January 1776 in the American Revolutionary War

The First Steps Toward Independence

January 1 — General David Wooster assumed temporary command of American forces in Canada. He replaced Benedict Arnold, who was wounded in the Battle of Quebec.

AHC Notes

• Benedict Arnold (1741–1801) — Arnold was an officer who rose to prominence for his bold leadership in battles such as Quebec, Valcour Island, and Saratoga. Despite his military talent, Arnold was driven by personal grievances and ambition that put him at odds with many of his contemporaries. Feeling slighted by the Patriot Cause, Arnold famously committed treason in 1780 when he tried to turn West Point over to the British. After the plot was discovered, Arnold defected, received a commission in the British Army, and led raids in Connecticut and Virginia. Following the war, he moved to England, where he struggled as a merchant.
• David Wooster (1711–1777) — Wooster was a Connecticut militia leader who served in King George’s War, the French and Indian War, and the American Revolution. He died in 1777, during the American Revolution, soon after the Battle of Ridgefield.

January 1 — Continental Army Reorganized

Cambridge, Massachusetts — A new flag with 13 alternating white and red stripes and a blue field was unfurled for the first time at Cambridge, Massachusetts. General George Washington declared the beginning of a “new” army in his general orders for the day.

• The Continental Army was reorganized into three divisions and six brigades, replacing the original regiments and state militias.
• The enlistment term for soldiers was kept at one year.
• Troops whose enlistments had expired were dismissed from the camp.

AHC Notes

• This flag is called the “Grand Union Flag.”

January 1 — State of the Country

The following is from a letter printed in the Pennsylvania Journal, on January 3, 1776.

The virtue of the British court seems to have swallowed up all the virtue of the island of Great Britain. The common people are lost in a night of ignorance. They annex no ideas to slavery but wooden shoes and soup meagre. Even the Roman Catholic religion has now no terrors in it to Englishmen.

The American colonies are just beginning to emerge from Egyptian darkness, with respect to the rights of human nature. About two hundred years ago, the human heart discovered its folly and depravity upon the theatre of religion; about one hundred years ago, they both appeared through the medium of science. 

We are shocked at our species when we read the history of the human understanding at these memorable periods. The present age shows equal absurdities and vices upon the theatre of politics. Here, we discover in other forms everything for which we condemn our ancestors. Posterity will tread most heavily upon our ashes, as the principles of government are more simple than the principles of religion and science. They will wonder whether we were men or brutes.

There has always been such a mixture of monarchy and aristocracy in republics, that they never have had fair play in the world. We can say but little from experience of their expediency or duration. Most of the free states in the world have been formed by men just emerged from a state of slavery. 

No wonder, therefore, they have been liable to disorders, and a speedy dissolution. What sort of government would the negroes in the southern colonies form, if they were suddenly set at liberty? 

Almost all the blood that has been shed in contests for liberty has been to shake off a subjection to foreign states.

The British constitution, with all its imperfections, even absolute monarchy itself, would insure more happiness to the colonies than they can expect (according to the usual operation of moral and natural causes) from a union with the people, or a dependence upon the ministry of Great Britain.

AHC Notes

• British Constitution — During the Colonial Era, it was a collection of laws, customs, and legal precedents established over a period of approximately 500 years. The Constitution was significantly affected by the Glorious Revolution, which led to the addition of the English Bill of Rights. Following the French and Indian War, the ideology of the American Revolution was partially shaped by the legal principles found in the British Constitution.
• Pennsylvania Journal — First published by William Bradford in 1742, the Journal supported the Patriot Cause. Bradford famously printed a masthead with the “emblem of the Effects of the Stamp Act” on October 31, 1765, the day before the Stamp Act took effect. He also printed key documents issued by the Continental Congress and Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis.

January 1–2 — Burning of Norfolk

Norfolk, Virginia — A British fleet commanded by Governor James Murray, Lord Dunmore, anchored off Norfolk, Virginia, and demanded provisions. When the citizens refused to comply, the fleet started a lengthy bombardment and landed troops who set the wharves and storehouses along the waterfront on fire. Both sides suffered six killed or wounded.

• The fires at continued into the night, destroying 54 houses. 
• The local Committee of Safety ordered the rest of the town burned to keep the British from using it. 
• The property of local Loyalists was targeted, resulting in the destruction of approximately 860 buildings.

