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John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress, to Major General Philip Schuyler, June 28, 1775
By direction of this Congress I transmit you several resolutions which passed Yesterday ー the Importance of which you will readily see and the necessity of your immediate Attention to the execution of them ー The Alteration of the Sentiments of the Congress since your departure, relative to making an impression into Canada was occasioned by a letter they received from the Committee of Albany, a...
Date: 28 June 1775
Volume: Volume 1
I duly received your letter of 29th and 30th ult (that referred to by you of 28th not yet come to hand) and immediately laid them before the Congress, in Consequence of which I have their directions to transmit you their resolution ー whereby you will observe that Genl [David] Wooster is ordered with the Troops under his command to remain at New York and that you raise as many of the Green...
Date: 1 July 1775
Volume: Volume 1
All that we can do is to deliver to Captain [Asa] Douglass forty half barrels [of powder] which he will immediately proceed with agreeable to your order; Our Engineer (Col. [Edward] Mott) at Ticonderoga, has requested that a commander for one of the armed vessels upon Lake George, may be sent up from this Colony ー a Captain [Robert] Niles with whom he is acquainted, and who is probably well...
Date: 6 July 1775
Volume: Volume 1
Yours of 29 June I have recd. by which I have the pleasure of being informed of your appointment to the Command of the Troops in this Quarter Agreeable to your Request I have made as minute a Return of the forces guns ammunition & stores as I am capable of under our present unsettled Circumstances
As to Govr. [Guy] Carleton's motions I can say but little with regard to them it is said that...
Date: 7 July 1775
Volume: Volume 1
General [Philip] Schuyler having by his letter of the eleventh instant requested this Committee to appoint a proper person to command the Sloop [Enterprise] on Lake Champlain and send him up with all convenient speed, and Capt. Patrick Dennis being sent for to confer with on the subject, recommended Capt. James Smith for the above service.
Captain James Smith attended and expressed his great...
Date: 15 July 1775
Volume: Volume 1
I have recd from Col. [Benjamin] Hinman & others very favourable Accounts of the Disposition of the Canadians towards the General Cause, and their Desire that our Army may penetrate into their Province &c Suppose you are fully acquainted with their Intelligence. I shall therefore only trouble you with some Information I have recd from Capt. John Bigelow a Gentleman of Harford who was...
Date: 17 July 1775
Volume: Volume 1
I am glad to relieve you from your Anxiety, respecting Troops being sent from Boston to Quebeck. These Reports, I apprehend, took their Rise from a Fleet being fitted out about fourteen Days ago to plunder the Islands in the Sound, of their live Stock; an Expedition which they have executed with some Success, and are just returning; but you may depend on it no Troops have been detached from...
Date: 15 August 1775
Volume: Volume 1
The Design of this Express is to communicate to you a Plan of an Expedition, which has engaged my Thoughts for several Days. It is to penetrate into Canada by Way of Kennebeck River, and so to Quebeck by a Rout ninety miles below Montreal. I can very well spare a Detachment for this Purpose of one Thousand or twelve Hundred Men, and the Land Carriage by the Rout proposed is too inconsiderable to...
Date: 20 August 1775
Volume: Volume 1
The enclosed intelligence came to hand at two o'clock this morning. It is impossible to procure any pork in this Colony; there is none but what came over the Lakes. A schooner sails this afternoon for Deschambault with three hundred and fifty barrels of flour and about ten barrels of pork, which is the whole to be procured here. After the arrival of the brigade under General [William] Thompson,...
Date: 11 May 1776
Volume: Volume 5
A Gondola built to carry a 24 pounder, or two of them would now be exceedingly serviceable ー By what time could you finish one? Pray fit out the Royal Savage & the other Vessel as speedily as possible for War, to keep us the Masters of Lake Champlain ー Pray send back the Batteau In which Docr [Benjamin] Franklin & Mr. [John] Carroll returned and Remember us most affectionately to them ー...
