was to Ticonderoga, on which your Honours’ Memorialist immediately set out.

Left home the 16th day of May, 1775; went up with a number of other men as a volunteer; was put directly into command of the working party of mechanicks; was appointed as a captain and commander of all in that business at and about Ticonderoga, for which the commanding officer of that place gave a warrant, dated June 1st, 1775. Your Honours’ Memorialist continued in that business until the date of his appointment and warrant to command a company in Colonel James Easton’s Regiment, which was the 1st of July then next; the company inlisted for six months from and after the said 1st of July, which time expired the last day of December then following; from which time his appointment as a Captain also in General Wooster’s Regiment takes place and to continue to the 15th of April, 1776, at which time the Army being in so weak and precarious a state that your Honours’ Memorialist and his company could not be spared, the men were prevailed with to tarry till the recruits came to relieve them, which we did; and then your Honours’ Memorialist got a pass, and his men a discharge, to go home, and left Canada since the middle of May; and now your Honours’ Memorialist hath arrived at Philadelphia, where he hopes to be heard and considered by your Honours, to whom he begs leave further to observe, that it is now going on fourteen months since your Honours’ Memorialist left home; and that he hath been during the whole time wading through the extreme hardships and fatigues of the Northern service, which not being able to describe, shall not mention any, except a few of the fatigues of your Honours’ Memorialist, which was attended with success, viz: A long and tedious siege in the cold, the wet, the mud and mire at St. Johns, which your Honours’ Memorialist endured until a few days before the garrison gave up; at which time your Honours’ Memorialist was ordered off with a small party under the command of Colonel Easton, to go and meet a large party commanded by Colonel Maclean, coming up the river Sorel for the relief of St. Johns : we met them and drove them back; they got on board their vessels lying at the mouth of the river Sorel, viz: one large snow of twenty-six guns, two schooners, and one small sloop, against which we raised a battery in the night and drove them down the river, with the loss of a number of their men and more wounded. All this was not done without much fatigue; but we have not done yet. Now comes an express from General Montgomery, near Montreal, to look out sharp, as General Carleton and General Prescott were coming down the river with a fleet of eleven sail, and three or four hundred men on board; we discovered them, went and met them, raised a battery, and drove them up the river again; we then followed them, dragging our cannon with us; built a battery in a snow-storm, the thicket of which secured us from their sight, and thereby from their shot; we drove them still farther up the river, killed one man, and shattered the vessels; and thus by our fatigues day and night in building batteries, &c., up and down the river, harassed the enemy to that degree that we finally took them, with a large quantity of provision, consisting of several hundred firkins of butter, fifteen hundred barrels of pork and flour, &c., without which our Army must have either abandoned Canada, or perished there before any provision arrived this spring. But not to be tedious with your Honours, will recite no more of the successful fatigues, and entirely omit the unsuccessful ones.

Your Honours’ Memorialist begs leave to observe that he hath served during the whole time in the capacity of a Captain, studying the good of the service, and applying diligently to the duties of the same; hath never applied or asked to be raised to a higher station, though many others have come home, applied, and got promotion, younger in office, and, it may be, not more deserving, who left the danger and burden on the shoulders of the small number of those who tarried in Canada, to bear it as they could. Your Honours’ Memorialist would not apply for unmerited promotion. If throwing by all concerns at home, entering the Northern climate at such a vast distance, encountering so many, so long and continued a series of hardships, of more than thirteen months’ continuance; if taking and keeping those parts of Canada, and the effects thereof, (which your Honours’ Memorialist gave his persevering assistance to accomplish,) doth not merit promotion, he asks it not; but if your Honours should think that what your Honours’ Memorialist hath done and gone through is worthy of notice, he doubts not but your Honours will consider the matter, and hopes your Honours will provide for him in some rank or other, as he is now unprovided for in the Army, and is desirous to continue in the service; and as a considerable number of those men who have returned from the Northern Army are very desirous to engage under the command of your Honours’ Memorialist, after they had made a visit to their friends, for which and other reasons your Honours’ Memorialist begs leave to move that your Honours would give him orders to inlist two or three hundred men to continue in the service during the war, or for a limited time, as your Honours shall think best; and that the Memorialist have orders to appoint officers for said men, of those who have served in the Northern Department, and are now unprovided for in the Army by any of the Colonies. And your Honours’ Memorialist will engage that he will not appoint any more officers than will be necessary for the men who shall actually inlist, and that the wages of your Honours’ Memorialist, and the wages of the other officers together, shall not amount to more than a proportion with the regiments already raised, according to the number of men really inlisted under your Honours’ Memorialist. And your Honours’ Memorialist begs to observe, that if your Honours should give him the small command above-mentioned, that he would be well suited if his detachment should be made independent of any regiment, if your Honours should think it best; but if not, your Honours’ Memorialist will stand ready cheerfully to attend your Honours’ directions to join any other regiment which your Honours shall order; which your Honours’ Memorialist, as in duty bound, shall ever pray.

ELISHA PAINTER.

To the Honourable the Board of War sitting in PHILADELPHIA:

The Petition of Captain ELISHA PAINTER:

Who begs leave herein humbly to show, that he was appointed a Captain in a Regiment commanded by Colonel James Easton in the Northern Army; which appointment, with a warrant for a commission, was dated July 1st, 1775, for six months’ service, which expired the last day of December then next; which service your Honours’ petitioner faithfully performed in the above-said capacity; but being neglected as other officers in general in said army were, hath had no commission. But as he is now returned from said army, and thinks a commission may be of future service to him, prays your Honours that he (your Honours’ petitioner) may have a commission given him, bearing equal date with the above-said appointment. Your Honours’ petitioner would beg leave further to show, that at the expiration of the above-said term in Colonel Easton’s Regiment, his appointment for a Captain in General Wooster’s Regiment took place, which bears date January 1st, 1776, and in which station your Honours’ petitioner again faithfully served during the continuance of said regiment, for which your Honours’ petitioner begs your Honours would give him another commission, bearing equal date with the last said appointment; which, as in duty bound, your Honours’ petitioner shall ever pray.

ELISHA PAINTER.

Dated at Philadelphia, June 24, 1776.

CHARLES THOMSON TO RICHARD PETERS, JUN.

Philadelphia, June 24, 1776.

SIR; I have it in command to request you would please to send me what publick letters are in your office, that they may be transmitted. Please to examine whether you have not among the letters one from Brigadier-General Arnold, of the 27th of May, with a cartel for exchange of prisoners entered into between him and Captain Forster.

I am, sir, your humble servant,

CHARLES THOMSON, Sec. of Con.

To Richard Peters, Esq.

WILLIAM WHIPPLE TO JOHN LANGDON.

Philadelphia, June 24, 1776.

DEAR SIR: Your two favours of the 10th instant, one dated at Boston and the other at Portsmouth, came duly to hand. I informed you in my last, which went by Saturday’s