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 October 10, 1774 at Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which was then claimed by Virginia and also claimed by the Shawnee who called the place “Chinoudaista”, Virginia militia commanded by Col. Andrew Lewis fought Shawnee and allied warriors commanded by Chief Hokoleskwa, also known as Chief Cornstalk, at the Battle of Point Pleasant. The Virginians won the battle but lost about 80 men killed and 140 wounded. The Indian losses were not recorded but were probably similar. This battle was the largest engagement of Dunmore’s War and soon led to a treaty in which the Shawnee led by Hokoleska ceded to Virginia all their claimed lands east and south of the Ohio River.

Although the Virginia militia fought under the orders of Royal Governor Dunmore at Point Pleasant, almost all would fight for Virginia and America against Dunmore and the British Army the next year. Andrew Lewis, who immigrated to America from Ireland, became a General in the Continental Army and commanded the Virginia militia in 1776 that defeated Dunmore at the battle that drove Dunmore from Virginia. His subordinate commander Col. William Fleming, an immigrant from Scotland, was badly wounded in the battle and had to resign from the militia, but he continued to serve Virginia as an elected official throughout the War, including briefly as Virginia’s Governor. Lewis’s second division ended up under the command of Capt. Evan Shelby, who emigrated from Wales, and who would end up serving throughout the Revolution as the Colonel in command of Virginia’s frontier militia. Captain George Mathews would rise to rank of Brigadier General in the Continental Army at the end of the War, and would serve as Governor of Georgia after the War. Lt. Isaac Shelby would rise to be a Colonel and one of the commanders at Kings Mountain and other American victories in the War and then Governor of Kentucky after the War. The rank and file militia who survived the Battle of Point Pleasant would, almost to the man, continue defending Virginia from attack by both the Indians and the British throughout the Revolution.

Sources: https://emergingrevolutionarywar.org/2024/10/05/fight-and-be-strong-battle-of-point-pleasant-october-10-1774/

Some historians consider the Battle of Point Pleasant to be the first battle of the Revolutionary War. You can visit a small portion of the battlefield that has been preserved by the State of West Virginia as Tu-Endi-Wei State Park in Point Pleasant. https://wvstateparks.com/park/tu-endie-wei-state-park/

https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=22553