Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James
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THOMPSON, William, soldier, born in Ireland about 1725; died near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 4 September. 1781. He emigrated to Pennsylvania, and in the French and Indian war was captain of a troop of mounted militia. When a battalion of eight companies was recruited in Pennsylvania, after the fight at Lexington, he was placed in command, with the rank of colonel. They were the first troops that were raised on the demand of the Continental congress, and they arrived at the camp in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before 14 August, 1775. On 10 November this regiment drove back a British landing-party at Lechmere point. Thompson was made a brigadier-general on 1 March, 1776, and on 19 March he relieved General Charles Lee of the command of the forces at New York. In April he was ordered to Canada to re-enforce General John Thomas with four regiments, which were afterward increased to ten. He met the remnant of the Northern army on its retreat from Quebec, and assumed the chief command while General Thomas was sick, yielding it up on 4 June to General John Sullivan, by whose orders, two days later, he made a disastrous attack on the enemy at Trois Rivieres. He was there taken prisoner, and in August returned to Philadelphia on parole, but was not exchanged for two years.
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