This week in Revolutionary War history, let’s check up on what was going on 250 years ago in New England and the northern Thirteen Colonies. Last week, Washington arrived in the largest city in the colonies, and the de-facto capital of the Thirteen Colonies, Philadelphia. Here, he meets with representatives from across the revolting former-British subjects. Calls for independence continue to grow louder.
On May 31, 1776, Washington continues his meetings with the Continental Congress. delegates agree to grant the Quartermaster General, Brigadier General Thomas Mifflin, a massive $50,000 to procure supplies for the army including clothes, tools, and tents.
Major General Philip Schuyler has continued to write both the congress and Washington requesting ammunition and manpower. The next day, the congress votes to send an additional 6,000 men north towards the battle in Canada to support the desperate defense of the Hudson River. These men are to be raised from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York.
That same day, Washington receives a message from Major General William Alexander, known as Lord Stirling. He has spent the last days, under Washington’s orders, to survey fortifications around the Hudson River around New York. He also notes the highlands and advantageous positions. Including hand-drawn maps of the region, he warns that Fort Constitution and Fort Montgomery to the north are dilapidated and undermanned. They require urgent attention and work. He presses the forts, “appear well worth possessing on many accounts; should the enemy be in possession of it, we should be cut off from our best communication with the whole country.”
Major General Israel Putnam, placed temporarily in charge of the defense of New York by Washington, writes on June 2, quelling any fears held so far. He says, “No ships arrived since I wrote by express yesterday – nor no other news of importance.”
On June 3, the Continental Congress was back in session following the prior day’s Sunday recess. The day would see many military reforms. Reading various accounts presented by Washington, they vote to reinforce New York with 13,800 militiamen from the Northeast. Another 11 battalions are to guard New England, and a “flying camp” will be established in the middle, Atlantic colonies of Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. These flying camps were a experiment employed by the congress. The regiments employed by them would not be divided by state-of-origin and instead be mixed and not answer to any one state.
June 4 was the 38th birthday of King George III. Though once a popular holiday in the colonies, the current situation made it an unremarkable day.
On June 5, the Town of Wrentham declares independence. At a Town Meeting, not unlike the Tri-Town’s own we just had, citizens, stirred by zealous anger at the crown and recent events around Boston, officially vote to no longer recognize the Crown as an executive and declare themselves free of “tyranny and oppression.”
This Week in Revolutionary War History
By Sam Bishop