Lot Details
Lot 32
WASHINGTON, GEORGE Signed letter to Brigadier General John Lacey, Jr. Headquarters, Valley Forge: 11 April 1778. 1 page manu...
. Headquarters, Valley Forge: 11 April 1778. 1 page manuscript letter in the hand of Richard Kidder Meade, signed "Go: Washington". With integral blank with Washington's franking signature on the address panel, remnants of wax seal. 9 3/8 x 7 5/8 inches (24.3 x 19.5 cm); paper watermarked "C. Taylor". A well preserved and presentable letter bearing two Washington signatures. The letter is unexamined out of its a double-sided plexiglass frame in which the letter is mounted on short cords. There is some faint staining to the right margin and the lower right corner touching a few letters of the signature, a few short tears or punctures at folds, the integral blank with a spot within the address panel, small losses where roughly opened.
AN IMPORTANT TWICE-SIGNED LETTER FROM VALLEY FORGE. The punishing of local Quakers convicted of supplying the British in Philadelphia with provisions while the Continental Army froze and starved just miles away was a critical issue during Washington's Valley Forge ordeal. Here the confinement and corporal punishment of these Quakers is discussed with General Lacey, an excommunicated Quaker himself with intimate ties to that community.
John Lacey, Jr. was one of the first Bucks County Quakers to break the code of pacifism and join the rebellion against British rule. In July 1775, Lacey was made Captain of the newly created Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment. For joining the Continental Army, Lacey was officially excommunicated by his Quaker Friends in early 1776. In that year, Lacey participated in the failed invasion of Canada, but friction with Colonel "Mad" Anthony Wayne led to Lacey's resignation and early return home to Bucks County (see the previous lot in this sale for an account of this campaign). In the fall of 1777, as the War settled near his home in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Lacey was commissioned as a Sub-Lieutenant to seek out volunteers for the State Militia and fought in the Battle of Germantown that October as an unassociated volunteer. His bravery acknowledged, Lacey was placed in command of a regiment later that month and narrowly escaped death during the Battle of Whitemarsh, the last major skirmish between the British and the Americans before the winter encampment. In December 1777, the tattered Continental Army under General Washington encamped at Valley Forge while the British comfortably settled in captured Philadelphia, the two armies just twenty miles but figuratively worlds apart. On January 9th 1778 Washington commissioned Lacey Brigadier General, the youngest in the Continental Army. Lacey was the recipient of a Pennsylvania Militia Regiment formerly commanded by General Armstrong, who at 60 was granted permission to retire from the battlefield after a two-year campaign which had begun with the defense of Charleston in the Battle of Sullivan's Island and had culminated with recent heavy losses at Brandywine and Germantown. By January of 1778, the regiment was severely depleted, reduced to 600 soldiers from 3000. With these few men, Lacey was ordered to protect Washington's encampment from a perilously advanced position between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers. During this winter, while thousands froze and starved without adequate shoes, blankets, food and weapons at Valley Forge, Lacey was constantly harassed by the British in the area and incensed by the local Quaker farmers and shop keepers that consistently sold provisions to the British at a handsome profit despite the illegality of the act. This very topic dominates the correspondence between Lacey and Washington beginning in February 1778 as Lacey, fearful of losing control over this buffer zone, reported being unable to stop the "intercorce between Country and City." To Washington, being unable to gain the support of these Quakers as the line between the armies grew perilously close was of grave concern at this darkest moment of the Revolution. Further, as pacifists, most Quakers refused to join the Continental Army or take the Oath of Allegiance to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. A plan to forcibly move all the farmers living closest to Philadelphia deeper into the country to sever their communication lines with the city was seen as cruel and unusual and was difficult to implement, particularly in the middle of a frigid winter. Exasperated, Washington wrote Lacey on March 2nd "I dont well know what to do with the great numbers of people taken going into Philada. I have punished several very severely..." The problem neared crisis level later in March as Lacey reported to Washington: "every kind of Villiany is carryed on by the people near the Enemies lines, and from their Genl conduct I am induced to believe but few real friends to America is left with in ten Miles of Philada."
The April 11th letter on offer here is Washington's response to Lacey's rather dire letter of April 9th reporting the 2am raid on Continental troops at Smithfield in which at least one Continental was killed. That letter also reported the proceedings of the court-martial which sentenced two "notorious offenders" to numerous lashings on their bare backs and imprisonment during the war; others during the same period were sentenced to death. In a rare direct comment on corporal punishment, Washington here directs Lacey that the worst offenders be sent to the President of the Continental Congress at York to be either imprisoned or put "to labour for five or six months, which will be the active part of the Campaign" while others of "good character" or "those who have any reputable friends in the Country" are to be threatened with hanging if the behavior persists. Acknowledging his limited authority to punish these Quakers after the expiration of the congressional resolution which had allowed him martial law, Washington is forced to instruct Lacey not to apprehend any more of these men but to confiscate their horses and provisions if caught going into Philadelphia. In his response on April 12th, Lacey was again discouraged, writing Washington that many of these Quakers live in the "Vicinity of Philada, and from their general Character, I have not the least hope or incouragement to believe they will refrain from their evil ways, and I cannot learn their friends or connections are more reputable than themselves, unless they are with the Enemy, I will remit their Corporal punishment and send them to Lancaster to Labour."
In this letter, Washington deals directly with the crisis caused by these treasonous citzens and guides the young, recently excommunicated Brigadier General charged with managing the prisoners; it is a poignant letter on a central issue which provides insight to Washington's mentality while encamped at Valley Forge.
C Estate of Lacey B. Smith
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