On this day 250 years ago in New York City, General Washington ordered

All Officers, non-Commission’d Officers, and Soldiers, belonging to any of the Regiments, now in, or going to Canada, to parade to morrow Morning at nine o’Clock in the Street opposite to Genl Sullivan’s quarters, near the Bowling-Green, to receive his orders.

All Officers, non-commissioned Officers, and Soldiers, are strictly commanded, upon no pretence whatever, to carry any thing out of their Barracks, or the Houses they at present occupy, that belongs to such Barracks, or Houses; neither are they to injure the Buildings within, or without—All Damages wantonly done to the Houses, where the Troops are quartered, to be paid for by the Troops, quarter’d in them.

The Bowling Green would be the scene of another important event for the Continental Army later in 1776. You can visit the Bowling Green in Manhattan today in 2026, where it still remains a park, the oldest in New York City.

Sources: “General Orders, 30 April 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-04-02-0140. [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. 174–175.]; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=13728; https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/bowling-green/monuments/139