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On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gen. George Washington wrote to John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia: It is not in the pages of History perhaps, to furnish a case like ours; to maintain a post within Musket Shot of the Enemy for Six months together, without—and at the…
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On this day 250 years ago in Albany, New York, Col. Henry Knox was waiting for the arrival of the artillery being hauled from Lake George on sleighs pulled by horses on snow covered roads southward toward Albany. The ice on the Mohawk River at Lansing’s Ferry was not thick enough to allow the sleds…
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On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Irish immigrant Stephen Moylan wrote a letter to his friend Joseph Reed with the first documented use of the name “United States of America.” Both Moylan and Reed were from Philadelphia and had served together on General Washington’s staff. Moylan wrote: I should like vastly to…
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On this day 250 years ago the Continental Colors were raised over the Continental Army’s fortifications on Prospect Hill in what is now Somerville outside of Boston. This flag probably had 13 alternating red and white stripes with the British Union Jack in its upper left quadrant and was also known as the “Continental Union…
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On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, General George Washington reversed his policy that prohibited the enlistment of Blacks in the Continental Army because almost all of the initial enlistments ended with the new year, new enlistments were very slow and few soldiers were reenlisting. Washington wrote to John Hancock,…
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On this day 250 years ago at the Holland House on St. Foy Road on the edge of Quebec City, Major John Macpherson Jr. wrote to his father John Macpherson: If you recieve this letter it will be the last this hand will ever write you Orders are given for a general storm of quebeck this…
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On this day 250 years ago in Newport, Rhode Island, Samuel Hopkins wrote to Thomas Cushing who was then a member of the Massachusetts delegation in the Continental Congress: They have indeed manifested much wisdom and benevolence in advising to a total stop of the slave trade, and leading the united American Colonies to resolve…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Julien-Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir wrote to the French ambassador to Britain Comte de Guines a report to pass along to the French foreign minister Comte de Vergennes regarding his second meeting on December 27 with Benjamin Franklin and John Jay of the Committee of Secret Correspondence of the…
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On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, The Pennsylvania Journal published an editorial by Benjamin Franklin (written under the pseudonym “An American Guesser”) contending that the rattlesnake should be the symbol for the United Colonies because it may be esteemed an emblem of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever…
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On this day 250 years ago General Richard Montgomery met with Colonel Benedict Arnold and the other key officers in his army besieging Quebec City including Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Greene, Major Timothy Bigelow, Major Return Jonathan Meigs, Captain Daniel Morgan, Captain Aaron Burr, Captain William Hendricks, Captain John Lamb, Captain John MacPherson, and Captain Jacob…
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On This Day In The Revolution 