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.