Secretary of State William Galvin said the 1775 letter from Joseph Warren was discovered in a planned Sotheby’s auction catalog.
View full sizeThis image released by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shows the front of a 1775 handwritten letter from Joseph Warren, a prominent doctor and president of the Provincial Congress, to the revolutionary Committee of Safety describing the victory at Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y., and the strengthening of the provincial army. The letter was reported missing from the archives six decades ago, but was discovered in a Sotheby's catalog and has been returned to the state archives. BOSTON – A handwritten letter announcing the victory at Fort Ticonderoga that was reported missing from the Massachusetts state archives six decades ago has been recovered after being spotted as part of a planned auction of Revolutionary War manuscripts.
Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin said the 1775 letter from Joseph Warren was discovered in a Sotheby’s catalog.
The state was able to negotiate the letter’s return.
In the letter, Warren, a prominent doctor and president of the Provincial Congress that sat in Watertown at the time, said he had just learned that Col. Benedict Arnold had captured Fort Ticonderoga, N.Y., and forts at Crown Point and St. John’s in the Lake Champlain area, which reduced the threat of British attack from Canada.
Warren was later killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill.