Revolutionary War 250
@revwar250.bsky.social
Posts from 1775! The American Revolution and War of Independence and the world in which they happened, 250 years ago.
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BATTLE OF QUEBEC: The British take 426 Continental prisoners, including Daniel Morgan. Benedict Arnold has been carried from the field, too seriously wounded to mount another attack. Most critically of all, Richard Montgomery has been killed.
4 JANUARY 1776, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: Brigadier General Nathanael Greene writes to congressional delegate Samuel Ward, urging “from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s cause, a Declaration of Independence.”
January 4, 2026 at 5:58 PM
4 JANUARY 1776, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: Brigadier General Nathanael Greene writes to congressional delegate Samuel Ward, urging “from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s cause, a Declaration of Independence.”
4 JANUARY 1776, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS: The Essex Gazette advertises a Continental Army deserter: “John Chewen is a molatto, but calls himself Indian, about 5 feet 5 inches high, had on a dark coloured-coat, and a pair of breeches something lighter;
January 4, 2026 at 3:52 PM
4 JANUARY 1776, SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS: The Essex Gazette advertises a Continental Army deserter: “John Chewen is a molatto, but calls himself Indian, about 5 feet 5 inches high, had on a dark coloured-coat, and a pair of breeches something lighter;
3 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Robert Howe and William Woodford restore order among the Patriot troops in the town. Over the past three days, they have destroyed 863 structures, valued at £120 thousand.
January 3, 2026 at 8:43 PM
3 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Robert Howe and William Woodford restore order among the Patriot troops in the town. Over the past three days, they have destroyed 863 structures, valued at £120 thousand.
3 JANUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “Whereas a majority of the inhabitants of Queen’s County … being incapable of resolving to live and die freemen … have deserted the American cause”: The Continental Congress enacts penalties for the inhabitants of Queens, New York.
January 3, 2026 at 5:58 PM
3 JANUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “Whereas a majority of the inhabitants of Queen’s County … being incapable of resolving to live and die freemen … have deserted the American cause”: The Continental Congress enacts penalties for the inhabitants of Queens, New York.
3 JANUARY 1776, QUEENS COUNTY, NEW YORK: Patriot authorities make their first attempt to take military control in Loyalist Queens County: New Jersey militiamen under Colonel Nathaniel Heard arrive and begin seeking out the 788 Tory voters from November’s election.
January 3, 2026 at 3:52 PM
3 JANUARY 1776, QUEENS COUNTY, NEW YORK: Patriot authorities make their first attempt to take military control in Loyalist Queens County: New Jersey militiamen under Colonel Nathaniel Heard arrive and begin seeking out the 788 Tory voters from November’s election.
3 JANUARY 1776, BOSTON: Sentences are handed down for various courts martial for looting and assault among the redcoats, including a thousand lashes for Thomas MacMahan, “Private Soldier in His Majesty’s 43d. Regiment of Foot,” and a hundred lashes for his wife, Isabella.
January 3, 2026 at 1:58 PM
3 JANUARY 1776, BOSTON: Sentences are handed down for various courts martial for looting and assault among the redcoats, including a thousand lashes for Thomas MacMahan, “Private Soldier in His Majesty’s 43d. Regiment of Foot,” and a hundred lashes for his wife, Isabella.
2 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Patriot soldiers loot & burn their way through town, yelling, “Keep up the Jigg!” When Patriots complain to commanding officers that their homes & shops are being destroyed just as enthusiastically as the Loyalists’, the commanders dismiss them.
January 2, 2026 at 8:43 PM
2 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Patriot soldiers loot & burn their way through town, yelling, “Keep up the Jigg!” When Patriots complain to commanding officers that their homes & shops are being destroyed just as enthusiastically as the Loyalists’, the commanders dismiss them.
2 JANUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Tory Act: Congress orders that the Loyalists be criminalized: “all such unworthy Americans … ought to be disarmed, and the more dangerous among them, either kept in safe custody, or bound with sufficient sureties to their good behavior.”
January 2, 2026 at 5:58 PM
2 JANUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Tory Act: Congress orders that the Loyalists be criminalized: “all such unworthy Americans … ought to be disarmed, and the more dangerous among them, either kept in safe custody, or bound with sufficient sureties to their good behavior.”
2 JANUARY 1776, NEW YORK: In an attempt to wrest control back from the Patriots’ provincial congress, royal governor William Tryon—living aboard the Royal Navy transport Duchess of Gordon in the harbor—formally dissolves the provincial assembly and issues writs for new elections.
January 2, 2026 at 3:52 PM
2 JANUARY 1776, NEW YORK: In an attempt to wrest control back from the Patriots’ provincial congress, royal governor William Tryon—living aboard the Royal Navy transport Duchess of Gordon in the harbor—formally dissolves the provincial assembly and issues writs for new elections.
2 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Patriot soldiers, allowed to pillage freely, start fires throughout the town; they merge with the blaze left along the dockfront by the British troops last night, and by morning, the whole town is burning.
January 2, 2026 at 1:58 PM
2 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Patriot soldiers, allowed to pillage freely, start fires throughout the town; they merge with the blaze left along the dockfront by the British troops last night, and by morning, the whole town is burning.
2 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: By the time British commanders halt their cannonade and withdraw their landing parties shortly after midnight, only a small portion of Norfolk, along the docks, is burning.
January 2, 2026 at 5:54 AM
2 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: By the time British commanders halt their cannonade and withdraw their landing parties shortly after midnight, only a small portion of Norfolk, along the docks, is burning.
1 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Patriot commanders initially fear Lord Dunmore is launching a major attack to retake the town, but when they realize it’s just a raid, they’re not just happy to let British forces burn Norfolk—they set Patriot troops to helping the fire along.
January 2, 2026 at 12:53 AM
1 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: Patriot commanders initially fear Lord Dunmore is launching a major attack to retake the town, but when they realize it’s just a raid, they’re not just happy to let British forces burn Norfolk—they set Patriot troops to helping the fire along.
1 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: The Royal Navy warships “Liverpool, frigate, the Otter and Kingfisher, sloops-of-war, with the Governour’s ship, Dunmore,” open fire on the town’s waterfront while Patriot troops are parading during their changing of the guard ceremony.
January 1, 2026 at 10:51 PM
1 JANUARY 1776, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: The Royal Navy warships “Liverpool, frigate, the Otter and Kingfisher, sloops-of-war, with the Governour’s ship, Dunmore,” open fire on the town’s waterfront while Patriot troops are parading during their changing of the guard ceremony.
1 JANUARY 1776, QUEBEC: British troops recover the body of Continental General Richard Montgomery, buried beneath a heavy snow, curled on its side in a fetal position; it is found because Montgomery died with one arm raised, and his hand is still clear of the snow.
January 1, 2026 at 8:43 PM
1 JANUARY 1776, QUEBEC: British troops recover the body of Continental General Richard Montgomery, buried beneath a heavy snow, curled on its side in a fetal position; it is found because Montgomery died with one arm raised, and his hand is still clear of the snow.
Reposted by Revolutionary War 250
No source from within Boston says that British authorities interpreted the new 1 Jan 1776 flag as submission. Instead, we have Washington’s statement that a man who came out of Boston that day told him so. Who was that man? I suspect Shrimpton Hutchinson.
January 1, 2026 at 6:10 PM
No source from within Boston says that British authorities interpreted the new 1 Jan 1776 flag as submission. Instead, we have Washington’s statement that a man who came out of Boston that day told him so. Who was that man? I suspect Shrimpton Hutchinson.
1 JANUARY 1776, PROSPECT HILL, BOSTON SIEGE LINES: George Washington raises a flag over the fortifications facing Bunker Hill to symbolize the army’s rebirth as a force “which, in every point of View is entirely Continental,” though historians debate just which flag he raises.
January 1, 2026 at 5:58 PM
1 JANUARY 1776, PROSPECT HILL, BOSTON SIEGE LINES: George Washington raises a flag over the fortifications facing Bunker Hill to symbolize the army’s rebirth as a force “which, in every point of View is entirely Continental,” though historians debate just which flag he raises.
1 JANUARY 1776, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: Under flag of truce, a redcoat officer presents a stack of broadsides for distribution among the Continental soldiers: George III’s speech of October 26, just arrived from London and printed by the auspices of “the Boston gentry.”
January 1, 2026 at 3:52 PM
1 JANUARY 1776, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: Under flag of truce, a redcoat officer presents a stack of broadsides for distribution among the Continental soldiers: George III’s speech of October 26, just arrived from London and printed by the auspices of “the Boston gentry.”
1 JANUARY 1776, BOSTON SIEGE LINES: The enlistments expire for all Continental soldiers who have not reenlisted in the new army. They are called to their parade grounds and dismissed, and today and tomorrow they depart, “going home by hundreds and by thousands.”
January 1, 2026 at 1:58 PM
1 JANUARY 1776, BOSTON SIEGE LINES: The enlistments expire for all Continental soldiers who have not reenlisted in the new army. They are called to their parade grounds and dismissed, and today and tomorrow they depart, “going home by hundreds and by thousands.”
1775 ENDS IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY CAMP: “This is the last day of the old enlisted soldiers’ service,” Nathanael Greene writes to Samuel Ward. “Nothing but confusion and disorder reign. We have suffered prodigiously for want of wood.”
January 1, 2026 at 2:00 AM
1775 ENDS IN THE CONTINENTAL ARMY CAMP: “This is the last day of the old enlisted soldiers’ service,” Nathanael Greene writes to Samuel Ward. “Nothing but confusion and disorder reign. We have suffered prodigiously for want of wood.”
1775 ENDS IN BOSTON: “Thus endeth 1775, a most fatal year for this part of America,” says merchant John Rowe. “The Niger man of war, Capt. Talbot, is arrived in Nantasket Road, and has brought the King’s speech, dated October 26.”
January 1, 2026 at 12:45 AM
1775 ENDS IN BOSTON: “Thus endeth 1775, a most fatal year for this part of America,” says merchant John Rowe. “The Niger man of war, Capt. Talbot, is arrived in Nantasket Road, and has brought the King’s speech, dated October 26.”
1775 ENDS IN LONDON: “May the afflictions through the past year which I have suffered and am now suffering,” writes Massachusetts Loyalist Samuel Curwen, “in an unhappy banishment from my Country, family, friends and acquaintances
December 31, 2025 at 11:30 PM
1775 ENDS IN LONDON: “May the afflictions through the past year which I have suffered and am now suffering,” writes Massachusetts Loyalist Samuel Curwen, “in an unhappy banishment from my Country, family, friends and acquaintances
31 DECEMBER 1776, CHARLESTON: Determining that their main vulnerability is their coasts, but lacking a population of unemployed sailors, the provincial congress sends Captain Robert Cochran, a native of Boston, to New England to recruit sailors for a South Carolina navy.
December 31, 2025 at 8:43 PM
31 DECEMBER 1776, CHARLESTON: Determining that their main vulnerability is their coasts, but lacking a population of unemployed sailors, the provincial congress sends Captain Robert Cochran, a native of Boston, to New England to recruit sailors for a South Carolina navy.
BATTLE OF QUEBEC: The British take 426 Continental prisoners, including Daniel Morgan. Benedict Arnold has been carried from the field, too seriously wounded to mount another attack. Most critically of all, Richard Montgomery has been killed.
December 31, 2025 at 3:52 PM
BATTLE OF QUEBEC: The British take 426 Continental prisoners, including Daniel Morgan. Benedict Arnold has been carried from the field, too seriously wounded to mount another attack. Most critically of all, Richard Montgomery has been killed.
Reposted by Revolutionary War 250
SAULT-AU-MATELOT, QUEBEC LOWER TOWN: After they have been unable to pass the barricade at the far end of the Sault-au-Matelot, Daniel Morgan’s column find their fate sealed when five hundred of the city’s defenders retake the barricade at the near end, trapping them in.
December 31, 2025 at 1:58 PM
SAULT-AU-MATELOT, QUEBEC LOWER TOWN: After they have been unable to pass the barricade at the far end of the Sault-au-Matelot, Daniel Morgan’s column find their fate sealed when five hundred of the city’s defenders retake the barricade at the near end, trapping them in.