Month: June 2025

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 30, 1775

June 30th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Assembly created a 25-person Committee of Safety headed by Benjamin Franklin to assume the Governor’s duties to protect the safety of the colony, in particular the duty to call out and command the militia. The people of Pennsylvania no longer trusted Governor John Penn, who remained loyal to the British government, with those duties. In doing so, Pennsylvania moved another step towards Independence.

Sources: https://www.committee.org/PCOS23Pennsylvania.htm; https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0019

Also on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted Articles of War that included Article XII directing that

Every officer, commanding in quarters or on a march, shall keep good order, and, to the utmost of his power, redress all such abuses or disorders which may be committed by any officer or soldier under his command: If upon any complaint made to him, of officers or soldiers beating, or otherwise ill-treating any person, or of committing any kind of riot, to the disquieting of the inhabitants of this Continent; he the said commander, who shall refuse or omit to see justice done on the offender or offenders, and reparation made to the party or parties injured, as far as the offender’s wages shall enable him or them, shall, upon due proof thereof, be punished as ordered by a general court-martial, in such manner as if he himself had committed the crimes or disorders complained of.

Source: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/contcong_06-30-75.asp

From the very beginning, the Armed Forces of the United States have been under orders against “beating, or otherwise ill-treating any person, or of committing any kind of riot, to the disquieting of the inhabitants of” the United States. Members of the Armed Forces and other federal agents need to remember and heed these orders today.
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 29, 1775

June 29th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago, Generals George Washington and Charles Lee and their staffs departed New Haven, Connecticut and were escorted out of town by Connecticut militia and a brigade of 100 student militia from Yale College that included 16-year old fifer Noah Webster (whose Dictionary and Speller would in the 19th Century help forge the new American identity). Washington and his entourage then rode through Wallingford and Durham and would spend the night in Wethersfield at the home of Silas Deane, one of Connecticut’s delegates who had served with Washington in the First Continental Congress. You can retrace Washington’s rail through these towns today.

Sources: https://www.ordinarynewhaven.com/history; https://www.msn.com/en-us/society-culture-and-history/history/george-washington-returns-to-wallingford-250-years-later-for-flag-day-reenactment/ar-AA1GBjAu; https://www.townofdurhamct.org/subpages/george-washington-trail; https://wdsmuseum.org/

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, James Lovell was arrested by the British Army on the orders of General Gage. Lovell was a well known Patriot and the British had found letters in the pockets of the clothing on the body of Dr. Joseph Warren when he was killed at Bunker Hill that implicated Lovell in spying on the British Army. Lovell would spend the next 18 months imprisoned by the British but after he was released he would be elected to the Continental Congress and would serve continuously from 1777 to 1782.

James Lovell: Schoolteacher, Prisoner, Patriot
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 28, 1775

June 28th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in New York City, Scottish immigrant Alexander MacDougall was commissioned as Colonel of the 1st New York Regiment and began organizing his regiment. The captain of the Regiment’s 1st Company was Frederick von Weissenfels, who was an immigrant from Prussia. Marinus Willet was named Captain of the 2nd Company. MacDougall would become a Major General and Willet a Colonel in the Continental Army and Weissenfels a Lieutenant Colonel in the New York Militia. All three would have distinguished service in the War.

Sources: https://arw.fandom.com/wiki/1st_New_York_Regiment_(1775); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_McDougall; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick%2C_Baron_de_Weissenfels; Lowenthal, Larry, Marinus Willett Defender of the Northern Frontier, Fleischmanns, New York: Purple Mountain Press, 2000 at 19.

On this day 250 years ago, George Washington and his aides were riding through Connecticut on their way to the Siege of Boston. They spent the night at the Beers Tavern in New Haven.

Sources: https://www.ordinarynewhaven.com/history; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=30789
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 27, 1775

June 27th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in New Rochelle, New York, Major General Philip Schuyler left General Washington’s party to head to return to New York City to command the Continental Army troops in New York. Generals Washington, Lee and their staff proceeded to Massachusetts to join the Continental Army besieging Boston.

Source: http://daybyday.gwpapers.org/content/27-june-1775

On this day in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress issued the following orders to General Schuyler:

Resolved, That Major General P Schuyler be directed to repair as soon as conveniently he can to the posts of Ticonderoga and Crown point, to examine into the state thereof, and of the troops now stationed there, and how they are supplied with provisions and necessary stores ー into the state also of the sloop and other navigation on the lakes ー also to obtain the best intelligence he can of the disposition of the Canadians and Indians of Canada. . . . And that he give orders for the necessary preparation of boats and stores for securing to the United Colonies the command of those waters adjacent to Crown point and Ticonderoga.

