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[Hartford: Printed by Hudson & Goodwin, 1780]. Broadside, 12.5” x 8.25”. Docketed “Cap. Raynsford” at foot of verso.

[with manuscript order on verso:] 

To Capt. Joseph Raynsford. In consequence of orders from Genl. Douglas you are directed to inlist or peremptorily to detach from your company for the time & service mentioned in the within resolve…two private able bodied effective men…

Canterbury, Connecticut, 26 June 1780. Manuscript order, text area, 7.75” x 7.5”.

CONDITION: Good, foxed, old folds, margins chipped, a few tiny punctures, manuscript order bleeding through to recto, a few instances of ink eating through the paper, but no significant losses to the printed or manuscript text.

A broadside printing of an act of the Connecticut General Assembly passed in response to George Washington’s request and Continental Congress’s order for 2520 Connecticut militiamen, with a related manuscript order from Colonel Obadiah Johnson on the verso.

In compliance with Congress’s directive, the Assembly here orders the raising of 2520 “able-bodied effective” men of the seven brigades of Connecticut militia to be formed into five regiments. The order specifies that each company is to be furnished with one drum and fife; officered with one Captain, one Lieutenant, one Ensign, four Sergeants, and so forth. Each Adjutant was to have an additional pay of three pounds per month, and each Quarter-Master two pounds and ten shillings. It is noted that the “Captain-General” [i.e., George Washington] will give the necessary orders to the Brigadiers General of the respective Brigades, for the apportioning, enlisting, “or if need be, detaching, officering, arming, equipping, and marching said men.”

The five regiments to be raised are ordered to march and rendezvous at Danbury by July 15th (or such other place as the Governor and Council of Safety shall direct) and from there to proceed on the orders of Gen. Washington, and to continue in service for three months from the time of their arrival at the place of their destination, unless sooner discharged. All such able-bodied, effective men who voluntarily enlisted into service by July 5th were entitled to receive, as a bounty, the sum of three pounds, in bills of credit of Connecticut. Additional bounties for providing equipment are specified: a good firelock (12 shillings), blanket (12 s), knapsack (3 s), and cartouch box (3 s). The Selectmen of Connecticut towns are directed to equip those unable to equip themselves and are due the same bounties. If the quota of 2520 men is not met by July 5th, the remainder are to be raised by a peremptory detachment of Connecticut men. All additional persons who enlisted within three days of the creation of the detachment for the stipulated term are entitled to two-thirds of the bounty aforesaid. The order is signed in type by Secretary of the State of Connecticut George Wyllys (1710–1796), a Yale graduate of 1729, who served an epic term as secretary of the colony and the state from 1735 to 1795.

Appearing on the verso is a manuscript order penned by Colonel Obadiah Johnson (1736–1801) composed in Canterbury, Connecticut forty-six days after the General Assembly passed the resolution, to which Johnson refers. His order reads in full:

State of Connecticut. To Capt. Joseph Raynsford. In consequence of orders from Genl. Douglas you are directed to inlist or peremptorily to detach from your company for the time & service mentioned in the within resolve of assemble [i.e., assembly] one Sergeant and two private able bodied effective men liable to do duty out of this state—you will apply to the select men to have said men properly equipped if they do not equip themselves agreeable to s[aid] resolve & have said men ready to march whenever they shall receive orders therefor & make return to Capt. Amos Woodard of the men so inlisted or detached who is to take command of s[ai]d. men.

Given under my hand at Canterbury

26th June 1780

Obadiah Johnson Col.

Born in Canterbury, Connecticut, Col. Obadiah Johnson (1736–1801) served in 1775 as Major of the Third Connecticut Regiment, of which Israel Putnam was Colonel, and was engaged during the siege of Boston and at Bunker Hill. In 1776 he became Lieutenant Colonel of Col. Andrew Ward’s regiment, which joined Washington’s Army at Fort Lee, New York, and marched to White Plains. The regiment saw action at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and encamped with George Washington at Morristown, New Jersey. In 1777 Johnson was appointed Colonel of the 21st Connecticut Militia and in 1778 served with the regiment in Rhode Island. When Newport, Rhode Island was threatened by an English Man of War, he outfitted his men at his own expense and marched to defend the coast from invasion. The General Assembly of Connecticut, of which he was a member for a decade, later reimbursed him. He is believed to have received his military training while fighting Native Americans. He resigned his commission in March 1784 and died in Canterbury in 1801.

Capt. Joseph Raynsford—whose name is also spelled Rainsford in official documents—was also born in Canterbury. He marched with Capt. Benjamin Bacon to Boston in 1775. Enlisting in May, he served in Col. Obadiah Johnson’s Company of Colonel Storr’s and John Durkee’s Regiment. Rainsford saw action at the battle of Bunker Hill. Beginning in July 1776, he served seven months in Capt. James Cleveland’s Company and was in retreat through New Jersey. In 1777 he was in the campaign at Trenton for about five months. After being discharged in January 1779 as Sergeant from Benjamin Bacon’s Company, he joined the Alarm List Company. 

An appealing pair of documents relating to troop-raising activities in Revolutionary War Connecticut.

REFERENCES: Bristol B5063; Evans 16741 (attributing the broadside to printers Hudson & Goodwin of Hartford); Johnson, Alfred. History and Genealogy of One Line of Descent from Captain Edward Johnson: Together with His English Ancestry, 1500-1914 (Boston: Stanhope Press, 1914), pp. 78–79; “Joseph Raynsford” at Fold3 online; “Wyllys, George, 1710 - 1796” at Native Northeast Portal online.

Item #8937

Price: $3,500.00