On this day 250 years ago in Albany, New York, Col. Henry Knox wrote to Gen. Washington about the progress of the train of artillery from Lake George:

Snow detain’d us some days & now a cruel thaw hinders from crossing Hudson River which we are oblig’d to do four times from lake George to this Town. . . . We got over 4 more… 18 pounders

on that day after the first mortar had crossed the Mohawk River to arrived in Albany the day before. Knox predicted they would be in Springfield, Massachusetts in “eight or nine days after the first severe freeze” but that prediction would prove overly optimistic.

Knox also recorded in his diary that day that he was

In the afternoon much alarm’d by hearing that one of the heaviest cannon had fallen into the river at half moon ferry.

So Knox ordered the train of artillery to cross the Mohawk River at

Sloss’s as the ice was so much stronger there than at half moon, the usual place of crossing.

Sources: https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/theknoxtrail-history; https://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/documents/d/guest/the_knox_trail_2017_update_vanburen

On that day in Watertown, Massachusetts, John Adams wrote to General Washington with his views on Gen. Charles Lee’s plans to occupy New York City to suppress the Tories:

That it is expedient, and even necessary to be done, by Some Authority or other, I believe will not be doubted by any Friend of the american Cause, who considers the vast Importance of that City, Province, and the North River which is in it, in the Progress of this War, as it is the Nexus of the Northern and Southern Colonies, as a Kind of Key to the whole Continent, as it is a Passage to Canada to the Great Lakes and to all the Indians Nations. No Effort to secure it ought to be omitted.

. . .

Now if upon long Island, there is a Body of People, who have Arms in their Hands, and are intrenching themselves, professedly to oppose the American system of Defence; who are supplying our Enemies both of the Army and Navy, in Boston and elsewhere, as I suppose is undoubtedly the Fact, no Man can hesitate to say that this is an hostile Invasion of American Liberty, as much as that now made in Boston, nay those People are guilty of the very Invasion in Boston, as they are constantly aiding, abetting, comforting and assisting the Army there; and that in the most essential Manner by supplies of Provisions.

If in the City a Body of Tories are waiting only for a Force to protect them, to declare themselves on the side of our Enemies, it is high Time that City was secured. The Jersey Troops have already been ordered into that City by the Congress, and are there undoubtedly under your Command ready to assist in this service.

Source: “John Adams to George Washington, 6 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0023. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 36–38.]

And on that day in his tent on Prospect Hill, Private Moses Sleeper recorded in his diary that Private John Holladay of Newburyport, Massachusetts, who had served in Captain Parker’s company of Colonel Little’s regiment, had died the previous night, probably of smallpox or dysentery, as both were raging through the American army at that time. Five unnamed soldiers were also buried the day Holladay died.

Source: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/revolutionary-war-diary-of-moses-sleeper.htm