American Revolutionary War Brigadier General. After emigrating to the British Colonial America from Ireland, he served as a captain in the Kittanning Expedition of the British Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War (or Seven Years War). After the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, he became a colonel of a rifle battalion in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment (the first colonel commissioned in the Continental Army) and sent to the British Colony of Massachusetts to aid in the defense of Boston. In November 1775 his forces repelled an attempted landing by British troops and he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. The following June he was sent to Canada to reinforce American troops there and was captured by the British during an attack at Trois-Rivieres in Quebec. He was paroled but remained a captive for four years before finally being exchanged for Hessian Army officer Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel in 1780. He then returned to his home near Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he died at the age of 45.
American Revolutionary War Brigadier General. After emigrating to the British Colonial America from Ireland, he served as a captain in the Kittanning Expedition of the British Province of Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War (or Seven Years War). After the American Revolutionary War broke out in April 1775, he became a colonel of a rifle battalion in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment (the first colonel commissioned in the Continental Army) and sent to the British Colony of Massachusetts to aid in the defense of Boston. In November 1775 his forces repelled an attempted landing by British troops and he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. The following June he was sent to Canada to reinforce American troops there and was captured by the British during an attack at Trois-Rivieres in Quebec. He was paroled but remained a captive for four years before finally being exchanged for Hessian Army officer Baron Friedrich Adolf Riedesel in 1780. He then returned to his home near Carlisle, Pennsylvania where he died at the age of 45.
Bio by: William Bjornstad
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