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As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.” 

Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9

As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.” 

Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9

As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.” 

Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9

As surveyor general of the Continental Army, Simeon De Witt created this map of the encampment at Verplanck’s Point in 1782. The labeled regiments, indicated by their state abbreviations, helped identify the tents depicted in Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s panoramic painting. Washington’s headquarters and the adjutant general’s tent (where L’Enfant stood to paint the panorama) are visible on this map. At the encampment, Thomas Foster, a sergeant in the 7th Massachusetts Regiment, wrote in his journal, “We have here a fine encampment which will furnish the public with a curious map someday or other.” 

Image courtesy of Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Sparks 158.1 (3) Seq. 9

In the terms of the surrender to the Americans, the British were to return all captured property—including human property. The British did not adhere to this stipulation, and instead evacuated thousands of free and formerly enslaved men and women to Canada. Birch Passes, named for British Brigadier General Samuel Birch, were given to those who could prove they sought the protection of the British forces during the war. The passes, such as this example, guaranteed a place on a departing ship. According to the 1783 “Inspection Roll of Negroes,” Deborah received a Birch Pass that allowed her to go to Nova Scotia as a free person. Cato Rammsay, an enslaved man who escaped from Norfolk, Virginia, received this Birch Pass that allowed him to go to Nova Scotia as well. 

Passport for Cato Ramsay to emigrate to Nova Scotia, 21 April 1783; NSA, Gideon White fonds, MG 1 vol. 948 no. 196

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The last letter in Davenport’s collection is dated April 14, 1783, shortly before the Continental Army began to discharge soldiers. It gives us a glimpse at how quickly letters could travel in this period, often because they were carried by individual travelers. His brother wrote a letter on March 28 that James Davenport received on April 7, and it apparently included a reprimand from his father, almost certainly for the language in James’s candid letter of March 25 (suggesting that that letter had made it to Dorchester in just three days). The reprimand didn’t prevent James from making more references to the Molls at home in this next letter, of course.

James Davenport ends this letter fittingly: “Liberty Peace and Independence forever.” He returned home in 1783 and married Esther Mellish in 1784. They had eleven children and James Davenport died forty years later, remembered as a devout Christian and Master Mason, at age 64. His descendants carefully preserved mementoes of his service, including the letters transcribed here as well as his noncommissioned officer’s sword from his service under the Marquis de Lafayette and the various objects highlighted elsewhere here. According to a family story, Esther Mellish used the red wool from a British coat that James Davenport brought home to make a small pair of baby booties for their new child. Carefully preserved by later generations, these booties allow us to imagine how the first generation of American revolutionaries beat swords into ploughshares and began their lives in the new United States. 

Andrew Ferguson traveled west to Knox County, Indiana, in 1844 to apply for an increase in his Revolutionary War pension payments due to the growing pain of his wartime injuries. This written record documents his testimony given at the county courthouse and the support Ferguson’s application received from a fellow Black veteran named Daniel Strother. According to his testimony, Ferguson was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Camden in 1780 and in the head at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781. Two doctors examined Ferguson following his testimony and agreed that his injuries prevented him from earning a living from manual labor. The doctors supported his claim for an increase in his pension payments, but the United States Government denied Ferguson’s request. 

National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC/Fold3.com