On this day 250 years ago in Charlottetown (now Charlotte), North Carolina the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety was meeting when the news arrived of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The meeting was chaired by Abraham Alexander, Charles McKnit Alexander was secretary and the other members of the Committee were later identified as Thomas Polk, John Davidson, Ephraim Brevard, Hezekiah J. Balch, John Phifer, James Harris, William Kennon, John Ford. Richard Barry, Henry Downe, Ezra Alexander, William Graham, John Queary, Hezekiah Alexander, Adam Alexander, Charles Alexander, Zaccheus Wilson, Sr., Waightstill Avery, Benjamin Patton, Matthew McClure, Neil Morrison, Robert Irwin, John Flenniken, David Reese, and Richard Harris, Sr. The next day these men may, or may not, have signed a document that has been called the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence. Whether or not the Mecklenburg Committee declared “independence” on May 20, 1775, eleven days later on May 31, the Committee issued the very radical Mecklenburg Resolves even if that document does not use the word “independence.”

Sources: https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/nc_revolution_government_1775.html; https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/nc_revolution_mecklenburg_resolves_1775.html; https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/nc_revolution_mecklenburg_resolves_2_1775.html; https://www.ncpedia.org/mecklenburg-declaration; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecklenburg_Declaration_of_Independence

Tomorrow, May 20, 2025, the City of Charlotte will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the supposed signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration. https://250.mecknc.gov/event/250th-anniversary-mecklenburg-declaration-independence-commemoration-ceremony; https://250.mecknc.gov/event/meck-dec-250-exhibit-opening-remembering-mecklenburg-declaration-independence

On this day 250 years ago at St. Johns, Quebec, Ethan Allen and his detachment of the Green Mountain Boys, retreated south on Lake Champlain after skirmishing with advancing British forces.

Sources: https://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/1775-skirmish/; https://daybydayamerica.com/day-by-day/year-1775/may-18-1775/

And on this day 250 years ago in Watertown, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress appointed Artemas Ward “to be general and commander in chief of all the forces raised by the congress aforesaid, for the defence of this, and the other American colonies” and John Pigeon as “commissary for the army.” The Provincial Congress further made the what-turned-out-to-be unwise decision to commission Samuel Gerrish as Colonel of the first regiment of the newly-formed Army. They also commissioned Richard Dodge, Jacob Gerrish, and William Rogers as captains in the regiment, but I found nothing to discredit the service of the captains.

Sources: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 242-44 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/242/mode/2up?view=theater