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The Frederick Mackenzie papers contain military documents and several bound volumes relating to numerous aspects of British army administration in the American Revolutionary War. These include returns of casualties, provisions, vacancies, ordnance, and various regiments, as well as scattered orders and memoranda on army policies.

The Frederick Mackenzie papers comprise 503 items: 492 documents, 4 letters, 6 record and orderly books, and a translated book. These are arranged into two series: Documents and Letters and Bound Volumes.

The Documents and Letters series contains a wide variety of materials relating to numerous aspects of British army administration, maintained by Mackenzie in his role as deputy adjutant general. This includes many types of returns, reports, warrants, orders and military instructions, memoranda on various army policies, and abstracts. Although the series spans 1760-1783, the bulk of material is concentrated around 1780-1782, the period during which Mackenzie served under Commander-in-Chief Sir Henry Clinton. The most frequent document type is the return; Mackenzie collected returns for a huge variety of military activities, and they provide ample quantitative information on the distribution and condition of troops, regiments, prisoners of war, stores and provisions, and ordnance. Of particular note are casualty returns, generally broken down by regiment and rank, for the battles of Saratoga (after October 7, 1777), Rhode Island (August 29, 1778), Stony Point (August 13, 1779), Paulus Hook (August 19, 1779), Camden (August 18, 1780), and Guilford Courthouse (March 15, 1781). Other types of returns record information on embarkations, garrisons, accoutrements lost in battle, the strength of regiments, Hessian officers and enlisted men, invalids, horses, wagons, foraging, vacancies, hospital staff, the women and children who traveled and were fed by the army, escaped prisoners, and transports.

The series also includes scattered orders and instructions, including embarkation orders for the Royal Highland Emigrants from Halifax, Nova Scotia (May 18, 1776), orders to officers commanding detachments on board transports (May 15, 1780), a proposed order concerning exchanges of prisoners (July 15, 1781), and a set of instructions for the Inspector of Refugees with information on who could draw rations and the consequences of abusing the army's generosity toward refugees ([n.d.], Box 2, Folder 27).

A few reports and affidavits provide qualitative information on the British during the Revolutionary War.

• An affidavit by Christopher Benson, which describes the destruction caused by anti-Tory mobs in New York City (June 16, 1776)
• A report on the loss of the transport ship Martha, which sank after striking rocks near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. The ship's master "believed every soul onboard to have perished…" after he left in a lifeboat (October 10, 1783)
• A recommendation that "Thirty Negroes from the Pioneer Company [Black Pioneers], may be ordered to be drafted, and to join the three Brigades of Engineers, in order to assist the Carpenters in carrying Materials" (August 19, 1776)

The Bound Volumes series contains seven items, which are lettered A-G and cover the years 1775 to ca. 1812.

• Volume A comprises 135 pages, spanning June 29, 1756-October 6, 1762. It contains copies of 27 sets of articles of capitulation negotiated during the Seven Years' War, including the surrender of forts William Henry, Niagara, and Royal Martinico, the Saxon and Hanoverian armies, and the inhabitants of Guadaloupe and Martinico.
• Volume B contains approximately 95 pages of regulations and orders concerning the 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers. The volume covers the years 1755-1764, and conveys policies concerning military rank, provisions, prices of commissions, the compiling of returns, and other administrative matters. Also included are marching orders for the 23rd Regiment, information on their summer cantonment for the year 1768, and lists of necessary camp supplies.
• Volume C contains 49 pages of military documents in two sections. On pages 1-13 are several returns of ordnance and provisions for October 1782, providing information on stores of wine, howitzers, mortars, and other items. The remainder of the volume contains scattered orders for troops stationed in Boston for May-August 1775 and troop returns for the same year.
• Volume D contains 139 pages of copied proclamations and regulations issued by various high-ranking British military officers, including Thomas Gage, Richard Howe, William Phillips, Henry Clinton, Charles Cornwallis, James Robertson, Robert Pigot, Marriot Arbuthnot, and Valentine Jones. Though not chronologically ordered, the proclamations cover 1775-1780, and concern numerous British army policies. Gage gave the earliest proclamation, dated June 12, 1775 (pp. 1-7), declaring martial law in Massachusetts and promising pardon to all those who laid down their arms, with the notable exception of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. A proclamation by Clinton of June 1, 1780 (pp. 45-48) regards the pardoning of those who took an oath of allegiance to the Crown. A declaration by Major-General Robertson, dated January 27, 1777 (pp. 78-79) notes the pillaging of the Kings College Library and the Society Library in New York City and demands the return of stolen books. In the back of the book are several pen and ink drawings of the locations of British and Hessian regiments near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 4, August 28, and September 1, 1777.
• Volume E contains 40 pages of extracts of general orders given by Sir Henry Clinton between May 11 and November 2, 1778. These concern a wide variety of topics, such as rations, appointments, embarkations, and consequences for deserters.
• Volume F is an orderly book containing the orders of Sir Guy Carleton, commander-in-chief of the British forces. The book covers May 8, 1782, through December 2, 1783, and comprises 292 orders over 240 pages; it opens with Clinton's return to England and offer of congratulations to Carleton, the new commander-in-chief. Many of the orders concern new appointments, the departure of soldiers for England, and the exchange of prisoners of war. Others focus on reigning in army expenditures and preventing corruption. One such entry, dated July 30, 1782, states that, "No person who by his office shall become accountable for the expenditure of Public money is to sit as a Member of the Board for the Examination of Public Accounts." Another order specifies that officers must list the names of servants for whom they draw rations (August 23, 1782).
• Volume G contains a manuscript entitled Elements of Field Fortification, which is Mackenzie's translated copy of one of General Gaspard Noizet-Saint-Paul's published work, Élémens de Fortifications. The work was translated sometime after its publication in 1812.

