On this day 250 years ago in Boston, General Thomas Gage, Commander of all British troops in North America, wrote to John Stuart, Indian Superintendent to the Southern Region that he should encourage the Indians to “take arms against His Majesty’s enemies and to distress them in all their power.” Prior to this point both the Patriots and the British had attempted to encourage neutrality of most of the tribes.
Source: Thomas Gage to John Stuart, September 12, 1775,” Gage Papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan (hereafter WLCL), in Edward J. Cashin, William Bartram and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000), 189; https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/09/southern-expedition-1776-american-revolutions-best-kept-secret/#
On this day 250 years ago in London, Lord Dartmouth wrote to the Master General of the Ordnance, Whitehall that:
His Majesty’s Governor of North Carolina having represented that there are very favorable Appearances in that Province of a disposition in a large body of His Majesty’s well disposed Subjects to deliver themselves (by taking up Arms in Support of Government) from the Tyranny and Oppression exercised by those who have formed themselves into Committees & Congresses for the avowed purpose of Rebellion. – I am commanded by The King to signify to your Lordship His Majesty’s pleasure that Ten thousand Stand of Arms and Six light Field pieces together with 200 Rounds of powder and Ball for each Musket and Field piece be forthwith prepared to be sent to the Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces in order to enable him to afford such Aid and Assistance to the Governor of North Carolina
And on this day 250 years ago in Stafford County, Virginia, William Washington (George’s cousin) was commissioned as a Captain of the Stafford County Minutemen.
On This Day In The Revolution 