The following report appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 16) and the New York Packet (January 25):

Yesterday at about quarter after three o’clock, the British fleet lying off Norfolk, Virginia, commenced a cannonade against that town, from upwards of one hundred pieces of cannon, and continued till nearly ten o’clock at night, without intermission. It then abated a little, and continued till two this morning. Under cover of their guns, the regulars landed and set fire to the town in several places near the water, though our men strove all in their power to prevent them. The houses being chiefly of wood, took fire immediately, and the fire spread with amazing rapidity. It is now become general, and the whole town will probably be consumed in a day or two. Expecting that the fire would throw the Americans into confusion, the enemy frequently landed, but were every time repulsed. The burning of the town has made several avenues through which the enemy may now fire with greater effect. The tide is now rising, and we expect, at high water, another cannonade. May it be as ineffectual as the last, for we have not one man killed, and but a few wounded.

AHC Notes

• See Burning of Norfolk (1776).

January 2 — Congress Passes the Tory Act

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — The Second Continental Congress passed the Tory Act, which guided the Colonies on how to deal with Loyalists. The act included four resolutions:

1. The first resolution recommended that Patriots treat Loyalists with kindness and understanding, believing they remained loyal to Britain because of a lack of information. It asked committees to explain the conflict and distribute publications to inform the Loyalists of the reasons for the conflict. It also pointed out that some “unworthy Americans” had sided with the “oppressors” for personal gain, and their actions undermined the preservation of American liberty.
2. The second resolution called on each of the United Colonies to support each other in the “happy and necessary union” through ongoing communication, especially in regard to the “execrable barbarity” of the British, who were “burning our defenceless towns and villages, exposing their inhabitants, without regard to sex or age, to all the miseries which loss of property, the rigor of the season, and inhuman devastation can inflict, exciting domestic insurrections and murders, bribing the savages to desolate our frontiers, and casting such of us as the fortune of war has put in their power, into gaols, there to languish in irons and in want, compelling the inhabitants of Boston, in violation of the treaty, to remain confined within the town, exposed to the insolence of the soldiery, and other enormities…”
3. The third resolution made it clear that Congress would do what was necessary to keep all Americans safe from British cruelty.
4. The fourth resolution asked for all “Assemblies, conventions, or committees, or councils of safety” to send copies of any “petitions, memorials, and remonstrances” that had been sent to the King or Parliament since 1762, along with any replies.

January 2 — News from London

A correspondent in London says: “Several contractors have set off for Rome for a fresh supply of Jesuit’s bark; as tea does not agree with an American stomach, being apt to produce the heartburn. There is a rumor the new parliament intends to force the bark upon the Yankees, especially as Doctor Bute recommends it as a great specific for the fever of rebellion, for which, no doubt, they will have gratitude enough to thank the doctor, by heartily wishing he may very soon experience the quintessence of the axe, the halter, or the syrup of gun flints. — New York Packet (January 4, 1776).

January 3 — Royal Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina received instructions from Secretary for the Colonies William Legge, Lord Dartmouth, to raise an army of 20,000 Loyalists from among that colony’s large Scottish Highlander population. This force was instructed to rendezvous at Brunswick, North Carolina, no later than February 15 and to cooperate with a British expedition that was expected off the coast that spring. This expedition sailed from Cork, Ireland, under the command of Commodore Peter Parker and General Charles Cornwallis.

AHC Notes

• William Legge (1731–1801) — Legge was the Second Earl of Dartmouth and the Secretary of State for the Colonies at the start of the American Revolutionary War. Dartmouth is most well-known for ordering General Thomas Gage to use military force to arrest leaders of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and restore order in Massachusetts.
• Josiah Martin (1737–1786) — Martin was the last Royal Governor of North Carolina. A British army officer, he became Governor in 1771 but struggled with colonial resistance and legislative conflicts. He fled the colony in 1775 as Patriot forces rose. Martin later served under General Cornwallis in the Southern Campaign.

January 4 — British troops discovered the remains of General Richard Montgomery outside of Quebec City. General Guy Carleton ordered them to be buried with military honors. Montgomery’s body remained in Canada until 1818, when it was reburied at St. Paul’s Church, New York.

AHC Notes

• Richard Montgomery (1738–1775) — Montgomery was a Brigadier General in the Continental Army during the early days of the American Revolutionary War. He led part of the American forces during the failed Invasion of Canada and captured key positions before he was killed during the Battle of Quebec.
• Guy Carleton (1724–1808) — Carleton was a prominent British officer and politician during the 18th Century. He is most famous in America for being the Governor of Quebec during the American Revolutionary War and commanding British forces during the Invasion of Canada (1775–1776).

