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Mountflorence, James (fl. 1790) to Henry Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.04735 Author/Creator: Mountflorence, James (fl. 1790) Place Written: s.l. Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 23 September 1790 Pagination: 2 p. ; 33.1 x 20.4 cm. Order a Copy

Concerns the conflicts along the Georgia frontier between Native Americans and white settlers. Some members living within the Natchez under the Spanish conquest said Colonel Washington wrote them "a letter directed to him on the Western side of the Mississippi." Mountflorence reports that "private letters from Georgia received by several of the Inhabitants of Cumberland, mention the Preparations making there and in South Carolina for sending out to the Mississippi immediately a number of Emigrants in the account of the aforesaid Company." On the back page in a different handwriting: "+ This is not Col. Washington lately of the American Dragoons." "This seems to have been by mistake for Eastern," and "The Gentleman from Prince Edward County in Virginia is well known to have been a late Continental Officer & was sent by Pat. Henry to flatter and deceive the Chickasaws."

James Cole Mountflorence was a Irishman who immigrated to America to fight in the Revolutionary War. After the war he moved to Nashville, Tennessee and worked as a lawyer and merchant. He later served as Chancellor to the U.S. Consul in Paris.

Mountflorence, James, fl. 1790
Knox, Henry, 1750-1806

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