1776 a Month Before Signing of Declaration of Independence Soldier Protects Philadelphia, Where it Was Signed.

[REVOLUTIONARY WAR.] John Read, Autograph Letter Signed, to Philadelphia Committee of Safety, May 3, 1776, Fort Island, Pennsylvania. 1 p., 6.625" x 8.5". Tears on folds, minimally affecting text; irregular edges from separation; tear from opening seal affecting two words on file note.

In this letter, recently appointed Barrack Master and Commissary of Stores John Read appeals to the Philadelphia Committee of Safety for a chimney sweep to clean the chimneys and for ladders and buckets to combat any fires that may occur.

Complete Transcript
Fort Island 3d May 1776.
Sir
Mr Morris handed me a resolve of the Honourable the Committee of Safety appointed me Clerk Commissary of Stores & Barrack Master of this Island, in which appointment I am much Obliged & Honoured. As I am yet a stranger how to apply beg your Indulgence in letting the Committee know, or lay this letter before them as it contains some business necessary in the Barack Masters department. The Chimneys in the Olde Houses are foul should be glad that a sweep was sent down to sweep them. That a number of Ladders ought to be at this place so as to be ready to prevent as much as posoble any Missfortunes hapening by Fier, like wise a Number of Bucket to be Kept for such uses only but these shall submit to there determination.
I have the Honour to be Your / Most Humble Servt
John Read
[Address on verso:]
To / Mr William Govett Secretary / To the Honbl the Committee of Safety / Philadelphia

Historical Background
The Pennsylvania general assembly created a Committee of Safety on June 30, 1775, to oversee all military efforts to defend the colony. The committee included twenty-five members who unanimously elected Benjamin Franklin as president at their first meeting on July 3. Franklin also served as a delegate to the Continental Congress at the same time.

By the 1770s, Philadelphia was the largest British port and dockyard in North America. The Fort Island Battery on Mud Island in the Delaware River below Philadelphia near the confluence with the Schuylkill River was commissioned in 1771 to protect the city and regulate traffic entering and leaving the port. Construction began in 1771 but stopped for a lack of funding in 1773. After visiting the fort in July and again in October 1775, Franklin and the Committee of Safety restarted construction of what later became Fort Mifflin and finally completed it in 1776. It also built Fort Mercer in New Jersey on the eastern bank of the Delaware River across from Fort Mifflin.

On July 1776, John Read reported to the Committee of Safety that the rooms for the officers in the barracks were nearly complete. In September, he appealed to the committee of safety for workmen to repair the banks of the fort, which were leaking, and to enclose a yard for protecting cordwood in the winter. In October he asked for a barrack room and suggested that iron stoves would help with heating the unplastered rooms of the barracks. As late as May 1777, Read was still requesting ladders and buckets for the fort.

After a month-long siege and the heaviest bombardment of the war in October and November 1777, the British forced the American defenders to evacuate Fort Mifflin. The British repaired and reinforced the captured fort but abandoned it when they left Philadelphia in 1778. The Americans reoccupied it, but it never saw military action again during the war. In 1795, it was renamed for Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800), a Continental Army officer and the last President (1788-1790) and first Governor of Pennsylvania (1790-1799).

John Read was appointed by the Philadelphia Committee of Safety as Clerk, Commissary of Stores, and Barracks Master at the fort on Mud Island on May 1, 1776.

William Govett was appointed clerk of the Philadelphia Committee of Safety on July 3, 1775. Congress later appointed him as clerk to the auditor general.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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