To George Washington from Colonel Thomas Procter, 3 April 1779
From Colonel Thomas Proctor
Philadelphia April 3d 1779
Sir
On receiving your Excellencys Letters Dated the 24th & 26th March, I Obtain’d the Resolves of Congress of the 15th and wou’d very Speedily have forwarded the State of My Regiment Agreeable to said Resolve, were I not engaged in transporting Artillery, Store’s &ca to Billingsport and Fort Island.1
In a late Return of My Regiment handed to your Excellency, the heading was Nearly the same as former Returns, Made when I was at Head Quarters to Genl Knox,2 and I beg leave to Assure you, that I have no desires Nor no Sinister View in being abstracted from the Continental Service, while it may be Judged I can be of Any Use But having Expended More than three thousand Pounds for Recruiting men since January 1778 found no Means of Obtaining the same, without being again recognised by this State. under this Consideration, I appealed to Congress and Obtain’d their Resolve in my favour, which was taken No Notice of, ’till I made a second Appeal to the Honble House of Assembly Who pass’d the Inclosed Resolve of the 12th of March Ulto and a draft manuscript for the Money I expended,3 I hope, Notwithstanding I may be Intitled to the benefits of this State, with the Other Officers of it; that there may be no Impropriety in my Rank being consider’d with the rest of the Officers of Artillery, as I view myself liable to be call’d to Any part of the Continent when your Excellency shall think proper to Order it, in which act I shall receive the utmost pleasure. I am With due regard. Your Excellency’s Obdt And Most Hble Servt
Thoms Proctor Col:
P.S. with the Inclosures, is, the present State, of my Regiment, accounting for none but what are Actualy in Service.4
ALS, PHi: Gratz Collection; Sprague transcript, DLC:GW. The addressed and docketed cover of the ALS is with the Sprague transcript in DLC:GW.
1. For Congress’s resolution of 15 March requiring that returns be made of all Continental officers and men who were not serving in the eighty-eight infantry regiments “originally apportioned on the states,” see John Jay to GW, 15 March, n.1 (see also , 13:316–18).
2. These returns of Proctor’s 4th Continental Artillery Regiment have not been identified.
3. Congress had resolved on 3 Sept. 1778 that “the artillery regiment raised in Pennsylvania, commanded by Colonel Thomas Proctor, be considered as part of the quota of troops to be furnished by that State, which is to be credited for the men now in the regiment, and also for any which shall be hereafter recruited therein; and that the government of the said State be requested to furnish Colonel Proctor with the State bounty, to enable him to fill up the regiment to its complement of men” (, 12:865–66). The enclosed copy of the Pennsylvania general assembly’s resolution of 12 March 1779, which is in DLC:GW, reads: “The Memorial of Col. Thomas Procter of the Pennsylvania Regt Artillery together with the Resolve of Congress of the 3d of September last respecting the said Regt were read & Considered and it was thereupon—Resolved that the said Regiment be Considered as a part of the Quota of the Troops of this State in the Continental Army—and that the Accts of the said Regt for recruiting the same so far as relates to the bounty given by this State be settled by the Committee of Public Accompts—and that Col. Procter be desired to apply to the Executive Council for such further sums of Money as they May think Necessary for recruiting the Said Regiment.” The draft of Proctor’s expenditures has not been identified.
4. The enclosed return has not been identified.