On this day 250 years ago in New York, Col. Henry Knox was on foot alone scouting out the route for his train of artillery as the snow began falling. At the ruins of Fort Miller (on the south edge of the modern town of Fort Edward), Judge William Duer, an immigrant from England who was then a member of the New York Provincial Congress and would become a member of the Continental Congress, provided Knox “a sleigh to go to Stillwater” where Knox crossed the ferry across the Hudson River. He then proceeded to the village of Saratoga (today’s Schuylerville) where he recorded in his diary that he

dined & set off about three OClock it still snowing exceeding fast… after the utmost efforts (of the) horses we reach’d Ensign’s tavern 8 miles beyond Saratoga – we lodg’d.

The next morning there would be two feet of snow on the ground. That was actually a good thing because the ground and rivers needed to freeze and snow had to cover the ground to haul the artillery to Boston. You can visit the monuments for Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery in Fort Edward, Stillwater and Schuylerville along with monuments for perhaps the most pivotal battle of the Revolution.

Sources: https://seanpatrickkelleher.substack.com/p/henry-knox-william-duer-and-a-snowbound; https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/theknoxtrail-history; https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/the_knox_trail_2017_update_vanburen; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=9785

On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General Washington replied to a letter from General Philip Schuyler:

I am very sorry to find by several paragraphs, that both you and General Montgomery incline to quit the Service—Let me ask you Sir, when is the Time for brave Men to exert themselves in the Cause of Liberty and their Country, if this is not? 

Neither General Schuyler nor General Montgomery would quit the Service. Schuyler would continue in the Continental Army until 1779 when he was elected to the Continental Congress, and General Montgomery would be killed one week later in the unsuccessful assault on Quebec.

Source: “George Washington to Major General Philip Schuyler, 24 December 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0557. [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. 599–600.]

On that same day at his headquarters in Cambridge, General Washington ordered the “following Rations to be delivered” by “the Commissary General to all the Troops of the United Colonies”:

Corn’d Beef and Pork, four days in a week.

Salt Fish one day, and fresh Beef two days.

As Milk cannot be procured during the Winter Season, the Men are to have one pound and a half of Beef, or eighteen Ounces of Pork Pr day.

Half pint of Rice, or a pint of Indian Meal Pr Week.

One Quart of Spruce Beer Pr day, or nine Gallons of Molasses to one hundred Men [per] week. Six pounds of Candles to one hundred Men Pr week, for guards.

Six Ounces of Butter, or nine Ounces of Hogs-Lard Pr week.

Three pints of Pease, or Beans Pr Man Pr Week, or Vegetables equivalent, allowing Six Shillings Pr Bushel for Beans, or Pease—two and eight pence Pr Bushel for Onions—One and four pence Pr Bushel for Potatoes and Turnips.

One pound of Flour Pr Man each day—Hard Bread to be dealt out one day in a week, in lieu of Flour.

Unfortunately, the troops of the United States would all too often not receive the full rations ordered by General Washington and the Continental Congress as the War continued for the next eight years.

Source: “General Orders, 24 December 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0555. [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. 597–599.]