To George Washington from the Massachusetts Council, 3 October 1776
From the Massachusetts Council
Council Chamber, Watertown, 3 October 1776. Transmits a copy of a letter just received from Richard Derby “containing some Intelligence Which the Board Apprehend your Excellency ought to be made acquainted with.”1 The council asks to be informed of the posts and commanding officers of the state’s regiments.
Df, M-Ar; LB, M-Ar.
1. Richard Derby, Jr., of Salem informs the council in his letter of this date that the state brigantine Massachusetts, commanded by Capt. Daniel Souther, recently had captured a British transport carrying the chaplain, “a Capt: & about 20 Privates, of the 16th Regt of Dragoons, with their Horses & Acoutremts.” The captured transport was the brig Henry and Ann, John Farrah, master. It had sailed to America from Falmouth, England, on 27 July in convoy with twelve other transports, all of which, Derby writes, “had the same kind of Cargo, makeing in the whole two Hundred & thirty Horses, a Fleet of about Seventy Sail Sailed About Three Days before them, Under a Strong Convoy, having on Board the Remainder of the 16th Regt of Dragoons, and the last Division of Hanoverians . . . About 5,000 Men bound for New York. . . . I think You may Depend on the Account . . . of the Sailing of the Fleets, & that they are now near if not Arrived at York” (DLC:GW).