Tag: american-revolution

On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — May 7, 1775

May 7th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago at Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys rendezvoused at Castleton, Vermont, after taking various routes from Bennington and other locations to disguise their march. At the same time, Captain Noah Phelps of Connecticut had gone ahead to enter Fort Ticonderoga disguised as a peddler to gather intelligence before the attack.

Sources: Tonsetic at 28-31; https://honoringourpatriots.dar.org/patriots/noah-phelps/

This Friday through Sunday, May 9-11, 2025, Fort Ticonderoga will commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Green Mountain Boys capture of the fort. https://fortticonderoga.org/ft_events/real-time-revolution-3-day-battle-reenactment-no-quarter/

On this day 250 years ago at Watertown, Massachusetts the Provincial Congress

Resolved, That the committee of supplies be, and they are hereby empowered and directed, to procure at Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, or any other colony on the continent, such a number of fire arms and bayonets, for the use of this colony, as they shall think necessary.

The committee appointed to make application to the committee of supplies, to know what number of fire arms they had procured, reported verbally, that they had not procured any.

On an application made to this Congress, by Capt. Benjamin Dunning, of Harpswell, for powder, this Congress . . . recommended, to the selectmen of the town of Haverhill, that they deliver to Capt Nehemiah Curtis and [Capt.] Dunning, . . . one half barrel of powder

to help defend Harpswell, Cumberland County (now in Maine) from “the ravages of the enemies.”

Source: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 200-01 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/200/mode/2up?view=theater

Also on that day in Watertown, Massachusetts, James Warren wrote to John Adams in Philadelphia:

The Congress since I have been here has generally been full, Unanimous, and Spirited, ready and willing to do every thing in their power and frequently animated by the most agreable News from the other Colonies. The principal objects of our attention, have been the regulation and officering of the army, and arming the men and devising ways and means to support the Enormous Expence Incured under our present Situation,3 and these I dare say you can easily Conceive to be attended with many difficulties under the present Circumstances of our Government in which recommendations are to supply the place of Laws, and destitute of Coercive power Exposed to the Caprice of the People, and depending entirely on their virtue for Success.

We have Voted to Issue Notes for 100,000£ and to request your aid in giving them a Currency. . . . We are Embarrassd in officering our army . . . the necessity of haveing our Field officers appointed is every day seen and Indeed in my opinion that should have been the first thing done. As to the army itself it is in such a shifting, fluctuating state as not to be capable of a perfect regulation. They are continually going and Comeing. However they seem to me to want a more Experienced direction. I could for myself wish to see your Friends Washington and L at the Head of it and yet dare not propose it tho’ I have it in Contemplation. I hope that matter will be Considered with more propriety in your Body than ours. If you Establish a Continental army of which this will be only a part, you will place the direction as you please. It is difficult to say what numbers our army Consists of. If a return could be had one day it would by no means answer for the next. They have been so reduced at some times that I have trembled at the consequences that might take place. Our new Levies are coming in and by that means I hope they will be in a more permanent state. I believe there are about 6,000 in Camp at present. They are Employed at Cambridge in heaving up Entrenchments,

Source: “To John Adams from James Warren, 7 May 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0003. [Original source: The Adams Papers, Papers of John Adams, vol. 3, May 1775 – January 1776, ed. Robert J. Taylor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979, pp. 3–6.]

And on this day 250 years ago in Maryland, George Washington and his fellow Delegates Richard Henry Lee, Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, Joseph Hewes and Richard Caswell rode 40 miles from Baltimore to dine at Rodgers Tavern on the west side of the Susquehanna River and spent the night at Stephenson’s Tavern on the east side after ferrying across the river. John Rodgers was an immigrant from Scotland and a member of the Harford County Committee of Correspondence. He would go on to serve as Colonel in the Maryland Militia in the War.

Sources: https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=69167; https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/revolutionary-war/five-days-philadelphia; “[Diary entry: 7 May 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0010-0007. [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. 328.]
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — May 6, 1775

May 6th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Royal Governor Lord Dunmore issued a proclamation against “a certain Patrick Henry, of the County of Hanover, and a Number of his deluded Followers.”

