PHILLIPS WILLIAM Letter Signed W Phillips as Major General a

Sale 2276 - Lot 96

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PHILLIPS, WILLIAM. Letter Signed, "W Phillips," as Major General and commander of the British Convention Army, to William Heath, Major General in the Continental Army, demanding a refund for supplies not delivered to the prisoners. 1 page, folio; minor foxing. Cambridge [MA], 19 June 1778

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Phillips was captured as part of Burgoyne's command at Saratoga, and commanded the captured forces known as the Convention Army. While in captivity, he carried on a testy correspondence with his American counterpart Heath. This comparatively civil letter concerns supplies delivered by the British for the prisoners' benefit. A British general complaining to an American general about supplies delivered by the British to the Americans--this certainly qualifies as a curiosity: "Mr. Leonard the British Commissary has this instant delivered to me the return of the provisions delivered to James Richardson Esq., Commissary General of the Continental Army . . . . By this return it appears there has been a deficiency in some species of provisions. . . . I therefore, sir, take the liberty . . . to demand the said ballance . . . that it may be paid to me immediately."