On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Continental Congress Delegates Henry Wisner and William Floyd of New York wrote to Major General Philip Schuyler:
It has given us much Concern to hear of the unsuccessful attempt of General Montgomery on Quebec. But Congress is Determined to get possession of Canada this winter if possible, and for that purpose they have ordered Seven Battalions from the Colonies and two in Canada; the troops are Daily marching in Companies from this place, and we hope they will be Soon on their march from the other Colonies.
On that same day Wisner was appointed to a committee to direct a newly recruited battalion of Pennsylvania soldiers to reinforce the Continental Army in Canada.
At this same time while he was serving in the Continental Congress Henry Wisner was also establishing gunpowder mills in Orange County, New York to supply the Continental Army and he continued to supply munitions to the Continental Army throughout the War. Wisner was a dedicated Patriot and would vote for Independence a few months later but was away from Congress obtaining flints for the Army when the Declaration was signed. As he was not a Signer, Wisner is not often remembered for his commitment and contributions to American Independence and Liberty but he should be.
On this day 250 years ago, from his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gen. George Washington wrote to Captain John Manley (an immigrant to America from England):
I received your agreeable Letter of the 26th instant giveing an account of your haveing taken & Carried into Plymouth two of the Enemys transports. Your Conduct in engageing the eight Gun Schooner, with So few hands as you went out with, your attention in Secureing Your prizes, & your general good behavior since you first engaged in the Service, merits mine & your Countrys thanks.
You may be assured that every attention will be paid to any reasonable request of yours, & that you shall have the Comand of a Stronger vessell of War, but as it will take up Some time before Such a one Can be fitted out . . . I wish you Coud inspire the Captains of the other Armed schooners under your Command with Some of your activity & Industry—Cannot You appoint Such Stations for them—where they may have the best Chance of intercepting Supplies Going to the enemy they dare not disobey your orders, as it is mentioned in the instructions I have given to each of them, that they are to be under your Comand, as Comodore
Three days earlier, Captain Manley and the Hancock had captured the British transport ships Happy Return and Norfolk after a spirited battle with an armed British schooner that outgunned the Hancock.
On this day 250 years ago in North Carolina, Royal Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina ordered HMS Cruizer to sail up the Cape Fear River past the ruins of Fort Johnston to capture Wilmington. The ship and its landing parties were driven back by fire from New Hanover County militia commanded by Irish immigrant Col. William Purviance on both sides of the river.
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution, at Eltham plantation, Virginia Delegate Burwell Bassett wrote to his brother-in-law George Washington to report on the status of the War in Virginia:
Lord Dunmore is at last stopt in his carreer the particulars of which you must have seen in the papers3 he is still confind on board his ship whare he suffers much for fresh provision and other necessarys I am just released from the Convention which set seven weaks they have agreed to raise six new Regiments & a Battallion of five hundred men for the Eastern shoore
Source: “Burwell Bassett to George Washington, 27 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0143. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 198–199.]
On this day 250 years ago in Montreal, Canada, Father Louis Eustace Chartier de Lotbiniere was appointed as chaplain to the 1st Canadian Regiment of the Continental Army. Father Lotbiniere was the first Roman Catholic chaplain in the Armed Forces of the United States. He would serve as a chaplain in the Continental Army for the remainder of the War and would not return to his native Canada.
On this day 250 years ago at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, founder and president of Dartmouth wrote to General Washington:
The Bearer Mr Joseph Johnson, an Indian of the Mohegan Tribe was educated in my School when in Connecticut, and Since he left it has been employed in keeping School Among the Six Nations, till he is become considerably Master of their Language and has Served as interpreter for a Missionary Which I have Sent to these Nations—The August before last he was examined by a Voluntary Convention of Ministers Who Met here at Commencement, and was approved, & licenced as a Preacher of the Gospel to the Indians—and has Since preached among the Six Nations—and designes in Complyance With their Invitation, to remove With a large party of the new England christianized Indians, and Settle a Town or Towns in their Country—He has been Well acquainted with the Intreagues of Mr Guy Johnson & Colo. Buttler against the Colonies; & has been efficious & Successful in Endeavors to counteract them.
I believe him to be high in the Esteem of the Six nations—and has Obtained and, for Several Years So far as I know, well Supported, the Character of a Steady, prudent, judicious, virtuous, & pious Young Man, among English & Indians. He is incorporated With the Six Nations who have also made him one of their Council—and was a principal Instrument in Convening the Indians to the Congress at Albany last August, & was not a little instrumental to the peaceful and happy Issue of that Treaty.
Source: “Eleazar Wheelock to George Washington, 26 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0139. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 193–194.]
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress agreed to erect a monument to honor General Richard Montgomery, who was killed in the unsuccessful assault on Quebec. This was the first public monument authorized by the United States. In 1818, the State of New York would reinter Montgomery’s remains to St. Paul’s Chapel in Manhattan beside the monument authorized by the Continental Congress.