Sources: https://www.varsitytutors.com/earlyamerica/early-america-review/volume-8/the-proclamation-against-patrick-henry; https://edu.lva.virginia.gov/dbva/items/show/314

On this day 250 years ago in Baltimore, Maryland, Col. George Washington and the other delegates reviewed four companies of the Town’s militia including the Baltimore Independent Cadets commanded by Capt. Mordecai Gist. Gist would go on to serve heroically in the Continental Army under Washington rising to the rank of Brigadier General in command of the Maryland Line.

Source: “[Diary entry: 6 May 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0010-0006. [Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 3, 1 January 1771–5 November 1781, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978, pp. 327–328.]

On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Assembly voted to add Benjamin Franklin, Scottish immigrant James Wilson and Thomas Willing to the Pennsylvania Delegation to the Continental Congress. Franklin and Wilson would end up signing the Declaration but Willing would refuse to sign. Willing was one of the richest men in America but lost public office because he opposed Independence. Nevertheless, he did not join the Loyalists and contributed 5000 pounds (which would be more than $1 million today) to the Patriot cause during the War, and after the War was appointed as the first President of the Bank of North America, the first bank chartered by Congress.

Source: “John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 July 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-01-02-0164. [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. 252–254.]

And on this day 250 years ago in Watertown, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress voted

That Gen. John Whitcomb and Col. Benjamin Lincoln be, and hereby are appointed muster masters in the Massachusetts army, whose business it shall be to pass muster on every soldier that be enlisted into said army, and by no means to accept of any but such as are able bodied, effective men ; and also to examine if their arms and accoutrements are in proper order : and said muster masters are hereby directed and empowered to receive . . . twenty shillings, lawful money, for each and every non commissioned officer and private soldier thus mustered and sworn, who shall appear with their arms and accoutrements

Source: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 199

General Whitcomb would serve as a General in the Massachusetts Militia for the rest of the year but was then forced to retire from service the next year due to old age (63 years old, which troubles me at age 62!). Col. Lincoln would go into Continental Service and advance to the rank of Major General as Washington’s second-in-command at Yorktown.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whitcomb_(general)
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — May 3, 1775

May 3rd, 2025

On this day 250 years ago at Belgrade Farm in Perquimans County, North Carolina, John Harvey died from illness after earlier falling from his horse. Although not remembered by many today, Harvey was the leader of the North Carolina Provincial Congress and has been called the “Father of the American Revolution in North Carolina” by historians.

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/harvey-john-0; https://www.dncr.nc.gov/blog/2023/12/01/john-harvey-28; https://www.carolana.com/NC/Revolution/nc_revolution_government_1775.html

On this day 250 years ago in Watertown, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress issued an address

To the Honourable AMERICAN Continental Congress, to be convened at PHILADELPHIA on the 10 th of MAY instant.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOURS: The Congress of this Colony, impressed with the deepest concern for their Country, under the present critical and alarming state of its publick affairs, beg leave, with the utmost submission, whilst acting in support of the cause of America, to request the direction and assistance of your respectable Assembly.

. . .

The sanguinary zeal of the Ministerial Army to ruin and destroy the inhabitants of this Colony, in the opinion of this Congress hath rendered the establishment of an Army indispensably necessary; we have accordingly passed an unanimous resolve for thirteen thousand six hundred men to be forthwith raised by this Colony; and proposals are made by us to the Congress of New-Hampshire, and Governments of Rhode-Island and Connecticut Colonies, for furnishing men in the same proportion.

The sudden exigency of our publick affairs precluded the possibility of waiting for your direction in these important measures; more especially as a considerable re-enforcement from Great Britain is daily expected in this Colony, and we are now reduced to the sad alternative of defending ourselves by arms, or submitting to be slaughtered.

With the greatest deference, we beg leave to suggest, that a powerful Army, on the side of America, hath been considered by this Congress as the only means left to stem the rapid progress of a tyrannical Ministry. Without a force superiour to our enemies, we must reasonably expect to become the victims of their relentless fury. With such a force, we may still have hopes of seeing an immediate end put to the inhuman ravages of mercenary troops in America, and the wicked authors of our miseries brought to condign punishment, by the just indignation of our brethren in Great Britain.