Resolved, That as Governor Carlton is making preparations to invade these colonies and is instigating the Indian Nations to take up the Hatchet against them, Major Genl Schuyler do exert his utmost power to destroy or take all vessels, boats or floating batteries, preparing by sd Govr or by his order, on or near the waters of the lakes.

Resolved, That if General Schuyler finds it practicable, and that it will not be disagreeable to the Canadians, he do immediately take possession of St Johns, Montreal, and any other parts of the country, and pursue any other measures in Canada, which may have a tendency to promote the peace and security of these Colonies.

Source: https://navydocs.org/node/1422

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Admiral Graves ordered HMS Glasgow to depart Boston harbor to patrol from Nantucket to the western end of Long Island to escort transports. After that he was to place himself and his ship under Captain Wallace’s command patrolling Narrangansett Bay of Rhode Island. On that same day, the acting governor of Rhode Island, Deputy Governor Nicholas Cooke wrote the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that

if there were a few Vessels properly armed and mannd along the Coast in different parts it would be a great means of proteckting our own trade and allso of picking up many of the provision Vessels that they the Men of War take this way and send round to Boston.

Source: https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2025/06/05/captain-james-wallaces-tumultuous-june-1775-in-narragansett-bay/
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 26, 1775

June 26th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in New York City, General George Washington met with the New York Provincial Congress. As part of his address, Washington pledged:

When we assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen and we shall most sincerely rejoice with you in that happy hour when the establishment of American liberty, on the most firm and solid foundations, shall enable us to return to our private stations in the bosom of a free, peaceful, and happy country.

Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/new-york-provincial-congress

On this day 250 years ago from the siege lines around Boston, Native American warriors of the Stockbridge Company of Mohegans were again ambushing British soldiers. That day “Two Indians went down near Bunker Hill and killed a sentry.” The previous day, they had “killed more of the British guard” and four days earlier “two Stockbridge Indians killed four British regulars” according to one report although Brigadier General Horatio Gates in his official report claimed “the Stockbridge Indians had ambushed a party of the Ministerial Army & Kill’d Two Officers & Sixty Men.”

Source: https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/02/the-stockbridge-mohican-community-1775-1783/#_edn21 quoting Richard Frothingham, History of the Siege of Boston and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851), 213, Andrew McFarland Davis, “The Employment of Indian Auxiliaries in the American War,” English Historical Review Vol. 2: No. 8 (October 1887): 715 & Miles, “Mohican Warriors: A Documentary History, 1747-1813,”
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 25, 1775

June 25th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Pennsylvania, Irish immigrant William Thompson was commissioned as Colonel of the rifle companies raised in western Pennsylvania which became known as the1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment. Thompson would soon be promoted to Brigadier General but would be captured in early 1776 in Canada and would spend most of the War as a prisoner of the British albeit on parole rather than confinement. Also on this day 250 years ago in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a recent immigrant from Northern Ireland, James Dougherty, enlisted in Captain Matthew Smith’s Company of the 1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment. Private Dougherty was also captured in Canada but was paroled after 4 months of confinement and immediately reenlisted serving through the end of the war in 1782.

Sources: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2225%20June%201775%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=10&sr=; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thompson_(general); https://patriotshistoryusa.com/teaching-materials/bonus-materials/james-dougherty-revolutionary-war-soldier/

On this day 250 years ago, General George Washington passed through Newark, New Jersey, on his way to New York City where among other duties he inspected militia in the City including a 25-man company of young volunteers commanded by a 20-year old immigrant from the West Indies named Alexander Hamilton. This evening, June 25, 2025, the Newark Public Library is hosting a commemoration of Washington’s journey through Newark.

Sources: https://www.npl.org/250th-anniversary-of-the-american-revolution-virtual-program/; http://daybyday.gwpapers.org/content/25-june-1775; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hamilton-takes-command-74722445/

And on this day in Braintree, Massachusetts, Abigail Adams wrote a detailed report to her husband of the war effort in their town south of Boston:

We live in continual Expectation of Hostilities. Scarcely a day that does not produce some, but like Good Nehemiah having made our prayer with God, and set the people with their Swords, their Spears and their bows we will say unto them, Be not affraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and terible, and fight for your Breathren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.

. . .

