Rarely is the battle and violence of the Revolutionary War described so vividly as in this letter from Caleb Brewster to his commanding officer, General Henry Knox. Although many letters and documents in this collection mention war and battle, few give an actual picture of what it is to be face to face with the enemy. This document concerns a battle at sea between American revolutionaries in whaling boats and similar Loyalist or British vessels. It captures the life and death struggle people can face at war and relates the most visceral form of combat: hand-to-hand.

In late 1782, Caleb Brewster of the Continental Army was given permission to chase three armed enemy boats that were operating in the Long Island Sound. This was Brewster’s prime task during the war, to command armed whale boats from Connecticut and to disrupt British and Tory shipping on the Sound. Brewster set out with six boats, sending three round one side of an island on the Sound and taking his other three the other way, thus trapping the enemy. On spotting the enemy, an hour’s chase ensued before Brewster’s three boats managed to close with the two slower of the enemy. What follows was an exchange of musket fire in which Brewster was wounded in the side and another man hit in the head. Brewster intended to fire again before grappling but the brisk wind and boats’ courses meant that another round of fire was impossible, the boats grappled and so both sides, with uncharged weapons, began to set about one another with musket butts and bayonets. Despite having been shot in the side and receiving several blows from an iron rammer "that caused a pulsing of the blood", Brewster says he was not prevented from doing his duty and appears to have relished the fight – aggrandising his achievement by saying how well armed his opponents were. It appears the revolutionaries soon overpowered their opponents leaving several dead on each side, more wounded and the enemy imprisoned. Brewster ends ominously by stating that he expects another "trial" with the boats that "infest this sure". Brewster was cited for gallantry for his part in this action.

We often think of the majority of the Revolutionary War fighting to be largely finished after the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783 but this piece shows how outbreaks of violence still occurred. Here we see the risks that soldiers could face throughout the war. This letter reveals a little of the thrill and horror of battle yet also describes the manner of the ultimate price that men could pay for their line of work or their cause.