Source: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220288425; https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-amarch%3A104922

On this day 250 years ago in Cambridge, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety recommended that Captain Benedict Arnold of Connecticut be appointed

Colonel and Commander-in-Chief over a body of men, not exceeding four hundred, to proceed with all expedition to the Western part of this and the neighbouring Colonies, where you are directed to enlist those men, and with them forthwith to march to the Fort at Ticonderoga, and use your best endeavours to reduce the same, taking possession of the cannon, mortars, stores, &c.

That same day in Watertown the Massachusetts Provincial Congress received the Committee of Safety’s recommendation and

Resolved, That the within request of the committee of safety be granted, and that the committee of supplies be, and they hereby are directed, to furnish Col. Benedict Arnold with ten horses, two hundred pounds of gunpowder, two hundred pounds of lead balls, and one thousand flints, at the expense of the colony, and that said committee draw upon Henry Gardner, Esq., receiver general, for one hundred pounds, [lawful money,] in favor of said Arnold, and take his receipt for the whole — said Arnold to be accountable therefor to this or some other congress, or future house of representatives.

Sources: https://ndar-history.org/q-node/577/; Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 185 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/184/mode/2up?view=theater

And on this day 250 years ago at the Green Mountain Boys headquarters in Fay’s House (later known as Catamount Tavern) in Bennington, Vermont, Col. Ethan Allen was organizing an attack to capture Fort Ticonderoga in New York. His brother Heman Allen had arrived the day before with word that the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence had requested that the Green Mountain Boys capture Fort Ticonderoga. Ethan Allen was meeting with local committees of safety and assembling members of his Green Mountain Boys militia including his brother Levi Allen. On that day, 14 Connecticut Militia led by Captains Edward Mott, Noah Phelps and Bernard Romans arrived with 300 Pounds that Connecticut authorities had provided to fund the attack.

Sources: Tonsetic, Robert L., Special Operations during the American Revolution, Philadelphia, Casemate, 2013 at 23-27; https://www.americanheritage.com/name-great-jehovah-and-continental-congress; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=77053

On this day 250 years ago, Patrick Henry’s Hanover County militia company encamped at Doncastle’s Ordinary in James City County, Virginia. They were on their way to Williamsburg to demand that Lord Dunmore return the gunpowder seized from the Powder Magazine. There they met Carter Braxton, who convinced Henry to halt the march to Williamsburg while Braxton returned to Williamsburg to negotiate with Dunmore.

https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/events/virginias-response-to-the-powder-incident/; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=184136

Today and tomorrow, May 3-4, 2025, Patrick Henry Encampment will be reenacted at the nearby New Kent Ordinary to commemorate the 250th anniversary of this event — https://www.newkent-va.us/DocumentCenter/View/8663/250th-anniversary-celebration?bidId=

And on this day 250 years ago at Mount Vernon, Virginia, George Washington visits with Horatio Gates and Richard Henry Lee, his brother Thomas Ludwell Lee, and Charles Carter arrive in the afternoon to spend the night. They are all committed Patriots and undoubtedly discussed the news of Lexington and Concord and Governor Dunmore’s raid on the Powder Magazine. Richard Henry Lee and George Washington would depart together the next day to join the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Thomas Ludwell Lee and Charles Carter would remain in Virginia but would serve in the Virginia Assembly during the War. Gates would later head north to join the Continental Army rising to the rank of Major General and fame at Saratoga and ignominy at Camden.

Sources: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/revolutionary-war/250-years-ago-day; “[Diary entry: 3 May 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0010-0003. [Original source: The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 3, 1 January 1771–5 November 1781, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978, pp. 325–327.]

Tomorrow, May 4, 2025, Mount Vernon will commemorate the 250th anniversary of George Washington’s departure from Mount Vernon to join the Continental Congress and take command of the Continental Army.

