AUTOGRAPH LETTER TO QUACKENBUSH REQUESTING SHIRTS

Autograph letter signed by John Tyson. Peekskill, New York, 5 January 1777. 2 pages, 8vo. 

A letter written by John Tyson to Maj. Nicholas Quackenbush, Asst. Deputy Quartermaster. In the letter, Tyson writes about asking "Charles to procure for me four or six Shirts but least he should forget shall be oblig'd to you to remind him." Tyson is "absolutely without" these shirts and is hopeful that Quackenbush can send him some. 

While it is unclear who Tyson is, how he writes to Quackenbush reflects a level of familiarity already established. There are records of a John Tyson in the Quartermaster General's Department by 1782 with the rank of "Asst. I Accounts"; one specific document also lists a Charles Tillinghast as an "A.D.2.M." Perhaps this is the Charles Tyson is referring to in his letter to Quackenbush. 

Maj. Quackenbush served in the Quartermaster's department in upstate New York, a pivotal area in the Revolutionary War teeming with more soldiers than resources. In a 2006 sale at Cowan's Auctions, an archive related to Quackenbush not only revealed the conditions he was attempting to address, but also featured the name Tyson in a handful of letters. One letter from Col. Hugh Hughes, Deputy Quartermaster, in April 1777 asks Quackenbush "Why don’t you let me have a Line every Day? Tyson can easily give me a little Narrative of the preceeding Day, and so from Day to Day." Then a letter from Tyson in July 1777 details some recent movements from Washington and his soldiers, with Tyson telling Quackenbush that he "will be easy at Albany." 

An interesting letter worthy of further research. 

References: 

Nicholas Quackenbush - Continental Army Assistant Quartermaster General, 1775-1783

[American Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Founding Fathers, Declaration of Independence, Colonial America, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, James Monroe] [Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]