On this day 250 years ago in Bristol, Rhode Island, Capt. Billings Throope died of wounds he had received in the Battle on Prudence Island on January 13.
And on this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Evening Post published a report from an officer on an expedition ordered by the Continental Congress and of 900 soldiers from New Jersey to Long Island to suppress a threatened Loyalist uprising:
On Friday morning we crossed, with all our troops, at Horn’s Hook, near Hell Gate, and met with no opposition; we then proceeded on our way towards Jamaica, took in custody some of the principal persons proscribed; sent out parties, and brought in many of those who voted against sending delegates; disarmed them and required them to sign an obligation we had drawn up, in which we enjoin them not to oppose either tlie Continental or Provincial Congresses, but to be subject to them, and not to aid or assist the ministerial troops in the present contest.
From Jamaica, we went to Hampstead town, where we expected the warmest opposition, but were disappointed, as the inhabitants came in and brought their arms voluntarily, for two days, as fast as we could receive them. We have about three hundred stand of arms and a considerable quantity of powder and lead. We are now on our way to Oyster Bay, and shall scour the country as we go, and exert ourselves to discharge the trust enjoined on us.
. . .
Those that have come in and surrendered their arms, are much irritated with those who have led them to make opposition, and have deserted them in the day of difficulty. I conceive they will be as safe if not safer in our custody, than at present among their neighbors, of whom some of them seem very apprehensive, and complain that they have met with insults already.
The Patriots and Continental Army certainly did not believe in 1776 that people had a right to bear arms except as part of the official militia.
On this day 250 years ago, Col. Henry Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery arrived at the Continental Army’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Or at least part of the train of 44 cannon and 16 mortars arrived in Cambridge. There are many accounts indicating that the artillery arrived in Cambridge on this day, but Knox himself apparently rode ahead and reported to Gen. Washington on January 18, and some accounts say the artillery arrived in Cambridge that day too.
I first read of Knox’s Noble Train of Artillery as a boy and I have ever since until recently imagined a long line of cannons pulled by oxen rolling (or sledding) down rough roads that were little more than trails, with the whole train stopping when one cannon broke down and all camping together each night. The image is similar to the wagon trains from the movies I watched as a kid. Knox’s “train”, however, clearly did not all travel together each day and there are multiple accounts of the artillery being in different locations each day particularly in connection with river crossings. Knox leased sleds, carriages, oxen and horses to move the train at various points along the route and on some days there were probably insufficient numbers to move all tbe artillery simultaneously
From what I can piece together from the various accounts I have read in writing this blog, the first artillery arrived in Framingham, 20 miles west of Cambridge on January 18 but some of the artillery were strung out on the road behind and would catch up later. Knox established an artillery encampment in Framingham to gather together all 60 pieces of artillery in his train. And by January 24, Knox had assembled the entire train and moved some of the artillery to present them to Gen. Washington and the Continental Army in Cambridge. But most of the artillery were still in Framingham because John Adams recorded in his diary visiting the artillery encampment there on January 25 on his way to Philadelphia to resume his seat in the Continental Congress.
Also on this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, John Adams dined
with G. Washington, and Gates and their Ladies, and half a Dozen Sachems and Warriours of the french Cocknowaga Tribe, with their Wives and Children. Williams is one, who was captivated in his Infancy, and adopted. There is a Mixture of White Blood french or English in most of them. Louis, their Principal, speaks English and french as well as Indian.
Sources: “1776. January 24. Wednesday.,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/01-02-02-0006-0001-0002. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 2, 1771–1781, ed. L. H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961, pp. 226–227.]; “George Washington to John Hancock, 24 January 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-03-02-0127. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 3, 1 January 1776 – 31 March 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988, pp. 178–182.]
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress approved a letter to the inhabitants of Canada contending that “your liberty, your honor and your happiness are essentially and necessarily connected with the unhappy contest” and that the Americans were fighting on behalf of “the sacred fire of liberty.” Congress urged the Canadians to
establish associations in your different parishes of the same nature with those, which have proved so salutary to the United Colonies; to elect deputies to form a provincial Assembly, and that said assembly be instructed to appoint delegates to represent them in this Congress. Source: https://americanfounding.org/entries/second-continental-congress-january-24-1776/
On this day 250 years ago off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, HMS Blue Mountain Valley was captured by about 40 New Jersey Continental Army soldiers led by Colonel William Alexander (usually referred to as Lord Stirling) and 77 Elizabethtown and Essex County Militia led by Colonel Elias Dayton. The Blue Mountain Valley had been blown off course and damaged in a storm while carrying supplies from England to Boston and had run aground on a sand bar 40 miles out from Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The British crew of Blue Mountain Valley mistakenly assumed the four approaching boats filled with Stirling’s and Dayton’s men were coming to aid their ship, and they were captured without firing a shot. Captain William Rogers sailed the captured Blue Mountain Valley to Amboy, New Jersey that night and then the next day to Elizabethtown where the New Jersey Continentals and Militiamen and captured crew offloaded the cargo from the ship.