Source: https://www.mountvernon.org/plan-your-visit/calendar/events/revolutionary-war-weekend
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 28, 1775

April 28th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Christian Febiger, an immigrant from Denmark, enlists as a private in the Massachusetts militia. Febiger serves heroically throughout the Revolution including at Bunker Hill, Quebec (where he was captured and imprisoned for eight months), Brandywine, Stony Point and in Virginia ending his service as a Brevet Brigadier General in the Continental Army. “Old Denmark” Febiger is one of the heroes of the Revolution who deserves better recognition for his contributions to American liberty.

Sources: https://allthingsliberty.com/2017/01/hans-christian-febiger-old-denmark/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Febiger

On this day 250 years ago, news of Lexington and Concord reaches Hanover Court House, Virginia, where Patrick Henry is ready to ride north to attend the Continental Congress. On that same day, a report of the battles reaches Williamsburg, Virginia, and is published in William Pinkney’s Virginia Gazette.

Sources: https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/events/virginias-response-to-the-powder-incident/; https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/pf/declaring/lexVsConBattles.cfm

On this day 250 years ago in Montreal, Canada, four men write a response on behalf of the British “Inhabitants of Montreal” to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety’s invitation to send representatives to the Continental Congress:

We have received your letter of the 21st of February, by Mr Brown, and see clearly the great injustice that has been done you. We deeply feel the sorrows and afflictions of our suffering brethren ; and sincerely wish it was in our power to afford you effectual relief; but alas! we are more the objects of pity and compassion than yourselves, who are now suffering under the heavy hand of power; deprived, as we are, of the common right of the miserable, to complain. You have numbers, strength, and a common cause to support you in your opposition : we are still more divided here, by our interests, than by our religion, language, and manners. The apprehension of evils to come upon us, in a short time, from the unlimited power of the governor, strikes all opposition dead : indeed, few in this colony dare vent their griefs ; but groan in silence, and dream of lettres de cachet, confiscations, and imprisonments; offering up their fervent prayers to the throne of grace, to prosper your righteous cause, which alone will free us from those jealous fears and apprehensions tliat rob us of our peace.

In a word, were the British inhabitants of this widely extended province, united in their sentiments, we have neither numbers nor wealth sufficient to do you any essential service. We must, therefore, cast ourselves into the arms of our sister colonies, relying upon the wisdom, vigor, and firnmess of the general Continental Congress for our protection, hoping they will entertain no animosity or resentment against us because we cannot join them in the ensuing general Congress, which, were we to attempt, the Canadians would join with the government to frustrate.

Source: Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts at 751 accessed at https://archive.org/details/journalsofeachprma00mass/page/750/mode/2up?view=theater
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 26, 1775

April 26th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean within sight of the Massachusetts shore, Josiah Quincy, Jr. died of tuberculosis. He had traveled to Britain on a secret mission to gather information from supporters of America there, and was returning to report to Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren, on the intelligence he had learned. Quincy was one of the leading orators, thinkers and writers of the Patriot movement beginning with his commencement address at Harvard in 1763 until his premature death at the young age of 31. Had he lived through the next year, we would undoubtedly know him better as one of our Founding Fathers.

Sources: https://newengland.com/yankee/history/made-most-time/; https://250andcounting.com/

Josiah Quincy, Jr.

On this day 250 years ago in Narragansett Bay, off Providence, Rhode Island, Captain James Wallace of the 20-gun HMS Rose captured two packet ships — the Abigail and Diana owned by Providence merchant and Patriot leader John Brown — and arrested Brown. Captain Wallace was supposed to be intercepting smugglers but Brown’s ships were carrying flour from Newport to Providence. Many speculated that Wallace arrested Brown as revenge for Brown’s involvement in the burning of the HMS Gaspee three years earlier.

Sources: Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, accessed at https://archive.org/details/diaryezrastiles01stiluoft/page/n551/mode/2up;

Narragansett Bay, Operations, 1775

On this day 250 years ago in Exeter, New Hampshire, the Third New Hampshire Provincial Congress authorized two regiments of New Hampshire Militia under Colonel John Stark to join the New England Army besieging Boston. Stark’s men had marched to Boston immediately after Lexington and Concord and on this day were encamped at Medford and on Charlestown Neck as part of the siege.

