To General Wooster.

COMMISSIONERS IN CANADA TO PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

[Read June 6, 1776. Referred to Mr. Sherman, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Sergeant, Mr. F. Lee, and Mr. Gwinnet.]

Montreal, May 27, 1776.

SIR: We refer you to the enclosed letter from General Thomas, of the 20th instant, for the reasons which induced him to order Colonel Maxwell to retreat from Three Rivers to Sorel. He has since given orders, as we are informed by General Thompson’s letter of the 20th, to remove all the artillery and artillery stores from the mouth of the Sorel, without the least consultation with the General Officers. We have reason to believe that there is not that good understanding and free communication of sentiment between the General Officers, which we think essential for the good of the service. General Thomas is now at Chambly, under the small-pox; being taken with that disorder, he left the camp at Sorel and wrote to General Wooster to come and take the command. When the interest of our country and the safety of your Army is at stake, we think it a very improper time to conceal our sentiments, either with respect to persons or things. General Wooster is, in our opinion, unfit, totally unfit, to command your Army, and conduct the war; we have hitherto prevailed on him to remain in Montreal. His stay in this Colony is unnecessary, and even prejudicial to our affairs; we would therefore humbly advise his recall.

In our last, we informed you of the deplorable state of the Army; matters have not mended since. We went to the mouth of Sorel last week, where we found all things in confusion; there is little or no discipline among your troops, nor can any be kept up while the practice of inlisting for a twelvemonth continues; the General Officers are all of this opinion. Your Army is badly paid; and so exhausted is your credit that even a cart cannot be procured without ready money or force. We will give you an instance of the lowness of your credit: Three barrels of gunpowder were ordered from Chambly to Montreal; this powder was brought from Chambly to a ferry, about three miles off, where it would have remained had we not luckily passed by, and seeing the distress of the officer, undertaken to pay ready and hard money for the hire of a cart to convey it to Longueil. The Army is in a distressed condition, and is in want of the most necessary articles’meat, bread, tents, shoes, stockings, shirts, &c. The greatest part of those who fled from Quebeck left all their baggage behind them, or it was plundered by those whose times were out, and have since left Canada. We are informed by Colonel Allen that the men who, from pretended indisposition, had been excused from doing duty, were the foremost in the flight, and carried off such burdens on their backs as hearty and stout men would labour under.

With difficulty three hundred tents and about two hundred camp-kettles were procured here, and sent to the Sorel for the use of the Army, and were delivered, as we were informed, to one Major Fuller, who acted in the room of Mr. Campbell, Deputy Quartermaster-General, who had joined the Army at the Sorel but a day or two before our arrival, where, among other instances of mismanagement, we give the following: Colonel Nicholson’s Regiment, consisting only of one hundred men, received thirty tents and thirty-one camp-kettles; Colonel Porter’s Regiment, not exceeding that number, received fifty-six tents and thirty-three kettles.

Your Army in Canada do not exceed four thousand; above four hundred are sick with different disorders; three-fourths of the Army have not had the small-pox. The greater part of Greaton’s, Bond’s, and Burrell’s Regiments have been lately inoculated. There are about eight tons of gunpowder in the Colony. To evince the great distress we are reduced to for want of bread, we must inform you that we were obliged to buy thirty loaves of bread of our baker to feed Colonel De Haas’s detachment, which entered this town Friday night, on their way to join General Arnold at La Chine, and who could not be supplied by the Commissary. Such is our extreme want of flour that we were yesterday obliged to seize by force fifteen barrels to supply this garrison with bread. Previous to this seizure a general order was issued to the Town-Major to wait on the merchants, or others having provisions or merchandise for sale, requesting a delivery of what our troops are in immediate want of, and requiring him to give a receipt, expressing the quantity delivered; for the payment of which the faith of the United Colonies is pledged by your Commissioners. Nothing but the most urgent necessity can justify such harsh measures; but men with arms in their hands will not starve when provisions can be obtained by force. To prevent a general plunder, which might end in the massacre of your troops, and of many of the inhabitants, we have been constrained to advise the General to take this step. We cannot conceal our concern that six thousand men should be ordered to Canada, without taking care to have magazines formed for their subsistence, cash to pay them, or to pay the inhabitants for their labour, in transporting the baggage, stores, and provisions of the Army. We cannot find words strong enough to describe our miserable situation: you will have a faint idea of it if you figure to yourself an Army broken and disheartened, half of it under inoculation, or under other diseases; soldiers without pay, without discipline, and altogether reduced to live from hand to mouth, depending on the scanty and precarious supplies of a few half-starved cattle and trifling quantities of flour, which have hitherto been picked up in different parts of the country.

Your soldiers grumble for their pay; if they receive it they will not be benefited, as it will not procure them the necessaries they stand in need of. Your military chest contains but eleven thousand paper dollars. You are indebted to your troops treble that sum; and to the inhabitants above fifteen thousand dollars. You have no Adjutant-General,