Tag: 1775

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 27, 1775

June 27th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in New Rochelle, New York, Major General Philip Schuyler left General Washington’s party to head to return to New York City to command the Continental Army troops in New York. Generals Washington, Lee and their staff proceeded to Massachusetts to join the Continental Army besieging Boston.

Source: http://daybyday.gwpapers.org/content/27-june-1775

On this day in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress issued the following orders to General Schuyler:

Resolved, That Major General P Schuyler be directed to repair as soon as conveniently he can to the posts of Ticonderoga and Crown point, to examine into the state thereof, and of the troops now stationed there, and how they are supplied with provisions and necessary stores ー into the state also of the sloop and other navigation on the lakes ー also to obtain the best intelligence he can of the disposition of the Canadians and Indians of Canada. . . . And that he give orders for the necessary preparation of boats and stores for securing to the United Colonies the command of those waters adjacent to Crown point and Ticonderoga.

Resolved, That as Governor Carlton is making preparations to invade these colonies and is instigating the Indian Nations to take up the Hatchet against them, Major Genl Schuyler do exert his utmost power to destroy or take all vessels, boats or floating batteries, preparing by sd Govr or by his order, on or near the waters of the lakes.

Resolved, That if General Schuyler finds it practicable, and that it will not be disagreeable to the Canadians, he do immediately take possession of St Johns, Montreal, and any other parts of the country, and pursue any other measures in Canada, which may have a tendency to promote the peace and security of these Colonies.

Source: https://navydocs.org/node/1422

On this day 250 years ago in Boston, Admiral Graves ordered HMS Glasgow to depart Boston harbor to patrol from Nantucket to the western end of Long Island to escort transports. After that he was to place himself and his ship under Captain Wallace’s command patrolling Narrangansett Bay of Rhode Island. On that same day, the acting governor of Rhode Island, Deputy Governor Nicholas Cooke wrote the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that

if there were a few Vessels properly armed and mannd along the Coast in different parts it would be a great means of proteckting our own trade and allso of picking up many of the provision Vessels that they the Men of War take this way and send round to Boston.

Source: https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2025/06/05/captain-james-wallaces-tumultuous-june-1775-in-narragansett-bay/
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 25, 1775

June 25th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Pennsylvania, Irish immigrant William Thompson was commissioned as Colonel of the rifle companies raised in western Pennsylvania which became known as the1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment. Thompson would soon be promoted to Brigadier General but would be captured in early 1776 in Canada and would spend most of the War as a prisoner of the British albeit on parole rather than confinement. Also on this day 250 years ago in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a recent immigrant from Northern Ireland, James Dougherty, enlisted in Captain Matthew Smith’s Company of the 1st Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment. Private Dougherty was also captured in Canada but was paroled after 4 months of confinement and immediately reenlisted serving through the end of the war in 1782.

Sources: https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2225%20June%201775%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=10&sr=; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Thompson_(general); https://patriotshistoryusa.com/teaching-materials/bonus-materials/james-dougherty-revolutionary-war-soldier/

On this day 250 years ago, General George Washington passed through Newark, New Jersey, on his way to New York City where among other duties he inspected militia in the City including a 25-man company of young volunteers commanded by a 20-year old immigrant from the West Indies named Alexander Hamilton. This evening, June 25, 2025, the Newark Public Library is hosting a commemoration of Washington’s journey through Newark.

Sources: https://www.npl.org/250th-anniversary-of-the-american-revolution-virtual-program/; http://daybyday.gwpapers.org/content/25-june-1775; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hamilton-takes-command-74722445/

And on this day in Braintree, Massachusetts, Abigail Adams wrote a detailed report to her husband of the war effort in their town south of Boston:

We live in continual Expectation of Hostilities. Scarcely a day that does not produce some, but like Good Nehemiah having made our prayer with God, and set the people with their Swords, their Spears and their bows we will say unto them, Be not affraid of them. Remember the Lord who is great and terible, and fight for your Breathren, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your houses.

