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(WAR OF 1812.) Blackmer, Joseph. Letter describing the Battle of Fort Erie. Autograph Letter Signed to Captain Nehemiah Jones of Westmoreland, NY. 3 pages, 12 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, plus address panel with manuscript "12 1/2"; worn with partial separations at folds, one crude early tape repair. With full transcript. Caledonia, NY, 30 September 1814
In this battle, Americans besieged at Fort Erie attempted a sortie on the entrenched British troops. Though both sides suffered heavy losses, the British lifted the siege soon after. This letter was written by Joseph Blackmer (1767-1848) of Caledonia, Livingston County, NY, whose two sons Jireh and Ephraim had been among the Oneida County militia men who had volunteered to defend the fort. Blackmer was somehow able to visit his sons at the fort on 12 September: "Found my 2 sons at Fort Erie. I carried some necessities for them. The weather being rainy, a battle was expected the first fair day. I left them with great anxiety about their fate on the 17th." Blackmer then quotes from his son Jireh's letter describing the battle: "Our troops composed of regulars and militia attacked the British army in their intrenchments. 3 of their batteries were soon carried. . . . Our regulars retreated and the militia maintained their ground for more than half an hour without any Regular force. Myself and Ephraim were engaged in the warmest part of the action and were under the immediate command of General [Daniel] Davis [of the N.Y. Militia] and near him when he fell. . . . The enemy are now retreating down the river." Since the battle, Blackmer had collected his ailing son Ephraim from the fort: "His sickness originated in his taking a bad cold in storming the British batteries. The ditches were knee deep in water which the men rushed through and returned to the fort, and he was obliged to lie in his wet clothes in a tent without fire."
