23 Letters Signed by George Washington Lead Americana Auction

George Washington's emergence from young surveyor to army commander and President is charted in 23 signed letters in Heritage Auctions' John H. Freund Americana Collection sale on June 19.

Among them is a land survey completed when Washington was 19, a 1776 account of the seizure of Dorchester Heights, the British evacuation of Boston, and Washington ordering 'Mad' Anthony Wayne to strike at Bull’s Ferry.

Also included is a personal letter from the final year of his presidency to the son of the Marquis de Lafayette and a letter from Lafayette himself aged 20 as he leaves France and prepares to sail for America to join the fight for independence. Decades later, another letter finds Lafayette expressing gratitude to Congress for the $200,000 awarded to him in recognition of his service to the young republic he helped secure.

Elsewhere there are nine letters signed by Thomas Jefferson, including one from 1781 written from Richmond to General George Weedon as Benedict Arnold burned the capital of Virginia. Another, written years later in retirement, offers a reflection on Jefferson’s withdrawal from public life, legacy and the passage of time.

Other highlights include:

• a rare issue of The Freeman’s Journal announcing the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown
• a letter from President James Buchanan written during the Fort Sumter crisis and the secession of South Carolina in the earliest days of the coming conflict
• Abraham Lincoln’s appointment of David Farragut as rear admiral
• the Charleston Mercury proclaiming South Carolina’s secession in December 1860
• a communication from Franklin D. Roosevelt to General Hap Arnold regarding the top-secret North African assignment of his son Elliott Roosevelt during World War II
• a letter from John F. Kennedy to the widow of one of his fallen PT-109 crewmen

“The John H. Freund Americana Collection offers a rare opportunity to encounter American history in its most immediate and human form through the written word,” said Joe Maddalena, Executive Vice President at Heritage Auctions. “Freund collected not simply for rarity, but for meaning, for the way each letter could illuminate a pivotal moment, a consequential decision or the inner life of an individual who shaped the nation."