American Revolution Manuscripts
From Joseph Rubinfine
Revolutionary War manuscripts from Joseph Rubinfine.
By Michael Stillman
This month we are reviewing our first catalogue from Joseph Rubinfine, although it is his list number 150. Rubinfine specializes in American historical autographs and manuscripts. This particular list is a collection of manuscripts from the American Revolution, all coming from the period from 1775-1783. Most are from military figures, all the way from letters home from an enlisted soldier to messages from George Washington, while a few are from other political figures. Anyone whose collecting interests run to that earlier greatest generation will find the material in this catalogue right up their alley. Those who specialize in signers of the Declaration of Independence will also find many samples here.
There's no better place to begin then the start of the revolution. Item 12 is an original muster roll of minutemen from Wilmington, Massachusetts, who went to Concord on that first day. Wilmington received notice of the upcoming battle by an unknown colleague of Paul Revere, who passed through the town in the early morning hours, probably before dawn. They marched to Concord, and based on their "mileage" allowance, probably followed retreating British troops all the way to Boston. Priced at $90,000.
A year later, Cambridge Massachusetts Town Clerk Andrew Bordman signed a notice directing the town constable to notify residents of a special town meeting to discuss an additional bounty for those enlisting in a regiment bound for Canada, and to hear about losses incurred to the town because of the presence of British and Continental troops. What is particularly noteworthy about this document is its date: July 4, 1776. Item 50. $3,500.
Here is a document requesting a furlough for a sick soldier, dated September 2, 1776, and signed by Joseph Chapman, "sirgin." In it he states that "Stephen Gorham a solder...has bin sick & unfit for duty som time..." He has a "belly ake" and will be of no "servis" until he "gits" fit. Now you can undoubtedly be a good surgeon without being a good speller, but that's a few too many obvious mistakes from someone I would want operating on me. Item 88. $650.
Henry Lee, "Light Horse Harry," was a patriot and skilled horseman from Virginia, who would become a favorite of General George Washington. His accomplishments included raids on British supplies and a successful surprise attack in New Jersey. After the War, he would return to Virginia where he would hold several offices, including governor. In 1794, Washington would call on him to help quell the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. When Washington died, Lee would give the famous eulogy containing the lines "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Later years would not prove so fortuitous for Lee. He would land in debtors prison after land speculation reduced his family to poverty, and would be injured defending a newspaper publisher friend who opposed the War of 1812.
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American Revolution Manuscripts
From Joseph Rubinfine
Dennis Canfield's military discharge contains signatures of Washington, Jonathan Trumbull, Jr.
He remained in poor health from his injuries until he died in 1818. Along the way, Lee would father six children, one of whom would become more famous than he, ironically enough, by trying to dissolve the nation Light Horse Harry had done so much to build. That son would be Robert E. Lee. Item 57 is a 1779 letter the then 23-year-old Lee wrote to Pennsylvania leader Joseph Reed concerning clothing for officers. $1,750.
Here's another father less famous than his son. Item 107 is a muster roll signed by South Carolina Justice of the Peace Patrick Calhoun. Calhoun's son was John C. Calhoun, the famous states rights and nullification senator from South Carolina and one of the great orators of that period between the War of 1812 and the Compromise of 1850, along with Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. $2,000.
George Washington didn't have any descendants, let alone any more famous than he, but the recipient of this letter did. Item 124 is a 1782 letter from Washington to Virginia Governor Benjamin Harrison, apologizing for mistakenly opening a letter meant for the latter. Harrison is no small figure, being not only a Virginia leader but also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. However, his son and great grandson would both go on to be Presidents of the United States. $18,500.
Item 125 also contains a Washington signature. It is a 1783 discharge for Private Dennis Canfield of New York at the end of the Revolution. However, the document also notes that the discharge is only to be considered a furlough until a peace treaty is finally ratified. The discharge also mentions that Canfield was awarded the Badge of Merit for his faithful service. Rubenfine notes that an 1840 census shows that Canfield was still alive at that time, a Revolutionary War pensioner living in Hamburg, New York. This document also bears the signature of Jonathan Trumbull, Jr., Washington's secretary who would go on to be the second Speaker of the House of Representatives, a senator, and Governor of Connecticut from 1797 until his death in office in 1809. $12,500.
