Lot 82
  • 82

Heath, William, Continental General

Estimate
1,000 - 1,500 USD
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Description

Letter signed ("W Heath"), 1 page (11 1/2 x 7 7/8 in.; 291 x 200 mm), "Head Quarters Robinsons House" [Phillipstown, NY], 7 December 1779, to John Fitch, reception docket on verso, later docket discussing Robinson House on verso; slightly frayed at right margin touching a few characters.

Catalogue Note

After British General John Burgoyne's captured "Convention Army" was transferred to Virginia and Maryland in early 1779, William Heath was reassigned from Boston to the Hudson Highlands. In this letter he thanks John Fitch, a noted inventor and merchant from Trenton, for his assistance in obtaining vital provisions. "I am much obliged by the speedy measures you took for obtaining an immediate Supply of Four at the late alarming Crisis. I hope the Troops will not again experience the like Scantiness of Bread, and I hope by a continuation of your exertions and of which I have the fullest Confidence ample Supplies will be seasonably obtained in future."

The later endorsement—which must have been written prior to 1892, when Robinson House burned down—recounts the eventual notoriety of Heath's headquarters: "This letter was written in the house where Arnold consumated his treason with André. The house is still standing on the east side of the Hudson about 2 miles from West Point."