To George Washington from Brigadier General William Thompson, 6 May 1776
From Brigadier General William Thompson
Fort George [N.Y.] 6th May. 1776
Sir.
I arrived at this place the 4th Instant and have since been detain’d by bad weather and contrary winds. Greaton’s Patterson’s and Bond’s Regiments have been gone from here some days—Greaton’s and Patterson’s have left Ticonderoga and I expect Bond’s will be also gone from there, before Poor’s can reach that place—I hope to set out Tomorrow-morning with the last of my party, and expect in ten days to be in or near Quebec.
General Schuyler does every thing. Indeed much more than I tho’t was in the power of Man to do in forwarding the Troops and provisions—A number of Poor’s Regiment and six or seven Men of Capn Nelson’s Company have deserted on the march.1 I am Yr Excellency’s Most obedt Hble Servt
Wm Thompson
ALS, CSmH; Sprague transcript, DLC:GW.
1. John Nelson applied to the Pennsylvania committee of safety in January 1776 for permission to raise an independent rifle company in the back country, and on 30 Jan. the Continental Congress resolved “that Captain Nelson’s company of rifflemen, now raised, consisting of one captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals and seventy privates, be inlisted for the service of Canada” (, 4:101–2; Michael Swoope to the Pennsylvania committee of safety, 24 Jan. 1776, DNA:PCC, item 78). On 15 Mar. Congress ordered Nelson’s riflemen to proceed immediately to New York, and in April GW attached them to the brigade of reinforcements that Thompson was taking to Canada (, 4:207; see also GW to Hancock, 19 April 1776, n.5). Nelson’s company was incorporated into the 9th Pennsylvania Regiment in December 1776. Nelson was cashiered in July 1777 for accepting money to transfer thirty-one men from his company to the 7th Pennsylvania Regiment.