On this day 250 years ago the Continental Army fought four separate battles around Boston. Brigadier General William Heath recounted all four actions in his memoirs, presumably from his notes and records on that day:

A little before one o’clock, a.m., a British floating-battery came up the river within 300 yards of Sewall’s Point [in Brookline] and fired a number of shot at the American works, on both sides of the [Charles] river. At the same time the British, on Boston Neck, sallied towards Roxbury; drove in the American centinels, set fire to the George tavern, and returned to their works. The same morning, Major [Benjamin] Tupper, with 300 Americans, went to Light-House Island, attacked a British guard of 33 marines, killed a subaltern officer and several soldiers, took 23 prisoners, several refugees, and burnt all the buildings on the island, with the loss of one American soldier. There was a firing, during the day, from the British at Charlestown, at intervals. Two Americans were killed; an officer, and several British soldiers, were supposed to have been killed. The Americans took several muskets.

The most significant engagement that day was Major Tupper’s raid on Great Brewster Island, otherwise then known as Light-House Island. Other reports indicate the Americans captured 35 prisoners on Great Brewster Island (23 British soldiers, 11 workers repairing the lighthouse and one Tory assisting the British), killed the Lieutenant in command of the British detachment and at least 9 other British soldiers, mortally wounded a prominent Tory, and killed or wounded another 20 British sailors and sank a British boat attempting to cut off the American whaleboats ferrying Major Tupper’s men off the island. The battle was a great success for the Continental Army, but two Americans were killed and one was wounded in the engagement. Major Tupper and Major John Crane (commanding the Massachusetts artillery that protected Tupper’s men as they rowed back to the mainland) were honored for their actions and would go on to honorable service for the remainder of the War. However, I could find no record of the names of the two American soldiers who gave their lives for American liberty on Great Brewster Island but we should honor their sacrifices too.

Sources: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/lexington-and-concord-brookline-militia/; “William Tudor to John Adams, 31 July 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0062. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775 – January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 107–108.]; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/great-brewster-island-raids-1775/

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted a response to Lord North’s proposal for reconciliation that had been drafted by Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Richard Henry Lee. The response declared that

We are of opinion the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory, because it imports only a suspension of the mode, not a renunciation of the pretended right to tax us: because, too, it does not propose to repeal the several Acts of Parliament passed for the purposes of restraining the trade, and altering the form of government of one of our colonies: extending the boundaries and changing the government of Quebec; enlarging the jurisdiction of the courts of Admiralty and vice-Admiralty; taking from us the rights of trial by a jury of the vicinage, in cases affecting both life and property; transporting us into other countries to be tried for criminal offences; exempting, by mock-trial, the murderers of colonists from punishment; and quartering soldiers on us in times of profound peace. Nor do they renounce the power of suspending our own legislatures, and of legislating for us themselves in all cases whatsoever

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-july-31-1775/