. . .

Mr. Rice joins General Heaths regiment to morrow as adjutant. Your Brother is very desirous of being in the army, but your good Mother is really voilent against it. I cannot persuaid nor reason her into a consent. Neither he nor I dare let her know that he is trying for a place. My Brother has a Captains commission, and is stationd at Cambridge. I thought you had the best of inteligence or I should have taken pains to have been more perticuliar. As to Boston, there are many persons yet there who would be glad to get out if they could. Mr. Boylstone and Mr. Gill the printer with his family are held upon the black list tis said. Tis certain they watch them so narrowly that they cannot escape, nor your Brother Swift and family. Mr. Mather got out a day or two before Charlstown was distroyed, and had lodged his papers and what else he got out at Mr. Carys, but they were all consumed. So were many other peoples, who thought they might trust their little there; till teams could be procured to remove them. The people from the Alms house and work house were sent to the lines last week, to make room for their wounded they say. Medford people are all removed. Every sea port seems in motion.—O North! may the Groans and cryes of the injured and oppressed Harrow up thy Soul. We have a prodigious Army, but we lack many accomadations which we need. I hope the apointment of these new Generals will give satisfaction. They must be proof against calumny. In a contest like this continual reports are circulated by our Enimies, and they catch with the unwary and the gaping croud who are ready to listen to the marvellous, without considering of consequences even tho there best Friends are injured.—I have not venturd to inquire one word of you about your return. I do not know whether I ought to wish for it—it seems as if your sitting together was absolutely necessary whilst every day is big with Events.
Source: “Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 June 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0155. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Adams Family Correspondence, vol. 1, December 1761 – May 1776, ed. Lyman H. Butterfield. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, pp. 230–233.]
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — May 1, 1775

May 1st, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in New Haven, the Connecticut Legislature commissioned David Wooster as a Major General in command of six regiments, with Joseph Spencer and Israel Putnam commissioned as Brigadier Generals.That day several other officers received their commissions and immediately began recruiting in Connecticut.

Source: https://www.americanwars.org/ct-american-revolution/general-staff-officers-connecticut-1775.htm

On this day 250 years year ago in Litchfield, Connecticut, Maj. David Welsh began raising a company for service in the 1st Connecticut Regiment. African-American Cash Africa would join this company although his enlistment date is unknown. Pvt. Cash Africa served in the siege and capture of St. John’s and the taking of Montréal and was discharged on November 23, 1775, making him one of the very last in his company to be released from service.

Liberty and Property: Cash Africa’s American Revolution

On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Joseph Warren, Thomas Gardner, and Joseph Palmer of the Committee of Safety conferred with General Artemas Ward about “the proposal made by Col. Arnold of Connecticut, for an attempt upon Ticonderoga.” Following that meeting they drew up the following resolutions that were issued by the Committee of Safety:

Voted, That the Massachusetts Congress be desired to give an order upon the treasurer, for the immediate payment of one hundred pounds in cash ; and also to order 200 pounds of gunpowder, 200 pounds of lead balls, and 1000 flints, and also ten horses, to be delivered unto Capt. Benedict Arnold, for the use of this colony, upon a certain service approved of by the council of war : said Arnold to be accountable for the same, to this or some future Congress, or house of representatives of this colony.

. . .

Voted, That Col. Arnold, appointed to a secret service, be desired to appoint two field officers, captains, &-c., to be allowed the same pay during their continuance in service as is established for officers and privates of the same rank, who are ordered by the Congress of Massachusettss Bay to be raised for the defence of the rights and liberties of America; the officers and privates to be dismissed by Col. Arnold, or the committee of safety, whenever they shall think proper.

Voted, That the committee of supplies be desired to procure ten horses for Col. Arnold, to be employed on a special service.

The members of the Committee of Safety were not just political leaders ordering other men into combat, they were all prepared to take to the field themselves. Warren, Gardner and Palmer all would fight at Bunker Hill. Warren was killed there and Gardner mortally wounded. Palmer survived and would go on to serve as a Brigadier General in the Massachusetts Militia for the remainder of the War.

