On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington’s aide Robert Hanson Harrison wrote letters dictated and signed by General Washington to James Warren, President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress (and Paymaster General of the Continental Army), Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Sr. of Connecticut, Governor Nicholas Cooke of Rhode Island, and Matthew Thornton, President of the New Hampshire Provincial Congress:

Notwithstanding the great pains taken by the Quarter Master General, to procure Blanketts for the Army, he finds it impossible to procure a Number Sufficient—he has tryed the different places to the Southward without Success, as what were there are engaged to Supply the wants of the Troops in each place.

Our Soldiers are in great distress & I know of no way to remedy the evil than applying to you, cannot some be got from the different Towns? Most Houses could spare One, some of them many—If your Honorable House will please to take this affair under your Immediate consideration & by some means or other, procure as many as can be spared from the Housekeepers, you will do Infinite Service to this Army

You can visit Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge to see where these letters were written, and where Washington molded the Continental Army and led the successful siege of Boston .

Source: “Circular to the New England Governments, 23 December 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0550. [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. 591–592.]; https://www.nps.gov/long/getinvolved/america-at-250.htm

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, “Captain John the Tuscarora Chief and his Companions” met in conference with a committee of the Continental Congress. The Congress agreed to provide the Tuscarora “with a friendly answer, and make them a small present [and] to provide them with Food and Raiment for their Return Home.” The Tuscarora along with the Oneida Nation would remain allied with America throughout the Revolution while the other four nations of the Iroquois would fight for the British.

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