John Stark letter signed ("John Stark BG"). One page, 8" x 9.75", Saratoga; October 24, 1781. Addressed to "Colo [Cornelius] Vanvechten." Docketed. Brigadier General John Stark writes to Colonel Van Vechten, transmitting intelligence of the enemy's move to Ticonderoga. In 1781, Brigadier General Stark assumed command of the northern department and established his headquarters at Saratoga. In this letter, Stark writes to Colonel Van Vechten, who was stationed nearby, that he received intelligence that British ships may be descending on Ticonderoga and requests the colonel ready his regiment and march to Saratoga. It reads, in full: "By recent intelligence from Ticonderoga I am informed that the Enemy have six Ships at that place. I am induced to believe that they must be there with a design to facilitate their desent [sic] upon this place or the adjacent Frontier. I wish you to collect your Regiment and be here this day if possible with all your men properly armed and accoutered. If they can arrive here by midnight it may answer." Signed, "John Stark BG". Two days later, General Roger Enos wrote to Stark from Castletown that his scout reported evidence of the enemy repairing the fortifications at Ticonderoga. General Philip Schuyler then wrote to Stark on October 29, 1781 that he received similar intelligence and "I conclude the enemy intend a permanent post at Ticonderoga. Perhaps it may prove a cage in which we shall secure them." However, at this same time 500 miles to the south, British General Charles Cornwallis surrendered his army to General George Washington. By November 3, 1781, this news reached the British entrenched at Ticonderoga and they quickly abandoned the area in a matter of days before the expected conflict could occur. The letter is accompanied by a typed transcription and a vignette engraving of Stark in uniform by A. Ritchie. John Stark (1728-1822) fought in the French and Indian Wars as a lieutenant in Roger's Rangers. He was appointed a colonel in the New Hampshire Militia on April 23, 1775, and participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill. He then served under General George Washington (the militia temporarily attached itself to the Continental Army) during the battles of Princeton and Trenton. Stark returned to New Hampshire at the behest of Washington to recruit more men. When he arrived, he learned that Enoch Poor, a fellow New Hampshire colonel with no combat experience, had been made a brigadier general in the Continental Army, while he, a veteran of the French and Indian War and several battles in the current conflict, had been passed over. Furious, Stark resigned from military service. The state offered him a brigadier general's commission in the militia four months later, which Stark accepted with one condition - he would not be under the authority of the Continental Army. As a general, he commanded the "Green Mountain Boys," whose defeat of a part of Burgoyne's army under Colonel Friedrich Baum at Bennington, Vermont aided in Burgoyne's later surrender at Saratoga. Stark served with distinction for the remainder of the war and was promoted to major general by Congress on September 30, 1783. When he died in 1822, he was the last living general of the Revolution. Reference: Memoir and Official Correspondence of Gen. John Stark. Caleb Stark. Concord: Edson C. Eastman, 1877, pages 282-283. A Life of General John Stark of New Hampshire. Howard Parker Moore. New York: Published by the author, 1949, page 471. Condition: Light edgewear with one archival tape repair on verso. Light creasing with minor scattered soiling to verso. Two pencil notations, one partially erased, to recto. HID03101062020 © 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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