On this day 250 years ago at Quebec, General Richard Montgomery ordered his cannon to begin bombarding the city after his men fired arrows over the city walls bearing letters demanding surrender the previous day and the British refused to capitulate. Unfortunately for the American Army their cannons would do very little damage to the fortress walls surrounding Quebec.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/December-8/americans-begin-siege-of-quebec

On that day in Charleston, Edward Rutledge wrote to Ralph Izard in London asking if the English are “determined to force us into independence or do they really imagine that we are so void of the feelings of humanity and so insensible to the call of reason as willing to submit to every insult, to every injury.”

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-O0Gf9DCiI

And on that day in Norfolk, Virginia, Governor Lord Dunmore ordered additional British troops, sailors and Loyalists to march to Fort Murray on the north end of the Great Bridge and to attack the Patriots the next day.

Source: https://archive.org/details/johnallanrevolut00brow/page/n3/mode/2up

On this day 250 years ago, Col. Henry Knox arrived at Fort Ticonderoga, New York under orders to bring artillery to the Continental Army besieging Boston. The next day he would begin loading 58 artillery pieces (mostly 12-pounder and 18-pounder and a 24-pounder cannon, nicknamed “Old Sow,” that weighed more than 5,000 pounds, plus some mortars) weighing in all 60 tons, to take back to Boston onto what would later be called his “Noble train of artillery.”

Starting today, Friday, December 5, 2025 and continuing through Sunday, December 7, Fort Ticonderoga is commemorating the 250th anniversary of the start of Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery.

Sources: https://fortticonderoga.org/news/henry-knoxs-noble-train-of-artillery-in-context/; https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/guns-ticonderoga; https://www.adirondackexplorer.org/adirondacks-almanack/fort-ticonderoga-marks-250th-anniversary-of-american-revolutions-noble-train-of-artillery/

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress

Resolved, That the Inhabitants of the colony of Virginia resist to the utmost the arbitrary government intended to be established by Governor Lord Dunmore.

Whereas Lord Dunmore, by his proclamation lately published, has declared his intention to execute martial law, thereby tearing up the foundations of civil authority and government within the said colony:

Resolved, Therefore, that if the convention of Virginia shall find it necessary to establish a form of government in that colony, it be recommended to that Convention to call a full and free representation of the people, and that the said representatives, if they think it necessary, establish such form of government as in their judgment will best produce the happiness of the people, and most effectually secure peace and good order in the colony, during the continuance of the present dispute between Great Britain and these colonies.

The Continental Congress had already recommended to New Hampshire and to Massachusetts that those colonies form new governments independent of British rule and now Virginia would follow suit. The colonies were becoming independent states even before there would be an independent United States.

Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-december-4-1775/

On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General Washington wrote to the President of the Continental Congress John Hancock about a rumor that the British intended to use biological warfare:

By recent information from Boston, Genl Howe is goeing to Send out a number of the Inhabitants in order it is thought to make more room for his expected reinforcements, there is one part of the information that I Can hardly give Credit to. A Sailor Says that a number of these Comeing out have been innoculated, with design of Spreading the Smallpox thro’ this Country & Camp.

Source: https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=4

On this day 250 years ago on Prospect Hill in the siege lines surrounding Boston, Corporal Moses Sleeper and 11 men from his company reenlisted for another year of service in the Continental Army. They were granted furlough for eight days to return home Newburyport, Massachusetts. Sleeper stretched his furlough to 16 days but he did return to the Army and served until January 1777 fighting in the Battles around New York and at Princeton.

Source: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/revolutionary-war-diary-of-moses-sleeper.htm

On this day 250 years ago near Philadelphia, a national flag of the United States was flown for the first time. The Grand Union Flag was hoisted on the USS Alfred by Senior Lieutenant John Paul Jones while the ship sailed down the Delaware River on its first cruise. John Paul Jones of course went on to greater fame in the Revolution and in the United States Navy.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag

On this day 250 years ago at Pointe-aux-Trembles (now Neuville) on the St. Lawrence River in Quebec Province of Canada, the Gaspee and Maria unloaded three hundred American soldiers, four cannons and six mortars commanded by General Richard Montgomery. There they met the larger force commanded by Colonel Benedict Arnold. Two hundred Canadian soldiers commanded by Colonel James Livingston were marching down the bank of the river to join the American forces. General Montgomery’s combined army totalling only about 1100 troops would spend the next couple of days preparing for the attack on Quebec.

Sources: Beck at 256; https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-montgomery-joins-arnold/; https://www.americanrevolution.org/arnolds-expedition-montgomery-joins-arnold/

On this day 250 years ago after crossing the Congaree River near present-day Columbia at the head of about 1500 South Carolina Militia, General Richard Richardson issued a proclamation calling on the inhabitants of the Dutch Fork region between the Broad and Saluda Rivers to surrender Loyalist leaders. Additional militia from North Carolina as well as South Carolina were marching to join Richardson’s force. This was the beginning of the “Snow Campaign” that would suppress Loyalists in South Carolina for the next four years. Richardson and some of his men camped that night at Evan McLauren‘s house, where they captured several Loyalist officers in the areas. Richardson’s expedition included Captain Thomas Sumter and Major William “Danger” Thomson who would go on to great fame in the Revolution.

                Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Campaign; https://revolutionarywarjournal.com/general-richard-richardson-south-carolinas-first-in-freedom/#more-33323

Snow Campaign, 1775, Overview

On this day 250 years ago at Pointe-Aux-Trembles (now Neuville) west of the City of Quebec, Canada, the snow was falling on Col. Benedict Arnold and the tattered, tired and hungry men of his command while they awaited the arrival of General Richard Montgomery’s forces to advance on Quebec.

Source: https://www.thenmusa.org/army-trail/founding-the-nation/the-canadian-campaign-the-siege-of-quebec-december-1775-may-1776/montgomery-joins-forces-with-arnold/; Beck at 254-56.

On this day 250 years ago at Golden Grove Creek in what is now Greenville County, South Carolina Militia led by Captain Thomas Sumter captured about 95 Tory fighters who had been part of the force that had attacked the Patriot fort at Ninety-Six earlier in the month. Sumter would rise to the rank of Brigadier General and become one of the most famous of South Carolina’s military leaders, after the War was elected to the United States Senate.

Parker at 246.

[Note — I post a separate page here at WordPress where I list some of the Sources I cite for this blog. Where my source is a webpage I usually just copy the web address from browser, but I list the books from my library in my “Sources” page and then just provide a short cite to the author’s name and page number here.]