Colonel William Thompson and the Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion of June 1775

On 14 June 1775 the Second Continental Congress directed ten companies of expert riflemen to be raised in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. These small units with their individual Pennsylvania Rifles were intended to reinforce the New England militia already fighting British Regulars outside Boston and are recognized as the first units of what will become the US Regular Army.

On June 22, Congress authorized the formation of the Pennsylvania rifle companies into a battalion, with William Thompson (or Thomson) of Carlisle commissioned by the Continental Congress on June 25 as the colonel in command. Thompson’s commission as the colonel of the Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion made him the first colonel of what would eventually become, through George Washington’s Continental Army, the US Regular Army. But William Thompson has not found a prominent place in the American pantheon of revolutionary heroes. First, Thompson came from the frontier wildlands of western Pennsylvania, where he fought Native Americans and held slaves. Second, Thompson’s combat record in the American Revolution ended abruptly with his defeat and capture in Canada at the Battle of Three Rivers in June 1776. Last, after capture, Thompson became an indignant parolee over the years that passed before he was exchanged for a British officer, and Thompson was found guilty of insulting the Continental Congress. Thompson died in September 1781, without reentering active service and before the victory at the Siege of Yorktown and is buried in the Old Carlisle Cemetery.

This presentation will start with a discussion illuminating the colonial military context within which the rifle battalion and the Continental Army had to be formed and in which they fought. It will then discuss the origins and background of William Thompson, leading to his suitability for the position of the Continental Army’s first colonel. Next, I will explore the military events in the American Revolution leading to the necessity for and formation of the Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion and its early service under Colonel Thompson. The presentation concludes with the subsequent wartime career of William Thompson as a brigadier general and an assessment concerning the role of riflemen in the American Revolution and the significance of Thompson and his rifle battalion to the emerging nation.

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