James Winchester papers, 1779-1830. James Winchester (1752-1826) and his younger brother George (d. 1794), natives of Maryland, served together in the Revolution and moved to Tennessee in 1786, where both were active in civil and military affairs. Commissioned a brigadier general in the United States Army in 1812, James commanded a portion of William Henry Harrison's Army of the Northwest until dealt a disastrous defeat by the British at Frenchtown on the Raisin River (Michigan) in January 1813. Aside from one letter by Martin D. Hardin in 1812, this volume contains no contemporary records of Harrison's and Winchester's campaign. For the year Winchester spent as a British prisoner (1813-1814), the collection contains lists of the American prisoners and hostages, one letter written to his nephew, and general orders he issued in Quebec to govern the conduct of his fellow captured American officers in such matters as intoxication, gambling and card playing, and “associating with persons of bad fame of either sex.” Only allusions to Winchester's command of the Mobile District after his release by the British appear in letters in 1815; instead these focus on charges that Winchester had displayed cowardice and misconduct in the Raisin River campaign. The quarrel between Winchester and Harrison was bitter, and the Raisin River charges and rebuttals were kept in circulation by pamphlet and newspaper publications throughout the rest of Winchester's life. The bulk of the correspondence relates to this controversy, particularly letters, 1817-1830, written by a former military associate, William L. Robeson, and by a writer, Charles Cassedy. One of Cassedy's accounts (1829), couched as a letter to John Armstrong, a former secretary of war, gives a detailed narrative of the 1812-1813 campaign. Many of the Robeson and Cassedy letters also contained current commentary of other American events and policies, but especially on politics involving Harrison and Andrew Jackson. Among other writers of occasional letters were William P. Anderson, Edward Conway, William Eustis, and Daniel Smith.

Found in this volume are commissions issued to the Winchester brothers for their services as Revolutionary military officers, North Carolina and Tennessee militia officers, deputy surveyor in North Carolina, register and justice of the peace in Tennessee, and deputy postmaster. Signers of these documents include Isaac Bledsoe, William Blount, Abraham Bradley, Jr., Samuel Huntington, John Hay, Samuel Johnston, John Sevier, and Daniel Smith. There are also two presidential appointments to James Winchester: member of the legislative council for the Territory South of the Ohio River (1794), signed by George Washington and Edmund Randolph; and commissioner to evaluate Tennessee lands and dwelling houses and to enumerate slaves (1798), signed by John Adams and Timothy Pickering. The latter is accompanied by a printed letter of instructions bearing an autograph signature of Oliver Wolcott. A masonic certificate (1786) issued to James White by Union Lodge at Fayetteville, North Carolina, is also filed in the Winchester collection.