Description:

General in 1778 "such Orders or instructions as you may from time to time receive from His Excellency General Washington Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States"

Commissary General of Issues Charles Stewart sent this temporary appointment as Deputy Commissary General of Issues from Camp Fredericksburgh, near the site of present-day Pawling, New York, to John Fitch. The appointment gave Fitch "Warrant & Authority" to fulfill his responsibilities "Agreeable to the Resolves of Congress and such Orders or instructions as you may from time to time receive from His Excellency General Washington Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States or from me as Commissary General of Issues."

[REVOLUTIONARY WAR.] Charles Stewart, Autograph Document Signed, to John Fitch, November 1, 1778, Camp Fredericksburgh, [Pawling, New York]. 1 p., 8.5" x 13.5". Horizontal and vertical folds with some small paper loss at intersection of folds with minimal effect on text; general toning and small edge tears.

Complete Transcript
Sir
Samuel Gray Esquire Deputy Commissary General of Issues for the Eastern Department being obliged to proceed to the Eastern States in order as well to forward the march of the Convention Troops through his District & to inspect the several posts and Magazines of provisions in the States of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire & Rhode Island as also to settle and adjust the Accounts of the respective Assistant Commissarys of Issues in those States and Collect and examine their Monthly Returns in order to prepare his own Returns and Accounts for Settlement, And as I have been long since fully convinced that Mr Grays District is too extensive for him or any other person to perform the Duty of Deputy Commissary Genl of Issues and make timely and proper monthly Returns, I do (untill Congress may please to confirm or order Otherways) appoint you Deputy Commissary General of Issues for that part of the State of Connecticutt lying East of Connecticut River and that part of the State of New York not included in the Bounds of what is commonly called the northern Department For the Execution of which Duty within the Bounds aforesaid Agreeable to the Resolves of Congress and such Orders or instructions as you may from time to time receive from His Excellency General Washington Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States or from me as Commissary General of Issues This shall be your Warrant & Authority
Given under my hand at Fredericksburgh this first day of November Annoqui Domini 1778.
Chas Stewart
Commissary General of Issues
To John Fitch Esquire Depy Commy Genl
Of Issues for the State of Connecticutt
& Southern part of New York.

Charles Stewart (1729-1800) was born in Ireland and immigrated to the American colonies in 1750. He settled in New Jersey, engaged in agriculture, and was commissioned lieutenant colonel of militia in 1771 and colonel in 1776. In 1774, Stewart was a member of the first New Jersey convention that issued a Declaration of Rights against the Crown and was a member of the colony’s first provincial congress in 1775. The Continental Congress appointed him as Commissary General of Issues in June 1777, and he served on General George Washington’s staff from 1777 to 1782. He served as a member of the Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785.

John Fitch (1743-1798) was born in Connecticut, received little formal education, and was an apprentice to a clockmaker in Hartford. In 1767, he married Lucy Roberts. He opened an unsuccessful brass foundry in Connecticut and then a successful brass and silversmith business in Trenton, New Jersey, which was later destroyed by British troops during the Revolutionary War. After serving briefly as a gunsmith with the New Jersey militia, Fitch left and provided beer and tobacco to the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777 and 1778. He served as deputy commissary general of issues for western Connecticut and southern New York from November 1778. In 1780, he became a surveyor in Kentucky. While surveying in the Northwest Territory, he was captured by Native Americans who turned him over to the British, but he was eventually released. Fitch was also an inventor. On August 22, 1787, he successfully demonstrated a 45-foot steamboat on the Delaware River for delegates to the Constitutional Convention. He received the first official patent for a steam-powered ship in the United States in 1791. After traveling to Europe in search of support for his invention, he returned to the United States in 1794 and settled in Kentucky by 1798, where he committed suicide through an overdose of opium.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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