To Amos Turner Captain of the fourth Company In the Second Regiment in the County of Plymouth under my Command. Autograph document signed by Colonel John Cushing Junior (1743-1822), to Captain Amos Turner (1741-1822). Ply[mouth County], [Massachusetts]. 18 September 1776. 1p, 7 1/4 x 12 in. Remnants of red wax seal at top left. An order issued by Cushing directing Turner to prepare the men of his company for a march to Rhode Island.

Document reads, in part: "You are hereby Ordered & Required Pursuent to Orders this Day received from Brigadier [General Joseph] Cushing to Cause the Company of men under Your Command as well of the Alarm List as Training Band from sixteen to fifty years of age without Delay to be Mustered...to see to it & cause the men there drafted to be armed and accounted agreeable...that they May be Ready without Delay to March when Ordered to March to the State of Rhode Island there to supply the Place of a Continental Regiment Ordered from there to the Reinforcement of the Army [in] New York....You are also to Make Return of the Men so Drafted from Your Company to me by the 21st Day of September Instant. Given under my hand and seal this 18th Day of September A.D. 1776."

By September 1776, tensions between the British Navy and Rhode Island colonists had been steadily building. Rhode Island privateers continually harassed British vessels, hauling in large British merchant ships and supply ships. British warships dominated Narragansett Bay, restricting movement and conducting raids, while Rhode Island troops along with Continental forces were heavily fortifying Newport and the surrounding areas in anticipation of a British invasion. Located approximately 30-40 miles from the Rhode Island border, Colonel John Cushing's Plymouth County troops were in close proximity to the simmering tensions. Cushing, who had been commissioned colonel of his regiment in February 1776, was tasked with leading his regiment south to Newport, Rhode Island, where he and his men were in service from 23 September through 20 November 1776. His troops also responded to the alarm at Bristol, R.I., in December 1776, as the British seized Newport.

Cushing served until his resignation for health reasons in 1779. After the war, Cushing removed to South Berwick, Maine. The Old Berwick Historical Society notes that Cushing and his wife, Olive Wallingford Cushing (ca 1758-1853) had been friends of the Marquis de Lafayette. In 1825, when Lafayette toured the United States, he visited Cushing's widow in South Berwick.

[Manuscripts, Documents, Letters, Ephemera, Signatures, Autographs] [Revolutionary War, American Revolution, Colonial America, Massachusetts, Rhode Island]

Document mounted to paper backing. Occasional losses throughout impacting text, but not the overall readability of the document. Crease at bottom below signature.