On this day 250 years ago in New York City, General Washington consolidated the remnants of the Pennsylvania militia battalions from Northampton County and Berks County with Lt. Col. Edward Hand’s regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen. The Northampton and Berks County battalions had lost many of their men captured at the Battle of Brooklyn, including their commanders Lt. Col. Peter Kachlein and Lt. Col. Nicholas Lutz. Kachlein and Lutz were both immigrants from Germany, and Hand was an immigrant from Ireland. Kachlein and Lutz would remain in British captivity for several months before they were paroled.
Washington also reorganized the Continental Army in New York into new brigades and included the following charge to his officers and troops:
The General hopes the several officers, both superior and inferior, will now exert themselves, and gloriously determine to conquer, or die—From the justice of our cause—the situation of the harbour, and the bravery of her sons, America can only expect success—Now is the time for every man to exert himself, and make our Country glorious, or it will become contemptable.
Sources: “General Orders, 31 August 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0143. [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. 171–177.]; https://founders.archives.gov/?q=Kachlein&s=1111311111&sa=&r=1&sr=; https://unchartedlancaster.com/2026/01/18/general-edward-hand-patriot-physician-and-master-of-rock-ford/
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin provided to Samuel Morris his epitaph:
The Body of
B. Franklin, Printer,
Like the Cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering & Gilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms –
But the Work shall not be lost;
For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more
In a new and more elegant Edition
Corrected and improved
By the Author.-
Given by B. Franklin to Sam. Morris
August 31, 1776
On This Day In The Revolution 