Auction Date:2010 Aug 11 @ 22:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Attractive LS, one page, 7.5 x 9, March 31, 1784. Letter to Brigadier General Samuel McCobb. In full: “Enclosed I send you a Resolve of the Genl Court, directing an Inventory to be taken of all the Public Stores & Buildings left at Penobscot after the Departing of the British Troops—I am to request that you will appoint a Suitable Officer under your Command with such Aid as you shall judge necessary to proceed to Penobscot, & give him Instructions in every respect Strictly to carry to carry into effect the Views of the General Court manifested in the enclos’d Resolve, after this Business is effected will you please to transmit me the Results of your doings. I also enclose you an Act pass’d the Genl. Court after their last Session respecting the Refugees, this for your Government.”
Letter is professionally cleaned and backed and inlaid into a slightly larger off-white sheet. In fine condition, with cleaning and preservation as noted, and a light stain to left edge.
While most of the Revolutionary War was focused in the southern United States, in June 1779, a small British fleet landed two regiments of 700 soldiers in the upper reaches of Penobscot Bay, Maine—then a province of Massachusetts. Planning to establish a base from which they could operate against American privateers and offer a refuge for Loyalists, the British enlisted local support and began the construction of Fort George.
The move caused great concern within the Massachusetts General Assembly in Boston, which dispatched a fleet of armed vessels, transports, and more than 1,000 ill-prepared militia to retake the area. Most of the patriots eventually fled during the battle, but not before sinking their own ships, with more than 470 men killed. With British forces now off American soil, Hancock here desires to know of the damage left behind, thus instructing this “Inventory to be taken of all the Public Stores & Buildings left at Penobscot.” The failed Penobscot Expedition was the worst naval disaster in American history until the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It also nearly derailed the military career of Paul Revere, who had participated in events, was court-martialed for disobedience and cowardice, and found guilty but later cleared. A fascinating piece of sometimes forgotten American history.
Auction Location:
5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
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