April 1776

This information is from the Mount Vernon Site.  

So the month of April is spent tying up loose ends in Boston and moving his troops to New York.

I would add that as usual George Washington is modestly suggesting that it is the pamphlet "Common Sense" that is influencing the Virginia men to rally around the Revolutionary War.  I suggest that it is the news that has traveled throughout the 13 colonies of the fact that the siege of Boston has ended with a Victory for the Patriots with no blood shed!

My own ancestor, William Morrison and his two brothers along with young men from Pittsylvania County, Virginia and adjoining counties leave their homes for Williamsburg in March 1776 to join George Washington for the battles that will be fought in the next two years!  I do not believe it is a coincidence

 Do not miss this four minute account of March 1776 and events that led up to it from the American Battlefields.org:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cao-s0_mkLQ

March 1776

 March 1776 was an extremely important month!  After months of planning, George Washington ordered continental forces and local volunteers to stealthily fortify Dorchester Heights location with cannon all in ONE night. 

Instead of writing about this event myself, I am going to give you the URL for the Mount Vernon website to read what has been written there.  Mount Vernon updates every day so if you are reading this much later you will want to go to the pages written for March 1776.

https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/revolutionary-war/250-years-ago-day#interactive-timeline 

Two of my favorite pieces of information from that site are:  

and

This military operation led British forces to evacuate Boston two weeks later, on March 17, 1776.  The siege of Boston was at an end!

Battle of Moore's bridge February 1776

 

                                                                                           

The most important event in February 1776 was the Battle of Moore's Bridge.  This battle took place on February 27.  British Royal Governor Josiah Martin sought to reestablish Great Britain's authority in North Carolina.  Maj Gen Henry Clinton was dispatched with a British Army to North Carolina's coast.  The loyalists in North Carolina (mostly Scottish Highlanders) assembled at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville) to join the British Troops.  

Col Richard Caswell moved the patriot militia to hold Moores Creek Bridge which was a strategic crossing for the Loyalist troops.  Caswell fortified the eastern Bank, Removed the Bridge planks and waited for the Loyalists to approach.  The Loyalist troops reached the bridge just after Midnight Feb 27.  They were met with deadly Patriot Rifle and artillery fire.  The volleys shattered the attacking Loyalists and forced a retreat.  Caswell's men scattered the Loyalists and captured hundreds.

The Patriot victory at Moores Creek Bridge secured North Carolina to remain in Patriot hands for the rest of the Revolution. The defeat discouraged Loyalist recruitment in the region and delayed significant British operations in the South until 1780.

  

 

 

January 1776

All sources seem to agree that the most important event to happen in January of 1776 was the publication of Thomas Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense.

Though the First Continental Congress had already convened by the time of Paine’s arrival in America, many of the leading Patriot voices were uncomfortable to fully come out in support of independence.  Their general complaint had always been that their natural rights as British subjects had been violated by Parliament, and they wished to see those wrongs rectified. Paine’s far more radical outlook led him to see the situation quite differently, and so he set out to make the case for independence and describe his vision for America’s political future in his most famous work: the 47-page pamphlet titled “Common Sense.”  

Published on January 10th, 1776, “Common Sense” decries not just British tyranny, but the concept of monarchy itself, and calls for the formation of an American republic in the purest sense of the word: a government run as a res publica, or “public affair.” Paine’s radical rhetoric and skillful argumentation electrified the colonies, and “Common Sense” quickly became one of the best-selling written works in America, followed only by the Bible. As one Connecticut reader wrote to a Philadelphia newspaper, “We were blind, but on reading these enlightening words the scales have fallen from our eyes.” Seven months after the publication of “Common Sense,” the Second Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, announcing their intention to formally sever ties with Great Britain. 

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/common-sense

But I would add a thought that I wrote last year:   Shortly after taking command of the Continental Army

in July 1775, General George Washington ordered an

accounting of the patriots’ gunpowder stores. When he

learned the total available was a measly 90 barrels, an

eyewitness claimed Washington “did not utter a word

for half an hour.” Things were not much better by

January 1776, when Washington wrote a letter to a

trusted officer bemoaning the lack of supplies. “We are

now without any money in our treasury—powder in our

magazines—arms in our stores.

Equipping his new army and making them into a real army was a challenge.

