On this day 250 years ago, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts reconvened at the Concord Courthouse. The Provincial Congress would govern all of Massachusetts, but for Boston, from Concord until December 1774.
Month: October 2024
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On October 10, 1774 at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which was then claimed by Virginia and also claimed by the Shawnee who called the place “Chinoudaista”, Virginia militia commanded by Col. Andrew Lewis fought Shawnee and allied warriors commanded by Chief Hokoleskwa, also known as Chief Cornstalk, at the Battle of Point Pleasant. The Virginians won the battle but lost about 80 men killed and 140 wounded. The Indian losses were not recorded but were probably similar. This battle was the largest engagement of Dunmore’s War and soon led to a treaty in which the Shawnee led by Hokoleska ceded to Virginia all their claimed lands east and south of the Ohio River.
Although the Virginia militia fought under the orders of Royal Governor Dunmore at Point Pleasant, almost all would fight for Virginia and America against Dunmore and the British Army the next year. Andrew Lewis, who immigrated to America from Ireland, became a General in the Continental Army and commanded the Virginia militia in 1776 that defeated Dunmore at the battle that drove Dunmore from Virginia. His subordinate commander Col. William Fleming, an immigrant from Scotland, was badly wounded in the battle and had to resign from the militia, but he continued to serve Virginia as an elected official throughout the War, including briefly as Virginia’s Governor. Lewis’s second division ended up under the command of Capt. Evan Shelby, who emigrated from Wales, and who would end up serving throughout the Revolution as the Colonel in command of Virginia’s frontier militia. Captain George Mathews would rise to rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army at the end of the War, and would serve as Governor of Georgia after the War. Lt. Isaac Shelby would rise to be a Colonel and one of the commanders at Kings Mountain and other American victories in the War and then Governor of Kentucky after the War. The rank and file militia who survived the Battle of Point Pleasant would, almost to the man, continue defending Virginia from attack by both the Indians and the British throughout the Revolution.
Some historians consider the Battle of Point Pleasant to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. You can visit a small portion of the battlefield that has been preserved by the State of West Virginia as Tu-Endi-Wei State Park in Point Pleasant. https://wvstateparks.com/park/tu-endie-wei-state-park/
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, George Washington wrote a reply to the letter he had received from his friend Robert McKenzie in Boston. McKenzie was from Virginia and had served under Washington’s command in the French and Indian War but had made a career in the British Army and was then serving in General Gage’s forces in Boston.
Washington complained that his friend had been misled to “condemn the conduct of the Massachusetts People” for being “rebellious, setting up for independency, & what not.” Washington wrote that he “can announce it as a fact, that it is not the wish, or the interest of . . . any . . . upon this Continent, separately, or collectively, to set up for Independence.” McKenzie was actually closer to the truth and to the scene where the people of Massachusetts were indeed setting up for rebellion and Independence. And it was Washington who had been misled by the Massachusetts delegation, who had received from back home reports of the brewing rebellion and calls for independency, but were working diligently to dissuade the people of Massachusetts from taking extreme action and to assure their colleagues in Philadelphia that it would not happen.
As part of his reply, Washington vehemently criticized the actions of the British Government that were driving the people of Massachusetts into rebellion, telling McKenzie that he should not question the reaction of
a people who are every day receiving fresh proofs of a Systematic ascertion of an arbitrary power, deeply planned to overturn the Laws & Constitution of their country, & to violate the most essential & valuable rights of mankind . . . & introduce a system of arbitrary Government, . . . but this you may at the same time rely on, that none of them will ever submit to the loss of those valuable rights & priviledges which are essential to the happiness of every free State, and without which, Life, Liberty & property are rendered totally insecure.
These Sir, being certain consequences which must naturally result from the late acts of Parliament relative to America in general, & the Government of Massachusetts Bay in particular, is it to be wonder’d at, I repeat, that men who wish to avert the impendg blow, should attempt to oppose it in its progress, or perhaps for their defence, if it cannot be diverted? Surely I may be allowed to answer in the negative; & give me leave to add, as my opinion, that more blood will be spilt on this occasion (if the Ministry are determined to push matters to extremity) than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals of North America
Source: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%229%20October%201774%22&s=1511311112&sa=&r=4&sr=
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On October 8, 1774, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia:
Resolved, That this Congress approve of the opposition by the Inhabitants of the Massachusetts-bay, to the execution of the late acts of Parliament; and if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case, all America ought to support them in their opposition.
