Beschreibung:

REVOLUTIONARY WAR]. Manuscript orderly book, kept by First Lieutenant Samuel Smith (1749-1836), serving in Captain John Lacey's Company of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion, under command of General Anthony Wayne dated from 11 June to 22 September 1776, recording encampments in the New York area, the battalion's journey up the Hudson and Lake George to join the Fort Ticonderoga garrison under command of General Benedict Arnold.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR]. Manuscript orderly book, kept by First Lieutenant Samuel Smith (1749-1836), serving in Captain John Lacey's Company of the Fourth Pennsylvania Battalion, under command of General Anthony Wayne dated from 11 June to 22 September 1776, recording encampments in the New York area, the battalion's journey up the Hudson and Lake George to join the Fort Ticonderoga garrison under command of General Benedict Arnold. 4to (8 1/16 x 6¼ in), 70 leaves (141pp). (Apparently lacking 3 or 4 leaves at front and perhaps 4 at back, many leaves folded at corners with loss of few words, last leaf badly damaged). (Disbound). "BLEEDING IN THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY AND THEIR COUNTRY": THE CONTINENTAL ARMY OCCUPIES CROWN POINT AND FORT TICONDEROGA, preparing to repel a British attack from Canada. A highly interesting orderly book from the Continental Army's Northern Department, holding Crown Point and Ticonderoga after the unsuccessful Canadian campaign. (Both forts had been captured from the British by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold in 1775.) In his neat and very clear hand, Lt. Smith records, each day, the site of the encampment ("Fort Ticonderoga"), the daily password ("parole") and countersign, the officer of the day and his adjutant, and enters daily orders from the commander, from the brigade commander, courts-martial, directions for march, and resolutions of the Continental Congress. Among the general officers named are Heath, Wayne, Putnam, Hazen and St. Clair. Smith documents the battalion's stint in New York building earthworks and fortifications ("these posts are to be defended to the last extremity'), an eventful sail up the Hudson to Lake George and, finally, the large garrison at Fort Ticonderoga under command of Arnold. A contigent of "Stockbridge Indians" allied to the American forces are the subject of several entries. A few sample entries: 13 June 1776: "The Party at Kingsbridge to be Reinforc'd...a Guard to be mounted over the Cannon...." -- 14 June: "These additional Artillerymen are to be deliver'd to Col. [Henry] Knox, with their Necessaries, at the Bowling Green...." Tools for entrenching are to be inventoried at outposts including "New York, Long Island [Brooklyn], Governor's Island, Powles Hook...." -- 16 June: A courts martial orders Lt. Oakley be cashiered from the army for "assaulting & Beating without Provocation one Miss Patterson, an Inhabitant of the City of New York." Officers are cautioned that "any Soldier being drunk on parade shall be confined & try'd...." -- 21 June: Smith records a resolve of "the Honourable Continental Congress" prohibiting the sale of ammunition by any soldier and stipulating "the Baggage of officers and soldiers shall be Regulated Conformable to the Rules and Customs of the British Army...." One page contains a list of drum rolls: "in Order that the Soldiers may be acquainted with the sound of the Drum...and understand the meaning of Each Beat...." -- 22 June: "Aaron Burr Esq. is appointed Aide [de] camp to General Putnam," in place of Major Samuel Blatchley Webb (1753-1807). -- 29 June: Records, in detail, as if in a personal diary, the battalion's embarkation on a sloop for Albany, the first night's camp at Dobbs Ferry, the next day's move upriver "the Jersey side...being very Mountainous and Rocky." -- 30 June: Sailing past Haverstraw, "the River being about five Miles wide," they "enter'd the [Hudson] Highlands through a narrow passage..." passing Fort Montgomery, Constitution Island and "a place call'd the West Point, very strongly built of stone...." They arrive at Albany ("an old built town") on July 2, then march to Stillwater and General Schuyler's on July 4, Fort Edwards ("a very strong fort"), Lake George, and finally, on June 12, Fort Ticonderoga, which "is all Decayed, with two redoubts," commanded by Brigadier Benedict Arnold. 15 July: Colonels Arthur Sinclair and Anthony Wayne lay out the encampment for the Pennsylvania regiments. -- 17 July: Wane directs