General Henry Sewall signed letter - 1812 dated Autograph

Letter signed by General Henry Sewall who served at Ticonderoga and in the War of 1812. Portrait and biography included.

General Henry Sewall was born on 24 October 1752 in Newtown, York, Maine and died on 4 September 1845 in Augusta, Maine, at the age of 92. He married firstly Tabitha Sewall, daughter of John Sewall and Mary Sayward, on 9 February 1786 at Georgetown. He married secondly Rachel Crosby, daughter of Simon Crosby and Sarah Sewall, on 30 June 1811 at Salem, Massachusetts, first cousins. He married thridly Elizabeth Lowell, daughter of John Lowell and Elizabeth Scollay, on 9 September 1833 at Augusta, Maine. 

Before the Revolution he was a mason by trade. He entered the Revolutionary army at the beginning of the war, at the age of 23 and served till its close. He enlisted May 12, 1775, as first corporal in Captain David Bradish’s company. The company was raised at Falmouth, now Portland, Maine, soon after the battle of Lexington, and marched to Cambridge to join Col. Phinney’s regiment of the Massachusetts line. He served through the siege of Boston. Tradition says he was in the battle of Long Island, August 26 and 27, 1776. He was present at the battle of Hubberton during the retreat from Ticonderoga. He took part in the Saratoga campaign and witnessed the surrender of General Burgoyne, Oct. 17, 1777. After this victory, a portion of the northern troops were dispatched to the aid of General Washington in Pennsylvania. Henry Sewall accompanied them and spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge. He passed through the several grades of ensign, lieutenant, muster master, captain, and finally aid-de-camp to Maj. Gen. Heath till the close of the war, 1783. 

Henry Sewall also received for his Revolutionary service 600 acres of bounty land grantedd by the legislature of the state of Maine, March 20, 28138. He held sucessively the commissions of division inspector, brigadier and major general of the 8th division of the Massachusetts militia. This division was in service in the War of 1812.

In 1783 he settled at Fort Western, Hallowell, Maine; was Town Clerk of Hallowell, then of Augusta for thirty-five years. He served as Clerk of the District Court of Maine, 1789 until 1818. He was the Register of Deeds of Kennebec County from 1799 to 1816. And was a Major-General, 8th Division, Massachusetts (Maine) State Militia. The diary he kept while in the Army has been printed in the Maine Farmer (August - November, 1872).

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