NOT SOLD (BIDDING OVER)
0.00USD+ applicable fees & taxes.
This item WAS NOT SOLD. Auction date was 2003 Nov 11 @ 12:00UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT
<b>746. WAR OF 1812 LETTER GROUP WITH DESCRIPTION OF AN EXECUTION</b> An extremely uncommon group of four fully transcribed letters in which Ebenezer Foster, apparently a member of the New York State Militia, writes home regarding his circumstances while in the Army. The first three letters illustrate Foster's concern for his wife and family, dislike of the army, and the possible movements of the British, in part: <i>"...Staten Island, October 24, 1814...I must inform you that I was guard on Friday night last and have a bad cold...It has been very cold here for some days past and we have slept cold, but now we have some of Uncle Sam's feathers (and I believe they are like Irish feathers, pick your teeth on one end and...with the other) and we sleep like pigs. You write that you make out very well a days but you are cowards at night...I would not mind being here a days if I could be there at night for it feels a very lonesome to me although there is about 300 in the house...Nov. 3, 1814...It was reported that there was seventy sail of the British about forty miles below this but we hear nothing about them today and yesterday, and I hope that all that there is on this coast will be ordered off. Then I think we should be discharged...I believe that we shall be discharged about the twenty fifth of this month. We have not drew our pay as yet...it is said that they cannot keep us longer than two months without paying and the two months is almost up...</i>". By far, Foster's fourth and last letter is his most spectacular, in which he provides the reader with the only eyewitness account we have seen of a military execution during the War of 1812. This fine letter, written from Staten island on November 21, 1814, reads in part: <i>"... I must inform you that on Saturday last I went to New Utrick [sic] to see a man shot and you may be sure that it was an awful site. There was two regiments regulars and one of Sea fineable formed on three sides of a square, then the prisoner was marched into the square guarded by one hundred men where his grave was dug...His coffin was carried by four men and he and they marched very deliberately behind it and kept time with the musick. When he came within about one rod of the grave the coffin was sat down and his sentence was read to him...The priest made a very handsome prayer, then he kneeled on the coffin and had the cap drawed over his face...There was about twelve men shot him at once which blew him clear of the coffin...The regiments marched round him as he laid by the coffin, then they buried him which closed the scene...I think I shall not want to see one shot again in some time...</i>". Except for clean fold splits and minor toning these letters are in very good condition.<b>$400-500</b>
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