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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Unknown A list of the Vessels appropriated to the American Army, loaded with Ordnance & Stores.

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.01202 Author/Creator: Unknown Place Written: Head of Elk, Maryland Type: Manuscript document Date: September 1781 Pagination: 16 p. Order a Copy

Enumerates military stores for use in the siege of Yorktown embarked on sixty-four ships at Head of Elk, Maryland. The names of the ships and captains are recorded.

- Pages 1-3 list 64 ships, enumerating type (sloop, schooner, etc.), name, captain and tonnage. (The captain of the schooner "Dolphin" is listed as "James. Negro.")

Page 4 (entirely in Shaw's hand) lists quantities of ball and shell. (An annotation indicates a quantity of ball "unloaded to give the French the vessel and put on board the others...." Another indicates that a quantity of shell was on a vessel that was "cast away on Back River Point.")

Pages 5-15 comprise "An account of Ordnance & Ordnance stores ship'd on board of several Vesels [sic] at the head of Elk, bound to James River." This account lists ship names, captains and articles shipped in each vessel. Cargo ranges from munitions and weapons to tools and other supplies (among them barrels of flour "for the American Army" and "for the French army"). A "Remarks" column notes transfers of cargo. A note next to the "Dolphin" entry says its cargo was transferred because the vessel was "unfit to proceed." Includes some annotations in the hand of Samuel Shaw.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806

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