Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de

Letter signed ("Lafayette"), text in English in the hand of James McHenry, 1 1/4 pages (9 1/4 x 7 3/8 in.; 237 x 185 mm) with integral address leaf, Tyre's Plantation, 20 miles from Williamsburg, to Virginia governor Thomas Nelson reporting on a battle; second leaf inlaid. Together with: a handcolored engraving of Lafayette by Alonzo Chappel dated 1863. Tan linen folding case, brown morocco spine, light brown morocco lettering pieces.

Battle report for Virginia governor Thomas Nelson: "Col. Simcoe was so lucky as to avoid a part of the stroke; but altho' the whole of the light corps could not arrive in time, some of them did. Major MacPherson having taken up fifty light infantry ... and regardless of numbers made an immediate charge. He was supported by the rifle-men who behaved most gallantly and did great execution." After informing the governor of the casualties on both sides, he remarks: "They [the enemy] acknowledge the action was smart, and Lord Cornwallis was heard to express himself vehemently upon the disproportion between his and our killed, which must be attributed to the great skill of our rifle-men."