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…