On this day 250 years ago from Newburyport, Massachusetts, the 1100 volunteers from the Continental Army led by Col. Benedict Arnold set sail with “colors flying, drums and fifes playing, the hills all around being covered with pretty girls weeping for their departing swains.” That night they anchored off of Wood’s Island, Massachusetts (now Maine) and the next day would sail on to the Kennebec River where they would disembark and continue their trek to Quebec.

Source: https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-ascent-of-the-kennebec/

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress named Thomas Willing, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, Robert R. Livingston, John Alsop, John Dickinson, Thomas McKean, John Langdon, and Samuel Ward to the Secret Committee charged with conducting secret trade with foreign nations for military arms and supplies. 

Sources: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/september-1775/; “Editorial Note on the Secret Committee, 18 September 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0127. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 22, March 23, 1775, through October 27, 1776, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 1982, pp. 204–205.]

And 250 years ago

This morning the mayor of New York informed the Committee of Safety, that Governor Tryon acquainted him he had received a letter from Lord Dartmouth, informing him that orders had been given to the commanders of his majesty’s ships in America, that in case any more troops should be raised, or any fortifications erected, or any of his majesty’s stores taken, the commanders of the ships-of-war should consider such cities or places in a state of rebellion. 

according to a report in the Constitutional Gazette of New York published the following day.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/september-1775/

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress formed a “secret committee” with the primary mission of obtaining arms and ammunition for the Continental Army.

Source: “Editorial Note on the Secret Committee, 18 September 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0127. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 22, March 23, 1775, through October 27, 1776, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 1982, pp. 204–205.]

On this day 250 years ago off Sullivan’s Island South Carolina, a detachment of South Carolina soldiers from Fort Moultrie captured a small vessel taking supplies from Charlestown to two British ships at anchor in the Harbor. They seized 21 casks of water, one case and two bottles of liquor, and some brown sugar. In response to this seizure and the capture ofFort Johnson, the British warships HMS Tamar and Scorpion began a blockade of Charlestown harbor.

Source: https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1775/

On this day 250 years ago, the New Hampshire delegation — Josiah Bartlett and John Langdon — joined the Continental Congress and Philadelphia.

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-september-16-1775/

On this day 250 years ago in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the 1100 Continental Army volunteers of Col. Benedict Arnold’s expedition into Canada were awaiting ships to transport them to Maine. Some of the soldiers attended services at the Old South Church in Newburyport.

Sources: https://www.yorkmaine.org/DocumentCenter/View/10983/American-Revolution-Chronology-; https://blog.nixonfoundation.org/2010/07/the-forgotten-old-south-church-of-the-american-revolution/

On this day 250 years ago South Carolina Governor Lord William Campbell’s fled Charleston to the safety of the HMS Tamar in Charleston Harbor. The departure of South Carolina’s last royal governor left the
South Carolina Provincial Congress and Council of Safety in control of the entire province except the post at Ninety Six and other western South Carolina areas controlled by militia still loyal to the British government.

https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/campbell-lord-william/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_William_Campbell; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Elliott_Huger_House

Also on that same day a detachment of the Second Regiment of the South Carolina militia commanded by Lt. Col. Isaac Motte, and led by Captains Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Barnard Elliott, Francis Marion and Thomas Heyward, Jr. captured Fort Johnson in Charleston Harbor. The British had removed most of the cannon and garrison from the fort and the Patriots captured the fort and the five British soldiers left to guard the fort without a shot, but British warships would return two days later.

Motte and Elliott would serve in the military for the remainder of the war, Heyward would sign the Declaration of Independence, Pinckney would sign the Constitution and Francis Marion would become the most celebrated military officer from South Carolina in the War. All these officers but Marion would also end up as prisoners of war following the fall of Charleston in 1780.

Sources: https://revolutionarywar.us/year-1775/

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress reconvened with a full delegation from Georgia, making it the thirteenth colony participating in the Congress. Georgia was represented by Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun, John J. Zubly, Noble Wimberly Jones, and Lyman Hall. The delegations from Virginia (Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Francis Lightfoot Lee and George Wythe) and Maryland (Matthew Tilghman, Thomas Johnson, Jr., Robert Goldsborough, William Paca, Samuel Chase, Thomas Stone and John Hall) also joined the Continental Congress that day.

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/wednesday-september-13-1775/

And on this day 250 years ago at Fort Pitt, Virginia (now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Thomas Walker, Adam Stephen, Andrew Lewis and John Walker wrote Thomas Jefferson:

After a very disagreeable, wet and fateagueing Journey, we got here on the 10th Inst. the day appointed for opening the Treaty, but found scarcely any Indians here. We have dispatched runners to meet them and hope they will be in soon. We are told that the Shawnese and Delawares are on their way, but can not hear a tittle of the Wiandotts, from which circumstance ’tis feared that they have acceeded to the terms proposed to them by Carlton and Johnson. The few Indians here seem perfectly well disposed toward us,

They enclosed a letter reporting that the tribes of the upper Ohio River were unfriendly to the Americans and that 300 French militia had been sent to reinforce the British Army contingent at Detroit.

“Thomas Walker and Others to Thomas Jefferson, 13 September 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0124. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 1, 1760–1776, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950, pp. 244–245.]

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, General Thomas Gage, Commander of all British troops in North America, wrote to John Stuart, Indian Superintendent to the Southern Region that he should encourage the Indians to “take arms against His Majesty’s enemies and to distress them in all their power.” Prior to this point both the Patriots and the British had attempted to encourage neutrality of most of the tribes.

Source: Thomas Gage to John Stuart, September 12, 1775,” Gage Papers, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan (hereafter WLCL), in Edward J. Cashin, William Bartram and the American Revolution on the Southern Frontier (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000), 189; https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/09/southern-expedition-1776-american-revolutions-best-kept-secret/#

On this day 250 years ago in London, Lord Dartmouth wrote to the Master General of the Ordnance, Whitehall that:

His Majesty’s Governor of North Carolina having represented that there are very favorable Appearances in that Province of a disposition in a large body of His Majesty’s well disposed Subjects to deliver themselves (by taking up Arms in Support of Government) from the Tyranny and Oppression exercised by those who have formed themselves into Committees & Congresses for the avowed purpose of Rebellion. – I am commanded by The King to signify to your Lordship His Majesty’s pleasure that Ten thousand Stand of Arms and Six light Field pieces together with 200 Rounds of powder and Ball for each Musket and Field piece be forthwith prepared to be sent to the Commander in Chief of His Majesty’s Forces in order to enable him to afford such Aid and Assistance to the Governor of North Carolina

And on this day 250 years ago in Stafford County, Virginia, William Washington (George’s cousin) was commissioned as a Captain of the Stafford County Minutemen.

https://250andcounting.com/

On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first contingent of the force of 1100 volunteers from the Continental Army led by Colonel Benedict Arnold departed to begin their march through Maine to join the invasion of Canada. Arnold’s troops were divided into three battalions: one commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Roger Enos, the second by Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Greene, and a third battalion of three companies of riflemen from Virginia and Pennsylvania led by Captain Daniel Morgan. Other officers on the expedition who would later achieve fame (and infamy) included Aaron Burr, Return J. Meigs, Henry Dearborn, and John Joseph Henry. The troops marched from Cambridge to Newburyport where they would board ships to carry them to the Kennebec River in Maine. The first troops to leave Cambridge were mostly men from northeast Massachusetts, so they could see their families before the expedition left Newburyport.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold%27s_expedition_to_Quebec