An Account of Blankets delivered to Officers for Soldiers of the Connecticut Line. Autograph document signed by William Little as Issuing Commissary of Supplies and Refreshments. N.p. [Lebanon, Connecticut?], 1778-1779. 1p, approx. 7 1/2 x 12 in. Docketed to verso "Commisy Littles / Accot Blankets / Delivered / No.10." Document identifies twelve deliveries of a total of 516 blankets to multiple officers of the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th regiments of the Connecticut Line between November 1778 and May 1779. Among the officers identified as a recipient of a blanket delivery is Col. Heman Swift (1733-1814), a favorite officer of George Washington sometimes referred to as "General Washington's Colonel."

Yale graduate William Little (1749-1798) served as an Issuing Commissary of Supplies and Refreshments for Connecticut troops during the Revolutionary War. Appointed while still an undergraduate at Yale, Little was responsible for managing and distributing essential rations and supplies to the state's military units. Born in Lebanon, a town that was home to Governor Trumbull's "Pentagon of the Revolution" and served as a major logistical hub during the war, Little may have been connected to Trumbull who was also a Lebanon native.

Little's accounting of blankets represents supplies sent to the 2nd Connecticut Brigade while in winter quarters at Reading (also Redding), Connecticut, during the winter of 1778-1779. The famous "Winter at Valley Forge" occurred from December 1777 to June 1778, the year prior to this accounting. Yet Connecticut troops still faced deprivation and harsh living conditions as they prepared for winter encampment the following year. During the winter of 1778-79, Major General Israel Putnam commanded two brigades of the Connecticut Line that were encamped in Reading, Connecticut. Among these was the 2nd Connecticut Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Jedidiah Huntington, and consisting of the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 7th Connecticut Regiments. The division had been operating along the Hudson in eastern New York during the fall, and was entered into winter quarters at Reading as a position from which it could support West Point in case of attack, and protect the supply depot at Danbury which had been burned by the British the year before.

Having already suffered the horrors of battle, lengthy marches, cold, hunger, and disease, the Connecticut troops encamped at Reading were in December 1778 so disgruntled with their lack of resources that they submitted a petition to Governor Jonathan Trumbull decrying their lack of supplies including blankets. This petition reached none other than General George Washington who wrote to the Deputy Clothier on 8 January 1779 that "It has been represented to me that the troops of Connecticut are in great want of Shirts, Stockings, and Shoes...." The frustrations continued into the following year as troops decided upon the bold resolve to march to to Hartford and air their grievances in person to the sittting Legislature.

A simple document which relays a more significant story of the hardship and deprivations suffered by Continental Army troops not just at Valley Forge but throughout the war.

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Revolutionary War, American Revolution]

Creasing at folds, light toning.