RARE 1780 CONNECTICUT RECRUITMENT BROADSIDE WITH 3 JULY 1780 LETTER BY COLONEL NOADIAH HOOKER TO CAPT. REZIN GRIDLEY REGARDING RECRUITMENT IN THE 15TH REGIMENT CONNECTICUT MILITIA TO VERSO. 

At a Meeting of the Governor and Council of Safety, holden at Hartford, 30th June, A.D. 1780. Letterpress broadside. [Hartford], Connecticut: [Hudson and Goodwin], 1780. Signed in type by Jedidiah Strong. Approx. 8 3/16 x 13 1/8 in. (21 x 33 cm). Evans 16746. 

WITH Letter signed by Col. Noadiah Hooker (1737-1823) to Capt. Rez. Girdley to verso. Farmington, [Connecticut], 3 July 1780. 1 page. 

A rare Revolutionary War broadside issued by the Connecticut Council of Safety, resolving to raise an additional 1,520 men to be recruited, with 1,000 of that number sent to serve in the Continental Army. By this phase of the war, the Continental Army was facing critical shortages, and recruitment strategies shifted to state-mandated quotas.

Enhancing this rare broadside is a letter penned to the verso by Colonel Noadiah Hooker (1737-1823) to Captain Rezin Gridley (1734-1809), both of the 15th Regiment Connecticut Militia, dated just days after the resolution. He writes on July 3rd, with detailed instructions for recruitment as they pertain to the broadside. The letter reads, in part:

"Sir. You will see by the wishes resolved of the Council of Safety that the Number of Men ordered to Danbury is lessened and that one thousand men from that number are to be ad[d]ed to the Continental Army. 

Therefore your quota for each Department is as follows viz one private for Danbury to be rais'd accord to any former and one private for the Continnental Army which your to inlist by the 10th day of instant July and in case you can't inlist any you now requir'd to detach per authority and able bodied man from the Company you command to serve in the Continental LIne until the last day of next December and you are to see [illegible] Landlord Porter on the [illegible]th day of said July at one o clock AM ready then to March & Join the Army and make return according to custom."

The letter here provides an excellent demonstration of how the state militia worked in the recruitment of manpower to the Continental Army. As Robertson explains in his excellent article on Connecticut militias: "The militia is best regarded as a pool of manpower from which men were drawn, either by enlistment or draft, to serve the needs and obligations of the colony/state. The Continental regiments were recruited from the militia as were the ad-hoc “militia” regiments requested by the Continental Congress, General Washington...When an enlistment expired the men went back into the militia pool."  

Interestingly, the copy held at the Houghton Library, Harvard University, bears a similar letter regarding recruitment. The Harvard copy bears a letter sent by Lt. Colonel Zabdiel Rogers of the 20th Regiment to Captain Elijah Backus, dated 5 July 1780. This suggests the broadside was distributed to the Colonels and commanding officers of the various militia directly. 

Noadiah Hooker (1737-1823) of Farmington joined the war effort for the patriots at the very outset of the war, raising the first troops enlisted at Farmington. As the 6th Company of General Joseph Spencer's Regiment, they began their march on 18 May 1775, and they arrived in Boston nearly 3 weeks in advance of other men enlisted from Connecticut. He was commissioned a Captain by the Colonial Assembly and served in several different regiments. In 1776, he was commissioned a Colonel by the State Legislature, again serving in many commands, including the 15th Regiment of State Militia. He would continue with the Militia even after the war's conclusion. 

A prominent member of Farmington, serving as a representative to the Connecticut General Assembly, a Justice of the Peace and the town's Treasurer. He died in Farmington on 3 June 1823 at the age of 86. 

Rezin Gridley (1734-1809, alt. Rezen, Reason) of Farmington was a long-standing member of the 15th Regiment of Connecticut Militia. Formed in Farmington in October 176. He is recorded as an ensign as early as 1772. He is listed as a Captain in the 15th Connecticut Militia by 1778.

A very important broadside with a contemporary letter from prominent Colonel Noadiah Hooker, illuminating mid-war recruitment tactics of the Continental Army. 

EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE. No copies have ever sold at auction. We located only two copies held institutionally (Harvard University, Houghton Library, f AB7 C762G2 780a; Yale University, Beinecke Library, +0582 1780 6/30). Evans also identifies a copy held at the Library of Congress.  

References

Julius Gay. Farmington in the War of the Revolution. Hartford, Connecticut: Case, Lockwood & Branard, 1893. 

Johnston, Henry P., ed. Connecticut Militia, 1776-1783, The Record of Connecticut Men in the Military and Naval Service. Hartford:1889.

John K. Robertson. "Decoding Connecticut Militia 1739-1783." Journal of the American Revolution. 27 July 2016. 

Lineage Book. National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Vol. XLIII. Washington D.C., 1916, p. 285. 

[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] [Broadsides, Ephemera, Printing, Posters, Handbills, Documents, Newspapers] 

Repair to upper margin. Short marginal tears, some creasing. Tape residue to lower edge verso.