Sterling Stamps September 25, 2021 INTERNET ONLY Auction
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 9/25/2021
[Captain Hitchcock writes from Fort Gratiot], who would become one of the most esteemed American soldiers of the early 19th century, Fort Gratiot, Michigan Territory, October 17, 1828, entered the mails at Detroit with "Detroit / Mic, T." postmark, October 28, "Ship" handstamp in red and manuscript "27 rate," forwarded to New Haven from Litchfield on Nov. 3 with straightline postmark and "10" cent added rate for total of "37" due. The captain writes his brother Samuel about the bad weather, which prevents him from continuing to Green Bay (Fort Gratiot was on the mouth of the St. Clair River, on Michigan's "thumb"). "We were driven back...in a violent gale of wind after losing an anchor & being exposed for nearly two days to considerable danger. We have the Steam boat Henry Clay...I landed my command, upwards of 200 men, at this old stockade work which has been unoccupied during about nine years... On the (Erie) Canal, the whole route from Albany to Buffalo we did nothing but interrupt their soldiers' drunken fun and smash their whiskey bottles. "My next stopping place will be the Island of Macinac (it is now written & pronounced). It is near the outlet of (Lake) Michigan & there is on the Island, besides Military Post a trading fur compy. establishment (of the American Fur Company) ..."Fort Gratiot had been constructed during the War of 1812. From the Floyd E. Risvold collection, realized $2400 in the Spink Shreve January 2010 sale. (Est $2000-3000)
Capt. Ethan Allen Hitchcock Signed Letter, Fort Gratiot, Michigan Territory, 1828 (Est $2000-3000)
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