Curtis

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Ticonderoga, November 16, 1775.

SIR: You having signified to me that you are willing to continue in the Army of the United Colonies, raised for defence of American liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof, in the rank you now hold, I do therefore, by virtue of the power given me by the honourable Continental Congress, appoint you a Captain in their Army, and that you will be allowed the like pay that you have hitherto served for, unless they should please to augment it; and whereas it is necessary that you should immediately raise a Company, to consist of seventy-two men, non-commissioned officers and privates included, I do therefore empower and direct you to promise to every man that you shall enlist the same pay that was allowed to the troops raised in the Colony of Connecticut for the present campaign, and also that they shall be clothed, the particulars of which it is not in my power to determine, as I am not furnished with an account of them by the honourable Congress; that they shall be allowed one-twelfth of a dollar per day, for their subsistence, until they arrive at such place where provisions can be issued to them. If any man brings his own arms, such arms shall be valued; and if lost in the service, unless through the negligence of the owner, they shall be paid for them; and such as are not lost shall have the same allowance made for the use of them as was allowed by the Colony of Connecticut to the troops raised therein for the present campaign.

v3:1599

You are to enlist none but able-bodied men; and every person that shall so enlist is to subscribe an enlistment, in the following words:

"I, A B, — , in the Colony of — , by trade a — , do acknowledge to have voluntarily enlisted myself a private soldier in a Regiment of Foot, to be commanded by such Colonel as the honourable the Continental Congress shall thereunto appoint; and do promise that I will faithfully serve in such Regiment, so commanded, for the term of seven months, unless sooner discharged, and be obedient to and observe such articles of war as the honourable Congress hath or shall from time to time institute for the government of their Army, raised for the defence of American liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof."

You are to keep an exact account of the date of every man' s enlistment.

You will make no delay in executing this service, as the time for which the men now here and at Fort George were enlisted will soon expire, and I wish to have the new-raised men up some time before.

I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

PHILIP SCHUYLER.

To Captain Eleazer Curtis.