George Washington Papers
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To George Washington from Major General Horatio Gates, 3 September 1776

From Major General Horatio Gates

Tyconderoga 3rd September 1776.

Sir,

This will be presented your Excellency by Major Hubley, who acted as Brigade Major to the Baron De Wedtke, being desirous to go to Philadelphia upon his Private Affairs, I have granted him permission, He is a Young Gentleman of Character in his Profession, and as such I introduce him to your Excellency.1

Brigade Major Scull accompanies Major Hubley, he goes to New York at the request of Brigadier General Thompson as your Excellency will be acquainted by General Thompsons Letter to Major Scull of the 6th of August from Quebe[c].2

Nothing extraordinary since my Last to your Excellency has occurred here. The Fleet under General Arnold down the Lake is Increased to Twelve Sail Carrying Sixty Seven pieces of Cannon, The Three Row Galleys, and one more Gondola, will be ready to Join The Fleet in ten or fifteen Days at farthest The Excessive Rains has caused so much Fever and Ague at our Dock Yards at Skeensborough that the Ship Carpenters are almost all Sick which has very much retarded the finishing the Row Gallies.

I expect every Hour to hear from General Arnold, and the Return of my Scouts towards Canada I then shall immediately make a Report to your Excellency. with great Respect I am Your Excellencies Most Obedient Humble Servant

Horatio Gates

Copy, NHi: Gates Papers.

1Adam Hubley, Jr. (c.1744–1793), became a lieutenant in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment in October 1775 and accompanied it to Canada the following winter. On 31 July 1776 Hubley was sent from Ticonderoga to Fort George to inventory the possessions of the recently deceased Baron de Woedtke (see John Trumbull to Peter Gansevoort, that date, in Force, American Archives description begins Peter Force, ed. American Archives. 9 vols. Washington, D.C., 1837–53. description ends , 5th ser., 1:698). Hubley skirmished with Hessian troops near Fort Washington on 9 Nov. 1776 (see extract of an anonymous letter, 8–9 Nov. 1776, ibid., 3:601–2), and on 6 Dec. 1776 he was appointed major of the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment. Hubley transferred to Col. Thomas Hartley’s Additional Continental Regiment on 12 Jan. 1777, but two months later he returned to the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment to be its lieutenant colonel. Named lieutenant colonel commandant of the “new” 11th Pennsylvania Regiment in June 1779, Hubley participated in Sullivan’s expedition later that year. He resigned his commission in February 1781 (see Hubley to GW, 3 Feb. 1781, DLC:GW).

2Gates may be referring to the letter that William Thompson wrote on 5 Aug. apparently to his brigade major Peter Scull, an unaddressed copy of which was enclosed in Schuyler to GW, 31 August. In it Thompson reports the impending release of American prisoners in Canada and requests: “If you can obtain leave of the commanding Officer, I would be glad you would meet me at New-York, with my Papers that I may get all my accounts settled on my arrival there” (DNA:PCC, item 159). Peter Scull (1753–1779), who was commissioned a second lieutenant in Thompson’s Pennsylvania rifle regiment in July 1775 and a captain in Col. John Shee’s 3d Pennsylvania Regiment the following January, became Thompson’s brigade major in March 1776. In January 1777 Scull joined Col. John Patton’s Additional Continental Regiment as a major. He resigned his commission in January 1778, and after declining offers to become a deputy inspector general or an assistant secretary to GW, he accepted appointment as secretary to the Continental Board of War in November 1778 (see GW to Scull, 5 Jan. and 19 Mar. 1778, DLC:GW; GW to Arthur St. Clair, 10 April 1778, CSmH; Scull to GW, 14 April 1778, PHi: Gratz Collection; and JCC description begins Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds. Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774-1789. 34 vols. Washington, D.C., 1904–37. description ends , 12:1077, 1101, 1107). Scull resigned that office in August 1779 (ibid., 14:1009), and he died at sea the following November while sailing to France for his health (see John Jay to Arthur Lee, 26 Jan. 1780, in Morris, Jay Papers description begins Richard B. Morris et al., eds. John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary. Unpublished Papers, 1745–1780. New York, 1975. description ends , 713–14).

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