Sources: https://csac.history.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/281/2023/12/DC9-09-00-02_N.H.-Chronology.pdf;

On this day 250 years ago in Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Spotsylvania Independent Company wrote George Washington:

it appears that Capt. Collins of his Majestys Navy at the head of 15 Marines carried off the Powder from the Magazine in that City on the night of Thursday last and conveyed it on board his Vessell by Order of the Governor. The Gentlemen of the Independant Company of this Town think this first Publick insult is not to be tamely submitted to and determine with your approbation to join any other bodies of armed Men who are willing to appear in support of the honour of Virginia as well as to secure the Military Stores yet remaining in the Magazine. It is proposed to March from hence on Saturday next for Williamsburg properly accoutred as Light Horsemen.

Expresses are sent off to inform the Commanding Officers of Companies in the adjacent Counties of this our Resolution & we shall wait prepared for your Instructions & their assistance. . . .

As we are not sufficiently supplied with Powder, it may be proper to request of the Gentlemen who join us from Fairfax or Prince William, to come provided with an over portion of that Article.

And on this day 250 years ago in Virginia, George Washington met with the Fairfax Independent Company in Alexandria. While he was there a letter arrived at Mount Vernon from the Prince William Independent Company in Dumfries forwarding an April 24 letter from the Spotsylvania Independent Company in Fredericksburg. This earlier letter from the Spotsylvania Company proclaimed:

Submission to so arbitrary an Exertion of Government may not only prejudice the common Cause by introducing a suspicion of a defection of this Colony from the noble pursuit but will encourage the tools of despotism to commit further Acts of Violence in this Colony and more especially subject the Arms in the Magazine to the same fate of the powder.

The Spotsylvania Company promised to “hold themselves in readiness to march from this place as light horse on Saturday Morning and in the mean time to [sub]mit the Matter to the determn of yours & the neighbouring Countys whom Expresses are purposely forwarded.” In forwarding this letter Captain William Grayson of the Prince William Independent Company added that

I immediately call’d together this Company and had the vote put whether they would march to Williamsburgh for the purposes mentioned in that letter which was carried unanimously.

I have nothing more to add but that We are well assured you may depend on them either for that or any other service which respects the liberties of America.

William Grayson and Philip Richard Francis Lee signed their letter as officers of the Prince William Independent Company. Both of the Spotsylvania Independent Company’s letters were signed by the officers of that company –Hugh Mercer, George Weedon, Alexander Spotswood, and John Willis. All of these men would become officers in Virginia regiments of the Continental Army serving under Washington’s command. General Mercer would give his life at the Battle of Princeton in 1777 and Captain Lee would be mortally wounded at Brandywine later that year. General Weedon, Colonel Grayson, Colonel Spotswood and Washington’s cousin Major Willis all served honorably and would survive the War.

Sources: “To George Washington from Prince William Independent Company, 26 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0270. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 345–346.]; “To George Washington from Spotsylvania Independent Company, 26 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0271. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 346–347.]; “[Diary entry: 26 April 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0008-0026. [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. 323.]
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 25, 1775

April 25th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago, in Providence, Rhode Island, the General Assembly wrote to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress that it was meeting “to consult and act upon the present distresses into which your Colony and all of New-England are involved” and that Rhode Island was

firm and determined. . . . A greater unanimity scarce ever prevailed in the Lower House than was found in the great questions before them . . . . We pray God that he would be graciously pleased to bring to nothing the counsels and designs of wicked men against our lives and liberties, and grant his blessing upon our righteous contest.

The Rhode Island General Assembly further pledged to raise 1,500 men to

continue in this Colony, as an Army of Observation; to repel any insults or violence that may be offered to the inhabitants; and also, if it be necessary for the safety and preservation of any of the Colonies, that they be ordered to march out of this Colony, and join and cooperate with the Forces of our neighbouring Colonies.

Sources: https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/april-25-1775-rhode-island-firm-determined-writes-metcalf-bowler/; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/siege-of-boston/

Also on that day in New York City, Scottish immigrant Alexander McDougall mustered hundreds of New Yorkers into service and gave each “a Good firelock, Bayonet, Cartouch Box, and Belt.”