January 4 — General Washington wrote to the Continental Congress, saying that he would attack British forces in Boston as soon as an opportunity arose.

January 4 — The Middlesex Journal reported: Colonel Allen is now chained and kept in Pendennis Castle, in Cornwall, England. He was brought over to be tried by the act which passed last session, and which was repealed two days before the unhappy prisoner arrived.

January 5 — New Hampshire Declares Independence

Portsmouth, New Hampshire — New Hampshire delegates met at Portsmouth and voted to become the first independent state. They then replaced the colonial charter with a new constitution mandating a president and a bicameral legislature.

January 5 — Congress sent Commodore Esek Hopkins out to sea with instructions to clear the Virginia and Carolina coasts of British vessels.

January 5 — A Letter to the Virginians

The following letter appeared in the Virginia Gazette on January 5, 1776. It was signed “An American.”

We hope our countrymen will not be at all dispirited at the destruction of Norfolk, but rather rejoice that half the mischief our enemies can do us is done already. They have destroyed one of the first towns in America, and the only one (except two or three) in Virginia, which carried on anything like a trade. We are only sharing part of the sufferings of our American brethren, and can now glory in having received one of the keenest strokes of the enemy, without flinching. They have done their worst, and to no other purpose than to harden our soldiers, and teach them to bear without dismay, all the most formidable operations of a war carried on by a powerful and cruel enemy; to no other purpose than to give the world specimens of British cruelty and American fortitude, unless it be to force us to lay aside that childish fondness for Britain, and that foolish, tame dependence on her. We had borne so long with the oppressions of an ungenerous restriction of our trade — of a restriction, in some instances, which seemed calculated merely as badges of our subjection, and had been contented so long with barely refusing to purchase commodities which they had taxed for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, that our patience and moderation served but to encourage them to proceed to greater lengths. To greater lengths they have proceeded, as far as the proudest tyrant’s lust of despotism, stimulated by cruelty, a rancorous malice, and an infernal spirit of revenge, could hurry them. How sunk is Britain! Could not Britons venture to wage war with America till they were told that Americans were cowards — till they had disarmed them, or had, as they thought, put it out of their power to procure arms; nor even then without the assistance of Roman Catholics and Indians, and endeavoring to raise amongst us a domestic enemy? Was this like a brave and generous nation? If they were lost to all the feelings of Britons, for men contending for the support of the British constitution, if they were determined to conquer America, why did they not attempt it like Britons? Why meanly run about to the different powers of Europe, entreating them not to assist us? Why make use of every base and inhuman stratagem, and wage a savage war unknown amongst civilized nations? Surely, whoever has heard of Carleton’s, Connolly’s, and Dunmore’s plots against us, cannot but allow that they must have been authorized by a higher power; and whoever believes this cannot but wish to be instantly and forever removed from under such a power, and to be guarded most effectually against it. Most freely would we cut the gordian knot which has hitherto so firmly bound us to Britain, and call on France and Spain for assistance against an enemy who seem bent on our destruction, but who, blessed be the God of Hosts, have been baffled in most of their attempts against us, been chastised in all, and have made many attacks against us without being able to kill a single man.

AHC Notes

• Virginia Gazette — Three different newspapers called The Virginia Gazette were published between 1736 and 1780 in Williamsburg, Virginia.

January 6 — General William Howe, who clashed with his subordinate General Henry Clinton during the New York Campaign (1776), sent him from Boston on an expedition to Cape Fear, North Carolina. There, he was to rendezvous with the fleet sailing from Cork, Ireland, under Commodore Peter Parker and General Charles Cornwallis. British officials hoped this large force would encourage Loyalists in the Southern Colonies to join the British war effort.

