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Summary:
A detailed glimpse into the daily life of American troops during the siege of Boston. Archive of 35 documents from Samuel Leighton, Captain of a company of volunteers, chronicling their service. The 30th Regiment of Foot formed in the District of Maine (then part of Massachusetts). Following the Battles of Lexington and Concord, in response to the urgent call to arms, marched down to Cambridge the company. The archive includes Leighton’s unique 44-page book of accounts, recording general orders, meetings, hired substitutes, supplies, and receipts for wages in “service of the United Collonies,” remarkably signed by 27 officers and enlisted men. Shirts, shoes, and quantities of rum are recorded with costs, as is “one yard of Black Ribband for a Cockade.” Among the other documents are several 1775 muster rolls and returns, listing officers and privates, and noting those “Dead,” “Deserted,” and “Sick”, and more than two dozen weapon, material, and pay receipts. Several of the documents have been signed by many soldiers: Cambridge, 6 September 1775 with 43 signatures, 31 October 1775 with 43 signatures, and 29 December 1775 with 42 signatures. The largest muster roll, signed by Colonel James Scammon, is 30” x 17 ¾”. In addition to listing the entire company, including the drummer and fifer, the muster rolls record officers and enlisted men who were away on “furlow” and those who were “sick absent.” The receipts list quantities of cartridges, loose balls, powder, and coats. Soldiers promise to return the cartridge boxes to the store if ever demanded, or else the value will be taken out of their wages. Pay receipts, some signed or with marks, variously record payments in pounds, shillings, and “Goold Dollors.”
British troops had first arrived in Boston in 1768, as part of the Intolerable Acts. After the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, first Minutemen and militiamen, and then the Continental Army, arrived to surround the British troops occupying Boston. The siege lasted through the winter, until Henry Knox’s army arrived with cannon captured at Ticonderoga. On the night of March 3, 1776, American troops silently fortified Dorchester Heights. The British, having no choice but to attack or leave the harbor, sailed from Boston on March 27. A detailed listing of this archive appears below. [Siege of Boston]. Thirty-five manuscript documents, mostly relating to the supply of Captain Samuel Leighton’s troops laying siege to the British in Boston. Cambridge and elsewhere: mostly May 1775 - February 1776. Approximately 75 pages of text, written in a variety of hands, various sizes from oblong folio to 12mo, various signatures. Inventory# 20632 $35,000 Historical Background:
Washington arrived in Cambridge on 2 July 1775, two weeks after the Battle of Bunker Hill. His first task was to convert the ill-trained militia surrounding Boston into an army, while at the same time trying to drive the British troops out of Boston. The siege had continued for many months when finally, in February 1776, with much of Boston Harbor frozen, Washington proposed a direct attack on the British forces. The Massachusetts Committee of Safety rejected his plans, and instead proposed that the still unoccupied Dorchester Heights be seized. On the night of March 4th, after an extensive exchange of artillery, American troops under the command of General Thomas seized the Heights. The Americans brought with them prefabricated fortifications. Thus the British awoke the morning of the March 5th to find American troops with artillery fortified in the Heights overlooking Boston. The British commander General Howe was then informed by his naval commander, Rear Admiral Molyneaux, that he would not be able to keep his ships in the harbor with American artillery on Dorchester Heights. Howe had two choices - attack the Americans or withdraw from Boston. By March 17th, the last of the British troops were loaded and, on the 27th, they sailed out of the harbor. The present papers primarily illustrate the administration and supply of Captain Samuel Leighton's Company in the 30th Regiment of Foot commanded by Colonel James Scamman. They include a 44 page Book of Accounts kept by Leighton, recording pay receipts and meetings with soldiers, 3 "Returns," 4 muster rolls for the company in July - September 1775, 15 receipts for guns, and 12 pay receipts for the company. Inventory: Personal Diary and Account Book
Samuel Leighton. Supplies and pay for his Company, mentioning the Battle of Hog Island [Spanning the Siege of Boston and Battle of Bunker’s Hill]. Cambridge & Kittery, May 1775 – March 1776. 6 ¼ x 4 in. 44 pp.; written in various hands, not in strictly chronological order, a few pages lightly crossed out.
