June 10, 1777-Dated Continental Army Commissary Manuscript Document Receipt, at Princeton, New Jersey, Recording Delivery of 330 Pounds of Beef to Continental Army Supply Agent Enos Kelsey, Signed by Local Supplier John Stanly, Very Fine.
This historic receipt captures a small but essential piece of Continental Army logistics. Enos Kelsey turns up elsewhere in period supply records receiving military goods, including stockings, a coat, and shirts that same December, placing him among Continental Army commissary or quartermaster personnel active in New Jersey through this stretch of the war. Document measures 2.25” x 7.5” well written in rich brown ink on laid period paper, prior mounting noted on the blank reverse. Here, John Stanly by contrast, does not appear to be a documented figure of any wider historical note. He was most likely a local Princeton-area farmer or butcher, one of many ordinary residents who kept Washington's army fed through direct sales like this one. Timewise, this receipt falls within a critical window of the Continental Army New Jersey Campaign. After his victories at Trenton and Princeton over the Winter of 1776 and 1777, General George Washington kept his army positioned across New Jersey through Spring and early Summer 1777. Always watching British movements out of New York and New Brunswick during what historians now call the “Forage War”, a season defined largely by exactly this kind of local supply activity, with farmers and commissaries working to keep the Continental Army fed and ready for action in the field.

[American Revolution, Revolutionary War, New Jersey Campaign] [Continental Army, George Washington, Forage War] [Manuscripts, Documents, Receipts]