Patriot activist, served as member of the Board of War and Quartermaster-General of the Army during the War of the Revolution. Appointed Secretary of War 1795, he served until dismissed by political enemy John Adams in 1800. An ardent Federalist, he opposed the war of 1812. Original manuscript document dated June 19, 1784, at West Point, where John Burges has been paid 92 days extra pay for his services as an artificer, as the last of the Massachusetts Regiments to remain at West Point. Burges was part of the tiny caretaker force that remained when the Continental Army was disbanded following the Revolutionary War. The American army would eventually just number a few hundred men once most of the remainder, like Burges, mustered out. A great Revolutionary artifact, signed by Pickering as Quartermaster General. $490.00