The George Wray papers contain orders, receipts, correspondence, documents, muster rolls, returns, and several bound volumes relating to Wray's work as commissary of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, primarily during the Revolutionary War.

The George Wray papers contain 11 volumes of correspondence and documents, 3 journals of stores, a volume of muster rolls, an orderly book, a volume of land titles, a trigonometry notebook, two maps, and a blank book. The materials span 1765 to 1848, with the bulk concentrated around 1770-1782.

The Correspondence and Documents series contains 11 volumes of military documents and business correspondence related to Wray's positions with the British Army, first as the Royal Regiment of Artillery's clerk of stores, and later its commissary of stores. The series spans 1765 to 1794 (bulk 1770 to 1783) and contains approximately three linear feet of material. The letters and documents provide ample information about the Royal Artillery during the Revolutionary War, as well as the stores disbursed by the commissary. The materials consist of about 500 orders to issue ordnance signed by Major Peter Traille, who was commander of the Royal Regiment of Artillery in North America; an approximately equal number of receipts for the supplies issued and goods delivered into the regimental storehouse; dozens of letters concerning supplies written between Wray, merchants, and Army officers; approximately 50 muster rolls of companies within the Royal Artillery; and returns of artificers, laborers, and African Americans employed by the regiment, as well as many returns documenting the issuance of weapons, tools, and other items.

The first two volumes in the collection concern Wray's activities as clerk of stores for the Royal Artillery, a position which he held until December 1775; more generally, they pertain to the business of the regiment. Included are muster rolls for various companies of the Royal Regiment of Artillery commanded by David Standish, John Williamson, Anthony Farrington, William Martin, William Johnston, Thomas Davies, and George Anderson. These provide the names of each company's members, as well as their designations as commissioned and non-commissioned officers, bombardiers, gunners, and matrosses. Also present are numerous receipts for items purchased from merchants by the regiment, including cloth (which was often purchased from women--see March 3, 1775 for an example), wood, stones, wheels, shingles, and other items. Many documents also record the ordnance bought for the regiment, such as gunpowder, great guns, small arms, musket balls, and chests for storage (filed under March 31, 1775).

After Wray's promotion to commissary of stores in December of 1775, the documents become more diverse and include a wide variety of returns and other document types. They take account of such matters as the ordnance and stores destroyed and left at Boston (March 12, 1776); the movement of supplies from Boston to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1777; and deliveries made by ordnance transport ships. Major John Grant of the Royal Artillery wrote much of the early correspondence of the period. In one letter, he criticized Wray for drawing on the wrong accounts to cover subsistence pay to a detachment of the regiment (September 13, 1777). In another, he commented on the scarcity of cash in New York and instructed Wray on what to pay for rebel arms brought in by American deserters (February 14, 1779). Wray's incoming correspondence sheds light on the problems and challenges faced by the regiment's commissary, as well as the specifics of the commissary's functioning. Volumes 4 through 9 of the series primarily cover Wray's administration of the commissary while stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, from December 1779 to December 1782. Included are near-daily orders for the issuance of ordnance and stores by Peter Traille, which provide a huge volume of detail on the supplies required by the artillery, as well as records of the items brought into the commissary, including brass ordnance and carriages captured at the Battle of Eutaw Springs (September 18, 1781) and at the Battle of Combahee Ferry (September 10, 1782). Also of interest are numerous inventories of "spare" supplies held by the commissary, a few additional muster rolls for Royal Artillery companies, and other documents relating to the administration of the department.

