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Dear Sir. Camp at Suffolk 26th Nov'r 1775.

We arrived here yesterday all tolerable well
Lieut. Colo. Scott with his party has advanced within
7 Miles of Great Bridge & in the neighbourhood of deep
creek, where the Inhabitants are all Tories & have
taken the oath to defend the Govr. &c., Colo. Bullitt encloses
you a Coppy, I think it, if posible worse then the proclamation,
Scott informs me he has several of these Tories
[illegible paper damage] particularly a certain Tori [illegible paper damage]
has been a very active man on the Govr. side. I have order'd
them to be safe kept 'till my arrival, by his inteligence
the most of the Troops are withdrawn from the Bridge,
& it is only gaurded by Tories & Blacks, Scott is very
desireous of attacking them by crossing the River
below, I have caution'd him against takeing that step
without the very best Inteligence & as I find it imposible
to leave this 'till a number of Ball is run, cartirages
made, arms repair'd, powder horns &c. &c. I have
detach'd Majr. Spotswood with two Companys to Reinforce
him & station'd a compy. of Volunteers between
us to keep open the communication [struck text] between us, [end struck text] & I'm
told by every boddy they will affectually cutt off all
communication with this Neighbourhood & the Enemy.