John Thomas (General)

John Thomas (* 1724 in Marshfield , Province of Massachusetts Bay , † June 2, 1776 near Chambly , Canada ) was an American doctor and major general in the Continental Army . Among other things, he was instrumental in the siege of Boston (1775/1776). After the Battle of Québec , he commanded the American withdrawal from Canada , but fell ill with smallpox and died.

Life until the war of independence

Thomas had studied medicine in Medford , Massachusetts and then practiced in Kingston, Massachusetts . He served in 1746 during the King George's War in a regiment at Annapolis Royal in Nova Scotia and later in General William Shirley's regiment as a surgeon. Because he liked life in the army, he switched from his work as a doctor to an officer career and became a lieutenant .

During the French and Indian Wars , he served again in Nova Scotia in 1759 and rose to the rank of colonel . In 1760, under Jeffrey Amherst, he was involved in the attack and capture of Montreal . After the war, he returned to his medical practice in Kingston.

John Thomas in the Revolutionary War

In the phase before the open military conflict of the American Revolutionary War , he recruited the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment in Plymouth County from volunteers and served as a colonel of the regiment. In February 1775 he was appointed Brigadier General by the Massachusetts Parliament . He led his troops to the siege of Boston . There he occupied the fortifications at Dorchester Heights south of Boston on March 4, 1775 . Since the southern harbor of Boston could be shelled from here, this led to the withdrawal of the British from Boston on March 17th. In June 1775 he was also promoted to Brigadier General of the Continental Army and later Major General by the Continental Congress .

After the death of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery in the Battle of Québec on December 31, 1775, he was appointed Commander in Chief of the American invading army in Canada . When he arrived at the army on May 1, 1776, he found them in a desolate state. Among other things, smallpox circulated in the troops and the troop strength was less than 1,000 men, which were fewer soldiers than the number of defenders of Québec. He sent those suffering from smallpox to Trois-Rivières and withdrew with the rest towards what is now the United States. However, he himself also contracted smallpox and died on June 2nd while his troops were crossing the Richelieu near Chambly .

Web links

• Biography of John Thomas (English; PDF; 103 kB)