The Importance of Partisanship in New York City, ca. 1769–1775

And on that day in Mount Vernon, Virginia, William Johnson, the Muster Master of the Fairfax Independent Company, dined with George Washington and presented him a letter signed by Captain James Hendricks, George Gilpin, and Robert H. Harrison requesting Washington’s direction on whether the Company should “take the Fashion of the Hunting Shirt Cap & Gaiters” as its uniform. Thomas Davis from Fredericksburg also met with Washington at Mount Vernon to pay him £4 16s. to buy gunpowder for the Spotsylvania Independent Company.

Sources: “To George Washington from Fairfax Independent Company, 25 April 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/02-10-02-0268. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Colonial Series, vol. 10, 21 March 1774 – 15 June 1775, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995, pp. 344–345.]; “[Diary entry: 25 April 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/01-03-02-0005-0008-0025. [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. 323.]
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 22, 1775

April 22nd, 2025

On this day 250 years ago, thousands of militia under the nominal command of General Artemas Ward, but in practice acting as independent companies, surrounded Boston. More militiamen were on the march to join them. Most of the men were Massachusetts Militia, but militia from New Hampshire commanded by Col. John Stark had also joined the Siege of Boston.

Source: https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/american-revolutionary-war-timeline-1775-january-june/

In New Haven, Connecticut, Benedict Arnold, commander of the Second Company, Governor’s Foot Guard, had assembled his 60 men to go to Boston but needed gunpowder. General David Wooster of the Connecticut Militia initially refused Arnold’s demand for the keys to the Powder House because the Connecticut Governor and Legislature had not given their authorization. After Arnold threatened to break in, Wooster relented, and Arnold took the powder he needed and he and his men began their three-day march to Boston. Wooster was more cautious than Arnold but he was not a Loyalist; two years later Wooster and Arnold would fight together to defend against a British raid into Connecticut, and Wooster would be mortally wounded fighting for American Independence.

Every year the State of Connecticut celebrates Arnold’s seizure of the gunpowder as Powder House Day. This year the 250th commemoration of Powder House Day will be held on May 10.

Sources:

Benedict Arnold Demands the Key – Today in History: April 22

http://www.footguard.org/sched.html

And on this day 250 years ago in western Massachusetts, the Stockbridge Militia Company under the command of Captain William Goodrich with David Pixley as first lieutenant and Jehoiakim Mtohksin as second lieutenant, began their march to Boston. In addition to Jehoiakim Mtohksin, at least fifteen other members of the Stockbridge Mohicans would participate in the Siege of Boston including Abraham Naunauphtaunk, William Notonksion, Sr., Solomon Uhhaunauwaunmut, Jacob Naunauphtaunk with his sons Abraham and Jehoiakim, Daniel Nimham, and both William Ntonksion, Sr., and Jr.

http://www.bidwellhousemuseum.org; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/american-revolutionary-war-timeline-1775-january-june/
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 20, 1775

April 20th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Governor Dunmore ordered seamen and marines from the HMS Magdalen to seize the gunpowder stored in Williamsburg’s Powder Magazine.

Sources: https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/the-gunpowder-incident/; https://www.revwartalk.com/04-20-1775-battles-gunpowder-affair-in-williamsburg-virginia/https://250andcounting.com/; https://daybydayamerica.com/day-by-day/year-1775/april-20-1775/

Tonight and tomorrow night, April 20 and 21, 2025, Colonial Williamsburg is reenacting the Gunpowder Incident at the Powder Magazine where it happened 250 years ago.

Source: https://www.whro.org/arts-culture/2025-04-17/williamsburg-marks-the-250th-anniversary-of-the-shot-not-heard-around-the-world

On this day 250 years ago in Charlestown, South Carolina, the General Committee of the South Carolina Provincial Congress led by the president of the Provincial Congress, Colonel Charles Pinckney, convened to discuss the news received from England that the British Army was sending additional troops to America to put down the rebellion. The General Committee appointed William Henry Drayton to head a “Secret Committee” to plan the seizure of government-owned weapons and gunpowder in the colony to make sure that they would not be used against the Patriots.

