In 1776, President of Congress John Hancock Orders the Urgent Purchase of Munitions to Bolster the Invasion of Canada

Hancock appeals to Matlack to comply with Congress’s order and reminds him that he is the Commissary for the Continental Army

At the start of the Revolutionary War, Americans widely believed that the sympathy for their cause in French-speaking Canada was substantial, and that French Canadians would join the war if given an opportunity. The result was the Invasion of Quebec in 1775, the first major military initiative by the newly formed Continental Army. The objective of the campaign was to gain military control of the Province of Quebec in British Canada, and convince French-speaking Canadians to join the Revolution. One expedition left Fort Ticonderoga under General Richard Montgomery, besieged and captured Fort St. Johns, and very nearly captured British General Guy Carleton when taking Montreal. The other expedition left Cambridge, Massachusetts, under Benedict Arnold, and traveled with great difficulty through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec City. The two forces joined there, and they assaulted the city in a snowstorm on the last day of the year – December 31, 1775. The battle was a disastrous defeat for the Continental Army; Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded, while the city’s defenders suffered few casualties.

Meanwhile Congress moved quickly to try to strengthen the force there and supply them with ammunition. Among them was the 2nd New Jersey Regiment. Fom December 1775 to February 1776, the battalion was mustered and organized at Burlington and Trenton, to consist of eight companies from Gloucester, Hunterdon, Burlington, Salem, and Sussex counties. The men were sent urgently to Canada.

In December 1775, Timothy Matlack he was serving as Secretary to Congress’s Marine Committee, chaired by John Hancock. Then in January 1776, he was named Commissary to supply the nascent army and Clerk-in-Chief of the Committee of Claims. That same month, Congress met and ordered reinforcements of munitions to be sent North. This was early in the war and the supply structure was not yet well established, but as Commissary it was Matlack’s job to carry out. Also in January, Philadelphia added two more battalions to its militia brigade and Matlack was elected Colonel of the Fifth Battalion of Rifle Rangers. Thus Matlack was, in a sense, a man with two jobs.

Having been instructed by Congress to provide the munitions for the Canadian front, Matlack appealed to Hancock, then President of Congress, saying the munitions were not in his possession and he was unable to comply. But Hancock was not sympathetic and ordered him to find some.

Autograph letter signed, January 20, 1776, Matlack to Hancock. “The Congress has issued an order directing me to deliver to the delegates of New Jersey a quantity of ball or lead proportioned to 300 of powder. There is none to be found of either in my possession and therefore I cannot deliver it.”

Hancock replied, in an Autograph letter signed, from the seat of Congress in Philadelphia, below the letter of Matlack, demanding he comply with the order and reminding him of his role as Commissary. To Matlack. “The Congress desire you would please to purchase a sufficiency of Ball, which it was said was to be Sold in this City, & your Bill shall be immediately paid. They look on you as their Commissary.”

This is an increasingly uncommon letter of Hancock as President of Congress on military affairs, and is rare, if not unique, in having both Hancock and Matlack letters on the same page. It is certainly our first, and a search of public sale records over the past forty years shows that not even one reached that marketplace.