On this day 250 years ago in New York City, a mob storms the home of the outspoken Loyalist Myles Cooper, President of King’s College (now Columbia University). Two students of King’s College, Alexander Hamilton and Robert Troup, stall the mob to allow Cooper to flee to a British ship that would carry him to England, never to return to America. Hamilton and Troup were not Loyalists but were ardent Patriots who would both serve heroically in the Continental Army. Troup would become a Lt. Colonel and Hamilton a Colonel, with Hamilton going on to even more fame as one of the architects of United States Constitution.
Source: https://archives.upenn.edu/exhibits/penn-history/common-nonsense/kings-college/; https://www.illinoisreview.com/illinoisreview/2020/05/alexander-hamilton-and-the-life-of-a-loyalist-academic.html
On this day 250 years ago in Lexington, Massachusetts, Col. Jeremiah Lee died from illness he contracted during the British raid on Lexington. Lee was one of the wealthiest men in Massachusetts. As a Member of the Committee of Safety and with his own wealth organized the smuggling of arms and ammunition for the New England Army in the weeks before Lexington and Concord. On the day before the battle, Lee had met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock and with other Members of the Committee of Safety. He and two other Members of the Committee of Safety were rousted from sleep with the approach of the British Army in the early morning of April 19 and spent the night hiding in a cornfield to avoid capture by the British. Although he was not wounded in combat, Lee supposedly caught pneumonia and was weakened by exposure from lying in the field all night and never recovered enough to return to his home. You can visit the home in Marblehead, Massachusetts of this little remembered Patriot who should be counted as one of the Founding Fathers and as another American casualty of the Battle of Lexington.
https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2017/03/jeremiah-lee-mansion
https://www.marbleheadchamber.org/events/details/marblehead-s-mysterious-revolutionary-2946
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress convened at the Philadelphia State House (today’s Independence Hall National Historic Site) and unanimously elected Peyton Randolph as its President and Charles Thomson as Secretary.
Source: https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2025/05/08/the-second-continental-congress-convenes/; https://www.americanrevolution.org/second-continental-congress/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Continental_Congress
And in the early morning hours of this day 250 years ago, Fort Ticonderoga, New York is captured in a surprise attack by Green Mountain Boys and Massachusetts and Connecticut Militia led by Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. Allen reportedly proclaimed that he was taking the fort under the authority of the Continental Congress, which would be news to the Congress as it had not yet convened, but the assault had been authorized by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts and the Connecticut Committee of Safety. Only one British soldier fired his musket but it misfired and the only injury was a slight gash that another British soldier received from Allen’s sword. The Patriots captured the garrison of 44 men that included 38 British soldiers, two officers and four civilians, plus 24 women and children, more than a hundred cannon plus mortars, howitzers, ordnance, and other arms and ammunition — and 24 kegs of rum.
Sources: https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1775/battle-fort-ticonderoga/; Tonsetic at pp. 35-39.
Today, May 10, 2025, Fort Ticonderoga is reenacting and commemorating the 250th anniversary of the capture of Fort Ticonderoga. https://fortticonderoga.org/ft_events/real-time-revolution-3-day-battle-reenactment-no-quarter/
On This Day In The Revolution 