The 120 New Jersey soldiers and militia who captured Blue Mountain Valley included two Grays, three Lees, three Meekers, three Millers, two Pursons, two Spencers, two Weekses, five Woodruffs, Col. Edward Thomas and two other Thomases, three Ogdens (including future New Jersey Governor Aaron Ogden), two sons of William Livingston Sr., who would become the first governor of an independent New Jersey and a Signer of the United States Constitution — William Livingston, Jr. and Henry Brockholst Livingston (himself a future Justice of the United States Supreme Court), William Marriner (who would go on to lead a number of successful maritime raids against British shipping) and Francis Barber, who had been Alexander Hamilton’s school teacher. William Henry Dobbs, the lookout for the New York Committee of Safety stationed at the Sandy Hook lighthouse, also assisted in the capture of the Blue Mountain Valley.
In addition to the Blue Mountain Valley‘s captain and its crew of 15 sailors, the Patriots captured the “Ship about 100 feet long on the Main Deck” carrying four three-pounder cannon and its cargo of
107 tons of coal, 100 butts of porter, 15 tons of potato, 112 tons of bean, 10 casks of sour krout and 8 hogs.
The captain and crew of the Blue Mountain Valley were briefly imprisoned by the Elizabethtown Committee of Safety, but because they had not resisted capture and had even helped sail the ship into port and unload its cargo, they were not held as prisoners of war and allowed to return to England.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress appointed Moses Hazen as Colonel in command of the Second Canadian Regiment and Edward Antill as its Lieutenant Colonel. The Congress had previously appointed James Livingston as the Colonel in command of the First Canadian Regiment. Livingston, Hazen and Antill were all Americans living in Canada who had joined General Montgomery’s Army as it entered Canada in 1775. Livingston would serve until 1781 and Hazen and Antill served until the end of the War. The First and Second Canadians Regiments were initially formed with Canadians recruited by Livingston and Hazen but would later be supplemented with Americans after the retreat from Canada. The Second Canadian Regiment would end up with an especially distinguished record fighting in every major battle through Yorktown and would also be known as “Congress’s Own Regiment.”
Also on that day, the Continental Congress selected John Philip De Haas as Colonel of the1st Pennsylvania Battalion that had been ordered to Canada. De Haas was an immigrant from Holland and would also serve until the end of the War.
On this day 250 years ago in the Lutheran Church in Woodstock, Virginia, Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg delivered his sermon from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 which starts with “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” After reading the eighth verse, “a time to love, a time to hate. a time of war, and a time of peace,” he declared, “And this is the time of war,” and threw off his clerical robe to reveal his Colonel’s uniform. That day, 162 men from the church were enrolled in his regiment and the next day he led 300 men from the county to join the Continental Army. At least that is what happened according to the biography of General Peter Muhlenberg written by his great-nephew in the mid-19th century. Although Muhlenberg was appointed Colonel of the 8th Virginia Regiment and recruited many of its soldiers from Woodstock and the Shenandoah Valley around this time 250 years ago, there is no contemporaneous account of the sermon, and many historians doubt his nephew’s story. Nonetheless, many popular histories continue to reference this dramatic sermon.
On this day 250 years ago in Virginia the British Navy again bombarded Virginia militia in the ruins of Norfolk. The Americans lost three men plus one man lost his arm.
On Saturday, January 31, 2026 at 11:00 am St. Paul’s Church in Norfolk, Virginia, there will be a commemoration of the destruction of Norfolk in the Revolution.
On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress addressed the devastating news of the defeat at Quebec and the loss of Gen. Richard Montgomery. The Congress
ending arms, medicine, and soldiers, but also encouraging a deliberate effort by “general assemblies, conventions, and councils or committees of safety, upon the continent, to employ proper persons, within their respective colonies, to collect all the gold and silver coin they can, and inform Congress of the sum collected.”
Resolved, That the president be directed to send an express to General Schuyler, with a letter, informing him of the measures the Congress have taken for the defense of Canada, and desiring him to forward the same to General Wooster. That he likewise dispatch an express, with the like information, to General Washington, to the Governor of Connecticut, and the conventions or councils of safety of New Jersey, New York and New Hampshire.
The Congress made arrangements to send reinforcements, ammunition, arms and medicine to Generals Wooster and Arnold in Canada and encouraged
general assemblies, conventions, and councils or committees of safety, upon the continent, to employ proper persons, within their respective colonies, to collect all the gold and silver coin they can, and inform Congress of the sum collected.
On This Day In The Revolution 