Details
STEUBEN, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von, Major General, Continental Army. Letter signed ("Steuben") to Dr. George Glentworth, Philadelphia, 26 February 1780. 1 full page, folio, integral address leaf, silked from verso.
STEUBEN'S APPEAL ON BEHALF OF A STRICKEN FRENCH OFFICER
Steuben, a Prussian officer who had served in France, trained the raw Continental Army recruits to exacting standards during the critical Valley Forge encampment. Here, writing in the depths of an even harsher winter, when the Continental Army was perilously short of supplies and rations, he appeals, in the rather stilted English for which he was famous, to the head of the Continental Army's Medical Department. A French Officer, Mr. Marcellin, "has been sick in this Town upwards of a Month. He has received from the Continent [the Army] nothing but his Ration of Salt Provisions. This Gentleman has been extremely Sick he's now somewhat better & should want at this Time some Comforts as Wine, Sugar, Tea, Chocolate, &c and good fresh Meat and bread. These things are granted to the sick in all the Continental Hospitals. I will be very much obliged to you if you, Sir, as I interest myself very much to the Officer, & as I hear you are now at the head of the Medical Department, if you will be so good as to let me know where this Gentleman is to address himself to procure these Articles so necessary to him in his Situation. The present dearness of things does not by any means permit him to procure them with his own money."
Steuben's letters are increasingly rare on the market.
STEUBEN'S APPEAL ON BEHALF OF A STRICKEN FRENCH OFFICER
Steuben, a Prussian officer who had served in France, trained the raw Continental Army recruits to exacting standards during the critical Valley Forge encampment. Here, writing in the depths of an even harsher winter, when the Continental Army was perilously short of supplies and rations, he appeals, in the rather stilted English for which he was famous, to the head of the Continental Army's Medical Department. A French Officer, Mr. Marcellin, "has been sick in this Town upwards of a Month. He has received from the Continent [the Army] nothing but his Ration of Salt Provisions. This Gentleman has been extremely Sick he's now somewhat better & should want at this Time some Comforts as Wine, Sugar, Tea, Chocolate, &c and good fresh Meat and bread. These things are granted to the sick in all the Continental Hospitals. I will be very much obliged to you if you, Sir, as I interest myself very much to the Officer, & as I hear you are now at the head of the Medical Department, if you will be so good as to let me know where this Gentleman is to address himself to procure these Articles so necessary to him in his Situation. The present dearness of things does not by any means permit him to procure them with his own money."
Steuben's letters are increasingly rare on the market.