(AMERICAN REVOLUTION--1777.) Aaron Ogden. A young future governor describes a New Jersey skirmish and the urgent need for rum. Autograph Letter as regimental paymaster of the 1st New Jersey to Robert Erwin, Deputy Commissary General. One page, 13 x 8 inches, with docketing and address panel on verso; folds, minimal wear, no signature but docketed as from "Aron Ogden" in contemporary hand. Newark, NJ, 10 April 1777 Aaron Ogden (1756-1839) would later serve as a United States Senator and as Governor of New Jersey, but here he was a young captain and paymaster. He writes to a civilian commissary official, requesting barrels of flour, beef and rum for the troops, "or I shall not be able to live among them. Gen'l Steven is here himself and finds a great deal of fault because the people has no rum, as they are almost night and day on fatigue."
On a more serious note, he describes a recent skirmish: "We had an alarm here yesterday of the regulars & Tory recrutes coming to pay us a visit to the number of ab't 300 who attempted to land on our side at Second River, which they affected so far as to get about 30 men over, but were soon oblig'd (by the activity of our troops) to retire with the loss of one of there capts kill'd on the spott and severall more wounded. We had one man shot through the calf of his leg but like to do well."
We trace no other war-date letters by Ogden at auction since 1913.