On this day 250 years ago in New York City, General George Washington wrote Brigadier General John Thomas commanding the Continental Army in Canada about his

Concern at the great deficiency of the Regiments destin’d for Canada, but as I am sensible of the necessity of having a respectable body of Troops in that Country, I am now preparing to send you four of the strongest Regiments in the Service and you may rely upon it, no time shall be lost in getting them forward as fast as possible, they will amount to about 2000 Rank & file and will go to Albany by Water . . .

I most sincerely wish you Success equal to the importance of the Cause

That same day Washington ordered

The Quarter Master General is immediately to provide Transports to convey four Regiments to Albany. Poor’s, Patterson’s, Greaton’s, and Bonds Regiments, are to hold themselves in readiness to embark, at an hours warning—They are to take with them their Camp-Equipage, which the Quarter Master General will furnish

General John Thomas and Colonel William Bond would not survive the campaign. Thomas died of smallpox less than two months later, and Bond died of typhoid fever in August. Colonel Enoch Poor would be promoted to brigadier general but would not survive the War, also taken by typhoid fever, in 1780. Colonel John Greaton survived the War but just barely dying in 1783 a few months after the Treaty of Paris. Of these officers Washington ordered to Canada, only Colonel John Paterson lived to enjoy our new nation after the War.

Sources: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/on-this-day-despite-pending-british-attack-on-new-york-george-washington-sends-troops-to-canada/ar-AA20Xl7q; “General Orders, 15 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-04-02-0050. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 4, 1 April 1776 – 15 June 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1991, pp. 65–66.]

Also that day in Philadelphia, the Members of Congress were writing of Independency. For example, Samuel Adams wrote to Joseph Hawley in Massachusetts:

I am perfectly satisfied with the Reasons you offer to show the Necessity of a public & explicit Declaration of Independency. I cannot conceive what good Reason can be assigned against it. Will it widen the Breach? This would be a strange Question after we have raised Armies and fought Battles with the British Troops, set up an American Navy, permitted the Inhabitants of these Colonies to fit out armed Vessels to cruise on all Ships &c belonging to any of the Inhabitants of Great Britain, declaring them the Enemies of the united Colonies, and torn into Shivers their Acts of Trade, by allowing Commerce subject to Regulation to be made by ourselves with the People of all Countries but such as are Subjects of the British King. It cannot surely after all this be imagined that we consider ourselves or mean to be considered by others in any State but that of Independence.

Carter Braxton of Virginia wrote to Landon Carter in Virginia:

Independency & total Separation from Great Britain are the interesting Subjects of all ranks of Men & often agitate our Body. . . . It is an Object to be wished for by every American; when it can be obtained with Safety & Honor. That this is not the moment I will prove by Arguments that to me are decisive & which exist with certainty. . . .

When these necessary Steps are taken & I see a Coalition formed sufficient to withstand the Power of Britain or any other, then am I for an independent State & all its Consequences, as then I think they will produce Happiness to America. It is a true saying of a Wit- We must hang together or separately.

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-april-15-1776/