Source: https://www.ccpl.org/charleston-time-machine/rebellion-south-carolina-april-21st-1775

Also on this day 250 years ago in New York City, a Provincial Convention convened to elect delegates from New York to the Second Continental Congress. This Convention had delegates from all New York counties except Tryon, Gloucester and Cumberland and was New York’s first state-wide governmental body organized without royal authority. The Provincial Convention elected Philip Livingston as it chairman and adjourned two days later after electing delegates to the Continental Congress.

Sources: https://www.archives.nysed.gov/node/361227; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Provincial_Congress

At the beginning of this day 250 years ago at the Alden House in Duxbury, Colonel Theophilus Cotton, commander of the Plymouth County Militia, held a council of war with his subaltern, Lt. Col. Briggs Alden, Major Ebenezer Sproat of Middleborough, and other officers to plan an assault on the British detachment guarding Loyalists in the adjacent town of Marshfield, the only town outside of Boston occupied by British troops. The militia companies from Plymouth, Kingston and Duxbury had assembled and were ready to make the short march on Marshfield. In addition, Marshfield’s Patriot militia commanded by Colonel Anthony Thomas and Captain William Thomas were ready to rise up and expel the British soldiers.

Before the end of the day, three companies of militia totalling 150 men from the Town of Middleborough commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Wood, Capt. Isaac Wood and Capt. Amos Wade, Captain Josiah Hayden’s company of Bridgewater minutemen (which included Luther Jotham, Elias Sewell and other free men of color), and Captain Israel Fearing’s Wareham company had arrived in Duxbury. And on that day militia companies from Hanover, Plympton, Scituate, Rochester, Sandwich, Barnstable, and Yarmouth were marching to join Col. Cotton’s command. In all, more than a thousand militiamen from Plymouth and Barnstable Counties were on their way to drive the British and Loyalists from Marshfield.

Sources: https://historicaldigression.com/2011/01/10/the-almost-battle-of-marshfield/; https://historicaldigression.com/2025/04/20/the-brink-of-war-in-plymouth-county-april-20-1775/; https://alden.org/

On that day 250 years ago in Cambridge and the other towns surrounding Boston, thousands of Massachusetts Militia began the Siege of Boston. General William Heath is nominally in command of the militia but is succeeded by General Artemas Ward that evening. In Cambridge, Joseph Warren writing for the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, issued this letter to the towns of Massachusetts:

The barbarous murders committed on our innocent brethren, on Wednesday the 19th instant, have made it absolutely, necessary that we immediately raise an army to defend our wives and our children from the butchering hands of an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they met with in their bloody progress, and enraged at being repulsed from the field of slaughter, will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and sword. We conjure you, therefore, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, that you give all assistance possible in forming an army. Our all is at stake. Death and devastation are the instant consequences of delay. Every moment is infinitely precious. An hour lost may deluge your country in blood, and entail perpetual slavery upon the few of your posterity who may survive the carnage. We beg and entreat, as you will answer to your country, to your own consciences, and, above all, as you will answer to God himself, that you will hasten and encourage by all possible means the enlistment of men to form the army, and send them forward to headquarters, at Cambridge, with that expedition which the vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demand.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Boston; https://www.drjosephwarren.com/2014/04/barbarous-murders-committed-on-our-innocent-brethren/

And on this day 250 years ago word of the Battles of Lexington and Concord had reached Providence, Rhode Island, Portsmouth, New Hampshire (where the New-Hampshire Gazette published the “Bloody News” before the end of the day) and the towns of Brooklyn, Woodstock, Norwich, New London, and Pomfret, Connecticut. When French and Indian War hero Israel Putnam received the news at 3:00 pm in Pomfret, he immediately mounted his horse and rode the 100 miles to Cambridge, arriving 18 hours later.

Sources: Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride at 324; https://collections.americanantiquarian.org/earlyamericannewsmedia/exhibits/show/age-of-revolution/item/38; https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/american-revolutionary-war-timeline-1775-january-june/
On this day 250 years ago in the Revolution — April 18, 1775

April 18th, 2025

On this day 250 years ago, the Concord militia received and began executing the order of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety instructing that certain ammunition and supplies stored in Concord be removed from the town or hidden. That order was issued just in time, because on that same day in Boston, General Gage ordered Lt. Col. Francis Smith:

You will march with the Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry put under your Command with the utmost Expedition and secrecy to Concord, and where you will seize and destroy all the Artillery and Ammunition Provisions Tents & all other military stores you can find, you will knock off one Trunion at least of each of the Iron Guns, and destroy the Carriages and beat in the Muzzles of the Brass ones so as to render them useless.

