Apr 17, 2012 - Sale 2276

Sale 2276 - Lot 57

Price Realized: $ 24,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
BARON VON STEUBEN'S TRAVELLING EXPENSES TO VALLEY FORGE LAURENS, HENRY. Autograph Letter Signed, as President of Continental Congress, to Baron von Steuben, welcoming him to the nation's provisional capital. 1 page, folio, with integral blank; minor foxing and edge wear. "York Town" [PA], 14 January 1778
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

President Laurens writes from the temporary home of Congress in York. Von Steuben had recently arrived in York, and was being avidly courted by Congress to help professionalize the American army. On 14 January, the day Laurens sent this letter, Congress formally accepted von Steuben's offer of volunteer services and asked him to join Washington's forces at Valley Forge.
Here, Laurens tries to make the Baron feel at home: "Sir, you may command my best services upon every occasion. I have written Major Gen. Heath to make Your Excellency a tender of money for travelling charges & requested him to afford you every assistance for your journey to Gen. Washington's camp. No doubt, you have discerned before this time that such gold & silver as you may have remaining, will be better kept in the purse than disposed of in current expenses, for which paper money is a proper substitute." Provenance: Anderson's Howe Family sale, 20 December 1917, lot 301; Anderson's Albert M. Todd sale, 22 October 1929, lot 39.