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The New Hampshire Gazette Letter to Editor June 16, 1758
Portsmouth, Rockingham, New Hampshire
What is this article about?
An extract of a letter from New York reports Lord Howe's rigorous training of regular troops for bush-fighting, his personal example in cutting his hair and lightening equipment, and his discipline of officers who refused his orders.
Quality green show the numbers
Measured from the scan
— how cleanly the OCR engine read the characters
- Mean ink quality
- 99.0% The length-weighted average confidence across the OCR lines — the mean of exactly the per-line scores whose tails the two figures below report. Typical is 99%.
- Illegible ink
- 0.0% Text sitting in OCR-detected lines that scored below 80% confidence — very shaky reads. Weighted by line length, so one long bad line counts for more than a short one.
- Uncertain ink
- 0.0% Text in lines that scored 80–90% — somewhat shaky reads.
- Matches source
- 96.76% How closely the served text matches the raw OCR of the same boxes, letter by letter, after collapsing spacing and case. This measures agreement, not correctness: the OCR is often wrong and the extractor corrects it, so 100% does not mean perfect, and a low figure usually means poor scan text was rewritten rather than that text was lost (length vs source shows loss).
- Length vs source
- 98.9% Below 100% means text was dropped from the OCR; above means text was added to make it read.
Assembled by the extraction model
— whether the stitched-together text holds up; catches layout and segmentation errors, which the scores above cannot see
- Transcription confidence
- 97.0% (typical 96%) How cleanly the extractor could assemble what it was given. Low here with clean ink scores points at layout analysis — the characters were read correctly but grouped or ordered wrongly.
- Comprehension
- 93.0% Whether the piece reads coherently start to finish. Can stay high while transcription confidence drops, when only part of the component is affected.
Clipping
Full Text
Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in New-York, to his Friend in this Town, dated May 31.
"Lord Howe is, I hear, advanc'd with the Regular Troops as far as Lake George, where he is forming an Encampment. I need not inform you, I suppose, how justly Lord Howe is celebrated here for his robust Soldier like Constitution, his bold enterprizing Spirit, and every other Military Accomplishment; with how much Care he has been forming his Regular Troops to the Method of Bush-fighting all this Season, so that he has now, it is said, made them as dextrous at it almost as the Rangers—In order to this he has order'd all the Coats of his Regiment to be cut short, to make them as light as possible; and has sacrificed a fine Head of Hair of his own, as an Example to the Soldiers, which they have all follow'd, so that not a Man is to be seen with his own Hair. The Strength of his Constitution enables him to undergo all Hardships, and 'tis his Opinion that every Officer ought to be able to do the same, and to live and fare like the common Men-To this End he has forbidden his Officers all supernumerary Baggage, when they march into the Enemy's Country, as being only a useless Incumbrance to the Army, has allow'd them only so much Cloaths as may be sufficient, and no Provisions but those which proceed from the Commissaries; and, I hear, has put two or three Officers under an Arrest for refusing to obey these Commands, and 'tis very likely they will be broke for setting a bad Example to the Army—His Soldiers love and fear him, and willingly comply with his Commands, because he first sets them the Example.—What great Things Might not a few Officers like Lord Howe effect, with an Army of such Men!"
"Lord Howe is, I hear, advanc'd with the Regular Troops as far as Lake George, where he is forming an Encampment. I need not inform you, I suppose, how justly Lord Howe is celebrated here for his robust Soldier like Constitution, his bold enterprizing Spirit, and every other Military Accomplishment; with how much Care he has been forming his Regular Troops to the Method of Bush-fighting all this Season, so that he has now, it is said, made them as dextrous at it almost as the Rangers—In order to this he has order'd all the Coats of his Regiment to be cut short, to make them as light as possible; and has sacrificed a fine Head of Hair of his own, as an Example to the Soldiers, which they have all follow'd, so that not a Man is to be seen with his own Hair. The Strength of his Constitution enables him to undergo all Hardships, and 'tis his Opinion that every Officer ought to be able to do the same, and to live and fare like the common Men-To this End he has forbidden his Officers all supernumerary Baggage, when they march into the Enemy's Country, as being only a useless Incumbrance to the Army, has allow'd them only so much Cloaths as may be sufficient, and no Provisions but those which proceed from the Commissaries; and, I hear, has put two or three Officers under an Arrest for refusing to obey these Commands, and 'tis very likely they will be broke for setting a bad Example to the Army—His Soldiers love and fear him, and willingly comply with his Commands, because he first sets them the Example.—What great Things Might not a few Officers like Lord Howe effect, with an Army of such Men!"
What sub-type of article is it?
Informative
What themes does it touch?
Military War
What keywords are associated?
Lord Howe
Bush Fighting
Regular Troops
Lake George
Military Discipline
What entities or persons were involved?
His Friend In This Town
A Gentleman In New York
Letter to Editor Details
Author
A Gentleman In New York
Recipient
His Friend In This Town
Main Argument
Lord Howe has prepared his regular troops for wilderness fighting through rigorous training, personal example, and strict discipline, making them nearly as adept as rangers.
Notable Details
- Lord Howe cut his own hair as an example
- officers forbidden supernumerary baggage
- two or three officers arrested for refusing orders