Tilghman, Tench, Aide-de-Camp to George Washington

Autograph letter signed ("Tench Tilghman"), 8 pages (13 x 8 in.; 330 x 200 mm), separate address leaf, Headquarters at Morristown, New Jersey, 3 March 1777, to Robert Morris; letter washed, fraying and soiling  along folds of address leaf, loss on bottom margin from seal tear.  Blue cloth folding case, teal morocco spine lettered gilt.

Colonel Tilghman intercedes on behalf of General Washington and Major General Charles Lee, requesting Morris's help in arranging a parley between the Howes, a Congressional Committee, and Lee, who had been held prisoner in New York since mid-December 1776. Congress authorized the release of six Hessian field soldiers in exchange for Lee, but General Howe insisted that officers be of equal rank to effect an exchange. Tilghman is anxious to hold the conference, as he reasons: "I fear an evil will result from the refusal of this Conference ... People who have been long in Captivity, grow dispirited, and when they think that their Friends do no make use of the Means which they have in their power to procure their enlargement, they are apt to close with any offers of the Enemy." Indeed, less than a month after this letter was written, on 29 March 1777, Lee submitted his plan for ending the rebellion by an offensive that would "unhinge the organization of the American resistance" by gaining control of the middle colonies. Fortunately, the British apparently ignored the strategic advice of their erstwhile Lieutenant Colonel. Lee was finally exchanged in April 1778 for Major General Richard Prescott (see lot 629).