AHC Notes

• William Howe (1729–1814) — Howe succeeded Thomas Gage as commander-in-chief of British forces in North America in 1775. He held overall command of forces during the New York Campaign, the New Jersey Campaign, and most of the Philadelphia Campaign, before being replaced by General Henry Clinton. Although he captured Philadelphia in 1777, his cautious strategy and failure to coordinate with General John Burgoyne during the Saratoga Campaign contributed to the survival of General George Washington’s Army and the American war effort.
• Henry Clinton (1730–1795) — Clinton was a British soldier and General during the American Revolutionary War. He was placed in command of British forces in 1778. Despite early success, he was unable to defeat American forces, which led to the Surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.
• Charles Cornwallis (1738–1805) — Cornwallis was a British officer during the American Revolutionary War who led several successful campaigns but ultimately surrendered to American and French forces at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, effectively ending major fighting. Despite this defeat, Cornwallis maintained political influence and later served as the Governor General of India and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

January 6 — In New York, Alexander Hamilton founded the Provincial Company of Artillery of the Colony of New York with himself as colonel. This is the oldest, most continuous unit of the U.S. Army and survives today as Battery D, 5th Field Artillery. The unit’s motto is “Faithful and True.”

AHC Notes

• Alexander Hamilton (1755–1804) — Hamilton was a Founding Father of our nation and the first Secretary of the Treasury. He led calls for the Philadelphia Convention and co-authored the Federalist Papers.

January 6 — Congress authorized the appointment of surgeons and surgeon’s mates for the Continental Navy.

January 7 — This morning, the sixth daughter of Captain Bancroft, of Dunstable, Massachusetts, was baptized by the name of Martha Dandridge, the maiden name of his Excellency General Washington’s lady. The child was dressed in buff and blue, with a sprig of evergreen on its head, emblematic of his Excellency’s glory and provincial affection. — Essex Gazette (January 18, 1776).

AHC Notes

• Martha Washington (1731–1802) — Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington and the first First Lady of the United States. She supported her husband during the American Revolutionary War by joining him at military encampments. She later helped establish the social duties of the presidential household in New York and Philadelphia. Her role as the nation’s first First Lady set expectations for the position, blending public responsibility with private family life during the Early Republic Era.

January 8 — Knowlton’s Visit to Charlestown

Charlestown, Massachusetts — Major Thomas Knowlton led American forces in a raid on Charlestown, Massachusetts. This took place while British officers and troops were performing and watching a play, “The Blockade of Boston,” a comedy written by General John Burgoyne.

On January 23, the Pennsylvania Evening Post reported:

This evening, Major Knowlton was despatched with a hundred men, to make an incursion into Charlestown. He crossed the mill dam, which lies between Cobble Hill and Bunker’s Hill, about nine o’clock, and immediately proceeded down the street, on the westerly side of Bunker’s Hill. A part of the men, under the command of Captain Keyes, at the same time were ordered to take post on the east side of the street, just under the hill, in order to intercept any person who might escape from the houses in the street, some of which were occupied by the enemy. These houses, which are a little without the compact part of the town, the enemy suffered to remain, in June last, for their own convenience.

They were now surrounded and set fire to by our men. In one of them they found six soldiers, and one woman, all of whom, except one refractory fellow who was killed, were brought off. In another of the houses, according to the information of the prisoners, lived seventeen of the enemy’s carpenters. The woman says she went to this house in order to borrow something, just before our men arrived; but seeing no light, and not being able to get into that part of the house where they kept, she concluded they were all asleep. As it is very certain no one escaped from the house, and as our men set the building on fire very suddenly, it is thought the whole seventeen perished in the flames. We burnt ten houses, and brought off six or seven muskets. Three or four houses are still standing. The whole was performed in less than an hour, without the loss of a single man, either killed or wounded. The regulars in the fort on Bunker’s Hill did not act with that regularity which those gentlemen who labor hard to show the superiority of red coats over brown coats, would persuade us that regulars always do; for they kept a hot and close fire on absolutely nothing at all: that is, they fired without an object. Our people calmly executed their purpose, laughed in security, and in security returned to their camp.

Another report, published on January 25, said:

We hear that the enemy, in Boston, the evening on which our troops burnt the houses at Charlestown, were entertaining themselves at the exhibition of a play, which they called the Blockade of Boston; in the midst of which a person appeared before the audience, and with great earnestness, declared that the Yankees were attacking Bunker’s Hill. The deluded wretches, at first, took this to be merely farcical, and intended as a part of their diversion. But soon convinced that the actor meant to represent a solemn reality, the whole assembly left the house in confusion and scampered off with great precipitation.

January 9 — The strength of Washington’s Army conducting the Siege of Boston dwindled to roughly 5,900 men, due to death, illness, expiring enlistments, and troops having been sent to Canada and other locations. General Washington wrote to the governors of the New England Colonies, asking them to send militia forces to boost his numbers.