War was a bit more gentlemanly in those days. Here is a 1781 letter from Lord Cornwallis to Thomas Nelson, Benjamin Harrison's predecessor as Governor of Virginia and also a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Cornwallis had just arrived at Yorktown and was using Black labor to help build his defenses, British soldiers not being accustomed to heat. However, in this letter to Nelson, Cornwallis assures the Governor that any citizen who has not taken up arms against England may search their camp for "his Negroes" and take them back "if they are willing to go with him." Item 30. $9,500.
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American Revolution Manuscripts
From Joseph Rubinfine
Three letters from Revolutionary War soldier Charles Moile Talbot.
Item 49 offers some interesting correspondence from the British point of view from just before the outbreak of the Revolution. Thomas Hutchinson, Massachusetts Colonial Governor who had recently been replaced, writes from London to Harrison Gray, a colonial official in Massachusetts. Hutchinson is conciliatory, saying that England wants to resolve their differences with the colonists in a generous way, and expresses the hope "that they may terminate in peace, and restore us to the state we were in ten years ago..." Gray's response, a month later in February of 1775, is anything but conciliatory. Gray states that despite the colonists claim to still being loyal to the King, "they give no other evidence of their loyalty, than by disobeying his laws abusing his ministry insulting his representatives and condemning the authority of his Parliament." Gray concludes (not incorrectly) that they no longer want to be ruled by the King, and goes on to say that they will continue to do evil if England does not respond strongly and swiftly. "In that I tremble when I think of the destruction and misery which awaits this once happy and flourishing people (who enjoy more liberty and freedom than any nation under heaven), which nothing short of a due submission to the authority of the parliament of great Britain can avert..." Perhaps Gray overestimated England's power just a bit. Both Harrison and Gray would be named in the Massachusetts Banishment Act of 1778, an act which would forcibly remove them were they to be found in the state, and if they returned after being removed, executed the second time. $10,000.
Banishment wasn't the only punishment suffered by those who found themselves on the wrong side of the Revolution. Item 90 is a 1781 seizure of land owned by loyalist Charles Ward Apthorp by the Attorney General of Massachusetts. Apthorp was a large landowner who aligned himself with the losers and paid dearly for his mistake. $1,000.
While the officers and political leaders get most of our attention, there is nothing more poignant, and as realistic a portrait of war, than the letters of its soldiers. Literacy being what it was then, there aren't a lot of soldiers' letters floating around from the Revolutionary War. Here are three letters to his father from an enlisted man, Sergeant Charles Moile Talbot of Virginia. In the first he speaks of a sad journey to learn more about the death of his brother. His brother John did not die in battle. Rather, he had come down with some sickness, and in just five days had gone from "hearty" to vomiting, fever, and finally death. "My eyes Sheds Tears faster than my pen Sheds ink" the despondent Talbot writes. "Comfort yourselves as well as you [can] is my wish..."
In his second letter, Talbot states the time-honored refrain of "why don't you write me more often?" In his letter Talbot observes "the letter I Recevd of the 10th June Seemed as if it had Come from a part of the wourld where paper was Exceeding Scarce..." In pleading for more correspondence he points out what others may consider "no news" is "quite entertaining to me." In the third letter Talbot recounts his experiences at the battle of Germantown. A little research on the internet indicates that the soldier's father and recipient of the letter, also named Charles Talbot, was a man of reasonable means based on the will he left when he died two years later in 1779. I could not find any more on Charles the son other than he apparently died in 1797 at 40 years of age. These letters were reprinted in the William and Mary Quarterly in 1931. Item 105. $17,500.
Joseph Rubinfine is located in West Palm Beach, Florida, and may be reached by phone at 561-659-7077 or by email at Joerubinfine@mindspring.com.
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