22
●
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) Alexander, William (“Lord Stirling”).
Recruiting instructions for the 2nd Regiment of New Jersey.
Contemporary
transcript in an unidentified hand of an order from “Stirling, Major Gen’l,” with the name
of the addressee left blank. 3 pages, 14
1
/
2
x 9 inches, on one folding sheet; folds, moderate
foxing, adhesive remnants on final blank, wear to fore-edge with slight loss of text; later
note reading “from Mrs. Lewis Dunham” on final blank.
Camp near Morristown, NJ, 23 March 1780
[800/1,200]
General Stirling (an American with a disputed claim to British nobility) issued this order in
response to New Jersey’s call for 400 new troops, “to continue in said service during the present
war with Great Britain.” Each recruit was required to be “not only able bodied and effective,
but well limbed, of proper height for a soldier, not upwards of forty nor under eighteen years of
age.” British deserters were forbidden. The recruiting officer was authorized to bring along three
soldiers and a drummer, but the party was urged to “behave decently and friendly to the people
of the country, and as clean & well dressed as their circumstances will admit of.”
Stirling sent another copy of this order to General Washington for approval. In his cover letter
to Washington (now at the Library of Congress), Stirling notes that he drew up 12 copies of
these instructions to Colonel Francis Barber, who was to fill in the blanks and relay them to the
various recruiting parties. Some of the recruits gathered through this order were undoubtedly
with the 1st and 2nd New Jersey Regiments the following year at the Siege of Yorktown.
23
●
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.) Ramsay, David.
The History of the
American Revolution.
vi, 359; iv, 360 pages. 2 volumes. 8vo, contemporary calf, worn
and a bit tacky; foxing, second volume lacks free endpapers; early Erasmus Hall library
bookplates on front pastedowns, later library stamps and markings elsewhere.
Philadelphia, 1789
[300/400]
FIRST EDITION
.
WITH
—Ramsay. The Life of George Washington. Frontispiece plate by
Heath. First English edition. London, 1807. Howes R35, R38; Sabin 67687, 67695.
24
●
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION.)
[St. John, Peter or Samuel?]
American
Taxation: Keep These Things in
Remembrance.
Illustrated letterpress
broadside, 14 x 9 inches; folds, toning,
moderate dampstaining.
[Enfield, MA?]: Luther Hyde, 1831
[250/350]
A later edition of a popular broadside poem,
recounting the dramatic events of the Revolution.
Satan’s plan to enslave America by taxation is
thwarted by American patriots: “We have a great
commander, who fears not sword or gun / As bold
as Alexander, his name is Washington.”
24
