On this day 250 years ago in Montreal, Canada, Father Louis Eustace Chartier de Lotbiniere was appointed as chaplain to the 1st Canadian Regiment of the Continental Army. Father Lotbiniere was the first Roman Catholic chaplain in the Armed Forces of the United States. He would serve as a chaplain in the Continental Army for the remainder of the War and would not return to his native Canada.

Sources: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/january-1776/; https://www.jstor.org/stable/44207863?seq=5

On this day 250 years ago at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, founder and president of Dartmouth wrote to General Washington:

The Bearer Mr Joseph Johnson, an Indian of the Mohegan Tribe was educated in my School when in Connecticut, and Since he left it has been employed in keeping School Among the Six Nations, till he is become considerably Master of their Language and has Served as interpreter for a Missionary Which I have Sent to these Nations—The August before last he was examined by a Voluntary Convention of Ministers Who Met here at Commencement, and was approved, & licenced as a Preacher of the Gospel to the Indians—and has Since preached among the Six Nations—and designes in Complyance With their Invitation, to remove With a large party of the new England christianized Indians, and Settle a Town or Towns in their Country—He has been Well acquainted with the Intreagues of Mr Guy Johnson & Colo. Buttler against the Colonies; & has been efficious & Successful in Endeavors to counteract them.

I believe him to be high in the Esteem of the Six nations—and has Obtained and, for Several Years So far as I know, well Supported, the Character of a Steady, prudent, judicious, virtuous, & pious Young Man, among English & Indians. He is incorporated With the Six Nations who have also made him one of their Council—and was a principal Instrument in Convening the Indians to the Congress at Albany last August, & was not a little instrumental to the peaceful and happy Issue of that Treaty.

Source: “Eleazar Wheelock to George Washington, 26 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0139. [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. 193–194.]