The 30 Minute Rule begins July 8 at 7:00 PM EDT. An Initial Bid Must Be Placed By July 8 at 6:00 PM EDT To Participate After 6:00 PM EDT
Revolutionary War-dated LS from Benedict Arnold with a handwritten confession concerning suspected Loyalist Zachariah Hawkins and British military movements in the Northeast. The LS, signed “B’t Arnold,” one page, 7.5 x 12.25, May 2, 1777. Addressed from New Haven, Connecticut, a letter sent to Meshech Weare as the “President of the Council of the State of New Hampshire,” in full: “Enclosed is the confession of one Zachariah Hawkins, which concurs with several other testimonies from Tories, and prisoners we have lately made. Whether the real designs of the Enemy are known, or these matters held up with a view of deceiving & amusing us is uncertain. I have thought proper at this critical juncture to give you the earliest notice of these matters, and intreat your State to forward on the Continental Troops to their several destinations as fast as possible, and recommend the equipping them with arms, & thirty pounds of ammunition before they march, as they may very possibly be called to action, where they cannot be supplied. The Troops ordered to join His Excellency General Washington, I wish ordered to take this place in their Rout.”
Included with the letter is the original manuscript confession referenced by Arnold, penned in his hand, unsigned, one page, 7.5 x 6, May 2, 1777, headed, “The Confessions of Zachariah Hawkins a Tavern keeper at Darby, taken at New Haven 2d May 1777.” The document reads: “That for sometime past he has harboured a number of Tories, that have passed, and repassed, to and from the Enemy, by whom he understands the Enemy intend landing a body of troops under the Command of Governor Brown at New Haven, who are to be dress’d in green & pass for Russians, another body at or near Connecticut River who are to form a junction at Hartford, a third body to go by the way of the Fish Kills and at all adventures form a junction with Governor Carleton at Albany.” Housed in a custom quarter-bound red cloth clamshell case with dark red leather spine and gilt-stamped spine title. In overall fine condition, with trimmed edges.
Written during a critical stage of the Revolutionary War preceding Burgoyne’s 1777 campaign from Canada, the documents reflect the Continental Army’s heavy reliance upon prisoner interrogations, Loyalist surveillance, and rapidly transmitted intelligence concerning possible British troop movements in the Northeast. Arnold himself expresses skepticism as to whether Hawkins’s information represented genuine military planning or deliberate misinformation intended “of deceiving & amusing us,” a concern reinforced by several questionable elements within the confession itself, including references to “Governor Brown” and a proposed junction with Governor Carleton at Albany. Nevertheless, Arnold considered the intelligence serious enough to urge the immediate mobilization and arming of New Hampshire troops destined for Washington’s army.
The documents acquire additional historical resonance in light of Arnold’s later defection to the British in 1780. At the time of this correspondence, Arnold remained one of Washington’s most energetic field commanders, warning against Loyalist activity and urging the rapid mobilization of Continental troops against possible British operations in the Northeast. Within three years, however, he would secretly negotiate with British authorities to surrender West Point, permanently altering his place in American history.
