Beschreibung:

ALLEN, ETHAN, Colonel, Continental Army . Autograph letter signed "Ethan Allen") to Eleazar Bartholomew of Skenesboro [now Whitehall, N.Y.]; Manchester, [New Hampshire], 31 January 1775. 1 page, 4to, 188 x 153mm. (7 x 6./16 in.), small marginal tears at left-hand edge neatly repaired, inlaid to a larger sheet, verso docketed. ETHAN ALLEN, FOUR MONTHS BEFORE THE CAPTURE OF TICONDEROGA Allen (1738-1789), commander of the celebrated Green Mountain boys, settles a debt: "Please to pay Mr. George Patterson Six Pounds Ten shillings [New] York Money and it shall answer so much Towards your Note to me. Your Complyance will oblige...." Allen had been elected "Colonel Commander" of the Green Mountain Boys (an irregular force formed for service in the bitter frontier dispute between New York and New Hampshire over territory which became the state of Vermont); New York's Governor Tryon had placed a price of 100 on his head the previous year. In the wake of the fighting at Lexington and Concord, Allen and 100 Green Mountain Boys, some Connecticut and Massachusetts militia and a force of Massachusetts troops under Col. Benedict Arnold rendezvoused on the shore of Lake Champlain and in a daring night attack succeeded in surprising the British garrison and forcing the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga, its garrison and cannon on 10 May 1775. Rare: only a few letters or documents of Allen have been offered for sale at auction in the past two decades.