Recently, transcriber Rw1500 brought us a document detailing the movements of a band of Moravian Indians. In what appears to be an intelligence report, the group of approximately 100 men, women, and children had crossed Lake Erie headed for a site they had previously lived on. Too late to settle and raise crops before Winter, the Moravians opted instead to settle temporarily on the Cuyahoga River. The writer, Josiah Harmon, reports that these Indians were known to be friendly to the United States.

Harmon also reports movements of another group of Indians, made up of members of Ottawas and Chippewas. That band was headed north to purchase land near Quebec.

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Transcriber Afoxconti recently brought us a document concerning a financial relationship between the government and Jesse Bowles, of Richmond, Virginia. Bowles had essentially rented his home to a Captain Eddins for nearly a year, during which time the home was used as a hospital. For the period beginning November 1798 and ending October, 1799, Bowles was to be paid the sum of $70.
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There are many more documents awaiting transcription. Take a moment to register (http://wardepartmentpapers.org/scripto/register.php) and choose a document to begin your adventure. You will be doing important work by adding to the historical record, and you never know what you will read!

In the Summer of 1784 two American soldiers, William Moore of South Carolina and Thomas Ward of Maryland, describing themselves as “unfortunate subscribers,” submitted their third petition  for their release as “redemptioners” and asked that their pay be applied as their “redemption money.” They wrote their  letter on board the vessel “Favourite,” dated the 11th of August 1784. It was addressed  to the Commissioners of the Board of War, a standing committee created by the Continental Congress to supervise the army. Moore and Ward stated that they had been captured by the British on the 10th day of August 1780, following the “Capitulation of Charles Town,” and held for several months on British “prison ships and gaols [jails]” and then “forcibly compelled into the West Indies Service.”

Once they were released by the British, they had to find the means to make their way back to America. Having no money, they joined a crew on an American ship as “redemptioners,” meaning that, like identured servants, they had to provide unpaid service in exchange for their passage to America. “The instant we exercised our liberty we embarked for America as redemptioners, having no cash to pay our passage…” As soldiers “who have spilled their blood and hurt their Constitution[their health] for the Independent Liberty of their happy Country,” they are asking the Commissioners to make arrangements so that the states of South Carolina and Maryland will provide their army pay that can be used as ”redemption money” so that they can at last–after almost four years–be released from service.

In late January 1799, George Washington, Commander in Chief of the Armies, wrote to James McHenry, Secretary of War, to discuss an important topic: his new uniform.

New regulations on the Uniform for the Army of the United States had been released earlier that month, approved by McHenry and President Adams. The commander in chief was to wear the following uniform: “a blue coat, with yellow buttons, and gold epaulets, each having three silver stars, with lining, cape and cuffs, of buff…. The coat to be without lappels [sic], and embroidered on the cape and cuffs and pockets.”

Washington wrote McHenry to discuss the execution of this new uniform, particularly the embroidery. The regulations specified that the waistcoat should be buff, but not whether it should be embroidered in the same manner as the coat; Washington worried that an embroidered coat with an unadorned waistcoat might give “a disjointed, and awkward, appearance.” In addition, he expressed his preference for a “light & neat” embroidery over something more ornate.

The general was also interested in the other details. He gave his opinion on the proper size of an eagle for the center of the cockade, as well as its appearance, and requested that McHenry look for a few cockades – “tasty” but “not whimsically foolish” – to send down to Virginia. There was also the question of the style of cuffs and pockets: would they be slashed or not?

Why did Washington make the effort to write to McHenry? One reason is that both McHenry and Washington’s tailor, James McAlpin, were in Philadelphia. Washington enclosed an unsealed letter to McAlpin in the one to McHenry, so that the Secretary of War could review it and pass it along if he felt it described the uniform properly. Presumably McHenry was also expected to tell McAlpin, not Washington, the preferred style of cuffs and pockets.

Washington was also very aware of the importance of a proper appearance. In the letter to McHenry he acknowledged that embroidery and cuffs may seem like “trifling matters” but it was important that the attempt at a new uniform for the Army “should take a right direction,” setting the proper example from the highest rank at the very beginning. Well-executed uniforms provided a sense of unity to the troops, and gave the army a professional appearance. If the clothes make the man, the uniform makes the army.

In 1787 John Fitch constructed the first steam-powered boat in America. Fitch was not the original inventor of the steamboat – that honor goes to the Scottish inventor James Watt – but Fitch successfully brought the technology to the United States.

In a letter to Washington’s Cabinet on June 22, 1790, Fitch applied for a patent for “applying steam to the purposes of propelling Vessels thro’ the water.” Fitch predicted that the new technology would have “great immediate utility” and would have “important advantages… not only to America, but to the World at large.”

Fitch was right, and the steam engine later brought about what Daniel Walker Howe calls the Transportation Revolution in America. The steam engine eased trade between distant regions, particularly benefiting farmers along the Mississippi River and Great Lakes region, and brought innumerable advantages to the American economy through the expansion of markets. Unfortunately for Fitch, his name is not normally associated with the rise of the steamboat in America – that honor goes to Robert Fulton, who was the first American to successfully market the steamboat for commercial use. In 1807, Fulton’s North River Steamboat began regular passenger services between New York City and Albany, a journey of 150 miles in only 32 hours.