The Cumberland County Committee of Correspondence to the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 29 December 1775: résumé
The Cumberland County Committee of Correspondence to the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety
Text printed in Samuel Hazard et al., eds., Pennsylvania Archives (1st series; 12 vols., Philadelphia and Harrisburg, 1852–56), IV, 693.
<Carlisle, December 29, 1775: We understand that troops are to be raised in this province, and believe that we can recruit a complete battalion in this county; we enclose a list of officers whom we recommend.5 Having officers and men acquainted, when a corps is raised in a small district, serves the common cause and prevents discord, “too often prevalent amongst promiscuous Crowds of men.” Addressed to Franklin as president of the committee and signed by John Armstrong, Jno. Byers, Robert Miller, John Agnew, and James Pollock, the committee of correspondence of Cumberland County.6>
5. The list immediately follows in the Pa. Arch.
6. For John Armstrong (1717–95), who had acquired a military reputation in the previous war and soon rose to be a general in the current one, see the DAB. John Byers (1735–88) was a landholder, justice of the peace, and judge of common pleas in Cumberland Co.: PMHB, II (1878), 230–1; III (1879), 240. Robert Miller (c. 1724–95) was also a justice of the peace and had been a member of the committee since the summer of 1774; John Agnew, a former prothonotary, was later appointed a justice of the peace. 2 Pa. Arch., IX, 808; History of Cumberland and Adams Counties. . . (Chicago, 1886), pp. 27, 78–9, 95 of second pagination; Henry J. Young, The Spirit of 1775. . .(Carlisle, Pa., 1975), pp. 12, 14. For James Pollock (d. 1800) see the PMHB, LXXIV (1950), 451 n.