Sale 2455 - Printed & Manuscript Americana, September 28, 2017

177 177 c   (NAVY.) Papers of early naval surgeon Peter St. Medard, including his diary aboard the frigate NewYork in the First BarbaryWar. 230 items in on box (0.4 linear feet): one 26-page manuscript diary dated 1802-03; 95 letters to and from St. Medard in English, 1783-1821; 51 letters in French, 1792-1821; 84 documents and receipts, 1772-1819; plus one 1998 book on St. Medard, and a binder of modern research notes. Condition generally strong. Vp, 1772-1822 [6,000/9,000] Pierre St.Medard (1755-1822), also known as Peter,was a French-trained physician who gave his loyalty to theAmerican Revolution,serving as a surgeon’s mate aboard two ships,settling in Boston after the war,and then in 1798 rejoining the navy as a surgeon, serving aboard the USS Constitution and other vessels. At the heart of this collection is Dr. St. Medard’s remarkable manuscript diary kept aboard the frigate NewYork from August 1802 to December 1803.The NewYork was part of an American fleet sent to the Barbary Coast of northernAfrica to end the constant demands for tribute and ransom fromAmerican merchants. InTunis, St.Medard recorded a threat by the Bey “that if our government or the Commodore should not agree to, he would put the consul in slavery or perhaps put him to death” (24 February 1803), with Commodore Richard Valentine Morris held captive when he went on shore to negotiate (4 March) and released 4 days later when the ransom was paid. St.Medard’s greatest personal challenge was a shipboard accident:“An explosion took place in the gunner store room by a spark of fire fouling from the candle in a bucket countaining about 20 of powder beside 30 dozen of the marine catreges, a number of powder horns full of powder . . . by which 9 officers & men were dangerously burnt & hurt, 3 of which died in less than 36 hours after the explosion” (25 April 1803). He then describes several armed engagements in May and June, including a raid which has been called “the first American amphibious landing on a hostile foreign shore” (Fremont-Barnes,TheWars of the Barbary Pirates): “8 boats were armed with officers sailors & marines to attack the shore & to burn the streets, which was executed, the boats being covered by the 2 ships & the schooner’s fires.The hills, shore & the old castle were covered with men,a constant fire was kept up from on both sides.We saw a great number of theTurks fall by the shots & a number shot on horseback. . . .Mr. David Porter, our 1st Lieut. & one of our marines being wounded” (2 June 1803).Additional notes on this important diary are available upon request. Among St. Medard’s other papers in this lot is a 8 June 1803 letter (probably a translated transcript) from the Pasha’s assistant to Commodore Richard V. Morris, part of the negotiations to end hostilities. These negotiations are also discussed at length in the diary. The collection includes letters signed by several cabinet members, most also with their franking signatures: Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith (12 letters, 1801-06);Treasurer Thomas T.Tucker (13 letters, 1804-1819); Secretary ofWarWilliam Eustis (1810); and Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson (1820). Also included are letters of recommendation collected by St. Medard, and extensive correspondence and documents from his work selling patent medicines as the Boston agent for a fellow French expatriate, Ligneau of NewYork, from 1816 through 1819.