Apr 27, 2017 - Sale 2444

Sale 2444 - Lot 33

Price Realized: $ 1,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1779.) Group of 3 letters to General Edward Hand. Each letter one page, about 13 x 8 inches, with address panel on verso and no postal markings; the 1779 letter with moderate chipping and toning, otherwise minor wear. (MRS) Vp, 1777-81

Additional Details

The first letter is addressed to Hand as commander of Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh) by Archibald Lochrey, a colonel in the Pennsylvania Rangers. Lochrey announces the result of a draft in Hanna's Town on the western Pennsylvania frontier, in which only one captain, an ensign, and 14 privates turned out. Np, 13 August 1777
The second letter is from Richard Claiborne, the Deputy Quartermaster General, addressed to Hand at Wyoming, PA. Claiborne discusses supplies for Hand's forces, including "five large boats . . . loaded with ammunition and eighty tents" and "one boat of hospital stores." Some soldiers apparently learned that their pay was less than the boatmen, and "their behavior . . . would undoubtedly have terminated with bad consequences, had not the vigilance of Coll. Forest and one or two of the officers prevented it." Claiborne offers to write to General Nathanael Greene regarding the discrepancy. Estherton, PA, 5 June 1779
The final letter is addressed to Hand after his appointment as Adjutant General, from Colonel Thomas Grosvenor. It concerns the monthly and annual troop returns from various regiments. Camp Peekskill, NY, 5 September 1781.