On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress

Resolved, That Edward Hand be promoted to Colonel, and James Chambers lieutenant colonel, of the battalion of riflemen in the army at Cambridge. That William Winds be promoted to be Colonel, and Matthias Ogden be appointed lieutenant colonel, of the first New Jersey battalion.

Also on that day, John Adams wrote to Brig. Gen. John Thomas in Massachusetts. Adams was unaware that Thomas had two days earlier led the Continental Army soldiers who successfully fortified Dorchester Heights in the decisive action that won the Siege of Boston:

The Congress have determined to send you to Canada.  They have advanced you one Step, by making you a Major General. Table. 

Your Friends the Delegates from your native Province were much embarrassed, between a Desire to have you promoted and placed in so honorable a Command, on the one Hand, and a Reluctance at losing your Services at Roxbury or Cambridge on the other.  But all agreed that you ought to be placed where you could do the most service, and Canada was thought by all to be very important and by some the most important Post in America.

You will have excellent Advice and assistance in the Committee we are sending Dr Franklin, Mr Chase, Mr Carroll and his Relation.  Mr Walker, Mr Price and Mr Bondfield, will be in Canada too, as soon as you.  General Wooster and Arnold will give you the best Information.

The Department to which you are destined has been in Great Confusion, and every Gentleman who has come from thence has given a different account….I wish I could write you a Volume…and to explain to you everything which has been opened here relative to that Province would fill one.  But these Hints must suffice.

All of these men should be remembered for their service. Adams, Franklin, Chase and Carroll are well remembered as Signers of the Declaration of Independence, but Maj. Gen. Thomas would give his life in service our country dying from smallpox in Canada only a few months later and few remember that he was respected as one of the best of the Continental Army generals during his brief service. Hand, Chambers, Winds and Ogden all served honorably throughout the Revolution and all would rise to the rank of general before retiring from Service. Thomas Walker, James Price, and John Bondfield were Canadian merchants who supported the American invasion of Canada, and all three would lose the bulk of their property in service to the United States, and Walker was imprisoned.

Sources: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-march-7-1776/; https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%227%20March%201776%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=1&sr=