Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-04-01

VALUABLE RELICS.
Two Souvenirs Of the Revolutionary
Period offered for Sale.
Sword and Coat Of Gen. Henry Dear
born Seeking Purcha sers.

When General Arnold made his ia
nous expedition to Quebec in 1875
passing through Augusta on his way to
the famed walled city of the American
continent, he was accompanied by
Captain Henry Dearborn, who after
wards became United States Marshal
for the Province of Maine, and who
represented the territory in Congress
General Dearborn resided for several
years in Randolph, opposite Gardiner.
The following article, from the New
York Sunday Sun of March 80, recalls
the record of this distinguished Rev
dictionary soldier:
1.-TWO relics OF the Revolutionary pc
riOd are on exhibition in the show win
dow of a dealer in antiques at Fourth
avenue ana IWenty-eighth street. One
is the sword given to MajOr-Gen.
Henry Dearborn by one Jonathan War
ner and said to have been used by him
in the battle of Bunker Hill. The other
is a gOld-laced dress coat worn by Gen.
Dearborn when in 1922 he was pre-
sented at the court of Lisbon as the
first American Minister to Portugal.
Both these relics belong now to the
widow of Gen. Dearborn's son, Henry
Alexander Scanned Dearborn.
1.-THE weapon is shaped like sabre,
and was evidently not made for dis
play only. All the concentrations of
the sword, as well as of the well-worn
leather scabbard, are of silver. The
hilt is Of plated ivory, Drowned by age,
but not in the least damaged. 1t is
surmounted by a pommel of silver in
the shape of an eagles head. Along
the upper mandible of the beak is en-
graved the name of the giver, Jonothan
Warner. A silver chain connects the
beak with the guard. On the blade,
just below the hilt, the date ITS Is
stamped in large, clumsy numbers.
Two of the hoops of silver girding the
scabbard wear the engraved inscrip-
tons Henry Dearborn and N Hamp-
shire
1.-THE dealer to whom the disposal of
these relics has been intrusted said
yesterday that their genuineness was
warranted not only by the owner. but
also by documentary evidence in her
possession.
Henry Dearborn was "a years old
and had for two years been settled as a
practising physician in a small New
Hampshire town when the battle of
Lexington occurred. The leisure hours
of those two years had been spent in
the study Of tactics and strategy rather
than of medicine. When the news of
the fight reached young Dearborn, he
set out for Cambridge, Mass, at the
head of a company of sixty minute
men, marching sixty-five miles in
something like twenty-four hours. He
took part in the Bunker Hill fight as a
Captain in Stark's New Hampshire
regiment. His later career is a matter
| of history. Accompanying Arnold on
| the Canadian expedition and being
made prisoner in the attack on Que
bee, he was exchanged in 1777 and re-
| ceived Immediately afterward an APP
pointment as Major in Scammel's New
Hampshire regiment.
HE fought at saltwater, Saratoga,
Newtown and Monmouth and was
commended by Washington for his
gallant conduct in the aforementioned
engagement. Before the close Of the
| war he rose to the rank Of Colonel and
acted as Deputy Quartermaster-Gene
| on WashingtOn's staff. After the war
he was promoted to Brigadier- General
| and Major General of militia. He
served a term as United States Marshal
| for Maine and was elected to Congress.
In 1901 he became President Jefferson's
Secretary of War. On Jan. q, 1912, he
| was appointed senior Major General of
| the United States Army and placed in
command of the Northern Department.
He captured the present town of To-
rontO and then Fort George, but was
recalled in July, 1913, and placed in
command of New York city. From 1922
| to 1924 he served as American Minister
| to the Portuguese court. He died on
June 6. 1929, at Roxbury. Mass, where
he lived in retirement during the last
| years of his life