Monday, January 6, 2014

Collection Now Available: Military Records and Correspondence of Hugh Maxwell, a Colonel in the American Revolution

Recently processed, a collection of military records and correspondence of Hugh Maxwell (Manuscript 27) are now available for research in the Special Collection Department of the State Library.  Maxwell was an army officer who first saw battle when he volunteered for the American army during the French and India War.  He later reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the American Revolution.  Maxwell participated in the battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, and Monmouth, as well as the siege of Boston. 

A letter written by Maxwell during the American Revolution,
addressed to “My Dear,” assumedly his wife or one of his daughters,
to whom he wrote frequently while on tours.
The military records include a muster roll of Maxwell’s men while he was captain in Colonel Prescott’s Regiment in the Continental Army in 1776.  The roll includes the names and rank of the other officers in the company and the list of soldiers.  Also included are correspondences of General William Heath, Colonel John Baily, Lieutenant William Taylor, Captain Adam Baily, and Joseph Thomas.

Of note in the collection are items that evidence the struggles of the government to pay its soldiers and the worries of soldiers of how they would manage to live when they left the army.  Many of the officers and enlisted men had gone months, and in many cases years, without being paid for their services.  The treasury was empty and Congress lacked the means and power to raise money.  The little pay the army had received had not been in cash, but instead paper securities based on a future promise by the government to redeem them in cash. 

Congress, as the war was nearing an end, was becoming increasingly fearful of the ramifications of discharging a large mass of unpaid men all at once. To remedy the situation, Congress furloughed most of the men instead of discharging them, justifying the action by arguing that, while an army in the field was no longer necessary, it may be needed if negotiations with Britain broke down. Maxwell’s papers include a record of Maxwell’s men who had been paid for the month of July, 1776, a promissory note from Joseph Thomas concerning money owed Maxwell as a member of the Second Mass. Regiment, and a copy of a certificate of pay from the Office of Massachusetts Treasurer to Hugh Maxwell.

Caitlin Walsh
Special Collections Intern