Mr. Rice joins General Heaths regiment to morrow as adjutant. Your Brother is very desirous of being in the army, but your good Mother is really voilent against it. I cannot persuaid nor reason her into a consent. Neither he nor I dare let her know that he is trying for a place. My Brother has a Captains commission, and is stationd at Cambridge. I thought you had the best of inteligence or I should have taken pains to have been more perticuliar. As to Boston, there are many persons yet there who would be glad to get out if they could. Mr. Boylstone and Mr. Gill the printer with his family are held upon the black list tis said. Tis certain they watch them so narrowly that they cannot escape, nor your Brother Swift and family. Mr. Mather got out a day or two before Charlstown was distroyed, and had lodged his papers and what else he got out at Mr. Carys, but they were all consumed. So were many other peoples, who thought they might trust their little there; till teams could be procured to remove them. The people from the Alms house and work house were sent to the lines last week, to make room for their wounded they say. Medford people are all removed. Every sea port seems in motion.—O North! may the Groans and cryes of the injured and oppressed Harrow up thy Soul. We have a prodigious Army, but we lack many accomadations which we need. I hope the apointment of these new Generals will give satisfaction. They must be proof against calumny. In a contest like this continual reports are circulated by our Enimies, and they catch with the unwary and the gaping croud who are ready to listen to the marvellous, without considering of consequences even tho there best Friends are injured.—I have not venturd to inquire one word of you about your return. I do not know whether I ought to wish for it—it seems as if your sitting together was absolutely necessary whilst every day is big with Events.
Source: “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 June 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0155. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, December 1761 – May 1776, ed. Lyman H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 230–233.]
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 24, 1775

June 24th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago at Samuel Getty’s Tavern in western York (but now Adams) County, Pennsylvania, men of the Marsh Creek settlement enlisted in Captain Michael Doudel’s company of riflemen. They would march from that location on July 1, 1775 to join the Continental Army at Boston and join the fight for American liberty. Exactly 88 years later the Confederate Army would sweep past Getty’s Tavern in the greatest threat to American liberty since the Revolution. Today, June 24, 2025 at 11:00 am the people of Gettysburg will commemorate the men who marched off to defend American liberty 250 years ago.

Sources: https://www.achs-pa.org/event/the-road-to-revolution-250th-anniversary-gathering-at-gettys-tavern/; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=105372; https://www.facebook.com/dobbinhousetavern/photos/250th-revolutionary-war-lecture-at-the-dobbin-houseon-june-24-1775-several-men-m/1161007156069415/; https://pamarkers.blogspot.com/2023/11/gettys-crossroads-and-tavern-gettysburg.html

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, several young Patriots led by future US Congressman Theodorick Bland, and including future President James Monroe, George Nicholas and Benjamin Harrison VI raided the Governor’s Palace and seized more than 200 muskets and pistols and 300 swords. They then distributed the weapons from the Powder Magazine to any militia who needed arms. Bland, Monroe and Nicholas would soon become officers in the Continental Army and Harrison served as Deputy Paymaster General of the Army.

Sources: Selby, John E., The Revolution in Virginia 1775-1783, Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1998 at p. 46; https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/discover/moments-in-history/road-to-independence/dunmores-flight-and-the-seizure-of-the-governors-palace/

On this day 250 years ago in New Jersey, George Washington arrived in New Brunswick as he travels north to take command of the Continental Army besieging Boston. The same day, the Committee of Observation of Burlington County meets in Mansfield Township to organize the Revolution at the local level.

Sources: https://kevinsrevolutionarywarchronology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/bc087-newjerseyamericanrevolutionchronologydennisryan.pdf; https://www.njssar.org/nj250

On this day 250 years ago in London the Admiralty wrote to Admiral Graves authorizing him to impress Americans against their will to man Royal Navy ships.

Source: https://daybydayamerica.com/day-by-day/year-1775/june-24-1775/
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 23, 1775

June 23rd, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Generals Washington, Lee and Schuyler accompanied by Major Thomas Mifflin and other aides and a Congressional delegation that included John Adams and Silas Deane departed Philadelphia to begin their ride to the American Camp outside Boston. The Congressional delegation only went six miles and then returned to Philadelphia.

