TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Camp at Cambridge, 20 July, 1775.

SIR, Since I did myself the honor of addressing you the 14th instant, I have received advice from Governor Trumbull, that the Assembly of Connecticut had voted, and that they are now raising, two regiments of seven hundred men each, to join this army in consequence of an application from the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts Bay. The Rhode Island Assembly has also made an augmentation for this purpose. These reinforcements, with the riflemen who are daily expected, and such recruits as may come in to fill up the regiments here, will, I apprehend, compose an army sufficiently strong to oppose any force, which may be brought against us at present. I am very sensible, that the heavy expense, necessarily attendant upon this campaign, will call for the utmost frugality and care, and I would therefore, if possible, avoid enlisting one unnecessary man. As this is the first certain account of the destination of these new-raised troops, I thought proper to communicate my sentiments as early as possible, lest the Congress should act upon my letter of the 10th, and raise troops in the southern colonies, which, in my present judgment, may be dispensed with.

Next to the more immediate and pressing duties of putting our lines in as secure a state as possible, attending to the movements of the enemy, and gaining intelligence, my great concern is to establish order, regularity, and discipline, without which, our numbers would embarrass us, and, in case of action, general confusion must infallibly ensue. In order to this, I propose to divide the army into three divisions. At the head of each will be a general officer; these divisions to be again

subdivided into brigades, under their respective brigadiers. But the difficulty arising from the arrangement of the general officers, and waiting the farther proceedings of the Congress on this subject, have much retarded my progress in this most necessary work. I should be very happy to receive their final commands, as any determination would enable me to proceed in my plan.

General Spencer returned to the camp two days ago, and has agreed to serve under Putnam rather than leave the army entirely. I have heard nothing from General Pomroy; should he wholly retire, I apprehend it will be necessary to supply his place as soon as possible. General Folsom proposed also to retire.

My instructions from the honorable Congress direct, that no troops are to be disbanded without their express direction, nor to be recruited to more than double the number of the enemy. Upon this subject I beg leave to represent, that, unless the regiments in this province are more successful in recruiting than I have reason to expect, a reduction of some of them will be highly necessary, as the public is put to the whole expense of an establishment of officers, while the real strength of the regiment, which consists in the rank and file, is defective. In case of such a reduction, doubtless some of the privates and all the officers would return home; but many of the former would go into the remaining regiments, and, having had some experience of service, would fill them up with useful men. I so plainly perceive the expense of this campaign will exceed any calculation hitherto made, that I am particularly anxious to strike off every unnecessary charge. You will therefore, Sir, be pleased to favor me with explicit directions from the Congress, on the mode of this reduction, if it shall appear necessary, that no time may be lost when such necessity appears.

You will please to present me to the Congress, with the utmost duty and respect; and believe me to be, &c.

P. S. Captain Derby's stay in England was so short, that he brings no other information, than what the enclosed letter and the newspapers, which will accompany this, contain. General Gage's despatches had not arrived; and the ministry affected to disbelieve the whole account, treating it as a fiction, or, at most, an affair of little consequence. The fall of stocks was very inconsiderable.*

July 21st, 5 o'clock, P. M. Since closing the letters, which accompany this, I have received an account of

* By a vote of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (April 26th), Mr. Richard Derby of Salem was empowered to fit out his vessel, as a packet, to carry intelligence of the Lexington battle to England, and all charges were to be paid by the colony. It was commanded by Captain John Derby, who arrived in London on the 29th of May, having taken with him several copies of the Essex Gazette, in which was contained the first published account of the affair at Lexington and Concord. This was reprinted and circulated in London the day after his arrival, and gave the first notice of that event to the English public. Captain Derby was summoned before the Privy Council, and examined, the ministry having received no despatches from General Gage confirming such a report. Nor did his letters arrive, till eleven days afterwards, although the vessel conveying them sailed four days previous to the departure of Captain Derby. Great excitement was produced throughout England, and the clamor grew loud against the ministers, because it was presumed that they concealed the official accounts, and wished to keep the people in ignorance. On the 10th of June, however, as soon as General Gage's official report reached Whitehall, it was published. MS. Journal of Massachusetts Provincial Congress.—MS. Papers in the State Paper Office, London.

