Rhode Island in the Revolution

(RHODE ISLAND COMMISSARY REPORT). SOUTHWICK, SOLOMON. General Return of Provisions & Stores issued by the several Assistant Commissaries to the Troops in the Rhode Island Department, from October 1779 to March 1780 inclusive. [And] General Return of Provisions & Stores sent from one Post to another in the Rhode Island Department from October 1779 to March 1780 inclusive. [Caption titles]. Written neatly in a clerk's hand, but signed at Providence in the lower right hand corner, March 31st, 1780, "errors excepted, Solomon Southwick..." In the lower left hand corner is a notice of direction to Charles Stewart, Commissary General in Philadelphia. Written on three sheets of paper, attached one to another, overall 12" x 36". . $1,600.00

Lists month by month and by various measures, including among others, bags, pounds and casks the issuance of flour, flour and bread, loaf bread, hard bread, salt beef, salt pork, fresh & salt beef, fat cattle, dry fish, rice, beans & peas, roots, molasses, N.E. rum, soap, candles, salt W.I. rum, vinegar, neat tongues, hams, pickled fish, onions, Indian meal, sheep, coffee, sugar, "sour crout," and Indian corn. Charles Stewart in 1774 was a member of the first convention in New Jersey that issued a declaration of rights against the aggressions of the crown. In 1777 he was appointed by congress commissary-general of issues in the Continental Army, serving as such on Washington's staff until the end of the war. Solomon Southwick, who has signed this document, was editor of the Newport, R.I. Mercury and an active Newport printer (and the second printer in Providence).