And your Petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.

New-York, March 4, 1776.

I do hereby certify that the foregoing account of the hurt David Shaddel received on the 18th ultimo, is true.

JOHN CHARLTON.

NEW-YORK CONGRESS TO THE SEVERAL COLONELS OF THE MINUTE-MEN AND MILITIA OF THE COLO NY.

In Provincial Congress, New-York, March 4, 1776,

SIR: This accompanies the resolve of Congress requesting you to hold your regiment in readiness to march at a moment’s warning. We are apprehensive that the Ministerial Army at Boston may attempt to land in this Colony in a short time. Your zeal for the publick cause, we trust, will stimulate you, and the officers under your command, to use all possible diligence to comply with this resolution. We have only to add that no time should be lost in executing this order, and that you forthwith return to this Congress, or the Committee of Safety, the present state of your regiment, as to the number of men, arms, accoutrements, and ammunition; and if the Minute Regiments do not compose one-fourth part of the Militia of your County, you are hereby ordered to cause the Minute Regiments to be completed, agreeable to the rules and orders of this Congress, of the 20th of December last.

NEW-YORK CONGRESS TO CONGRESS OF NEW-JERSEY.

In Provincial Congress, New-York, March 4, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: From the intelligence just received from General Washington, there is reason to believe that the Ministerial Troops at Boston are about leaving that city; and as it is probable they will attempt a foothold in some of the Middle United Colonies, we think it expedient that the Militia and Minute Regiments in the Colonies should be ordered to hold themselves in readiness to march on the first alarm. We have given the necessary orders in our own Colony for this purpose, and beg you would issue the like orders in your Colony.

We are, gentlemen, your humble servants.

To the Honourable the Provincial Congress, at New-Jersey.

WILLIAM ELLSWORTH TO NEW-YORK CONGRESS.

Kingston, March 4, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: We, the Committee of Safety and Observation of the Town of Kingston, on the 29th day of February last past, wrote a letter to General Schuyler, at the request of Captain Elias Hasbrouck, and therein acquainted the General of the intention and inclination of Captain Hasbrouck to be continued in the service, and also the desire of this Committee to continue him; and the answer this Committee received is enclosed in this letter. And as it is agreeable to the Committee that the Captain should be continued in the service, (and you will see that in the General’s letter there is no mention made of subaltern officers,) we therefore thought fit to raise the company with expedition, at the request of Captain Hasbrouck, and to recommend these persons, to wit: Moses Yeoman for Second Lieutenant, and Petrus W. Mcyer for Ensign; and if these persons meet the approbation of the honourable Provincial Congress, we pray that their warrants be sent up immediately. Respecting the First Lieutenant, the Captain proposes to have him recommended from the Committee under whose District he, lives.

We respectfully remain your most obedient humble servants.

By order of the Committee:

WILLIAM ELLSWORTH Chairman.

To the President of the Provincial Congress in the City of New-York.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED NORTH-CAROLINA, MARCH 4, 1776.

I now, my worthy friend, most sincerely and heartily Congratulate you on the success of the American arms in this Province; and be assured that, let General Clinton land when he pleases, we are ready for him at all points. Our natural situation gives us many advantages, and the worthy men in this country do not want spirit. Dunmore to the North, and Martin to the South, have given us full employment for some time past, and have already made the whole Province soldiers. It is altogether out of my power to describe the ardour that at this very hour prevails in this Province; almost every man, at an hour’s warning, is ready to turn out in his country’s cause. Colonel Moore is by the Council, ordered to disarm all the Highlanders and Regulators, and to take all the ringleaders into custody, to send them to Halifax Jail, and to possess himself of their estates, and to make the return of his proceedings to the Provincial Congress, to be held at Halifax on the 2d of April next; which, it is hoped, will amount to something handsome. His Excellency Brigadier-General Donald McDonald I had the honour of seeing at Newbern. He is far advanced in life, being in the sixty-fifth year of his age. By this time, he is a close prisoner in Halifax Jail, as the Council expressly ordered him there.

The Committee of Safety of Virginia offered our Council assistance, much to their honour; and I Verily believe South-Carolina would have offered every relief, had there been any necessity for it; but we had men enough-to settle the account current with the Insurgents. Colonels Moore, Martin, Caswell, Polk, Thackston, Lillington, and Long, have great merit. Any one of these gentlemen, in this country, would be an over-match for a Howe, a Burgoyne, or a Clinton. Their knowledge of the country, and necessary modes of attack, would frustrate any attempt fallen upon by the characters last mentioned. The whole Province, in general, consider Regulars in the woods as an easy conquest, and I am firmly of their opinion. How small must Governour Martin feel himself, after promising Government two thousand men, not to have it in his power to supply the Ministry with a single man; and after having, with ostentatious parade, brought up a sloop-of-war and three armed vessels within half a mile of Wilmington, for the purpose of receiving the Regulators and Highlanders from Negroe-Hcad Point, to sneak off with two vessels at a time, after hearings of the defeat of his emissaries; but nothing can equal his quixotism, but that of the Ministry, his masters.

In Colonel Moore’s letter, you will observe he mentions a Captain Macleod killed; this man was Adjutant-General of the Highland Regulating Army.

Our troops under Colonel Howe are ordered into this Province immediately. Felix Kenan is a prisoner of ours; that infamous fellow is by this time a prisoner in Halifax Jail, James Hepburn was Secretary to his Excellency Brigadier-General McDonald . The great Colonel Cotton, we hope, by this time, is a prisoner in Halifax Jail.

After the Insurgents gave way, there never was such a scouting hardly ever known before. We expect next Friday to hear of the number of ringleaders taken,

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF NORTH-CAROLINA, DATED NEWBERN, MARCH 5, 1776.

Governour Martin has been too successful in exciting an insurrection of the banditti among the Highlanders and Regulators. We refer you to a copy of Colonel, Caswell’s letter, and other enclosed papers, for the particular account of them. We have given orders that the persons and properties of the ringleaders should be secured, and that all who were in arms, or aiding and abetting, should be disarmed, and every other effectual measure pursued to prevent their, giving Governour Martin any aid in case of the arrival of his expected reinforcements. We have everything to hope from the vigilance, skill, and activity of the officers, and the bravery, spirited, and patriotick behaviour of the troops oh this occasion. A noble ardour appeared in every part of the country, through all ranks of people; insomuch that, in less than a fortnight, nine thousand four hundred men and upwards were embodied, and on their march against the enemy; more might have been raised, had they been necessary. We hear that the men-of-war are on their way to. Wilmington; the inhabitants have removed all their valuable effects, apprehending that the Governour will prevail on the officers of the men-of-war to act the same tragedy there which Lord Dunmore lately played at Norfolk, to his immortal infamy.