To George Washington from Charles Thomson, 31 October 1777
From Charles Thomson
York town [Pa.] Octr 31. 1777
Sir
As Mr Hancock took leave of Congress on Wednesday and yesterday set out on his way home to Boston,1 I have the honour to forward to you Copies of two letters this day received from general Gates and most heartily to congratulate you on the signal success with which providence has been pleased to bless our Arms.2
Col. Wilkinson who brought the dispatches has not had time to sort and arrange his papers so as to lay before Congress an accurate account of the number of the enemy & the stores surrendred nor of the present state of our army in the northern department. He expects to be ready to lay them before Congress, tomorrow, after which you will, doubtless, have a more perfect account transmitted to you. I have the honour to be sr your obedient humble servt
Chas Thomson
ALS, DLC:GW. This letter is docketed in part “ansd 3 Nov.,” an apparent reference to GW’s letter to Henry Laurens of 1–3 Nov. (see n.17 of that document).
1. The previous Wednesday was 29 October.
2. The enclosed copy of Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates’s first letter to John Hancock, written at Saratoga, N.Y., on 18 Oct., reads in part: “I have the satisfaction to present your Excellency with the convention of Saratoga, by which His Excellency Lieutenant General Burgoyne has surrendered himself, & his whole army into my hands; & they are now upon their march to Boston—This signal & important event, is the more glorious, as it was effected with so little loss to the army of the United States” (DLC:GW). Gates’s second letter to Hancock, written at Albany on 20 Oct., covers a letter from Gates to Maj. Gen. John Vaughan of 19 Oct. condemning Vaughan for the burning of settlements along the Hudson River. In addition to these letters Thomson also enclosed a copy of the Saratoga Convention. All of the enclosures are in DLC:GW.