BIB_ID
136344
Accession number
MA 554.56
Creator
Rodney, Caesar, 1728-1784.
Display Date
1777 Feb. 8.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1892.
Description
1 item (1 p.) ; 28.3 cm
Notes
Part of a collection of autograph letters by the Signers of the Declaration of Independence; see collection-level record for MA 554.1-60 for more information.
The identity of the recipient is simply given as "My Lord" however a letter from George Washington to Caesar Rodney, dated Morristown, February 18, 1777, making reference to this letter, identifies its recipient as Lord Stirling.
The identity of the recipient is simply given as "My Lord" however a letter from George Washington to Caesar Rodney, dated Morristown, February 18, 1777, making reference to this letter, identifies its recipient as Lord Stirling.
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from Charles Colcock Jones, Jr. in 1892.
Summary
Thanking him the "trouble you have taken in applying to the General - But to my Great Surprise and their everlasting Shame, the last of the Delaware Militia that I, with much pains, brought out to Serve the Cause, passed through this Town, the day before yesterday, on their way Home - So that I have now no Brigade to Join, as Recommended by the General - They Spent near or Quite Three weeks in Marching up to HeadQuarters. Stayed there about one Week without Rendering a Single Copper Worth of Service to the Public - and Then, Tho Solicited by the General to Stay only two weeks now Shamefully Set off, and from any thing I can learn without a discharge - I have been in the Command at this place ever since your Lordship appointed me to it and Shall as Matters are now Circumstanced, Continue Here Untill ordered to some other Post or discharged - If I have given Satisfaction, and can be longer usefull Here or Elsewhere, I Shall, with the greatest Chearfullness Stay on the Service. If not, Shall Expect a discharge - Yesterday, I Sent to HeadQuarters, by way of Princetown, Coll. McCoy's Regiment of Continental Troops. The day before Coll. Reeds Battalion of Jersey Militia went - In the whole about Twelve hundred - more Troops are just now arrived here and Shall be forwarded."
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