[American Revolution]. Continental Army enlistment broadside

[AMERICAN REVOLUTION]

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES...A RESOLVE PRESCRIBING THE FORM OF INLISTMENT FOR THOSE MEN BELONGING TO THIS COMMONWEALTH WHO SHALL INLIST INTO THE SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES, TO CONTINUE IN THE SERVICE UNTIL THE END OF THE PRESENT WAR WITH BRITAIN. [BOSTON: BENJAMIN EDES AND SONS, 1780]

Printed broadside, 1page (approx: 9 3/4 x 8 in.; 248 x 203 mm). Letterpress text, signed in type by Caleb Davis, Jeremiah Powell, John Hancock and John Avery, with a printer's error of the same broadside on verso. 

Continental Army enlistment broadside

When the Continental Army was first formed in 1775, nearly half of the 37,000 soldiers were from Massachusetts. However, as the war moved to the south, enlistments from Massachusetts dropped significantly. The present broadside calls for enlistments of Massachusetts troops in the Continental Army, "to continue in that service until the end of the present War with Britain, unless sooner regularly discharged...to be under the Command of the General Officers of the United States of America..." Numerous Massachusetts regiments would participate in the Battle of Yorktown the following Spring.

It would appear that the present broadside creased or slipped badly during printing and that the printer flattened the sheet and re-printed the broadside on the verso.

Rare, with three examples located (American Antiquarian Society, Library of Congress and Syracuse University).

REFERENCE:

ESTC W10444; Evans 16865; Ford 2252