On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Board of War (the 5-member committee of the Continental Congress charged with managing the Continental Army) issued a Report that directed the Army to

discharge or grant Furlows to Joseph Kerr Hatter a private of Capt Will’s Company in the first Battallion and to Philip Mouse Stocking Weaver a Private in Capt Kling’s Company of the fourth Battallion of Philadelphia Militia, these two Persons being applied for by Messrs. Mease and Caldwell, Commissaries, to whom their Services are indispensibly necessary in making and providing Clothing for the Army.

The Report was written by Capt. Richard Peters who was the permanent Secretary of the Board of War and served in that capacity until the end of the War. This Report shows that Patriots served in the Revolution by wielding pens and sewing needles and not just by carrying arms in combat.

Source: “A Report of the Board of War, 13 August 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-04-02-0204. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 4, February–August 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 451–452.]

On this day 250 years from his headquarters in New York, General Washington issued orders to encourage his men:
The Enemy’s whole reinforcement is now arrived, so that an Attack must, and will soon be made; The General therefore again repeats his earnest request, that every officer, and soldier, will have his Arms and Ammunition in good Order; keep within their quarters and encampment, as much as possible; be ready for action at a moments call; and when called to it, remember that Liberty, Property, Life and Honor, are all at stake; that upon their Courage and Conduct, rest the hopes of their bleeding and insulted Country; that their Wives, Children and Parents, expect Safety from them only, and that we have every reason to expect Heaven will crown with Success, so just a cause. The enemy will endeavour to intimidate by shew and appearance, but remember how they have been repulsed, on various occasions, by a few brave Americans; Their Cause is bad; their men are conscious of it, and if opposed with firmness, and coolness, at their first onsett, with our advantage of Works, and Knowledge of the Ground; Victory is most assuredly ours.

Unfortunately, two weeks later the Knowledge of the Ground of the Continental Army’s officers would prove to be inferior to that possessed by the British.

Source: “General Orders, 13 August 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0001. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 6, 13 August 1776 – 20 October 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase and Frank E. Grizzard, Jr. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 1–3.]