Date: 17 May 1776
Volume: Volume 5
...The Cagnuaga Indians have sent an Express to our army demanding assistance and threatning if they had not immediate Relief to join the Enemy. This being a true state of facts I beg you would send Coll. [Elias] Dayton, with his Regiment on as fast as possible. I beg you to write General Washington for more Troops and that you would please to order the armed vessels here to sail to the other end...
Date: 27 May 1776
Volume: Volume 5
We arrived here safe yesterday Evening in your Post Chaise driven by Lewis. I was unwilling to give so much Trouble, and would have borrowed your Sulkey & driven my self; but good Mrs Schuyler insisted on a full Compliance with your Pleasure, as signify'd in your Letter, and I was oblig'd to submit; which I was afterwards very glad of, part of the Road being very Stoney & much gullied,...
Date: 27 May 1776
Volume: Volume 5
A Return made, New York June 5th 1776 to His Excellency GeorgeWashington Esqr General & Commander in Chief of the Forces of the thirteen United Colonies, of Sundry Articles Shipped for Albany, in good Order, by the Asst Quarter Master General, on board the Sloop Tryon, Barent Van Alen Master, & to be delivered to the Honourable Major General Schuyler, or his Order.
Barrels of Pitch
20...
Date: 5 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
...Our Enemies are daily encreasing & our Friend[s] deserting us; Under these Discouragements & Obstacles with a Powerful Army against Us, well disciplined & Wanting in no one Article to carry on their Operati[ons] it will be a Miracle If we keep the Country; My only Expectation is to secure our Retreat to St Johns or the Isle aux Noix, Where It will doubtless be thoug[ht] Necessary...
Date: 6 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
I have spoken to the Qr. Master, about a proper Person to superintend the Building of Gondolas [for Lake Champlain] but he knows of none. There is a Man who came to direct the Building of some here; and if any of the Carpenters shall be deemed qualified after seeing the Model, I will send you one.
Date: 9 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
The Row Galley arrived here Yesterday, the Captain of Which brought Me a Letter from the Commodore, Who writes Me that the Commanding Officer at St Johns ordered the Row Galley off to Ticonderoga Contrary to the Genl. Orders & has ordered the Capt to take in Salt belonging to One Mrs Tucker who is landed at Crown Point as the Capt tells Me, there is 150 Bushels of Salt Which I have Ordered...
Date: 10 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
Near one half of our Army are sick, mostly with the small pox If the Enemy have a Force of six or eight and some say ten thousand Men, we shall not be able to oppose them, sick divided, ragged undisciplined, & unofficered as we are ー If we are not soon reinforced I tremble for the Event ー a Loss of our heavy Cannon which is all ordered to Sorrel must ensue, if not our Army, as our Retreat is...
Date: 13 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
...I make no Doubt the Enemy will pass Sorrel and as soon as in possession of Montreal march immediately for St. John's and endeavor to cut off our Retreat In which Case if we save our Army the Cannon and heavy Baggage must fall into the Hands of the Enemy
All the craft on your Side of the Lake in my opinion ought immediately be sent to St John's and a Number of Gundaloes built as soon as...
Date: 13 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
I have ordered a Ton of Powder, half a Ton of Lead, five Thousand Flints, some Cannon, intrenching Tools, and a Dozen whip Saws and Files, to be immediately sent you; which you will receive in two or three Days, with a List of them and every other Article sent from hence at this Time...
In Regard to a Person to superintend the Building of Gondolas, and other Carpenters to carry on the Work, I...
Date: 16 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5
Dear General By a strange reverse of Fortune we are driven to the sad necessity of abandoning Canada ー I had the most sanguine hopes of collecting our Army together & driving the Enemy below Dechambeau, in which I doubt not I should have succeeded, had not [John] Burgoyne with a strong party arrived in Canada & reached the three Rivers the night before our People made the unfortunate...
Date: 19 June 1776
Volume: Volume 5