[PARTIALLY-PRINTED MILITARY COMMISSION, COMPLETED IN MANUSCRIPT, SIGNED BY CONNECTICUT GOVERNOR JONATHAN TRUMBULL AND SECRETARY OF STATE SAMUEL WYLLYS, APPOINTING ASA PLATT AS FIRST LIEUTENANT IN THE SECOND REGIMENT OF CONNECTICUT CAVALRY]

New Haven, October 20, 1804.. [1]p. partially-printed document, approximately 8 x 13 inches, completed in manuscript. Paper-covered red wax seal of the state of Connecticut in the left margin. Printed on a folded folio sheet. Old folds, with some splitting to folds. Tanned and lightly foxed. Section of the blank leaf missing. Good. A partially-printed military commission, completed in manuscript and signed by Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull and Secretary of State Samuel Wyllys at New Haven, appointing Asa Platt as "first Lieutenant of the 4th Troop of Horse in the 2d Regiment of Cavalry in this State, to take rank from October 20th A.D. 1804." (truncated)

Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740-1809) was the governor of Connecticut from 1797 until his death in 1809. He had served in the Continental Army as paymaster general for the Northern Department and for a time as George Washington's aide-de-camp. He was the son of Connecticut's Revolutionary War governor, Jonathan Trumbull, Sr., and the brother of noted artist John Trumbull. Trumbull's Secretary of State, Samuel Wyllys (1739- 1823), had been a military officer in the American Revolution, having seen action at the Battle of Long Island, before pursuing a career in politics. Asa Platt (born 1769) apparently rose to the rank of Colonel, and is best remembered for building an inn in the town of Orange, in southern Connecticut. (Inventory #: WRCAM62816)