This section contains primary source correspondence by and relating to Richard Howell and his family, spanning the Revolutionary War period and beyond.

Contents#

• Pre-War Letters — Letters written before Richard Howell’s military service (pre-1776). The original timeline of these letters needs to be rebuilt; content is sparse.

• Revolutionary War Correspondence — A substantial collection of excerpts from the George Washington Papers and related sources documenting Major Richard Howell’s role as an intelligence officer along the New Jersey coast (1778–1780).

• Letter to Col. Israel Shreve, 5 October 1778 — A personal letter from Richard Howell to his commanding officer revealing his courtship of Keziah Burr and his distress at being separated from her. Source: University of Houston Digital Library (Israel Shreve Papers).

• Letter to Benedict Arnold, June 20, 1778 — Richard Howell’s intelligence report on British troop movements, written eight days before the Battle of Monmouth and forwarded by General Arnold to General Washington. Source: The Papers of George Washington, vol. 15.

• Post-War Letters — Letters from the post-Revolutionary War period, including Richard Howell’s time as Governor of New Jersey (1793–1801). Content is currently a placeholder pending recovery of original timeline data.

Letters relating to the extended Howell family — including Jefferson Davis’s letters to Varina Howell Davis and William Burr Howell — are found in the People section.