On this day 250 years ago in Rhode Island the Newport Mercury reported that “Last Tuesday the militia of this town were mustered and exercised, when they performed extremely well, considering there has not been a muster here before upwards of ten years.”

Source: https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/01/the-organization-of-the-rhode-island-militia-1774-1783/#_edn16 n.17

Also on that day in Middleborough, Massachusetts, the Town Meeting voted to support American liberty, and approved the actions of a mob in town that surrounded a British officer, took his sword and broke it into pieces.

Source: https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/news/local/the-gazette/2015/07/12/local-heroes-american-revolution/33887772007/

And on this day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Provincial Congress issued a broadside declaring

Whereas it appears necessary for the defence of the lives, liberties, and properties, of the inhabitants of this province, that this Congress … should be made fully acquainted with the number and military equipments of the militia, and Minute Men … Resolved, that … the commanding officers of each regiment … take an exact state of their numbers, and equipment

Source: https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.03800200/