Wednesday, April 4, 2012

April 5

     On April 5, 1776, Captain Arthur Hill Brice, of the 7th Regiment of Foot, the Royal Fusiliers, a British prisoner in American custody, wrote from New Brunswick, New Jersey to the Continental Congress. 
      Considering his continued ill healthy, Brice requested Congress’s permission to relocate to Philadelphia to consult with a physician.  Herman Zedtwitz, a European-born American officer, recommended Brice consult Philadelphia physician Dr. Adam Khun.
     Brice assured Congress that “it is from no other motive whatever my requesting your leave to go to Philadelphia, but entirely from the advice of an able physician, as my complaints still remain with me.  Having had so great an account from Colonel Zedtwitz, of Doctor Kuhn’s knowledge, I humbly beg leave to solicit your permission in letting me go to Philadelphia.  If I am so happy as to obtain it, after getting the Doctor’s advice and instruction, and you think it necessary to move me, I shall cheerfully submit.”
     
On April 9, Congress “Resolved, That said Captain Brice be permitted to come to Philadelphia, for the purpose of consulting with a physician, and there await the orders of Congress.”  Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress 1774-1789: Vol. 4: January 1-June 4, 1776 http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html


No comments: