correspondence, corresponded regularly with his wife Ann and children. American Revolution Irvine served as a brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and served under General George Washington, with whom he frequently corresponded. Irvine represented Pennsylvania in both the Continental Congress (1787–88) and after the war, in the United States House of Representatives (1793–1795). He served as a ship's surgeon and settled in Carlisle. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly which granted him a colonel's commission in January 1776 for the purpose of raising the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment. On June 16 of that year he was captured, along with a large number of his fellow officers and men, in Canada at the Battle of Three Rivers during the Lake Champlain campaign and was not exchanged until May 6, 1778. In May 1779 he was promoted to brigadier general of the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment and arrived in Pittsburgh in November. On September 25, 1781, Irvine received orders from Congress to command the Western Department of the Continental Army, which was headquartered at Fort Pitt. Although Lord Cornwallis had already surrendered at Yorktown in October 1781, effectively ending the fighting in the east and virtually ending the war, the conflict on the western frontier continued. Irvine soon learned that the Americans living on the frontier wanted the army to launch an expedition against Detroit to end ongoing British support for the American Indian war parties. Irvine investigated, then wrote to General George Washington, on December 2, 1781, and maintained: "It is, I believe, universally agreed that the only way to keep Indians from harassing the country is to visit them. But we find, by experience, that burning their empty towns has not the desired effect. They can soon build others. They must be followed up and beaten, or the British, whom they draw their support from, totally driven out of their country. I believe if Detroit was demolished, it would be a good step toward giving some, at least, temporary ease to this country." Washington agreed with Irvine's assessment that the British in Detroit had to be neutralized or driven out to effectively end the war in the west. Irvine sent Washington a detailed plan for an offensive in February 1782, that with an estimated 2,000 men, five artillery pieces and a supply caravan, he could move on Detroit and capture it. Subsequently, Irvine convinced Colonel William