1828 ALS Wm M Burwell Letter re Col James Callaway, Daniel Boone & Mohicans For Sale

1828 ALS William M. Burwell — Washington, Daniel Boone, James Callaway, & Last of the Mohicans

Rare early autograph letter signed (ALS) by William MacCreary Burwell (1809–1866), later private secretary to President John Tyler and editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. Written from New Orleans, Nov. 24, 1828, this two-page letter discusses Colonel James Callaway of Bedford County, Virginia, his service during the Revolutionary War, his family’s Kentucky frontier ties, and even the famous 1776 Callaway daughters’ Indian captivity, which inspired James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans.

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✒️ Summary

In this remarkable letter, Burwell laments that Col. James Callaway’s life and service have been largely forgotten. He describes Callaway as a prudent, methodical man who rendered important services during the Revolution, corresponding with George Washington’s Adjutant General. Burwell ties the Callaway family to Daniel Boone and notes the dramatic capture of Callaway’s daughters by Native Americans, which Cooper famously reworked into The Last of the Mohicans (1826).

The letter is a rare firsthand early commentary linking real Revolutionary War and frontier figures to Cooper’s novel, making it a desirable piece for collectors of Virginia history, Boone & Kentucky settlement, and early American literature.

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📜 Full Transcription

(Modernized spelling retained where legible)

Header:

Wm. M. Burwell Land Office – New Orleans

New Orleans 24 Nov 1828

Body:

My dear John,

I enclose two letters from the Alexander Brown. The first one I have annexed with all the memoranda in my possession about Col. James Callaway. The second you can perhaps refer by inquiry.

I have always regarded Col. Callaway as one of the most remarkable men that Bedford, (or indeed Virginia) has ever produced. Such prudence and firmness of energy enabled him to act as a boy and respectable young, while he secured important services in the civil and military condition of the country. I know him to have belonged to the band of gallant neighbors elevated together in Bedford, Virginia. He was a prudent, methodical and prosperous man in business. I do not think General Washington saw but one (report?) for several years during the Revolutionary War, yet the managers so reported to him, or referred by his Adjutant General. The weekly state returns or other equivalent facts were transmitted to him with equal regularity.

It is unfortunate that both those neighbors’ accounts, in contrast with the habitancy, has been almost lost, and that this man of true character has become so obscure. The biography of Col. James Callaway has never been written unless perhaps in some local newspaper, possibly some one of Lynchburg about his death & his burial in Bedford in 1809.

[Second page:]

… might make some research into the old papers of my great-?? Possibly the records of the War Department, or the records of property of the Courts may disclose some incident. I do not know where this paper of recollect could be found; nor who was his sister or administrator.

Looking on him always as a most honorable & distinguished ancestor (for whom your grandfather was named), I never narrowed the total contrast in instruments among his numerous descendants & great a name. The Callaways of Franklin were rich in one time and highly intellectual; many but they had wealth and fallen, and I scarcely can hear them spoken of in the terms among the community.

I turn the correspondence sent you and it will I trust be found interesting. I hear you connection with a name much accompanied [Richard Callaway?] Daniel Boone to Kentucky, and a name by a family in Kentucky … in Missouri. The capture of whose two daughters by the Indians and the rescue by the settlers furnished Cooper. I have read with it a similar incident in “The Last of the Mohicans.”

Affectionately to all,

Wm. M. Burwell

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👤 Biographical Notes

William MacCreary Burwell (1809–1866) — Virginia editor and politician, private secretary to President John Tyler, and editor of the Southern Literary Messenger.

Colonel James Callaway (1749–1809) — Revolutionary War officer of Bedford County, VA; sheriff, legislator, and militia leader. Callaway corresponded with Washington’s staff during the Revolution.

Richard Callaway (1722–1780) — Kentucky pioneer and companion of Daniel Boone. Two of his daughters, Elizabeth and Frances Callaway, were captured by Native Americans in 1776 and rescued by Boone’s party.

Daniel Boone (1734–1820) — Legendary frontiersman, explorer, and settler of Kentucky.

George Washington (1732–1799) — Commander-in-Chief during the Revolutionary War.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) — Author of The Last of the Mohicans (1826), which fictionalized frontier captivity episodes such as the Callaway daughters’ abduction.

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📚 Collector Interest

Revolutionary War correspondence & Virginia militia

Frontier Kentucky & Boone family history

Callaway family papers (rare in private hands)

Early literary reference to Last of the Mohicans