On this day 250 years ago in Concord, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress called for the establishment of a New England Army, and appointed delegates to travel to New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut to ask each colony to contribute troops to the army.

Sources: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 135-36 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/134/mode/2up?view=theater;
https://250andcounting.com/2025/04/08/april-8-1775-the-new-england-army/;

April 8, 1775: The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts Resolves To Raise an Army — And To Tell Everyone

And on this day in Boston, Paul Revere set out on a ride to Concord to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that the British Army was coming, and General Gage ordered

Lieut. Graves Commander of his Majesty’s Armed Schooner “Diana” together with a Detachment of His Majesty’s 64^th Regiment, . . . to Fort Pownal, with directions to take onboard all the Artillery and spare Arms belonging to, and in Store at said Fort.

The site of Fort Pownall is in present-day Maine at Fort Point State Park.

Sources: https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/09/fort-pownal-colonial-maine-1775/#_edn3; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=170846; Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride at 87.

Also on this day in New Bern, North Carolina, Governor Josiah Martin dissolved the North Carolina Provincial Assembly because the Assembly had adopted the Continental Association issued by the First Continental Congress and elected delegates to the Second Continental Congress, both in direct contradiction of the Governor’s orders. The North Carolina Assembly authorized under British law would never meet again.

Sources: https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/nc_revolution_government_1775.html; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/american-revolutionary-war-timeline-1775-january-june/