![[ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT]. The Following melancholy News came to hand by the Western Post after the Gazette was put to Press...Defeat of the Western Army. New London [Connecticut]: [Timothy Green and Son], 4 o'clock P.M., [15 December 1791].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01614_0127_000(102407).jpg?w=1)
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[ST. CLAIR'S DEFEAT]. The Following melancholy News came to hand by the Western Post after the Gazette was put to Press...Defeat of the Western Army. New London [Connecticut]: [Timothy Green and Son], 4 o'clock P.M., [15 December 1791].
Broadside 2o (330 x 145 mm). Text printed in a single column. (A few minor stains.) Deckle edges of the sheet preserved on three sides. Provenance: Frank T. Siebert (his sale Sotheby's New York, 21 May 1999, lot 307).
"DEFEAT OF THE WESTERN ARMY": AN UNRECORDED CONNECTICUT GAZETTE HANDBILL EXTRA from the press of Timothy Green, printer of the New-London Gazette since 1763. The broadside is a telling example of the circuitous circulation of news in the pre-telegraph era. As the heading explains, the momentous news of St. Clair's defeat at the hand of the Miami Indians arrived just before Green's weekly issue went to press. The report named some of those killed, and gave a brief narrative of the bloody attack on 6 November. This was deemed significant enough for a separate broadside extra. Green's report was taken from a 9 December Philadelphia bulletin; it in turn quoted an "Extract of a Letter from Richmond, December 1." The Richmond report is stated to have been from a letter from "Mr. Elliot the Contractor" to his wife in Hagerstown, "therefore the truth of it need not be doubted." An interesting parallel is drawn between St. Clair's defeat and another famous wilderness massacre: "The loss on this occasion is...said to be nearly equal to Braddock's defeat..."
UNRECORDED: not traced in Evans, Bristol, Shipton & Mooney, or Johnson's New-London, Connecticut Imprints.
Broadside 2
"DEFEAT OF THE WESTERN ARMY": AN UNRECORDED CONNECTICUT GAZETTE HANDBILL EXTRA from the press of Timothy Green, printer of the New-London Gazette since 1763. The broadside is a telling example of the circuitous circulation of news in the pre-telegraph era. As the heading explains, the momentous news of St. Clair's defeat at the hand of the Miami Indians arrived just before Green's weekly issue went to press. The report named some of those killed, and gave a brief narrative of the bloody attack on 6 November. This was deemed significant enough for a separate broadside extra. Green's report was taken from a 9 December Philadelphia bulletin; it in turn quoted an "Extract of a Letter from Richmond, December 1." The Richmond report is stated to have been from a letter from "Mr. Elliot the Contractor" to his wife in Hagerstown, "therefore the truth of it need not be doubted." An interesting parallel is drawn between St. Clair's defeat and another famous wilderness massacre: "The loss on this occasion is...said to be nearly equal to Braddock's defeat..."
UNRECORDED: not traced in Evans, Bristol, Shipton & Mooney, or Johnson's New-London, Connecticut Imprints.