New Brunswick Aroostook War, 1839 (August 9), St. John, New Brunswick to Haddenham, England, stampless folded letter datelined St. John,
New Brunswick Aroostook War, 1839 (August 9), St. John, New Brunswick to Haddenham, England, stampless folded letter datelined St. John, struck with light St. John circular datestamp, rated "1" in red manuscript at the soldier's concessionary rate, endorsed "Benjamin Howlett No. 1124 Pt. Soldier 69th Reg." along top and signed by Major Booker at lower left, addressed to Haddenham, England, very fine; ex Richardson, Steinhart. ONE OF ONLY THREE RECORDED BRITISH SOLDIERS' LETTERS FROM THE AROOSTOOK WAR, AND OF EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY - A RARITY. Written by Benjamin Howlett, a soldier of a six-hundred-strong regiment, this letter provides a vivid firsthand account of the Aroostook boundary dispute of 1838–39. Howlett describes sailing from Cork on 13th January, landing at Halifax on 29th February, and proceeding to Saint John before marching two hundred miles into the interior to Woodstock, travelling on sleighs across a frozen river with "snow 20 and 30 feet deep." At Woodstock the regiment expected to go into action daily, but the rebels thought the force too great to attack; Howlett records that "we fired the guns into the woods," driving them off. He describes the eventual settlement as an agreement between Sir John Harvey and "the Yankee General," with Harvey coming down the hill "with flying colours." The letter also references a devastating fire that burned the principal part of the city and seventeen houses, killing young children. A rare letter from the front line of one of the most tense Anglo-American confrontations of the nineteenth century. The Aroostook War of 1838–39 was a bloodless boundary dispute between the American state of Maine and the British colony of New Brunswick over the timber-rich lands of the Aroostook Valley. Tensions escalated when Maine's Governor Fairfield sent militia to the border, prompting New Brunswick to call out its own forces in response; the U.S. Congress authorised a substantial military deployment and President Van Buren dispatched General Winfield Scott to manage the crisis. The affair was ultimately settled by negotiation - Howlett's "Yankee General" - and the boundary question was formally resolved by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, which established the permanent border between Maine and New Brunswick that stands to this day.