Two delegates argued vehemently against the resolution as too radical and asked to have their objections recorded with the resolution. One of those delegates, Joseph Galloway of Pennsylvania, would abandon the Patriots to become a Loyalist and eventually flee to England at the end of the War never to return. The other dissenting delegate, James Duane of New York, remained opposed to Independence until the Declaration was adopted, but served patriotically in Congress until the end of the War, when he was elected Mayor of New York, and then appointed as a federal Judge by President Washington.
Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/act-i-saturday-october-8-1774/
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On this day 250 years ago, in Salem, Massachusetts, 288 delegates assembled as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. They initially met at the court house where the members of the Massachusetts General Court had met two days earlier, but the court house was too small so they moved the meeting to the Congregational meeting-house. The Congress organized by choosing John Hancock president, Benjamin Lincoln secretary. Hancock would go on to serve as President of the Continental Congress, and Lincoln would become a Major General and the second-in-command of the Continental Army. On this day, they recorded a list of the delegates elected to the Congress and then adjourned to meet at Concord on October 11.
From this day forward, all of Massachusetts outside of Boston was under the government of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress rather than the British Crown.
Sources: The journals of each Provincial congress of Massachusetts in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committee of safety, pages 5-15 available at https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.journalsofeach177417mass/?sp=74&st=image&r=-0.779,-0.307,1.894,0.967,0; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/lexington-and-concord-framingham-militia/;
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On this day 250 years ago in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Town’s Patriots erected a Liberty Pole in the Town Square, in front of the County Courthouse. At the same time, 20 teams of oxen dragged to the Town Square the top half of the rock that the Mayflower passengers supposedly stepped on to reach shore.
Source:
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On this day 250 years ago, members of the Massachusetts General Court (i.e., the Massachusetts Assembly) gathered in Salem, Massachusetts as originally scheduled in defiance of Governor Gage’s proclamation of September 28 dissolving the Assembly. The members waited all day to see if the Governor would reconvene the Assembly in accordance with the Massachusetts Charter. At the end of the day, they declared that they had met their obligation under the Charter, but that the Governor had not, so they declared that there was no working government in the colony. The next day the representatives voted to make the Massachusetts Provincial Congress the governing body of the colony “to promote the true interests of his Majesty, in the peace, welfare and prosperity of the Province.”
Sources: https://historicalnerdery01.blogspot.com/2023/12/they-brought-together-every-ounce.html; https://blog.amrevpodcast.com/2018/06/episode-049-provincial-congress-of.html; https://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.journalsofeach177417mass/?sp=17&st=image
Also on this day in Philadelphia, William Goddard’s petition to establish a Constitutional Post was presented in Congress.
Source: https://www.si.edu/object/william-goddards-petition-continental-congress:npm_1984.1127.4
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On this day 250 years ago the Worcester, Massachusetts, Town Meeting voted for these instructions to Timothy Bigelow, its representative to the upcoming Massachusetts Provincial Congress:
If all infractions of our rights, by acts of the British Parliament, be not redressed, and we restored to the full enjoyment of all our privileges, . . . you are to consider the people of this province . . . to all intents and purposes reduced to a state of nature; and you are to exert yourself in devising ways and means to raise from the dissolution of the old constitution, as from the ashes of the Phenix, a new form, wherein all officers shall be dependent on the suffrages of the people
In effect, almost two years before the Declaration of Independence, the Town of Worcester was demanding that Massachusetts be independent of British rule, and that its new government be elected by the people.
The man that the people of Worcester elected to represent them in the Provincial Congress was not a wealthy lawyer, doctor, merchant or landowner but instead a blacksmith. Timothy Bigelow would go on to heroic service at the siege of Boston, Quebec (where he was captured), Saratoga, Valley Forge, Monmouth, and Yorktown rising to the rank of Colonel, and yet die in the debtor’s prison in his hometown of Worcester after the War. Thankfully the people of Worcester recognize and honor his heroic service today even though he did not receive the honor he deserved in his lifetime.
