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Timothy Pickering

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Timothy Pickering

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Auction Date:2015 May 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, 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
Revolutionary War-dated LS, one page, 7.25 x 8, October 26, 1779. Letter written to an unknown recipient. In part, “We have received your letter hinting at the expectation of buying clothes at Newport if the enemy should evacuate that place. Certainly no time should be lost in purchasing these upon the arrival of this event; and upon the first notice of it we will exert ourselves in procuring & sending you money also draw upon the Board for any Sum you can negotiate. We should have written you on the subject of the Clothing ordered by the…General to be sent by you to Springfield; but he informed us he had transmitted you fresh orders to retain the same.” A small notation (perhaps by the letter’s recipient) in the lower left reads, “We have no authority to purchase clothes for officers nor money to pay for them you must purchase none as our agt.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds, and some light edge wear.

Since late 1777, Pickering served on the Continental Board of War, a special standing committee formed to oversee the Army’s administration, including the acquisition and distribution of supplies requested by regiments throughout the colonies. Attempting to purchase much needed clothing “at Newport [Delaware] if the enemy should evacuate that place,” as another harsh winter approached, Pickering faced the familiar response: “We have no authority to purchase clothes for officers nor money to pay for them.” Even General Washington, setting up quarters a hundred miles north in Morristown, New Jersey, would suffer the cold months without desperately needed supplies, resulting in widespread desertions, low morale, and frequent attempts at mutiny. An interesting letter regarding one of the Continental Army’s constant challenges.