AHC Notes

• Siege of Boston (1775–1776) — A lengthy siege conducted by American militia forces against the British, who were trapped in the city following the Battles of Lexington and Concord. It lasted for 11 months and included the Battle of Bunker Hill and the formation of the Continental Army. The siege ended when Americans occupied Dorchester Heights, forcing the British to evacuate. This also ended the British occupation of Boston, which started in 1768.

January 10 — After a long delay, Congress promoted Colonel Benedict Arnold to the rank of Brigadier General.

January 10 — Thomas Paine Publishes Common Sense

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — Thomas Paine published Common Sense in Philadelphia, which helped set the stage for independence from Great Britain. Paine wrote, “Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, ‘tis time to part.” Written in plain language and intended for the common man, the pamphlet denounced King George III as the “Royal Brute.” It proved to be one of the most influential pamphlets in history and enjoyed a print run of half a million copies, which was unprecedented at the time.

AHC Notes

• Thomas Paine (1737–1809) — Paine was an English-born writer and revolutionary whose pamphlet Common Sense (1776) powerfully argued for American independence and the creation of a republican government. His later works, including The Crisis papers and Rights of Man (1791), promoted liberty and popular sovereignty. His deist tract The Age of Reason (1794–1796) criticized organized religion. Though his reputation declined late in life, Paine’s writings influenced democratic thought in both America and Europe.
• King George III (1738–1820) — King of Britain from 1760 to 1820. He was the first Hanoverian monarch born in Britain and a native English speaker. George III was the last British monarch to rule over the American Colonies, which declared independence in 1776. His reign continued through the War of 1812 and the renewal of hostilities with the United States.

January 10 — Former Royal Governor Josiah Martin of North Carolina, onboard HMS Scorpion, called for Loyalists to gather at Brunswick, south of Wilmington, so they could prepare to join forces with the oncoming British expedition. He hoped to raise a force of 20,000 soldiers, including large contingents of Scottish Highlanders.

January 11 — The Maryland Convention, convening at Annapolis, sided with assemblies in New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania by rejecting independence in favor of moderation. The colony’s delegates at the Continental Congress were instructed to pursue peaceful resolutions with Great Britain and be receptive toward any conciliatory measures presented by King George III or Parliament.

January 12 — British forces under Captain James Wallace and Rhode Island militia sustained a three-hour fight for possession of Patience, Hope, and Prudence Islands in Narragansett Bay. The British sustained three casualties, then withdrew.

AHC Notes

• James Wallace — Wallace was a veteran of the Seven Years’ War who was given command of the 20-gun frigate HMS Rose in December 1771. He sailed to America in 1774, and Vice Admiral Samuel Graves sent him to Narragansett Bay to replace the HMS Gaspee, which had been destroyed in 1772. Wallace patrolled the bay and surrounding waterways with the Rose, and four other ships, including the HMS Swan and the HMS Glasgow. 

January 13 — American Informers Exposed

The Middlesex Journal published a report, written by “A Clerk,” arguing that some American informants had misled the British government. It said: As Lord North has owned in Parliament that the ministry have been misled and deceived by American informers, it is but justice that the public should know them. Here they are: Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire; Hutchinson, late governor of Boston, pensioner on Ireland, £1,000 a year; Benj. Hallowell, a commissioner of customs at Boston, £600 a year; Ruggles, one of the council of Boston, £200 a year pension; Oliver, lieutenant-governor, made such by Hutchinson; Moffat, custom-house officer at New London, £300 a year; William Smith, an attorney at New York, and a counsellor; James Delancey, a captain in the army; John Watts, a contractor with Harley and Oliver Delancey; Stockden, an attorney and king’s counsellor at New Jersey; Franklin, governor of New Jersey, son of Benjamin; Dulany, an attorney and commissary at Maryland; Dunmore, Governor of Virginia; Martin, brother to Target, governor of North Carolina; Jonathan Sewall, a school-master at Boston, judge of the admiralty, £600 a year; Auchmuty, a priest.

AHC Notes

• Frederick North (1732–1792) —  The 2nd Earl of Guilford. Lord North served as British Prime Minister (1770–1782) for most of the American Revolutionary War. He supported measures like the Intolerable Acts, which intensified colonial resistance.

Despite the accusations made by “A Clerk,” all of these men, except Daniel Dulany, William Smith, and Richard Stockton (“Stockden” in the article), were thought by some to be Loyalists.

