On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington ordered Henry Knox
immediately to examine into the state of the Artillery of this army & take an account of the Cannon, Mortars, Shels, Lead & ammunition that are wanting; When you have done that, you are to proceed in the most expeditious manner to New York; There apply to the president of the provincial Congress, and learn of him . . . respecting these things, & Get him to procure such of them as can possibly be had there.The president if he can, will have them immediately sent hither; If he cannot, you must put them in a proper Channel for being Transported to this Camp with dispatch before you leave New York. After you have procured as many of these Necessaries as you can there, you must go to Major General Schuyler & Get the remainder from Ticonderoga, Crown point, or St Johns— . . . the want of them is so great, that no trouble or expence must be spared to obtain them—I have wrote to General Schuyler, he will give every necessary assistance, that they may be had & forwarded to this place with the utmost dispatch.
At this time Knox was serving as a volunteer aide to General Washington without a commission although Washington had requested that the Congress commission him as a Colonel in the Continental Army in charge of artillery. Washington’s Order to Knox set in motion Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery that would end up driving the British Army out of Boston.
Sources: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw4.034_0862_0863/?st=gallery; “Instructions to Colonel Henry Knox, 16 November 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0351. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 384–385.]; https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/02/henry-knoxs-noble-train-of-artillery-no-ox-for-knox/
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, the Treasurer of Virginia Robert Carter Nicholas issued a notice
It being judged necessary that a GENERAL CONVENTION should be speedily held, I have thought fit, pursuant to the directions of the last Convention, to appoint Friday the first day of December for that purpose, when a full meeting of the delegates, at the town of Richmond
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On This Day In The Revolution 