[New York Militia]:

$750 · Offered by William Reese Company

MINUTES OF THE 144th REGT. OF INFANTRY OF STATE N. YORK, COMMENCED IN JUNE 1815 [manuscript title]. Regimental roster and minutes of the 144th New York Infantry out of Saratoga County. The ledger opens with a detailed grid listing the officers of the regiment, with date of commission and any notes or remarks. A further list details the sergeants and captains to which they are assigned. Though this volume is dated 1815-1816, the list of officers indicates that some of the officers were commissioned as early as 1805 and 1811, predating the outbreak of the War of 1812. The minutes list the regiment's order, such as meeting times and places for inspections. On November 4, 1815 the regimental orders involve a call for a court-martial for "the trial of all delinquents at the Regimental, Battalion, and Company parades." The minutes go on to recount the guilty parties and the time and places of their courts-martial. There are several tables showing inspection returns, accounting for the men, and an apparently aborted record of expenses. A similar court-martial order is given again in November of 1816, once more taking delinquent officers to task. Following the unit's minutes, a later 19th-century owner has used this notebook to record their original translation into English of the first three of Virgil's Eclogues, written quite neatly in purple pen. An interesting glimpse into a small, early militia regiment from upstate New York.

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