KITTANNING — In April 1775, William Thompson, a man rarely if ever mentioned in American history books, became the first commissioned colonel in the Continental Army of a rifle battalion in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment.

The men who served with him were German, Irish, and Scottish settlers. They were fiercely independent frontiersmen, farmers, and artisans who had settled in the wilds near the forks of the Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 

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Thompson was a hardy man. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to British-ruled colonial America and served as a captain in the Crown’s military in Western Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. The war lasted seven years and remains a pivotal yet often overlooked episode in American history. 

The war, which destroyed the French Empire in North America and sparked the fire that would eventually lead to the American Revolution, started right there in Western Pennsylvania as a skirmish between another young soldier serving the Crown’s militia lieutenant, Col. George Washington, and French troops under the command of Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville in Fayette County.

According to research done by the Army War College, William Thompson’s commission as the colonel of the Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion in late June of 1775 made him the first colonel of what became George Washington’s Continental Army, the U.S. Regular Army.  

He is one of many early Revolutionary War heroes who traveled from the wilderness of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Although he has not found a prominent place in our hearts or our history books, Thompson’s Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion had a profound impact on the founding of our country. 

Lauded as “Adventurous, daring, even rash,” a man who “seemed to have a greater feel for the wild west of his day than for safer, more sedate towns and cities,” Thompson should be lauded as one of many whose early service led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July of 1776. 

We often don’t think of 1775 as anything other than the year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Yet it was men like Thompson who had signed on early, gone the distance, and laid the path for this yearlong celebration we will undertake ahead of our 250th anniversary next July.

Before 1775, Thompson was a merchant supplying goods along the route between Carlisle and the fort at the Forks of the Ohio, modern-day Pittsburgh, and eventually set up a trading station there. He married well after the French and Indian War, taking the daughter of the Reverend George Ross of York, Catherine, as his wife. His brothers-in-law would later be members of the Continental Congress and signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

When George Washington arrived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 2, 1775, to take command of the 17,000-man Continental Army, Thompson was ready. He had raised a battalion of associates, was appointed the “second colonel” of the upper military district, and recruited men who would serve as his riflemen. 

John Bonin, the professor of concepts and doctrine at the U.S. Army War College, wrote about Thompson’s reputation as a frontier soldier, leader, and a man of suitable character and influence, which made him eligible for the more challenging duties. 

“In addition, Thompson was an experienced and vigorous man of action, only 39 years of age and willing to serve at personal risk in the new patriot army facing the formidable British army in Boston,” he wrote.

Much to Washington’s ire, he and his men were notoriously undisciplined. In September 1775, over 30 of Thompson’s riflemen were tried by court martial for unruly behavior and sentenced to serve several days in the brig.

On Nov. 9, 1775, Bonin wrote that the British had landed a detachment at Lechmere Point under the covering of artillery and naval fire. Col. Thompson rapidly assembled his men, and they waded up to their armpits for a quarter mile to shore. 

“Notwithstanding British fire from behind cover, the riflemen drove the British back to their boats. The rifle battalion lost one killed and three wounded while inflicting 17 killed and one known wounded,” Bonin explained.

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In a general order dated Nov. 10, 1775, Gen. Washington publicly thanked “Colonel Thompson and the other Gallant Officers and Soldiers for their Alacrity Yesterday, in pushing through the Water, to get to the Enemy on Lechmore’s Point.”

Each man who came from a farm, a trading post, or a small outpost on the frontier made a difference in the lead-up to the Revolutionary War. Many of them, like Thompson, are mentioned or thanked for their service to a vision that had not yet been put to ink on paper.

It was an ideal, an idea. It was treasonous, dangerous, wild-eyed, and courageous. It was rooted in liberty, faith, and basic rights. Their names, deeds, daring mistakes, and accomplishments that formed who we are today are often long forgotten in dusty diaries and ancient history books. However, as the Nation approaches celebrating our 250th birthday, we should think about the common man who has contributed so much to the luxuries, freedoms, and opportunities we enjoy today. We are not perfect, but neither were the men and women who came before us.