War of 1812 Letter
Letter
Transcription:
New Orleans 16th October 1812
Sir,
Until the pleasure of the commanding general is known, I do hereby nominate you to do the duty of [Sr.] Deputy [--] [--t-] [P- -.] for the garrison of Baton Rouge, for which service you will receive the additional pay and emolument agreeable to law made & provided in that case. It must however be understood that our function of this appointment will not commence until the arrival of Brigadier General Claiborne with the militia of the Mississippi Territory who is destined to the command at Baton Rouge. The enclosed instructions together with copies is directions of how [-t----s] requisition, [receipts] [& -] [A--s-] be made out, must govern your conduct.
With Respect
I am Sir
Your obed Servant
[Barthup ---------]
[8]:2: [Master] [ge]
Here I have transcribed to the best of my ability a letter sent during the time of the War of 1812. Each “-” indicates a word or letter that I could not decipher. Each word or phrase inside brackets “[]” indicate an educated guess based on context and individual letters.
This is a letter that was written on October 16th, 1812 in New Orleans, Louisiana. The intended recipient was a Lieutenant John Brush that was stationed northeast of New Orleans in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
I would appreciate some feedback or corrections on my transcription of this document. Some of the missing words will be the key to finding more information about the document. To aid anybody who is interested, I researched some background information on the major people and ideas mentioned in the document, as well as the document itself.
The contents of the letter to Lieutenant John Brush were informing him that he was being given a temporary leadership position. However, he was guaranteed this position only until a Brigadier General Ferdinand L. Claiborne arrived at Baton Rouge.
According to some archived information on the ancestors of Abner Brush, entry 50, John Brush was eventually promoted to General. His brother Colonel Henry Brush also served in the War of 1812.
Tags: 1800s, Documents, War, War of 1812