• John Wentworth (1737–1820) — Wentworth was the nephew of Benning Wentworth and the last Royal Governor of New Hampshire.  
• Thomas Hutchinson (1711–1780) — Hutchinson was a prominent figure in Massachusetts during the lead-up to the American Revolution. He is most well-known for serving as the Governor of Massachusetts during a significant portion of the American Revolution and the Boston Tea Party.
• Benjamin Hallowell (1725–1799) — Hallowell was a British naval officer who served as the Commissioner of Customs in Boston and was one of General Thomas Gage’s Mandamus Councillors.
• Timothy Ruggles (1711–1795) — Ruggles was a lawyer, soldier, politician, and judge from Massachusetts. He participated in the Stamp Act Congress in 1765. In 1774, he was appointed by General Thomas Gage to be a Mandamus Councillor.
• Andrew Oliver (1706–1774) — Oliver was a merchant and politician from Boston. He was appointed as the Stamp Agent for Massachusetts during the Stamp Act Crisis and was forced to resign by the Sons of Liberty. Thomas Hutchinson, his brother-in-law, appointed him as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1771.
• Thomas Moffatt (c. 1702–1787) — Moffatt was a Scottish-born physician who immigrated to Rhode Island. He was a strong supporter of the Crown and was hanged in effigy during the Stamp Act Crisis. He fled Rhode Island in 1775, finding refuge with the British Army, before sailing to England.
• William Smith (1728–1793) — Smith was a New York lawyer and the Chief Justice of the province. During the early part of the American Revolution, Smith was known as “the weathercock,” a reference to a weather vane, because no one was sure if he was a Patriot or a Loyalist. After British forces captured New York City in 1776, he served as an advisor to the Royal Governor, William Tryon, and General Henry Clinton. Smith’s wife, Janet, came from the Livingston Family, many of whom were prominent Patriots.
• James DeLancey (1703–1760) — A leading New York judge and politician, DeLancey shaped colonial law and politics through his roles as chief justice and head of the free-trade faction. He presided over the John Peter Zenger trial, backed stronger legislative authority, and played a major part in imperial affairs during the French and Indian War. His support for King’s College and his alliances influenced New York’s political landscape, and his family later faced estate seizures due to Loyalist ties.
• John Watts (1715–1789) — Watts was a prominent merchant and landowner in New York City. His close ties to the DeLancey Family were strengthened by his marriage to Anne DeLancey in 1742. Watts fled to Wales in 1775.
• Richard Stockton (1730–1781) — “Stockden” likely refers to Richard Stockton. He was a prominent New Jersey politician who was considered a moderate during the early days of the American Revolution. In 1774, he drafted a plan for an American government that the King rejected. Stockton eventually supported independence and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, Stockton was arrested by Loyalists, and his property was seized. His daughter, Julia, married Benjamin Rush, another Signer and Founding Father.
• William Franklin (1731–1816) — Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin, was the last Royal Governor of New Jersey. Loyal to Britain during the American Revolution, he was imprisoned by Patriot forces and later organized the Board of Associated Loyalists in New York. After the war, he went into exile in England, where he received a pension from the British government and lived until he died in 1813. His loyalty to the Crown created a rift with his father that was never resolved.
• Daniel Dulany (1722–1797) — Also known as “Dulany the Younger,” he was a Maryland lawyer and politician who published a pamphlet that opposed Taxation Without Representation during the Stamp Act Crisis. Despite this, he remained loyal to the Crown and engaged in a public debate with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, carried out through essays published in colonial newspapers. Dulaney was unable to maintain a moderate stance on the Patriot Cause and was viewed as a Loyalist. He remained in Maryland, and a portion of his property was confiscated in 1781.
• John Murray, Lord Dunmore (1732–1809) — John Murray, the fourth Earl of Dunmore, served as the Royal Governor of New York and then Virginia. Dunmore governed Virginia through the hostilities with Native American Indians in 1774 (Lord Dunmore’s War) and then clashed with Patriot leaders and militia in the early days of the American Revolutionary War. He was forced to flee Virginia in 1775 and never returned.
• Josiah Martin (1737–1786  — See above, January 3, 1776.
• Jonathan Sewall (1729–1796) — Sewall was a lawyer and educator from Massachusetts. He was the last Attorney General of the Province of Massachusetts Bay appointed by the Crown. Sewall fled to England in 1775.
• John Auchmuty (1722–1777) — Auchmuty was a prominent official and Loyalist at Trinity Church in New York City, an Episcopal church. He is most famous for being an early supporter of appointing a Bishop for the American Colonies.

