Printed and Manuscript Americana

Boston, September 19, 1779. Single sheet, 9 x 7 1/4 in. (229 x 184 mm). One-page autograph letter, signed by Samuel Adams to Major General Horatio Gates. In full: "Your letter of yesterday's Date is just come to my Hand, and your faithful Messenger judging that it is your expectation, he should return immediately, so as to be at Providence this evening, leaves me time only to assure you, that my own Regard for your Honor will always prompt me to endeavor that it may not be left even to chance for you to be disgraced. Avocations of a publick Nature have prevented my Attendance at the Council the week past; I will certainly communicate your Sentiments to that Board tomorrow, and I am very sure that Gratitude & Honor will operate in their Minds to compleat your Wishes with Regard to Colo. Jacksons Wishes I am your affectionate humble Servt. Saml. Adams". Docketed on verso. Inlaid; creasing from old folds. In mat with an engraved portrait of Adams, and in frame, 14 1/4 x 18 1/4 in. (362 x 463 mm).

A rare war-dated autograph letter by Patriot Samuel Adams to Major General Horatio Gates. This letter relates to Col. Henry Jackson's (1747-1809) Additional Continental Regiment (16th Massachusetts Regiment), then part of the Eastern Department, that General Gates oversaw. At the time of this letter, Jackson's Regiment was enroute from Falmouth, Maine back to Boston, after having assisted in the aftermath of the disastrous Penobscot Expedition--an expeditionary force assembled by Massachusetts that attempted and failed to reclaim the mid-coast of Maine. On August 28, Jackson wrote the Massachusetts Council, who ordered the Expedition, informing them of a possible attack on the town's port. He inquired whether he and his Regiment should defend it, and if so, requested appropriate munitions and provisions to be immediately sent. (Jackson to Massachusetts Council, August 28, 1779). After it was determined that no attack was imminent, Jackson's regiment of 400 troops was ordered to march back to Boston, leaving Falmouth on September 7.

Jackson's Regiment was raised in Boston in January 1777, and saw action in the Battles of Monmouth Courthouse and the Battle of Rhode Island. At the end of the 1779, they quartered in Morristown, New Jersey for the winter.

Not recorded on Founders Online, nor in The Writings of Samuel Adams.