5 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Second Continental Congress allows sailors aboard captured vessels to be recruited to serve in the Continental Navy or aboard American privateers. Any sailors not enlisting are to be held as prisoners of war.

5 AUGUST 1776, STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK: Lord Rawdon writes a famous, oft-cited letter describing the rampage of sexual assaults the redcoats are committing against the “fair nymphs” of Staten Island—but he’s almost certainly making it up. allthingsliberty.com/2014/07/rawd...

Rawdon's Ruse - Journal of the American Revolution

Put a large army in a rural community overseas, and some problems are bound to occur. Such was the case when thousands of British and German soldiers descended on Staten Island at the beginning of…

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5 AUGUST 1776, BOSTON: From a letter by Abigail Adams to John Adams, it appears that James Otis, Jr., the Patriot movement’s first great leader, is experiencing a particularly intense bout of mental illness:

4 AUGUST 1776, PORT-AU-PRINCE: The comte d’Ennery, Governor-General of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), writes to George Washington asking him to release a French officer captured “in Canada, serving in the English Army against your Troops.” founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

4 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “These Imperfections must be remedied, for New England must produce the Heroes, the statesmen, the Philosophers, or America will make no great Figure for some Time”: John Adams feels New England has more substance but less polish than other colonies.

4 AUGUST 1776, STATEN ISLAND: More British ships are arriving: “We have had so many Arivals of late, that the Rebel Commanders, we learn, give out to their People, that we send Ships down in the Night, which come up in the Course of the next Day, as a manoeuvre to intimidate them.”

4 AUGUST 1776, NEW YORK: The day after Washington asked Continental soldiers not to swear so much, Private Obadiah Brown records that “orders Came for Every man to be whipd that Swore an oath 39 Lashes.”

4 AUGUST 1776, SHEERNESS, KENT: Unable to find anywhere else to keep them (“The Ministers are at a loss what to do with them”), the crew of a captured American privateer are “sent aboard a Guard ship.” Within days, their conditions will become a scandal.

3 AUGUST 1776, KINGSTON, JAMAICA: The governor, Sir Basil Keith, allows the sugar harvest to depart, having concluded that the planned slave insurrection has been suppressed. At least a hundred conspirators have been identified; around thirty have been executed.

3 AUGUST 1776, NEW YORK: Henry Knox writes to Robert Treat Paine about finding alternative locations for an American cannon foundry, as “The situation of affairs here is such as would render any large works which might be ercted exceedingly precarious.” www.masshist.org/publications...

3 AUGUST 1776, TAPPAN ZEE, NEW YORK: A small Continental Army river fleet fights a skirmish with the Royal Navy squadron that has been lurking up the Hudson River, with both sides seeming to think they’ve had the better of it: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

3 AUGUST 1776, NEW YORK: Washington’s daily orders call on the Continental Army to clean up their language: “The foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion;”

3 AUGUST 1776, NANTES: French merchant Pierre Penet writes to Benjamin Franklin detailing the war supplies he’s been able to ship in exchange for American agricultural exports. In return, he hopes to be given the right to wear a Continental Army uniform: founders.archives.gov/documents/Fr...

2 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: John Adams’s notes on the Articles of Confederation show the Continental Congress continuing to be divided over whether Congress should have the power to curtail the territorial claims of those states who believe they extend to the Pacific Ocean.

2 AUGUST 1776, PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY: On the day the Continental Congress sign the Declaration of Independence, Continental colonel Samuel Atlee writes to Benjamin Franklin, begging Pennsylvania to supply his men—in the face of the British army—with bedsheets, socks and pants.

2 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “Is not the Change We have seen astonishing?”: John Adams remains amazed at how quickly the American people have turned from loyal British subjects to welcomers of the Declaration of Independence. founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

William Hooper represented North Carolina in the Continental Congress, but he was born and educated in Massachusetts and went back to visit his mother there. So he could plausibly talk about upper-class life in both colonies.

Connecticut was 6th of 12 or 13 colonies ranked by population before the Revolution. (Today it’s 29th among the states.) Sherman could therefore present himself as an arbiter between big states and little states.

Revolutionary War 250@revwar250.bsky.social · 4d ago

1 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: As Congress continues to debate how votes should be apportioned, Roger Sherman suggests every issue have two votes: one vote where representation is by population, and another where every state is represented equally:

2 AUGUST 1776, EXETER, DEVON: Massachusetts Loyalist Samuel Curwen attends the by-election to replace Devon’s Member of Parliament (called a “Knight of the Shire” because he holds a county seat). Voting is held through simple acclamation when the seat is not contested.

2 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “The declaration of independence being engrossed and compared at the table was signed by the members”: Most Signers of the Declaration of Independence sign it today. Benjamin Rush describes the atmosphere as a “pensive and awful silence.”

1 AUGUST 1776, PHILADELPHIA: As Congress continues to debate how votes should be apportioned, Roger Sherman suggests every issue have two votes: one vote where representation is by population, and another where every state is represented equally:

1 AUGUST 1776, NEW YORK: Washington accepts the letter he receives today from British General William Howe (regarding the mechanics of prisoner exchanges) after Howe addresses it to “Genl Washington &ca &ca.”

1 AUGUST 1776, STATEN ISLAND, NEW YORK: Continental Army lookouts are alarmed to see a fleet of thirty to forty ships arrive to join the main British armada: the fleet of Sir Peter Parker, carrying the army led by Henry Clinton and Lord Cornwallis.

1 AUGUST 1776, TICONDEROGA, NEW YORK: Colonel Timothy Bedel and Major Isaac Butterfield are found guilty by court martial for their roles in the Continental surrender at the Battle of the Cedars in May and expelled from the Continental Army.

1 AUGUST 1776, CHAMBLY, QUEBEC: Brigadier General Patrick Gordon dies of gunshot wounds he received when Continental Lieutenant Benjamin Whitcomb, concealed in the underbrush and apparently out of uniform, shot him inside British-held territory. allthingsliberty.com/2013/09/infa...

Infamous Skulkers: The Shooting of Brigadier General Patrick Gordon - Journal of the American Revolution

Most have heard of Timothy Murphy and the shooting of Brigadier General Simon Fraser. However, how many have heard of Benjamin Whitcomb and the shooting of Brigadier General Patrick Gordon? Hugh…

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1 AUGUST 1776, LIMA: Manuel de Amat y Junyent, outgoing Viceroy of Peru, issues creating the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata from various formerly Peruvian territories in southern Atlantic South America, with its capital at Buenos Aires; it’s the last of the Spanish viceroyalties to be formed.

1 AUGUST 1776, KEOWEE RIVER, SOUTH CAROLINA: In a skirmish with the Cherokee, Francis Salvador becomes the first recorded Jew killed in the Revolutionary War. Having only immigrated from England in 1773, he had already become the first professing Jew elected to public office in the Colonies.

31 JULY 1776, NEW YORK: Twenty regimental surgeons sign a protest to George Washington at his order that only surgeons from the general hospital may determine if a soldier is sick enough to be removed from regimental care to the general hospital:

31 JULY 1776, FORT TICONDEROGA, NEW YORK: Anthony Wayne writes bullishly to Benjamin Franklin of how the Continental defenders will face the professional British soldiers once they arrive: founders.archives.gov/documents/Fr...

31 JULY 1776, LONDON: Massachusetts Loyalist Thomas Hutchinson has now been living in London for two years: “I have observed, ever since I have been in England, that the changes from sunshine to cloudy are not only more frequent,