Note 514 — Chapter II · (continued 2)

Reed's letters from the camp during the summer of 1775 are in the Life of Joseph Reed, i. 116, etc., as well as those of Washington (p. 125, etc.) to Reed during the autumn and winter, after the departure of the latter. Sparks thought these letters of Washington the most imperfect he had seen, being written in great haste and confidence. Sparks printed them in part. Reed gives them at length. Washington's letters to Reed from the Cambridge camp make 20 of the 51 letters constituting the lot of his correspondence with Reed, which, having passed from Mr. William B. Reed to Mr. Menzies, was sold at the latter's sale (no. 2,051), and was again sold in the J. J. Cooke sale ($2,250) in Dec., 1883, when they passed into the Carter-Brown library. The Cooke Catalogue (pp. 340-349) describes them mainly as Mr. Reed prepared the statement, and they are commented on in the No. Am. Rev., July, 1852, p. 203, and in Irving's Washington, ii. 178. The original draft of Washington's letter to his officers, Sept. 8, 1775, asking their views respecting a boat attack on Boston, is among them (Cooke Catal., p. 342), while a fair copy in Washington's hand, as addressed to Ward, is among the Ward MSS. in the Mass. Hist. Society's library. It is printed in Sparks, iii. 80.