The Writings of Samuel Adams

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In the Name of the Council

I am &c

P.S. Upon the Reception of this Letter you will immediately send your orders to Townsend where the Transports are to stop unless Colo Jackson shall meet your Directions at Sea.

1 Endorsed as “forwarded by Majr Braddish to Messrs Saml or Enoch Freeman at Falmo. Duplicate by Spy Boat.”

TO JOHN FROST.1

[Ms., Massachusetts Archives.]

State of Massachusetts Bay council Chamber Augt 17 1779

SIR

The Council have receivd your Letter dated the 16th. It is the opinion of the Board that it would have been prudent in you to have acquainted Brigr General Lovel with the Circumstances of the remaining Part of the Men detachd from your Brigade for the Expedition to Penobscot; and it is the Direction of the Board that you immediately on the Receipt of this Letter dispatch an Express to the General informing him of the Number of Men now ready, agreable to the Representation you have made in your Letter, and requesting him, if he shall think it necessary and proper, to forward a Vessel from Penobscot with a suitable Convoy to transport them.

1 Brigadier General of the York County militia.

To _______ _______.

[Ms., Samuel Adams Papers, Lenox Library.]

Boston Aug. 17, 1779

MY DEAR SIR

I did not write by the last Post, because I was at Providence upon Business with General Gates. He, with his usual Readiness to serve the Common Cause, has spared Colo Jacksons Regt to joyn our Forces at Penobscot. They were marchd to this place with the greatest Dispatch & have sailed with a fair Wind, under Convoy of two Vessels of Force. It needs not to be mentiond to you, how necessary it is to remove the Enemy from their Lodgment there. I cannot but hope the Business is by this Time effected; but should any untoward Accident happen, a Regiment of regular Troops will support our Militia, and animate that Part of the Country. Our last Accounts from General Lovel were of the 6th Instant. There was then no unpromising Circumstance, but the Want of a few disciplind Soldiers. We had a Letter from Mr Freeman of Falmouth, dated I think the 12th, by which we were informd that one Pote, a fisherman... While I am writing, an Express arrives from Penobscot with Letters of the 13th—a Reinforcement to the Enemy consisting of 1 Ship of 64 Guns 3 Frigates...