The Military Journals, Notebooks, and Other Bound Items series contains nine items within five volumes, spanning 1778-1848. Of particular note is a 52-page volume of muster rolls of the civil branch of the artillery in Charleston, which covers 1781 to 1783 (located in Volume 14). In addition to providing names, pay, and remarks on the various white laborers and tradesmen brought in to support the artillery, it also gives basic information on both enslaved and free African Americans, whom it refers to as "Negro servants." The volume classifies them by trade (including carpenters, smiths, "wheelers," sawyers, and general laborers), provides their names and the identities of their masters when applicable, and gives places of residence. Also present is a list of African Americans who acted as servants to particular officers in the Royal Regiment of Artillery.

Another item of interest is an orderly book kept by Wray while in Charleston, South Carolina, 1780-1781 (Volume 13). The book contains orders by Major General Alexander Leslie, Major Peter Traille, and Wray himself, given at the general, regimental, and company level. Wray's orders primarily concern the distribution and transportation of ordnance and supplies, as well as associated logistical issues. Other orders document courts martial, discipline among the enlisted men, personnel matters, and the duties of men in the company. An order of June 9, 1780, offers a reward for information about soldiers who have committed "depredations" against "the unprotected property of the Subjects." An August 23, 1780, order discusses a "parade" of "all the Negroes for Muster." Many later orders in the book specify a training regimen for new recruits.

Other items in the series mainly record stores issued and received by Wray at Charleston. These include an expense book for stores issued at Charleston in 1781 and 1782, a journal of stores received at Charleston in 1780-1782, and two journals of stores issued by Wray in 1778-1779 and1782-1783, with associated receipts and accounts laid into the volume. The latest item in the collection is an 1848 volume of land titles for property in New York, kept by a descendant, John Wray. The volume features surveys of the Wray property, as well as a map entitled, "Survey And Partition of the South Half of Lot No. 93 In the Artillery Patent In the Town of Fort Ann In Washington County And State of New York." A 1784 notebook on trigonometry rounds out this series.

The Map series contains a single map, drawn by Mathew Carey in 1794, and entitled A General Atlas for the Present War: Containing Six Maps And One Chart ... Including Every Place In Europe And the West-Indies, In Which the War Has Been Carried On. This atlas is housed in the Map Division.

The Henry Burbeck papers consist of military and personal correspondence of Brigadier General Henry Burbeck, a career artillery officer in the United States Army (1775-1784, 1786-1815). The papers include Burbeck's incoming correspondence; drafts of outgoing letters; and returns, muster rolls, and other items submitted to Burbeck by officers under his command. The collection is particularly strong in its documentation of the administration and development of the artillery branch of the United States Army in the decade leading up to the War of 1812. In addition to this finding aid, the Clements Library has created three other research aids: a Correspondent Inventory, a Chronological Inventory, and a Geographic Inventory

The Henry Burbeck papers (approximately 2,300 items) consist of military and personal correspondence of Brigadier General Henry Burbeck, a career artillery officer in the United States army (1775-1784, 1786-1815). The papers include Burbeck's incoming correspondence (approx. 1,350 items), drafts of outgoing letters (approx. 360 items), returns and muster rolls submitted to Burbeck by officers under his command (approx. 190 items), an orderly book, manuscript maps (10 items), and other financial and military papers. The collection is particularly strong in documenting the administration and development of the artillery branch of the United States Army in the decade leading up to the outbreak of the War of 1812.

The Correspondence and Documents series (approximately 2,220 items) contains Burbeck’s incoming and outgoing correspondence with military officers, army contractors, politicians, and other officials. Frequent correspondents represented in the collection include Secretary of War Henry Dearborn; as well as artillery officers Amos Stoddard, Moses Porter, Richard Whiley, George Armistead, James House, Nehemiah Freeman; and many others. Over seventy incoming letters are addressed to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn, which were then forwarded to Burbeck. The series includes returns, muster rolls, inventories, receipts, General Orders, instructions, memorandums, courts-martial documents, contracts, oaths of allegiance, and other miscellaneous items.

