LEXINGTON AND CONCORD COLONEL OF MINUTEMEN URGES JOHN BROOKS TO AVOID A GENERAL ENGAGEMENT EBENEZER BRIDGE (1744–1814) A well-to-do merchant Bridge served during 1774 as a member of the Billerica committee of correspondence and representative to the first Massachusetts provincial congress. On Apr. 19 1775 Col. Bridge and his minutemen participated at Cambridge and at Bunker Hill he commanded a regiment where he received severe sword wounds. He remained in service until the following year and from 1781 to 1786 Bridge was adjutant general of Massachusetts with the rank of brigadier general in the state militia. Superb content war-date A.L.S. ""E. Bridge"" with integral cover 3pp. large 4to. Cambridge Nov. 25 1776 to ""Major John Brooks Col. Webb's Regiment Gen'l McDougall's Brigade at New York"". As Washington's forced flee in disarray southwards in New Jersey following their defeat in New York a week earlier Bridge responds to a letter sent by Brooks as the latter had joined the entrenched forces in northern Manhattan. In small part: ""...affords me much satisfaction...Col. Webb's gallant behavior in time of action and of the Honor your Regiment did itself in its good Retreat...as an Individual of this Empire I am...Sharer in the Honor or Disgrace that accrues from their conduct...much Honor is due to an Officer who when outnumbered or overpowered by an Enemy makes a good Retreat...Whether all the Retreat that have been made...have been so conducted that none of them should appear disgraceful I shall not upon my present Light pretend to determine...we have had accounts of Ports being abandoned and Forts evacuated...as to occasion a gloom...by far more sad than that of those who have received the melancholy and afflicting Tidings of Deaths of their dearest Connections who bravely fell in Battle...You mention your 'Retreating with Howe at your Heels'...keeping him at your heels might appear wonderful...I think it almost miraculous that you were able to keep him there...I do not think that...anything could be more hazardous than to come to a general action...with such vast disadvantages on our side...The Consequences...might have proved fatal - we...are not sufficiently inured to war. Our minds are not yet prepared to endure the Shock of a general Defeat...We have not got rid of that notion...that Great Britain was an impotent Enemy that we should be able to conquer her Armies with ease...timid Passions are ready in a Minute to cry out Lord have mercy on us...More men have discovered their cursed Toryism and Deceit in endeavoring to intimidate and affright People in this way...if this is the case...to Come to a general Action would be risking not only the Fate of the present Army but of the whole Empire...the Director of our Military Operations [Washington] is constituted of Wisdom and Prudence...I wish I had words to express the exalted Sentiments I entertain for his Excellency...that he should with an inferior number of undisciplined troops...defeat the Plans and vanquish the Designs of experienced Generals...All Europe must stand astonished...Nothing but a sense of the Value of Freedom and of the Ugliness and Ignominy of Slavery can ever induce Men...[to] submit to the Hardships and Perils of War..."". Faults include holes at fold junctions soiling and damp stains affecting some text (which remains easily legible) set between two pieces of glass. JOHN BROOKS (1752-1825) was also a revolutionary patriot and physician a Concord Minuteman who also helped fortify Bunker Hill on the night preceding the battle. From the estate of Brooks' descendant Lt. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes (1888-1967) Patton's second in command planner of the invasions of North Africa and Sicily and commander of II Corps.