Captain Bernard Romans led a well-traveled life. Born in Delft in the Netherlands, he likely spent time training as an engineer in England before immigrating to North America. He worked off the American coast as a privateer and merchant before becoming a surveyor, mapping much of Georgia and the Florida coastline while collecting and classifying the area’s native plants.
When the Revolutionary War began, Romans answered the call, accompanying the expedition that captured Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775 and using his military engineering skills to design unsuccessful fortifications for the Hudson Highlands. In February 1776, he became captain of an independent Pennsylvania artillery company. His company joined the Canadian campaign and participated in the messy retreat. By July 29, 1776—250 years ago today—Romans and his company had landed at Fort Ticonderoga, and Romans was dreaming of better days.
Romans opens this letter to Doctor Jonathan Potts, director of the military hospital at Fort George and Romans’ friend, by lamenting, “I need not tell you what a d—d Campaign we have had, & how often in vain I have wished for some of Biddle’s fat mutton, & old Madeira; You can guess full as well as I can describe.” The Biddle Romans fondly remembers here was likely a member of the prominent Biddle family of Philadelphia.
Romans asks that a soldier at Potts’ hospital in Fort George, “a man of the name of Collins… whom I regard much”, be given special care and offers to pay for extra supplies that Collins may need. He also asks that Potts let the bearer of the letter stay at Fort George “till all the men are recovered & he will send them up and prevent their desertion If any should be so inclined”. Considering the deprivation and illness that Romans’ company had suffered that season, it’s not surprising that preventing desertion was a top concern. Romans felt the deprivation as well, putting food at the top of his mind: “if a Chance offers to send me a good Sheep or a Calf… pray see that a Safe hand carry it this way”.
Learn more about this letter (MS.1970) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/29829