Document Spotlight-“Please, Sir, Could I Please Have Some Clothing?”

Recently transcriber Vpgold transcribed a document that simultaneously recounts the trouble the young nation had keeping its soldiers fed and equipped, and also the troubles soldiers had getting what was owed to them. The letter, penned by army accountant Johnathan Elmer, recounts unfortunate Sergeant Ephraim Dayton’s troubles receiving his clothing allotment from the army. As of July 1788, his clothing vouchers were thirteen months overdue. Elmer seems to take an interest in the situation, and orders that it be resolved immediately.

Read the original document here.

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