On this day 250 years ago in New York, the HMS Phoenix with 40 guns and HMS Rose with 20 guns sailed up the Hudson River to Tarrytown firing at the Continental Army’s batteries on Manhattan along their way. Six American artillerymen lost their lives in the cannonade, although most of the American losses were because the men were either too drunk or too inexperienced to load and fire their cannons properly. Only one British sailor was wounded by the American artillery.

Also on that day Admiral Lord Richard Howe, the commander of the Royal Navy in North America, arrived off Staten Island in the Bay of New York on the HMS Eagle.

Sources: https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/admiral-howes-fleet-arrives-staten-island.html; Schecter at 104-06

On this day 250 years in Rowan County (now Burke County near present day Morganton) North Carolina, 2400 North Carolina militia led by Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford relieved the siege of McDowell’s Fort. Earlier Cherokee raiders had killed 37 settlers along the Catawba River and 120 settlers had fled to Lt. Col. Charles McDowell’s fort where they were defended by only 10 members of the Rowan County militia. The Cherokees had begun the siege of the fort on July 3 but McDowell and his men were able to hold them off from taking the fort until Rutherford’s men arrived. Rutherford would next lead his men to attack the villages of the Cherokee.

Source: https://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/admiral-howes-fleet-arrives-staten-island.html

And on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Articles of Confederation were introduced in the Continental Congress. The proposed Articles began by declaring that the “Name of this Confederacy shall be ‘The United States of America.’” Overlooking that the Thirteen Colonies were now independent states the next article pledged that the “Colonies unite themselves so as never to be divided by any Act whatever.” The Articles also included a provision to preserve the “Rights, Liberties, Privileges, Immunities and Advantages” of the “Inhabitants of each Colony,” but the Articles of Confederation would not be adopted for another five years.

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-july-12-1776/