Midshipman Peirce Powers, Continental Navy, to Captain Robert Niles, Continental Navy, July 7, 1778

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Breast July 7 1778

Honour Sir

I beg that you will not for gete me when you arive to parras Peirce Power born in Dover in amarica matShip man on board the countanantal Ship of war Commanded by Cap^t Paul Jones Squeir¹ I had the mesefortin of Lousing my Right arm the 24 of aprial Last in the Ingagement with the Drak² and at the Same time Received a wound in the Lefte hand I Come to breast may y^e 7 went to the Sosspetel may the 9 and thare remains and would be very gad if I could get home as Soon as possabal as I am not fet for the Sea Sarves³ Sir I ever Remand you Hum^l: Sarvent

Peirce Powers

L, PPAmP, Benjamin Franklin Papers, vol. 10, fol. 101. Docketed: “Peirce Powers/Brest/July 7^th/1778—.” The addressee is not given; the editors have surmised that it was Niles because, as seen in the letter from Lt. Thomas Simpson to Niles, 4 July, above, he was leaving Brest on or about 7 July in order to visit the American Commissioners at Passy.

1. Continental Navy ship Ranger, Capt. John Paul Jones, commander.

2. H.M. ship-rigged sloop-of-war Drake was captured on 24 Apr. 1778. For John Paul Jones’s account of the encounter, see Jones to American Commissioners in France, 27 May 1778, NDAR 12: 758–59.

3. This was a renewal of a request that Powers had made in a letter of 22 June to the American Commissioners in France. PPAmP, Benjamin Franklin Papers, vol. 10, no. 50.

Document Information

Date

1778 July 7

Volume

Volume 13

Series

European Theater, June 1 to August 15, 1778

Naval Documents of the American Revolution

Midshipman Peirce Powers, Continental Navy, to Captain Robert Niles, Continental Navy, July 7, 1778

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