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

August and September 1775

In August and September 1775 George Washington was in Boston.  He was organizing troops, addressing supply issues, and planning for the siege of Boston.  Washington was working to bring discipline to the existing colonial militias and integrate them into the newly formed Continental Army.

In September a congressional committee visited his camp, and together they created a plan for a new Continental Army consisting of 26 infantry regiments, a rifle regiment, and an artillery regiment, with unified payment and administration under the Continental Congress.

And as our DAR National Defender explained: Finding gunpowder and weapons was a huge concern: 

 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.

July 1775

After George Washington was appointed as General to command all of the troops to be raised for the defense of American Liberty in June,  troops were raised to accompany Washington as he moved to the aid of the Boston troops.

The sharpshooters who accompanied General George Washington to Boston in 1775 were Continental Army riflemen recruited from the backcountry and frontier regions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. They were among the first companies raised by the Second Continental Congress to reinforce the siege of British-occupied Boston. 

Notable companies included:

Virginia: Two companies of riflemen arrived in Boston, commanded by Captain Daniel Morgan and Captain Hugh Stephenson. Morgan's men were known for their exceptional accuracy with the long rifle and their frontier skills.

Pennsylvania: Nine companies were formed into the Pennsylvania Rifle Battalion, the first battalion in the Continental Army.

Maryland: Two companies of riflemen came from Maryland. 

These elite frontier soldiers were known for their marksmanship and were a new and fearsome sight to both the New England militia and the British soldiers. 

The group marched to Boston stopping in towns along the way for ceremonial welcomes as the crowds cheered their progress.  The group finally arrive in Cambridge Massachusetts on July 2 1775.  On July 3, 1775 George Washington formally took control of the Continental Army

June 1775

 

Not only was George Washington the Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in June 1775, he WAS the Continental Army.  There was not yet an army to command,  

June 17 1775 Was the Battle of Bunker Hill.  (Actually fought on Breed's Hill a short distance from Bunker Hill.

Though technically a British victory, the battle is remembered for the heavy casualties inflicted on the British forces and the colonists' display of courage and determination. 

Legend has it that as they advance, American officer William Prescott cautions his men not to waste their powder, exclaiming “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” When British troops near the redoubt, the patriots unleash a withering volley, creating an absolute slaughter. One patriot remarks afterward, “They advanced toward us in order to swallow us up, but they found a choaky[sic] mouthful of us.” It is a veritable bloodbath as the British retreat back to their lines.

On the third advance the patriots ran out of ammunition and a hand to hand battle took place.  At some point in the struggle, a “black soldier named Salem” is credited with killing British Maj. John Pitcairn, the officer despised for allegedly ordering his men to fire on patriots during the battle of Lexington and Concord weeks earlier.

May 1775

 

The second Continental Congress was a convention of colonial delegates that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in May 1775 shortly after the  battles of Lexington and Concord.  

April 1775 Lexington and Concord

 

The below is taken from The America Battlefield Trust  

Doug Wood's comment at our February meeting that Concord and Lexington were much like the confrontation that we saw in February at Salem Massachusetts in which the British were trying go confiscate weapons and ammunition was the first time I had realized what happened in this incident.  The American Battle Trust did such an excellent job of summing up what happened in this event that I have copied from their site.  Here is the URL if you want to look at the site for yourself:

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/lexington-and-concord

Thomas Gage was appointed Royal Governor of Massachusetts in 1774 and tasked by the British Parliament with stamping out rising unrest caused by restrictive British policies. Gage inflamed tensions between the colonies and the mother country and practiced harsh enforcement of British law. He drafted the Coercive Acts, a series of laws intended to punish colonists for deeds of defiance against the King, such as the Boston Tea Party.

By April 1775, Gage was facing the threat of outright rebellion. He hoped to prevent violence by ordering the seizure of weapons and powder being stored in Concord, Massachusetts, twenty miles northwest of Boston. But he underestimated the courage and determination of the colonists. Patriot spies got wind of Gage’s plan. On the evening of April 18, Paul Revere and other riders raised the alarm that British regulars were on their way to Concord.  Minute Men and militias rushed to confront them early on April 19. Though it is uncertain who actually fired the first shot that day, it reverberated throughout history. Eight years of war followed, and those who stood their ground against Gage’s troops eventually earned independence from Britain and became citizens of the democratic United States of America.

And from https://www.americanacorner.com/blog/concord

The seven miles to Lexington were shockingly hard on the British as Americans, hiding behind trees and fences, picked off the marching soldiers. Exhausted and running out of ammunition, it seemed the end was near for the Redcoats. Fortunately for them, a detachment of about 1,000 reinforcements under General Hugh Percy was waiting in Lexington.

All told, there were about 100 American casualties and about 300 for the English. More importantly, the Americans had shown the British that we were no rabble to be taken lightly. General Percy remarked, “Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob, will find himself much mistaken. They have men among them who know very well what they are about.”