History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I
On the twenty-ninth of May, Colonel Thomas Thomas informed the Provincial Congress that Elijah Hunter, who had been Second Lieutenant in Captain Mills's Company, from Bedford, during the Campaign of 177''),''' and who was a member of the County Committee of 1776'-77,'' representing that Town, was desirous of raising a Grenadier Company, to be attached to the Regiment of Westchester-county Militia, of
1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Martis, 10 ho., A.M., May 21, " 1776."
2 Vide pages 276, 277, ante.
^Members of a Committee for Weitchesler-counli/ -- Historical Manmcripis, etc.; Jlfi«ce!ioneOMS Papers, xxxviii., 309.
which Thomas was the Colonel ; and it was intended that, of that Company, Elijah Huuter should be the Captain ; * Richard Sackett, the First Lieutenant ; * Silas Miller, the Second Lieutenant;" and Jeremiah Lounsberry the Ensign.* The Colonel also solicited Commissions for all these aspirants to official authority, although there was not the slightest pretense that a single Private had been enlisted ; and, of course, since a Thomas had made the request, the Commissions were "immediately issued to those gentlemen."®
On the first of June 1776, the Continental Congress made a requisition for six thousand men from the Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, " to be employed to rtinforce " the Army in Canada and to keep up the communi- " cation with that Province ; " ' on the third of June, a second requisition was made, by the same Congress, for thirteen thousand, eight hundred men from the Colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, "to be employed to reinforce the " Army at New York;'" the eleven Battalions already " raised and ordered to be raised for the protec- "tion of the four New England Colonies," were declared to be sufficient," for that purpose ; ' and a third requisition was also made for ten thousand men from the Colonies of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, " for a Flying Camp, to be immediately " established in the Middle Colonies." "*