The Raab Collection announced today that it has acquired and will be putting on display an important and pivotal letter of George Washington written from the fabled encampment at Valley Forge in 1778. Letters of Washington from Valley Forge are uncommon.
Provenance: The letter, written to General John Lacey, was acquired by a private collector in 1985 and has remained in that private collection, passed down from generation to generation, until it was acquired by Raab this summer.
In the letter, after a setback outside Philadelphia, seeking to move the war forward after the brutal winter, General Washington orders Lacey to keep a “strict watch” out for the enemy, “and you may perhaps repay them”. He illustrates his leadership qualities, insisting on remaining alert and observant, with an emphasis on action.
“You may depend that this will ever be the consequence of permitting yourself to be surprised…It is not improbable that the Enemy, flushed with their success, will soon be out again…”
This is just the fourth letter of Washington at Valley Forge that we have carried in all our 30 years
