MANUSCRIPT ROSTER OF US MARINE DETACHMENT AT PORTSMOUTH, 1824.

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/10/2024

"Payroll Return of the U.S. Marine Corps Detachment at the Portsmouth Navy Yard", dated 1 July 1824. A partly-printed, manuscript form, 1 page, 29 ½ x 23 ½ inches (consisting of 2 joined, elephant folio sheets), in columnar format. This return lists by number (beginning with the noncommissioned officers), 44 enlisted men of the Marine Detachment at the Portsmouth Navy Yard drawing pay from “JOSEPH L. KUHN Pay Master of the Marine Corps.” It is docketed on recto “No. 292 / Portsmouth N. H. / Pay Roll to / the 30th of June 1824.” Each Marine’s name, rank, date of enlistment, period for which wages were drawn, and amount of pay received are recorded, with the signature or mark of each respective Marine, followed by the signature of Orderly Sergeant Adrian Peters as witness. At the bottom of the form is the signature of the Marine Detachment commanding officer, Captain Samuel Edmiston Watson, dated “Portsmouth Barracks, July 1, 1824.” Born in Abingdon, Virginia in 1791, Watson was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant on 4 July 1812 and subsequently promoted to 1st lieutenant on 18 June 1814, captain on 28 March 1820, major on 1 July 1834, and brevet lieutenant colonel, 28 March 1830. During the War of 1812, he commanded the Marine detachment aboard the US Frigate Adams, including fighting with distinction during the British invasion of the Maine District in August 1814. Watson married Mary Prescott of Portsmouth, NH on 31 December 1818. He died on 17 November 1847 in Vera Cruz, Mexico of a disease contracted while on campaign. The return has light toning, some minor mended edge tears, and chipping to the upper margin; it has been conservation-backed with Japanese tissue. This is the largest format military payroll form that I have ever encountered; the form is a previously unrecorded, early American imprint.