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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.

Knox, Henry (1750-1806) to Samuel Hodgdon

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.01263 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Place Written: Yorktown, Virginia Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 26 October 1781 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; Order a Copy

Responds to Hodgdon's letter about sending ordnance from Baltimore for the siege of Yorktown (see GLC02437.01249) and hopes news of Lord Cornwallis' surrender reached him before the ships set sail. Asks that the shell and shot be sent to Head of Elk, Maryland instead. Hodgdon was the commissary general of military stores appointed by the Board of War & Ordnance.

[draft]
Camp [inserted: near York] 26 October 1781

Sir
I received your letter from [Baltimore] respecting the shells [inserted: and shot] you were about to send to this place. I hope the news of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis Army reached you before they had sail'd, if so I pray you to have them [inserted: re] landed or which will be better have them transported to the head of Elk and landed there
I am sir your hble ser
HKnox
Samuel Hodgdon Esqr

[docket]
To S. Hodgdon Esqr
26 Octo. 1781.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Hodgdon, Samuel, 1745-1824
Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, Marquis, 1738-1805

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