 

December 1775

December 1775 had two incidents (one in Virginia and one in Canada).  This highlights the fact that the war was spreading beyond  Boston.

I had never understood why many of the very early battles that took place happened in upper New York and Lake Champlain and into Canada with Montreal and Quebec.  But Ken Burns' documentary playing on PBS this week helped me understand a bit about what was going on.  In December 1775 the British were still in Boston, but the milita and patriots had them under siege with patriots camped around the perimeter of the area and the newly formed navy causing some havoc in the harbor.

The British held forts in the north in both Montreal and Quebec and the patriots decided to engage these troops in an effort to command these forts for themselves.  Last night's presentation even said something about the possibility of having these areas come into the colonies as a 14th colony.

However, the attack by the patriots was unsuccessful in the far north.  While the partriots were successful in capturing the fort at Montreal, their attack on Quebec City was the first major defeat for the Patriots.  And while the Americans continued to contemplate the possibility of attacking these areas of Canada, the sheer number of men and supplies to be transported to the far north prevented the patriots from attempting an invasion.

The second event happened in Virginia.  The Battle of Great Bridge on December 9 was by contrast a decisive victory for the Patriots.

Threatened by rebellion, Virginia’s Royal Governor, John Murray, the Earl of Dunmore, ordered the Royal Marines of the H.M.S. Magdalen to seize the gunpowder stores of Williamsburg, Virginia, the colonial capital. Word of Dunmore’s decision quickly spread, prompting militia companies from surrounding counties to converge on Williamsburg.

Dunmore fled to Norfolk and began raising an army. 

Lord Dunmore and his men were camped at Fort Murray on the northern side of the Elizabeth River.  The Patriots gathered on the south side of the bridge.  At the time of the confrontation it is estimated that there were 900 patriots gathered.  

The battle lasted less than an hour. By the time it was over, the British had lost more than 100 men killed and wounded. Only one Whig was wounded. Within the next few days, the Whigs entered Norfolk, and Lord Dunmore fled Virginia.

Here is information sent by National DAR about this battle.  The information is provided by the Great Bridge Chapter of the DAR

November 1775

 November 10, 1775 is the date of  the birth of the Marine Corps of America.   The following is taken from the DAR National Defender Magazine Nov-Dec 2025:  

Less than a month after the Navy was created, the

Second Continental Congress saw the need for Marines.

On November 10, 1775, the Second Continental

Congress at Independence Hall passed a resolution,

drafted in the historic tavern called The Tun near the

Delaware River, to raise two battalions of Marines.

John Adams nominated Captain Samuel Nicholas as the

first Marine officer. Captain Nicholas enlisted Tun

Tavern’s owner, Robert Mullan. Together, they held the

Marine Corps’ first recruiting drive at Tun Tavern.

From Philadelphia, Nicholas and the Marines soon

launched their first amphibious operation. They sailed

from the Delaware to the British Bahamas to seize

desperately needed gunpowder in the Navy and

Marines’ first overseas campaign. After General

Washington crossed the Delaware, he led the Marines in

their first land engagement at nearby Princeton.

Like the Continental Navy, the Continental Marines were

disbanded after the Revolution but reborn in 1798 in

Philadelphia, then the Nation’s Capital. In Congress

Hall, Congress passed an Act creating the “corps of

marines.” President John Adams signed the Act and

appointed the first official Commandant, who created

the famed Marine Band in Philadelphia. Launched from

the banks of the Delaware, the U.S. Marine Corps has

served the Nation ever since.

Source: Homecoming 250 Website

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2025

October 1775

Massachusetts supplied General George Washington, then stationed in

Massachusetts, with an armed schooner and a sloop for the purpose of seizing

British supplies. At the same time, Connecticut and Rhode Island would arm

merchant vessels to patrol the near North Atlantic for British transports. These

small forays found immediate success.

On the heels of these successes, the Continental Congress committed itself to

naval expansion in three key ways. First, the Congress authorized the purchase

of four more ships of war. Second, it enlarged the Naval Committee to seven

men. And third, it extended the committee’s brief to building up a naval force

south of New England waters, all the way to Georgia, “for the protection and

defense of the United Colonies.”

And Thus the US Navy was founded in October 1775.  I took this information from the DAR National Defender