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Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1781.) Correspondence between His Excellency General Sir Henry Clinton, K.B. and Lieutenant General Earl Cornwallis. 54, [1], 55-76 pages. 8vo, original plain wrappers, minor wear, inscribed "Sir Henry Clinton and Earl Cornwallis" on front wrapper; extensive manuscript annotations; signatures of Admiral Robert Roddam on inside wrapper and page [3]. [New York, 1781]
Privately printed in British-occupied New York by General Clinton, commander of the British army in America. This pamphlet shares his increasingly acrimonious private correspondence with his subordinate General Cornwallis during the decisive closing months of the fighting. The letters date from 8 July to 10 December 1781, with Clinton in New York and Cornwallis besieged and then defeated at Yorktown, Virginia.
This copy includes extensive annotations in response to Cornwallis's rebuttal, apparently authored by Clinton and written in a secretarial hand. Clinton prepared several of these annotated copies, most of them now held by the Library of Congress. Benjamin F. Stevens in "The Campaign in Virginia 1781" (pages I:xix-xxi, 89) reprints the entire pamphlet, discusses the annotations, and transcribes them from another copy.
The additional leaf after page 54 is not found in all copies, and Stevens also asserts that "pages 71 to 76 are added by insertion" (page xv). Bristol 5251; Sabin 16854. 6 copies seen in ESTC, and none traced at auction since the 1883 Joseph Cooke sale. Provenance: Clinton's brother-in-law Admiral Robert Roddam, who was stationed in England through the Revolution.
