On the Battle of Bunker Hill - photo 1
On the Battle of Bunker Hill - photo 2

On the Battle of Bunker Hill

Lot 29
16.10.2020 10:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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$ 8 125
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 411436
Lot 29 | On the Battle of Bunker Hill
Estimate value
$ 5 000 – 7 000
BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL – HUMPHREY, Elihu [?]. Autograph letter, "Camp Roxbury," 25 June 1775.

315 x 195mm (separated upper horizontal fold and losses which affect a few words of text, reinforced with archival tissue on verso, minor dampstains and a few marginal tears).

A Connecticut soldier reports on the Battle of Bunker Hill. Writing from the one of the main camps at Roxbury, Humphrey updates his correspondent on fortification building and a skirmish on Boston Neck. He reports: "the accounts of the Battle that was fought on Bunkers hill on the 17th Instant," writing that it "began in the fore part of the Day our Troops went on in the Night & began to intrench they had Three or four Field Pieces with them they had Got a Considerable intrenchement, The Regulars Landed in the morning under the Cover of their Cannon from Ships & floting batries which Batries they could Bring Neigh Shore they had Surounnded the hill and no way to Git any of our Troops on to the Hill but what must Pass a Narrow Low neck which was in fair Sight & in Gun Shot of their Cannon on Both Sides[.] Genl. Putnam went to their assistance as fast as possible but Did not arive till the whole of our people ware Driven out of their intrenchments tis Said they Could have Supported the intrenchment if their amanition had not failed they shoot it till they had but one Round apiece before they Quted the intrenchment Genl warren was Killed & about 19 of the Conneticuts Killed & a Number wounded the Regulars Lost by the best accounts a Large number Som Say fourteen or fifteen hundred Killed & wounded." A short docket on the verso offers an identification of the author: "Letter from a Soldier at the camp Roxbury 26th June 1775 supposed to be by Elihu Humphrey given an acct of the battle of Bunker Hill." According to extant military records at the National Archives, Humphrey served in Capt. George Pitkin's company during 1775, part of the 4th Connecticut Regiment. Whether Humphrey saw the battle is a matter of conjecture, but one of his compatriots, Hezekiah Munsell, who was stationed at Brookline guarding the shore, recalled he could hear the cannon and "from this elevation I saw Charleston burnt." See Matthew Reardon, "Hezekiah Munsell Goes to War with the Connecticut Militia," Journal of the American Revolution. 19 October 2016.
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