[Rarebooks] fa: WAR OF 1812: ALS from EYEWITNESS to 1814 NAVAL SKIRMISH at NEW BEDFORD MASS.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other Naval Americana, auctions ending Sunday, January 27. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/adtanff

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED by JONATHAN ALLEN, from New Bedford [Massachusetts], dated August 23 1814, addressed to Catharine Sanford, Augusta Kenebeck [?Kennebec, Maine]. One sheet folded into four 4to pages (10" x 7 3/4"); writing on the rectos of two pages, with address and postmark ("New Bedford MS. Aug 24") on the verso. Some splitting at the folds with old tissue repairs; closed edge-tear; two holes, presumably caused by the removal of the original seal; light browning and scattered foxing.

Jonathan Allen of New Bedford writes to his sister at the height of the British blockade of New England during the War of 1812. After a brief inquiry about his wife, Allen plunges right into a description of the sort of dramatic incident witnessed by many a coastal town in the course of the war: "This morning we were alarmed by 3 barges being in our river two of which had been on Shore at wests [West] Island & one  took a Sloop in the mouth of aponagansett [Apponagansett] river[.] our two gunboats & one privateer have been in Chase of them all day but they have made their Escape to the Frigate which lies in the Sound[.] wee Expect an attack here soon[.] we heared a verry heavy firing this morning at the westward but have not Larnt what or where it was…"

Some historical background to the incident is provided by Our County and its People: A Descriptive and Biographical Record of Bristol County Massachusetts (Boston History Co., 1899): "Changes in affairs in continental Europe, in 1814, freed a large number of vessels in the English service, which were at once sent across the ocean, and the New England coast swarmed with British frigates, gun brigs and privateers… Of the whole fleet of the enemy's vessels it was left for the Nimrod to be the especial terror of New Bedford. This famous craft captured numberless vessels in neighboring waters and her presence in this vicinity was a constant menace to the village. In short during the eventful year 1814 the people of the village and its neighborhood were in a constant fever of suspense and anxiety… On the morning of June 13, 1814, the guns in Fort Phoenix were fired as an alarm at the approach of seven or eight barges from the Nimrod. The people on both sides of the river were in instant commotion; the militia was hastily gathered, and women and children fled to places of safety. The enemy doubtless saw the preparations for a stubborn defense and the barges did not land, but proceeded on up the bay, and under a flag of truce effected a landing at Wareham Narrows at 11 o'clock in the forenoon. The invaders, numbering 225 men, demanded the surrender of the public buildings, and after stationing sentinels back of the village, the enemy fired twelve vessels and the cotton factory; the latter was saved from total destruction after the soldiers departed… And so the war progressed, and while New Bedford itself did not suffer further direct invasion or destruction, it  will be seen that the operations of the enemy in this vicinity kept the people in constant alarm an anxiety, while business interests, excepting those that came into existence through the war, were paralyzed."

Accompanying the letter is a copy of New England Blockaded in 1814 : The Journal of Henry Edward Napier Lieutenant in H.M.S. Nymphe. Salem: Peabody Museum, 1939. Tall 8vo bound in dark blue buckram; illustrated in black&white, 2 folding maps. One map with tissue repair to the fold; otherwise contents are clean and fresh, firmly  bound.