[Revolutionary War]. Alexander Scammell Autograph Letter Signed...

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold on Oct 4, 2012 for:

Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

Get one of these:

Share this lot

Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

[Revolutionary War]. Alexander Scammell Autograph Letter Signed "Alexd Scammell." Three integral pages, 6.75" x 8.5", "Camp Middle Brook [New Jersey]," January 3, 1779, to his mother regarding the state of the Continental Army while at winter quarters, in part:

"It has not been owing to a deficiency of filial Duty...that I have not written you a Letter for so long a space of time, but must be attributed to multiplicity of Business in the station an alwise providence has permitted me to act in; and in which my Duty obliges me to exert my abilities to the utmost in the Service of my oppressed struggling Country. My Health through divine goodness seems perfectly reestablished & I am fixd [sic] in very comfortable winter Quarters. Our army is well cloathed [sic], & have built themselves very comfortable Barracks...a very agreable [sic] reverse to last winter....God grant that the war may soon be over, and that we may all return in peace to our own Homes...with hearts filld [sic] with Gratitude to the God of Armies, who has so often coverd [sic] our heads in the day of Battle..."

With an engraved portrait of Scammell featuring a facsimile signature. Moderately toned along the upper and lower edges; damage on the second leaf from opening at the seal and water staining at upper right corner, but not affecting the text. Smoothed folds are weakened and separating on the second leaf, upper edge. Scammell's signature is very bold.

Alexander Scammell (1744-1781) had fought at Bunker Hill and, as Washington's aide, in the battle for New York City in 1776. In 1777, as a colonel, he led his New Hampshire regiment at the Battle of Saratoga. Gen. Washington's increased dependency on Scammell's abilities is evidence by his order to arrest Gen. Charles Lee at the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778, and to supervise the execution of Major John André in 1780. In January 1781, after resigning as Adjutant General, Scammell resumed his command of the First N.H. Regiment. On September 30 of that year, he was captured by British troops near Yorktown, Virginia. Whether or not he resisted is not known, but according to various accounts, he was shot in the back after he surrendered. Scammell was rushed into Yorktown and treated by British General Cornwallis' surgeons. At Gen. Washington's request, he was paroled and sent to the hospital at Williamsburg where he died on October 6, 1781. He was 34-years-old. His grave has never been found.