RETURN OF CONTINENTAL ARMY ORDNANCE STORES, BOSTON

Nathaniel Barber, Jr., document signed, large scroll consisting of three large, joined sheets of heavy, cartridge paper (72 by 12 1/8 inches), dated [place not given, but Boston] "January 1. 1777." This massive return (the largest Continental return that we are aware of at present) is for all ordnance stores belonging to the Continental Army onhand at Boston at the opening of 1777, presented in columnar fashion by types of arms, accoutrements, powder, shot, tools, and other supplies, with additional stores at Cambridge and Roxbury appended on recto. The compiler, Nathaniel Barber, served as Commissary of Ordnance Stores from April 1776 (one month after British troops evacuated Boston) until April 1781, when he resigned. The return was prepared for Major General Artemas Ward, who was in command of the Eastern Department headquartered in Boston. It descended from Ward and through his daughter Sarah's branch, kept in the general's document box and discussed in a 1910 article who noted that "these records carry us back to the ancient days and to a civilization that, although less than one hundred and forty years old, was nearer in all the implements and accoutrements of war to Carthage and Troy than to the America and Europe of this generation." CONDITION; overall very good, the paper lightly and uniformly toned, the ink strong and legible, with only a few small marginal tears and chips to the edges, principally at the outer end of the roll (which, until flattened or eased by a conservator, naturally reverts to a 2 1/4 inch circumference. JLK Provenance: General Artemas Ward and by descent in the Ward-Brigham Family until 2012; private collection to present. Paperwork: Documentation