1776 Mobile Famous “Flying Camp” of Pennsylvania Prisoner of War Survivor Taken at Fort Washington

[REVOLUTIONARY WAR.] Manuscript Document Signed, Account of the United States with Robert Darlington, 1776-1781, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 2 pp., 8.5ʺ x 13.625ʺ. Expected folds; torn folds reinforced on verso with cellophane tape that has stained document but does not affect legibility; good.

This account details the amount owned to Lieutenant Robert Darlington of Chester County, Pennsylvania, by the United States government. The left side details the amounts due to him, and the right side details the payments he had received. He filed this account on July 6, 1781, in Philadelphia, and Auditor of Accounts Joseph Howell Jr. certified that the United States owed Darlington a balance of $366.86 for rations and pay during his time as a prisoner of war in New York City and expenses for his return to Pennsylvania. It appears that Darlington received payment from the pay office in Philadelphia by 1783.

Excerpts

“To two retained Rations ⅌ day from the 16 Novr 1776 to the 26 May 1777
(the day of my Parole) 192 days, 384 Rats @ 15/90                                                     64
“To two ditto from the 17th Augt 1779 (the time of being ordered to NYork)
to the 1st Augt 1780 350 days, 700 Rats. @ 15/90                                                     116 60
“To Pay from the 1st Novr 1776 to the 1st Sepr 1777 10 Months at 27 dollars
⅌ month                                                                                                                       270
“To ditto from the 1 Sept 1777 to 1 June 1778 9 Mos. at 27 dollars
⅌ Mo                                                                                                       243
“To ditto from the 1 June 1778 to the 1st August 1780 26 Mos at
26 60/90 doll. ⅌ Mo                                                                                693 30
         “Old Emissions @ 75 for one                                                    936 30/90 is      12 43
“To Pay and Subsistence from the 1 Aug 1780 to the 14 May 1781 (the day
of my Exchange) 9 Mos: 14 days at 37 dollars ⅌ Mo.                                              350 24
“To travelling expences allowed from Eliza. Town to Chester County,
Penna 120 Miles, 20 Miles ⅌ day 6 days @ 1 21/90                                                   7 36
“To Cash paid for transporting my Baggage from Eliza. Town to Philada                    3
“Dollars specie                                                                                                         823 73”

Historical Background
The Flying Camp was organized from the militias of Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in the summer of 1776 and was to be commanded by General Hugh Mercer (1726-1777). Robert Darlington was a lieutenant in the 1st Pennsylvania Battalion (regiment) commanded by Col. Frederick A. Watts (ca. 1719-1795), who immigrated from the United Kingdom to Pennsylvania around 1760. By mid-August, they were stationed at Fort Lee on the New Jersey bank of the Hudson River, directly across from Fort Washington in northern Manhattan. In early November, General Nathanael Greene sent four companies from Watt’s battalion to reinforce Fort Washington.

After British forces under General William Howe defeated the Continental Army at the Battle of White Plains in October 1776 and forced their retreat across the Hudson River, the only remaining American stronghold on Manhattan was Fort Washington, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River and protected by the Harlem River to the east. General George Washington issued a discretionary order to General Nathanael Greene to abandon the fort and move its garrison to New Jersey, but Colonel Robert Magaw in command of the fort was convinced he could defend it against the British.

On November 16, 1776, Howe’s forces attacked the fort from three sides. After strong resistance, Colonel Magaw was forced to surrender his garrison of 2,837 men to the British. Of the prisoners, only 800 survived their captivity to be released eighteen months later in a prisoner exchange. Most enlisted men died within a few months of disease or starvation in prison ships off the shores of Brooklyn. More than 10,000 American prisoners of war died from neglect between 1776 and 1783. Robert Darlington was among the few officers who survived his captivity, alternating between periods of parole on Long Island and confinement in prisons in New York City.

Robert Darlington (1740-bef. 1786) was born in Pennsylvania and had military service before the Revolution. In 1770, he kept a tavern near the Brandywine Manor church. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a lieutenant in Colonel Watt’s regiment of the Pennsylvania Flying Camp. He was captured at Fort Washington on November 16, 1776. He was paroled in May 1777 but ordered into the New York City prisons in August 1779. He was exchanged at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, in May 1781 and returned home.

Provenance: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, ca. 1930s.

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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