This Day in History: October 5

On this day in 1775, General George Washington writes to the president of the Continental Congress, John Jay, to inform him that a letter from Dr. Benjamin Church, surgeon general of the Continental Army, to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Gage, British commander in chief for North America, had been intercepted. Washington wrote, "I have now a painful tho' a Necessary Duty to perform respecting Doctor Church, Director General of the Hospital."