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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 David Cobb

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.10311 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry (1750-1806) Place Written: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 12 July 1794 Pagination: 1 p. ; 36.1 x 23.6 cm. Order a Copy

Discusses an upcoming trip to Boston, Massachusetts and expresses that "I am anxious that you should [go to] the [Marne ?] with me." Goes on to mention a "Pichgreu," stating "[w]hat a flabigasting he has given the Emperor and his satelites." Watermarked "J Watt & C Patent Copying/Sold by J Woodmason/London." Letterpress copy.

Cobb was a lieutenant colonel of Henry Jackson’s regiment, serving in Rhode Island and New Jersey, and an aide-de-camp on the staff of General Washington. He was appointed a Major General of Militia and rendered conspicuous service during Shays Rebellion. Cobb also served as a Representative for Massachusetts from 1793-1794.
Pichgreu most likely refers to Jean-Charles Pichegru, a French general and political figure of the French Revolution and Revolutionary Wars. He briefly served in the American Revolutionary War and later commanded French forces. Pichegru overran the Austrian Netherlands, occupied the United Netherlands (which the victors reorganized as the Batavian Republic), and routed the allied armies of the Rhine. This sequence of reversals resulted in the disintegration of the anti-French coalition.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Cobb, David, 1748-1830
Pichegru, Jean-Charles, 1761-1804

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