Manuscript accounting receipt sent to "General Wayne" and signed on behalf of Savannah merchant James Belcher. N.p. [Savannah, Georgia], 23 July 1782. 1p, 7 3/4 x 12 1/2 in. Signed "Errors Excepted / for Js Belcher / J Walker." Docketed to verso "The Honble Brigr. Genl. Wayne / with / James Belcher / 1782 / Accounts." Receipt includes items likely intended for the General's beleaguered Patriot troops, procured in the immediate aftermath of the withdrawal of Loyalist forces following the Siege of Charleston. Totaling £122.4.3/4, the receipt identifies items including "7 1/2 doz white shirts," "96 Felt Hats," "2 Groce large moulds," "3 hundred Needles," "34 1/2 yds brown Holland," and more. 

Following Washington's 1781 victory at Yorktown, Brigadier General Anthony Wayne (1745-1796) was sent by Major General Nathanael Greene, Commander of the Southern Department, to dislodge the British from Georgia. Hampered by a paucity of men, arms, and other supplies, Wayne did not have a force capable of assaulting the defenses of Savannah. Instead, he determined to clear the countryside of Loyalists and contain the British in Savannah. From January 1782 through June 1782, Wayne conducted small-scale operations to cut off Savannah's supplies, battling both the British and their Native American allies. Though Wayne's forces were successful, they suffered greatly in part as a consequence of the British "scorched earth" policy according to which withdrawing British troops burned outposts and everything that could not be transported to Savannah. Wayne described the region as "a perfect desert," so barren that by the time the British finally evacuated the city beginning on 11 July 1782 Wayne's soldiers were in dire need of clothing, food, medical supplies, and more.

On 1 July 1782, just prior to the surrender and evacuation of British troops, a delegation of Savannah merchants came out under a flag of truce to speak with Wayne regarding conditions under which Loyalists would be permitted to remain in the city. That same day, Wayne issued an order which read, in part: "The merchants and traders are immediately to take out an exact and true invoice of all goods, wares, and merchandise of every species, dry, wet, or hard, respectively belonging to them, or in their possession, with the original invoices, to the commissary, who will select such articles as may be necessary for the army and the public uses of the State, for which a reasonable profit will be allowed; no goods or merchandise of any kind whatsoever to be removed,...until the public and army are first served...." Among those merchants compelled to respond to this order was James Belcher (1757-1808), a wealthy Savannah merchant who sustained significant losses upon the British evacuation of Savannah. Duke University Libraries holds the James Belcher papers, including a document from August 1782 in which Belcher claims before the Attorney General of the State of Georgia ten thousand pounds in losses.

A unique accounting document tied to a prominent war hero, and a scarcely remembered closing chapter of the Revolutionary War.

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs]

Creasing at folds, toning, modern pencil notation to left of signature.