Lot 91: JAMES WILKINSON

JAMES WILKINSON(1757 - 1825) American general, served as a captain in Benedict Arnold's unsuccessful Quebec campaign. Later he was Gen. Horatio Gates' deputy adjutant general in the Saratoga campaign and was given the honor of bringing to Congress the news of General Burgoyne's defeat. Later involved in the Conway Cabal and in scheming with Burr and in Spanish intrigues. Rare A.L.S. with holograph integral address leaf, 1p. 4to., [n.p.], Nov. 2, 1812 to a Mr. Knight, District Postmaster in New Orleans. In part: "...I regret your precipitate return from this camp...because you should have paid the [?] Regt. agreeably to engagement. Furnish Lt. Davies without delay to pay his Regt. & let him come to this place...I propose the great sum for payment might be in small post rates, to save hazard & expense of transport. You will be pleased to remain in New Orleans until my return, where I shall make some more certain, prompt & convenient mode of paying the troops...". Wilkinson was commissioned a major general in the War of 1812 and in March 1813, his soldiers occupied Mobile in Spanish West Florida. He was then assigned to the St. Lawrence River sector, after Henry Dearborn's reassignment. He led two failed campaigns (the Battle of Crysler's Farm and the second Battle of Lacolle Mills (1814) and was relieved from active service, but he was cleared by a military inquiry.