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At the Institute’s core is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history. More than 85,000 items cover five hundred years of American history, from Columbus’s 1493 letter describing the New World through the end of the twentieth century.

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 to William Knox

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC02437.00712 Author/Creator: Knox, Henry, 1750-1806 Place Written: Hopewell, New Jersey Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 25 June 1778 Pagination: 3 p. : address : docket ; Height: 18.8 cm, Width: 16 cm Order a Copy

Reports that the British left Philadelphia. He and Lucy went into the city, but had to leave because it "stunk so abominably." Notes that the American and British armies are twenty miles apart, at Princeton and Allentown respectively. Comments on the great number of deserters in the British army. Writes, "if General Actions had no other consequences than merely the kill'd and wounded, we should attack them in 24 hours, but the fate of posterity and not the illusive [sic] [brilliancy] of military Glory govern's our [Fabian] Commander, the Man under God to whom America owes her present prospects of peace and happiness."

Knox, Henry, 1750-1806
Knox, William, 1756-1795
Washington, George, 1732-1799

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