Captain Derby took with him the original affidavits of the people in Lexington and Concord, respecting the battle, and a letter from the Provincial Congress to Dr. Franklin, agent in England for Massachusetts. These identical papers are now in the Library of Harvard College. When Captain Derby arrived in London, Dr. Franklin had sailed for America, and he was at sea when the affair at Lexington took place. The papers were, therefore, handed to Arthur Lee, who was Dr. Franklin's successor. He retained them, and recently they have been deposited in the Library of the College, with other manuscripts, by Mr. R. H. Lee, of Virginia.

the destruction of the light-house; a copy of which I have the honor to enclose.*

I have also received a more authentic account of the loss of the enemy in the late battle, than any yet received. Dr. Winthrop, who lodged in the same house with an officer of the marines, assures me they had exactly one thousand and forty-three killed and wounded, of whom three hundred fell on the field, or died within a few hours. Many of the wounded are since dead.

TO COLONEL JOHN HANCOCK.

Cambridge, 21 July, 1775.

DEAR SIR,

I am particularly to acknowledge that part of your favor of the 10th instant, wherein you do me the honor of determining to join the army under my command. I need certainly make no professions of the pleasure I shall have in seeing you. At the same time I have to regret, that so little is in my power to offer equal to Colonel Hancock's merits, and worthy of his acceptance. I shall be happy in every opportunity to show the regard and esteem with which,

I am, Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant.t

* A party of the American troops set fire to the light-house, which stood on an island about nine miles from Boston. It was considered an enterprise of some merit, as a British man-of-war was stationed within a mile of the place.

Mr. Hancock had written;-"I must beg the favor, that you will reserve some berth for me, in such department as you may judge most proper; for I am determined to act under you, if it be to take the firelock and join the ranks as a volunteer." The company of Cadets in Boston had been commanded by Mr. Hancock, with the rank of Colonel. He

TO GEORGE WILLIAM FAIRFAX, England.

DEAR SIR,

Camp at Cambridge, 25 July, 1775.

On the other side you will receive a copy of my last, dated at Philadelphia the 31st of May, and to which I refer.

I shall say yery little in this letter, for two reasons; first, because I have received no letter from you since the one dated in June, 1774, and therefore, having written often, can have nothing to answer; but, principally, because I do not know whether it may ever get to your hands. If it should, the principal, indeed only design is to cover the seconds of those bills forwarded in my last.

was dismissed from that command by General Gage. A curious correspondence on the subject is contained in the Boston Gazette, August 29th, 1774. It does not appear, that he joined the army under Washington in any military capacity, as above proposed.

An error of some consequence has crept into history, respecting the proximate cause, which influenced the members of the Continental Congress in choosing Mr. Hancock to be president of that body. In Belsham's Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third (Vol. I. p. 318), it is intimated, that his proscription by General Gage procured him this honor. Mrs. Warren, in ner History of the Revolution (Vol. I. p. 214), speaks with still more confidence, and says, "He was chosen to preside in the respectable assembly of delegates, avowedly on the sole principle of his having been proscribed by General Gage." But Hancock was chosen president of the Continental Congress on the 24th of May, two weeks before Gage's proclamation, proscribing him and Samuel Adams, was issued, that instrument having first appeared on the 12th of June following. It is probable, that a main reason of his being chosen, in addition to the notoriety acquired by the zealous part he had acted, was the circumstance of his winning personal address, and his having been for some time president of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, by which he had become familiar with the forms of business in a public body. This latter office he continued to hold, after joining the Continental Congress. Dr. Joseph Warren was elected president pro tempore, and discharged the duties of the station, till the day on which he was slain at Bunker's Hill.MS. Journal of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, for May and June, 1775.