20632.01 Includes numerous receipts for orders of supplies (coats, blankets, guns, etc) or wages received for “service of the United Collonies”, signed by soldiers: 1 dating to June 1775 (Cambridge); 3 to August 1775 (Cambridge); 2 to September 1775 (Cambridge); 1 to October 1776 (Cambridge); 20 dating to February 1776 (Kittery); 3 to March 1776 (Kittery). Four pages are lists of goods purchased for Captn James Littlefield at Cambridge, September thru November of 1775, mostly rum and cheese. One page lists several men who hired others to take their place in the service (September - October 1775). One entry of “Generall Orders”, Cambridge, either on or after 2 June 1775: “that all sutch Parsons as have horses in Camp of Elsware that where Taken from hog Iland or Nodels Island [Noddle’s Island] Retturn them amedately to headquarters Excepting Setch horses as the owners hath.” Historical Background:
The Battle of Hog Island occurred 27 May 1775; this order refers to horses taken by American Troops during and after the battle: “a party of the American army at Cambridge, to the number of between two and three hundred men, had orders to drive off the live stock from Hog and Noddle's islands. In attempting to carry out these orders, they were attacked by the king's troops. The combat began on Hog island about five o'clock in the afternoon, and continued almost incessantly till midnight. The attack was made with cannon, swivels, and small arms, from an armed schooner, sloop, and eight or ten barges, upon our people…they afterwards destroyed or removed from both the islands all the stock, a large quantity of hay, and burned all the barns and houses…I believe they have suffered as much as in their precipitate flight from Lexington on the memorable 19th of April. Our killed none! wounded three! Heaven apparently, and most evidently, fights for us, covers our heads in the day of battle, and shields our people from the assaults of our common enemies. What thanks can speak our gratitude!” extracted from the Pennsylvania Journal of 21 June 1775.] Two pages are an Abstract account of how many officers and soldiers (8 different ranks) were in Leighton’s Company (30th Regiment of Foot Commanded by Col. James Scamman, “Army of the United Collonies of North America”) for the month of September 1775, showing their wages (“Witness my Hand this 1.Day of Oct.r 1775.”). Two pages are a receipt for two months pay (Nov-Dec 1775) with 27 signatures of officers and soldiers. Nine pages, approximately, are individual receipts of orders taken from soldiers (not signed) for shirts, shoes, breaches, stockings, buckles, etc.: 7 from May 1775; 11 from June 1775 [including some the same day as the Battle of Bunker Hill]; 7 from July 1775; 23 from August 1775; 2 from September 1775; and 1 from November 1775. Condition: professionally conservation treated and bound in new wrappers. Rare. Return of Leighton’s Company
Two manuscript documents, 12 ¾” x 15 1/8” and 14 ¾” x 12”. 30th Regiment of Foot Commanded by Colonel James Scamman, with an abstract of the pay due to the last day of July inclusive. Of the Maine men who had enlisted in the company (mostly in May 1775), three are recorded as having deserted by July 1.
20632.02-.03 Muster Rolls
Printed and manuscript documents for August-September, 1775. In addition to listing the entire company including the drummer and fifer, the muster rolls record officers and enlisted men who were away on “furlow” (one with another man replacing him) and those who were “sick absent.”
20632.04-.07 Weapon Receipts
Eight receipts for guns, “Delivered to the Soldiers that were Inlisted into the Service from Natick,” fromthe Selectmen of Natick, Massachusetts, 15 May 1775, and from Cambridge, July 4, 1775, signed by the recipients (some with “X his mark”). 2 in small 8vo, 6 quarter sheet slips. The guns were 20632.08-.15 Materiel Receipts
Seven receipts for Stores of ammunition, shirts, shoes, and signed receipts for cartridge boxes and coat money, by members of Leighton’s company. 7 manuscript documents, various sizes. Several signed by as many as 25-40 soldiers, the receipts list quantities of cartridges, loose balls, powder, and coats. Soldiers promise to return the cartridge boxes to the store again if ever demanded, or else the value will be taken out of their wages. Cambridge, 12 August, 29 August, 8 October, 23 December 1775, January 1776.
20632.16-.22 Pay Receipts
Manuscript documents, various sizes. 12 pay receipts, some signed or with marks, record payments in pounds, shillings, and “Goold Dollors.”
Cambridge, 6 September 1775 (43 signatures),
31 October 1775 (43 signatures),
29 December 1775 (42 signatures);
Portsmouth, 18 May 1776.
20632.23-.34 Infantry Formations
20632.35. Miscellaneous Evolutions [docket title]. Manuscript document, 11 ¾ x 7 ¼ in., 1 ½ pp. [52 titles of “Articles” on various types of infantry formations for instruction, including how “to form a column from files by turning while on the march.”]
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