with the Army remains here & doubtless will till the event of the expedition is known. A considerable body of men will be to feed at Providence before this arrives there. The scarcity of flour I fear will be great."