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-june-23-1775/

And on that morning at Philadelphia’s Christ Church, the Rev. William Smith preached “A Sermon on the Present Situation of American Affairs at the Request of the Officers of the Third Battalion of the City of Philadelphia.” Smith’s sermon concluded

For my part, I have long been possessed with a strong and even enthusiastic persuasion, that Heaven has great and gracious purposes towards this continent, which no human power or human device shall. be able finally to frustrate. Illiberal or mistaken plans of policy may distress us for a while, and perhaps sorely check our growth: but if we maintain our own virtue; if we cultivate the spirit of Liberty among our children ; if we guard against the snares of luxury, venality and corruption ; the Geunis of AMERICA will still rise triumphant, and that with a power at last too mighty for opposition. This country will be free, nay, for ages to come, a chosen seat of Freedom, Arts, and heavenly Knowledge ; which are now either drooping or dead in most countries of the old world.

. . .

by every method in your power, and in every possible case, support the Laws of your country. In a contest for liberty, think what a crime it would’ be, to suffer one Freeman to be insulted, or wantonly injured in his liberty, so far as by your means it may be prevented.

Also on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress accepted the petition of the Green Mountain Boys to join the Continental Army, and Thomas Jefferson began drafting the Declaration of Causes of Taking Up Arms.

Sources: https://www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib000106/; https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-june-23-1775/

On this day 250 years ago in Massachusetts, readers of the most recent edition of the Massachusetts Spy were reading the response of the Worcester County Convention to

the NEGROES in the counties of Bristol and Worcester, the 24th of March last, [who had] petitioned the Committees of Correspondence for the county of Worcester (then convened in Worcester) to assist them in obtaining their freedom [that resolved] . . . we abhor the enslaving of any of the human race, and particularly of the NEGROES in this county. . . . whenever there shall be a door opened, or opportunity present, for any thing to be done toward the emancipating the NEGROES; we will use our influence and endeavour that such a thing may be effected.

Sources: https://adverts250project.org/tag/worcester-county-convention/; Nash, Gary B., The Unknown American Revolution, New York: Penguin Books, 2005 at 158.
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 22, 1775

June 22nd, 2025

On this day 250 years ago outside of Tondee’s Tavern in Savannah, the people of Savannah elected 25 delegates to the Provincial Congress of Georgia and a “Committee for enforcing the Association” that would later be called the “Council of Safety.”

Source: Weeks, Carl Solana, Savannah In the Time of Peter Tondee, Columbia, South Carolina: Summerhouse Press, 1997 at 192-93.

On this day 250 years ago at Cambridge, Massachusetts, Col. John Glover, leading additional men he had been recruiting, rejoined his diverse regiment of fishermen, sailors, sailmakers, dock workers, merchants and goldsmiths from Marblehead that included 16-year-old Spanish immigrant Francis Grater, and multiple men of color including Manuel Soto, Caesar Glover, and Romeo.

Sources: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=176355; O’Donnell, Patrick K., The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware, New York: Grove Press, 2021 at pp. 55-58, 122

On this day 250 years ago in Providence, the Rhode Island Assembly’s Committee of Safety agreed to lease the Katy from John Brown as the first ship in the Rhode Island Navy.

Source: https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2025/06/05/captain-james-wallaces-tumultuous-june-1775-in-narragansett-bay/

And on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress “Resolved, that a sum not exceeding two millions of Spanish mill’d dollars be emitted by the Congress in bills of credit for the defence of America” and thus created the first currency of the United States. The Congress also commissioned Irish immigrant Richard Montgomery, David Wooster of Connecticut, Seth Pomeroy, John Thomas, and William Heath of Massachusetts, Joseph Spencer of Connecticut, John Sullivan of New Hampshire and Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island as Brigadier Generals in the Continental Army. Half of these men would give their lives in the American Revolution — Montgomery and Wooster would be killed in action, and Pomeroy and Thomas would die of illness while serving.

Sources: https://www.loc.gov/item/90898111/; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/siege-of-boston/
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 21, 1775

June 21st, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Fredericktown (now Frederick), Maryland, the two Maryland rifle companies authorized by the Continental Congress mustered at the Frederick County courthouse. The people of Frederick County will commemorate that event today, June 21, 2025.

Sources: https://www.visitfrederick.org/event/250th-anniversary-commemoration%3A-maryland-rifle-companies/23228/

America 250: The Importance of 1775

On this day 250 years ago in Watertown, Penobscot sachem Joseph Orono addressed the Massachusetts Provincial Congress on behalf of the Penobscot tribe. Orono said that if the Congress took care of his people’s grievances, the Penobscots would aid the Americans.

Joseph Orono, The Blue Eyed Indian Who Helped the Revolutionary Cause

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia,

Mr. Thomas Jefferson appeared as a delegate for the Colony of Virginia, and presented his Credentials, which were read and approved

Source: Journals of the Continental Congress at 101