On this day 250 years ago in Canada, Maj. Gen. John Thomas took over command of the siege of Quebec [note some sources say this occurred on May 1]. Among the reinforcements who had also recently joined Continental Army encamped outside Quebec were four companies of the regiment of Col. Elisha Porter. On this day Porter recorded in his diary that “The 4 Companies which came with me were ordered off to Cape Saute to have the smallpox.” The inoculation for smallpox required three to four weeks of quarantine, but unfortunately for these men, they would not have that much time.
On this day 250 years ago in Paris, France, King Louis XVI of France committed commits one million French livre in arms and munitions. Spain also promised support.
On this day 250 years ago on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, ten British companies landed near Fort Johnston to dismantle the fort and try to eliminate the American snipers. The British marched four miles inland but found no one. However, the next morning, the Patriot snipers under Captain Alfred Moore returned and exchanged fire with the HMS Cruizer with no casualties on either side.
Capt. Alfred Moore resigned from the Continental Army in 1777, but served as the Colonel in command of the Brunswick County Militia for the remainder of the War. After the War he became the Attorney General of North Carolina and then an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
On this day 250 years ago in the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, the British fleet and troops commanded by General Sir Henry Clinton approached Fort Johnston to counter sniping by the Patriots. Fort Johnson was in ruins but Patriot riflemen had been hiding in the ruins while firing upon the nearby British fleet for the past several days. The Patriots were led by Captain Alfred Moore and included his company of the 1st North Carolina Regiment plus Brunswick County Militia.
The Royal Navy moved 200 yards from shore, with the HMS Cruizer, the armed transport Sovereign, the schooner St. Lawrence, and the transport Glasgow Packet all engaged in the battle. The Patriots suffered no casualties but killed two men and wounded two others aboard the Glasgow Packet. The British reported that there were “between fifty and sixty of the Rebels well armed, and draped in caps and hunting frocks.”
On this day 250 years ago in Savannah, Georgia, a new government went into effect under newly adopted Rules and Regulations with Archibald Bulloch as president and commander in chief of the State. In effect, Georgia became Independent.
Source: Searcy, Martha Condray, The Georgia-Florida Contest in the American Revolution, 1776-1778, Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The University of Alabama Press (1985) at p.27
On this day 250 years ago in Pennsylvania the people qualified to vote elected a new provincial assembly that was dominated by large landowners and well-off merchants who favored reconciliation with Great Britain instead of Independence. However the middle class artisans and workmen led by George Bryan, Timothy Matlack, James Cannon, Thomas Young and Thomas Paine, many of whom were not property owners qualified to vote for the assembly, were overwhelmingly in support of Independence.
On This Day In The Revolution 