Sources: https://allthingsliberty.com/2013/02/americas-first-declaration-of-independence/; https://www.taraross.com/post/tdih-timothy-bigelow; http://www.bigelowsociety.com/Col_Timothy_Bigelows_Histo.html; https://kinsmenandkinswomen.com/2016/07/23/reminiscences-of-the-military-life-and-sufferings-of-col-timothy-bigelow/; https://www.facebook.com/col.timothybigelowdar/
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On this day 250 years ago, the county militias of Massachusetts were organizing for war. The Worcester County, Massachusetts militia elected Artemas Ward as their Colonel, even though he had been previously been removed from office by the Royal Governor of Massachusetts due to his ardent Patriotism. The Town Meeting of Framingham “Voted — that there be two militia companies, besides the Troop, in this town; and that each company choose such officers as they judge best to have command at this day of distress in our public affairs.” The Town Meeting of Acton moderated by Captain Samuel Hayward elected Ephraim Hapgood, Francis Faulkner, John Hayward, Mark White, and Captain Samuel Hayward as a Committee of Correspondence for the town, Josiah Hayward as a representative to the General Court if the Governor were to convene a meeting of that body, and Francis Faulkner and Ephraim Hapgood as delegates to a Provincial Congress to be held at Concord on the second Tuesday of October. All these men were committed Patriots and Acton would field a heroic battalion of Minutemen at the battle in nearby Concord in the next year.
Sources: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/artemas-ward/; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/lexington-and-concord-framingham-militia/
On this day in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress debated Richard Henry Lee’s proposed resolution to “to apprise the public of danger, and of the necessity of putting the colonies in a state of defense” but voted not to adopt it. Instead the Congress passed a resolution stating “that the militia, if put upon a proper footing, would be amply sufficient for their defense in time of peace; [and] that they are desirous to put it on such a footing immediately.”
Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/act-i-monday-october-3-1774/
Also on this day in Boston, General Gage wrote to British Secretary of War Lord Barrington in London to request reinforcements explaining that to quell the brewing rebellion in New England “you must conquer her, and to do that effectually . . . you should have an Army near twenty Thousand strong.” That of course would turn out to be an underestimate.
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On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Samuel Swift wrote to Thomas Cushing and the other members of the Massachusetts delegation at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Among other things, he reported that:
Jealousies seem to rise higher between the People and the Army. It has been Rumour’d they were about to Fortifie Dorchester neck, which if they Attempt I am well satisfyd the people will Rise, but at Present that Report Seems to Subside.
Swift was a member of the Sons of Liberty and Committee of Correspondence in Boston and had long worked with Cushing, John Adams and the other Patriot leadership in Boston. However, Swift’s name is barely remembered today, perhaps because in hindsight Adams and others viewed him as a lukewarm Patriot, but more likely because Swift became ill in 1775 before the War began, and died in Boston on August 30, 1775.
Sources: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%222%20October%201774%22&s=1511311112&r=1; https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2023/06/samuel-swift-established-lawyer.html
Also on this day 250 years ago four small brass cannon were hidden away by Patriots in Boston waiting to be smuggled out of the city. The cannon were owned by the Boston militia company of artillery called the “Boston Train” which had disbanded early in September 1774 when their commander pledged loyalty to the British government. General Gage had then placed guards at the Old Gun House where two of the cannon were stored and at the New Gun House where the other two were stored. Nevertheless, on September 14, Patriots broke into the Old Gun House and removed the two cannon there, and then in the early hours of September 16, Samuel Gore and other former members of the Train broke into the New Gun House. Although the British had placed extra guards at the New Gun House and it was adjacent to an encampment of a British regiment on Boston Common, Gore and his fellow Patriots removed the two guns and hid them in a chest in the school next to the New Gun House. Two weeks later Gore and other members of the Train moved the two cannon from the school to a blacksmith shop in South Boston. By early October two brass cannon were hidden at Obadiah Whiston’s blacksmith shop and the other two brass cannon were hidden in stables in Central Boston.
Source: https://www.americanrevolutioninstitute.org/video/road-to-concord-bell/
On This Day In The Revolution 