United States Revolution collection, 1754-1928.
Title:
United States Revolution collection, 1754-1928.
This collection consists of an eclectic group of records pertaining to the American Revolution. Gathered from diverse sources, it includes correspondence, reports, returns, orders, rolls, military court records, copies of town meeting minutes, petitions, oaths, depositions, and receipts. There is material relating to the early resistance of colonists to British efforts to tighten administration of the American colonies. Such events as the Stamp Act and its consequent resistance, colonial non-importation agreements, opposition to the Tea Act and other unpopular measures, are all illuminated by documents in this collection, as well as the activities of Committees of Correspondence and town meetings. There are some especially interesting documents pertaining to the actions of the convention of committees of correspondence of Worcester County in the period 1774 to 1776. Several items refer to the participation of the French in the American Revolution, including a few letters of Roderigue Hortalez & Co. which was an operation through which Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732-1799) was able secretly to channel French aid to the American cause. Several documents written in French pertain to military organization and training. There are also several documents dealing with charges against and imprisonment of American Loyalists as well as confiscation of Loyalist estates. A series of interesting documents relate to the transport and detention of Loyalists from New York State in Worcester; a group of later documents reveals efforts by Worcester officials to obtain funds from New York to pay for the detention of New York Loyalists in Worcester. The collection contains a large number of official military documents including returns (for troops, provisions, arms, etc.), lists of prisoners, hospitial patients, etc., guard reports, and documents pertaining to courts-martial and courts of inquiry. One such case for which there are many documents is that of the trial of Worcester militia captain Ebenezer Lovel (1730-1817). Included also is a document written in Old German script pertaining to the quarterly meeting of the German Society of the City of New York, 3 January 1785, with a list of its members, including Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben (1730-1794). There are a series of town resolutions enacted by Massachusetts towns and concerning the propriety of forming a new state government. There is also an interesting group of letters from Henry Marble ( -1841) to Breck Parkman (1749-1825), some correspondence of William White ( - ) of Boston, and several documents of George Webb (1740-1825). Among the more notable individual documents in the collection are those with accounts of battles. Two Ethan Allen (1738-1789) letters relate to the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, while another by Joseph Hawley (1723-1788) of Northampton stresses its strategic importance. There are several accounts of the action at Lexington and Concord and an excellent report of the Battle of Bunker Hill attributed to Peter Thacher (1752-1802). Other documents describe the siege of Boston, the campaigns which culminated in the Battle of Saratoga, the Battle of Trenton, and other actions. The collection also includes _four_uncataloged_folio_volumes_, one cataloged folio volume, and _four_uncataloged_octavo_volumes_. The four uncataloged folio volumes and three of the uncataloged octavo volumes contain records of the Continental Army. Folio volume 1 contains, for the most part, weekly strength returns for the period 4 September 1779 to 16 June 1781 for the Third Massachusetts Brigade of Foot (consisting of the 1st, 5th, 7th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 14th Massachusetts Regiments, and, for a time, the 1st New York Regiment). The brigade was stationed at various times at West Point, Peekskill, Steenropie(?), Orangetown, and Camp Totowa. This volume also contains returns for the period 9 July 1781 to 27 October 1781 for the First Massachusetts Brigade of Foot (consisting of the 1st, 4th, and 7th Massachusetts Regiments). This brigade was stationed at Peekskill. Folio volume 2, a continuation of folio volume 1, contains, for the most part, weekly strength returns for the period 3 November 1781 to 25 October 1783 for the First Massachusetts Brigade of Foot (consisting of the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 7th Massachusetts Regiments). The brigade was stationed at various times at York Hutts, West Point, Camp Verplancks, and New Windsor. Folio volume 3 is a record book of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment for the period 1777 to 1783. There are lists of field, staff, and commissioned officers, descriptive lists of non-commissioned officers and privates (noting age, physical characteristics, occupation, residence, birthplace, term and date of enlistment), records of courts-martial proceedings, lists of the dead and deserters, and registers of furloughs and discharges. This regiment was also stationed in the West Point area in the early 1780s toward the close of the war. Folio volume 4 is the Record of the Committee to Settle Pay of Soldiers, 1779-1782, with Extracts of Massachusetts Laws, 1782-1784. It contains resolves of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the minutes of the Committee appointed by the Massachusetts Line of the Continental Army, concerning the army's request for an adjustment in and settlement of the pay of the officers and soldiers because of currency depreciation. Also included are suggested means of obtaining the adjustment (e.g., by determining current prices of beef, corn, wool, and leather), a list of the committee's appointees and their duties, methods of raising taxes to cover the adjustment, and a series of Resolves and Committee Remonstrances over a controversy concerning the House's insistence on deducting from the proposed payment the original bounties given those who enlisted. The Extracts of Massachusetts Laws include the Confession Act of 1782, Marriage and Divorce, Larceny, and Executions. Folio volume 5, a _cataloged_folio_folder_, contains copies of letters of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, 29 April 1775 - 25 June 1775, including circular letters to Massachusetts towns calling for military preparedness in response to a possible British march from Boston, letters containing proposals for the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga, as well as those ordering supplies for Benedict Arnold (1741-1801) during the Ticonderoga expedition. Many letters reflect emergency efforts to raise troops from neighboring colonies, the unrest in the new army (including differences over appointments of officers and poor behavior of troops), and the Committee's refusal to seek cessation in hostilities. All the items in this folder are cited on the catalog card as "U.S. Rev. Coll. Letterbook." Octavo volume 1 contains the same records as folio volume 4, in different handwriting, concerning the Report of the Committee to adjust salaries of officers and soldiers, although the folio volume includes additional memorials. Octavo volume 2 is an orderly book, 1782-1783, kept by Joseph Russell (1757-1837) for Captain Benjamin Heywood's (1746-1816) 5th Company, 6th Massachusetts Regiment. Included are lists of "stipulated prices" for work performed by tailors, shoemakers, and washerwomen; weekly and provision returns; rosters; inspection returns; and a copy of orders issued by Major-General Robert Howe (1732-1786), 17 November 1782, concerning the need to "restrain the marauding" spirit among the soldiers towards the inhabitants. Several provision returns mention women and children as drawing specific amounts of supplies. Octavo volume 3 contains extracts from several Congressional Resolutions (e.g., proclamation of peace, 1783); provisions to be distributed among wounded officers, 1776; salary scales, 1782; duties of the quartermaster-general and his subordinates. The volume includes examples of forms to be followed for recording returns and subsistence-allowance. Also copied into the volume is the Constitution of the Society of the Cincinnati (a fraternal organization of veteran officers), 1783, as well as a list of officers at the New Windsor Cantonment, 1783. This volume may have been kept by Lt. Col. Thomas Cogswell (1746-1810). Octavo volume 4 is the receipt book, 1781, of Capt. Abraham Tuckerman ( - ), Quartermaster of the 1st Massachusetts Brigade. The volume contains receipts for specific supplies sent to regiments at West Point and Peekskill, New York, and Philipsburg, Pa. There are also a few provision returns for Capt. Tuckerman, carpenters, blacksmiths, and others.
ArchivalResource:
5 boxes.1 box ; oversize.5 v. ; folio.4 v. ; octavo.
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