American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

2 pages, 7 1/4 x 9 in., creasing and toning throughout, with some wear and loss to edges. 

In this letter to his friend "Tombo," Samuel Jr. waxes poetic time and again, using phrases like "good officers are the fuel without a proper Interspersement [sic] of these here and there the noble fire would soon be extinguished..." throughout the letter. He mentions that he received a line from Tom via his father, who brought it back from Newport. Samuel Ward Sr. is known to have had a shop in Newport after serving as Governor of Rhode Island for a brief period. Ward Jr. mentions by name Colonel Babcock, with whom his father "has a particular Intimacy," recommending his personality to Tom, who will be meeting him soon, apparently. 

Samuel Ward Jr. was born in Westerly, RI. He was commissioned a captain in the Army of Observation in May of 1775 when he was only eighteen years of age. As such, he participated in Benedict Arnold’s attack on Quebec in December under his brother-in-law Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Greene and was captured by British forces. He was released in August of the following year, and was promoted to major in the 1st Rhode Island Infantry Regiment, serving over the next two years at Morristown, NJ, Peekskill, NY, Red Bank (Ft. Mercer), Valley Forge, and at the Battle of Rhode Island on 29 August 1778. Notably, Ward and the aforementioned Greene recruited African American men for a new Rhode Island regiment, which would crucially engage at that battle. Ward was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment in May of 1779 until being forced to retire when the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Regiments were ordered to merge. He turned to business, traveling widely, and most notably serving as president of the New York Marine Insurance Company until 1808. He passed away in New York City in 1832.