Source: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 531-32 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/530/mode/2up?view=theater

On this day 250 years ago in Charlestown, Henry Laurens was elected chair of South Carolina General Committee.

Source: Cashin at p. 127
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 17, 1775

April 17th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in New York City, John Jay on behalf of the New York Committee of Sixty wrote to the New Haven, Connecticut Committee:

Notwithstanding a small Majority of our House of Assembly have taken no notice of the Proceedings of the Congress the People in general are zealous in the Cause. A provincial Convention for the Appointment of Delegates will be held this week and this City & County & indeed, almost all the principal Counties in the Province have already chosen their Deputies.

The anonymous Letter you have rec^d. contains many Misrepresentations, and in Times like these Misrepresentation is too common to cause Surprize. It is the Interest of our Enemies to sow Jealousies & Dissentions among us. Nothing but mutual Confidence & a free & candid Intercourse with each other can prevent it.

. . .

In short we have no Reason to apprehend a Defection of this Colony, whose Inhabitants are as sensible of the Blessings of Liberty as any People on the Continent and are too well apprized of the Importance of the present Union to violate or destroy it.

Men there are among us, and such there are in every Colony, to whom a Defection would be an agreable Event, but happily for us this is not the Case with the Bulk of the People. At present little more is to be feared from this Class of Individuals than impotent Invectives & illiberal Calumny

Source: “New York Committee of Sixty to the New Haven Committee, 17 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0076. [Original source: The Selected Papers of John Jay, vol. 1, 1760–1779, ed. Elizabeth M. Nuxoll. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 114–115.] accessed at https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0076

On that day in Alexandria, Virginia, a meeting of the Fairfax Committee elected George Washington and Charles Broadwater as delegates to the Virginia Convention. Washington and George Mason rode together from Mount Vernon to attend the meeting and Washington had wanted Mason to run for delegate. Mason declined but would be elected to take Washington’s seat when Washington departed Virginia to attend the Second Continental Congress.

Source: “[Diary entry: 17 April 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0008-0017. [Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 3, 1 January 1771–5 November 1781, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978, p. 322.] accessed at https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2217%20April%201775%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=5&sr=

And on that day in Concord, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety held a joint meeting with the Massachusetts Committee of Supplies and appointed captains for artillery companies from Boston, Dorchester, Charlestown, Marblehead, Worcester, Hadley and Concord, deployed two Four-Pounders now at Concord, four Six-Pounders to Groton, two seven-inch Brass Mortars to Acton, and ordered

that an Instructor, for the use of the cannon, be appointed, and to be put directly in pay, [and when called to duty that] six Pounds, lawful money, per month, be for Captain’ s pay in the Artillery Companies; that the First and Second Lieutenants have four Pounds; the Lieutenant of fire-works to have three Pounds five Shillings; the Sergeants to have forty-two Shillings per month; the Corporals thirty-eight Shillings per month; the common men thirty-six Shillings per month; the Drummers and Fifers thirty-eight Shillings per month; also, that four Shillings per week be allowed for their board.

Sources: https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/committee-safety-prepares-war-april-17-1775/; https://250andcounting.com/2025/04/17/april-17-1775-some-prescient-preparations/

On that day in Woburn, Massachusetts, the Town Meeting voted

to raise a number of Minutemen so called, not exceeding fifty, and they to meet half a day every week in each month the six succeeding months, viz: May, June, July, August, September and October, for Instructing themselves in the military science of handling the firelock; and if called into service, the town voted to each man a Dollar as a premium for their services, exclusive of what they shall be allowed by the government.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/lexington-and-concord-woburn-militia/

Two days laters, the minutemen of Woburn, and companies of artillery, minutemen and militia from across Massachusetts would be called into service to defend American liberty.

Tag: 1775

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 27, 1775

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — June 25, 1775

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — May 1, 1775

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 17, 1775