Before midnight on this day 250 years ago, almost 900 men commanded by Lt. Col. Smith had boarded boats and were rowed across Back Bay to Lechmere Point in Cambridge. As the first step in the raid, however, that morning 20 British officers and troops rode out of Boston on horseback across Boston Neck to patrol the roads between Boston and Concord and intercept Patriot messengers warning of the raid. From Longfellow’s poem we all know that Paul Revere rode out of Boston to warn of the raid, but he was not the only American who spread the alarm on that day that the British were coming.

Joseph Warren received word of Gage’s order to Smith shortly after Smith received it and learned in the evening that British troops were heading to boats on the Back Bay. He immediately dispatched Revere and William Dawes to ride to Lexington to warn Hancock and Samuel Adams who were staying at the home of Hancock’s cousin Rev. Jonas Clarke in Lexington. Dawes rode out of Boston on the Boston Neck taking the longer route to Lexington. Revere first went to Old North Church to send the signal that the British troops were going by water. Revere did not hang the lanterns in the church, but gave that task to Robert Newman and John Pulling who put up the lanterns while Thomas Bernard stood guard.

And the warning of the raid was spreading before Joshua Bentley and Thomas Richardson rowed Revere across the Back Bay. Col. William Conant of the Charlestown Militia was watching for the lantern signal and alerted his company and sent a messenger to Lexington before Revere arrived in Charlestown. Revere met with Conant and Richard Devens of the Charlestown Committee of Supplies to pass along the news and to mount the horse that Devens had borrowed from John Larkin for Revere to ride.

Other Patriot messengers besides Revere and Dawes were spreading the word of the British patrols. Devens and Abraham Watson had earlier that day encountered the advanced party of mounted British soldiers patrolling the roads and warned their fellow members of the Massachusetts Committees of Safety and Supplies staying in Menotomy (present-day Arlington, Massachusetts) — Elbridge Gerry, Jeremiah Lee and Azor Orne — and other Patriots to avoid the patrols. Elijah Sanderson, Solomon Brown and Jonathan Loring had encountered the British patrols and went to Lexington to warn the militia there.

As a result, the Lexington Militia had begun to assemble and had placed a guard on the Clarke House where Hancock and Adams were staying before the end of the day. In Groton, several miles to the northwest of Concord, the Patriots correctly surmised that the redeployment of cannon from Concord to their town meant that the British raid on Concord was underway. Nine Groton minutemen set out on the march to Concord that night and would arrive there before the British.

Although the first shots and deaths in the Concord raid would occur at Lexington on the next day, the first American casualty in the Concord raid happened on April 18. Josiah Nelson questioned one of the British officers on the patrol and was slashed on the head by the officer’s sword. Although Nelson was bleeding profusely from his scalp, he bandaged his wound and would join the fight against the British the next day.

Sources: https://www.discoverconcordma.com/articles/110-massachusetts-provincial-congress-britains-guiltless-children; Fischer, Paul Revere’s Ride at 89-107; The Lexington-Concord Battle Road, Concord Chamber of Commerce at 3, 7-10.

On this day in 2025, there will be a reenactment in Boston on the 250th anniversary of the beginning of Paul Revere’s ride including the hanging of the lanterns in the Old North Church, and a reenactment in Lexington slightly in advance of the 250th anniversary of Revere’s arrival in Lexington to warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams that the British army was coming (Revere didn’t make it to Lexington until after midnight).

https://www.lexingtonhistory.org/patriotsday#calendar-9fab3d23-df6c-4221-a44b-2a5da60b11da-event-lvxy0es3

https://www.lexingtonhistory.org/patriotsday

250th Celebration

Reenactment of Paul Revere’s 1775 Midnight Ride