The bulk of the manuscripts in this series reveal practical day to day concerns of U.S. Army artillery officers, such as recruitment of men, desertions, provisions, payments, and exercises and drills. A frequent topic of concern was the recruitment and provisioning of musicians. Over 10 letters and documents, for example, relate to Francesco Masi, an Italian musician who served under Captain Nehemiah Freeman at Fort Independence in Boston harbor. Additional regular subjects include the planning and construction of artillery and shot, and the construction of coastal and internal fortifications. Henry Burbeck and other officers provided detailed reports on the forts occupied and constructed by American troops. Examples include: Fort Hale (October 24, 1811), Fort Trumbull (Oct 25, 1811), Fort Eustis (September 11, 1810), Castle Williams (October 1810), Fort Independence (October 5, 1811), Fort Niagara (September 29, 1808), Fort Detroit (November 5, 1808), Fort Mifflin (November 17, 1811), Newport, Rhode Island (October 25, 1811), Fort Norfolk and Fort Nelson (November 4, 1811), and Fort Powhatan (December 14, 1811).

Many letters are concerned with the design and testing of guns, shot, and gun-carriages. These subjects are especially prevalent in correspondence between Burbeck and contractors Jacob Eustis and Henry Foxall; and correspondence between Burbeck, Lieutenant Samuel Perkins, and Captain George Bomford, head of the United States Arsenal at New York. The collection's correspondence is focused almost exclusively on military affairs, with only a small number of letters related to Burbeck’s personal affairs. One example is twelve letters between Burbeck and Elisha Sigourney, an associate in Boston, concerning financial matters.

• Marriage certificate dated February 27, 1790, for Henry Burbeck and Abigail Webb for their wedding on February 25, 1790.
• Magret Dowland ALS dated March 2, 1803. An enlisted man’s wife asked for back pay owed to her for working as Matron of the Hospital.
• A copy of instructions given by Burbeck to Captain John Whistler dated July 13, 1803, in which he gave Whistler instructions to establish Fort Dearborn.
• Simon Levy ALS dated April 12, 1805. Levy, the first Jewish and second ever graduate of West Point, asked to be transferred for health reasons.
• Return J. Meigs, Sr. ALS dated January 1, 1807. Meigs wrote concerning settler and Native American relations in Tennessee.
• Samuel Dyson ALS dated August 10, 1807. Dyson wrote that he had received news of an imminent Native American attack on Detroit.
• Draft from Henry Burbeck dated November 1808. Burbeck wrote to John Walbach complaining of being sent to Detroit.
• Satterlee Clark ALS dated November 2, 1811. Clark gave a detailed description (5 pages) of a fight between a sergeant and an artificer on the wharf in Annapolis.
• Draft from Henry Burbeck dated February 8-9, 1812. On the back of this draft, Burbeck wrote to an unnamed correspondent giving his feelings on how women should sit for their portrait.

The Revolutionary War Reminiscences series (11 items) contains draft copies of letters written by Burbeck in the later years of his life, in which he described his service in the American Revolution. He focused particularly on his memories of the evacuation of New York in September 1776. Of particular note is one draft (December 24, 1847) in which Burbeck wrote in detail about the changes in uniform and appearance of American officers after the arrival of Baron Von Steuben. At least one of the drafts was intended for Charles Davies of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati.

The Orderly Book series (1 item) contains a 114-page bound volume dating from January 2, 1784, to May 16, 1784. This volume respects day to day activities of the First American Regiment, a unit of the Continental Army organized at West Point in the months following the ratification of the Treaty of Paris (1783). Most of the entries regard daily duty assignments, courts-martial proceedings, and promotions. The orderly book concludes weeks before the disbandment of the regiment.

The Maps series (10 items) is made up primarily of manuscript maps of fortifications dating from 1790 to 1811. One item of note is the 1790 map of Fort St. Tammany given to Burbeck by Surgeon's Mate Nathan Hayward. Burbeck personally oversaw the construction of Fort St. Tammany, and this item contains a detailed depiction of the garrison, complete with an American flag. Please see the "Separated Items" section of the finding aid below for a complete list of the maps present in the Henry Burbeck papers.

The Printed Materials series (58 items) is comprised of printed circulars issued by the United States Government and Army, blank enlistment forms, and personal materials collected by and about Henry Burbeck (including newspaper articles and other published items). A copy of the Second Congress's 1791Act for Making Further and More Effectual Provision for the Protection of the Frontier of the United States is housed in the Oversize Printed Materials folder. A small number of bound items include a copy of Andre; a Tragedy in Five Acts (1798), and 19th century booklets on military and artillery tactics. Two copies of an engraved portrait of Henry Burbeck, by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin are also present.

• Correspondent Inventory
• Chronological Inventory
• Geographic Inventory