2005-11
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 10/31/2005
MUHLENBERG, John Peter Gabriel (1746-1807) Revolutionary War brigadier general, he assisted in the relief of Charleston, took part in the battle of Sullivan’s Island, and was with Washington at Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown. Promoted to major general at the close of the war. Autograph Letter Signed, “P. Muhlenberg: Brig. General” 1p. quarto, in French, April 12, 1781, ordering a march on Richmond and thanking his correspondent for his assistance, it reads “ I have received a letter from the Honorable Major General Baron Stuben[sic], by which he tells me to arrange for you to set your corps out on a march to Richmond at once. Thus, he asks you to be ready and to march tomorrow morning for Richmond, taking care to observe the strictest discipline en route and preventing the men from deviating in order that they will in no point bring harm to the property of the citizens...Be so kind, at the same time, as to accept my most sincere thanks for the zeal and for the activity that you showed during the time that you commanded the cavalry in these parts, with as much regard for the discipline of the troops as for the harm of the enemy...The officers and soldiers of your corps are equally deserving of my thanks, which I would ask you to communicate with them...” VG. Muhlenberg writes from an encampment in Virginia, where he was assisting Baron Von Stueben in the command of the Virginia militia. He had recieved intelligence that Benedict Arnold and British General Phillips were on their way to Virginia with the goal of destroying storehouses of military supplies. Muhlenberg was assigned the taks of resisting them and the ordered march to Richmond was intended, no doubt, to protect that city from British attack. Though the receipent is not named, it is quite likely, given the content and the fact that the letter is in Frnch, that Muhlenberg was writing to Lafayette, who had been in Muhlenberg’s camp to assist him just three weeks before. An important letter written in the closing months of the war from teh Southern theater of operations, where the struggle for Independence was finally won.
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