January 15 — Volunteers out of Newbury, Massachusetts, manned three whaleboats and captured a British ship carrying provisions.

January 16 — Congress Allows African Americans to Enlist

Philadelphia — Acting on a recommendation from General Washington, Congress agreed to allow free African Americans to enlist in the Continental Army.

AHC Note

• On October 8, 1775, a council of General Officers declared that African Americans, neither free nor slave, would not be allowed to join the Continental Army. Shortages of soldiers would eventually force them to change the policy.

January 17 — General Philip Schuyler and 3,000 New York militia advanced on Johnson Hall, home of Loyalist John Johnson. Johnson had recruited a force of 700 Loyalists and Native American Indians, but surrendered without a shot. Schuyler’s victory thus eliminated any Loyalist threat emanating from the Albany region.

AHC Notes

• Philip Schuyler (1733–1804) — A wealthy New York patroon and one of the four original major generals of the Continental Army. He played a key role in the American victory in the Battle of Saratoga and in maintaining relations with the Six Nations.

January 17 — The Virginia Convention ordered that all African Americans who were found assisting the British war effort were to be sent to the West Indies and sold.

January 17 — Commodore Esek Hopkins sailed from Philadelphia with his squadron of eight warships, although ice on the Delaware River prevented him from reaching the sea. Samuel Tucker was also commissioned as a Captain in the Continental Navy and received command of the frigate Franklin.

January 18 — Origins of Whig and Tory

On January 18, 1776, the New York Packet printed:

Though much has been said of late about Whig and Tory, few persons are acquainted with their oriorin: In the year 1679, King Charles the Second fell sick in the summer, upon which the Duke of York, his brother, an avowed papist, returned immediately to court, without the king’s leave, with a view to secure the succession of the crown to himself, as his Majesty had no legitimate issue. This alarmed the Protestants, and made them eager for the sitting of parliament, and gave rise to sundry petitions, signed by great numbers of hands, both in city and country, which was very displeasing to his Majesty. That arbitrary tyrant told the petitioners that he was judge of what was fit to be done. “You would not take it well,” said he, “if I should meddle witli your affairs, and I desire you will not meddle with mine.” — Upon this, counter-addresses were promoted by the influence of the court over all the nation, expressing a detestation and abhorrence of the practice of the petitioners, and referring the sitting of the parliament absolutely to the king’s pleasure, by which they obtained the name of abhorrers; which occasioned a great ferment among the people, so that sundry of the privy council deserted their stations at court.

The petitioners for the sitting of parliament, and their adversaries, the abhorrers of such petitions, gave rise to the two grand parties, which have since divided the nation under the distinguishing names of Whig and Tory. The Whigs, or low-churchmen, so called from moderation about the hierarchy and their charity for their fellow-Christians of other denominations, were the more zealous Protestants, declared enemies to Popery, and willing to remove to a further distance from the superstitions of the Church of Rome. They were firm to the British constitution and the liberties of their country. The clergy of this persuasion were eminent for their candor and charity, so that they were far from confining salvation to their own communion. Their laity were remarkable for their zeal in promoting the famous bill for excluding the Popish Duke of York from the crown, as the best expedient to secure the Protestant establishment. They were for confining the royal prerogative within the compass of law, for which reason their adversaries charged them with republican principles, and gave them the reproachful name of Whig, or sour milk, a name first given to the Presbyterians in Scotland, when they were persecuted by the high church, because, when they were forced to flee from their habitations, hungry and thirsty, they often drank butter-milk whig, or whey, when they came to any friend’s house that would shelter and entertain them.

The Tories, or high-churchmen, stood on the side of the prerogative, and were for setting the king above law. They went into all the arbitrary measures of the court, and adopted into our religion (says Dr. Welwood) a Mahometan principle, under the names of non-resistance and passive obedience; which, since the times of that impostor who first broached it, has been the means of enslaving a great part of the world. These gentlemen leaned more to a coalition with the Papists, than with the Presbyterians. They cried up the name and authority of the church, and being men of little tenderness and conscience themselves, paid no regard to the consciences of others. They were for forcing the non-conformists to come into the church by all kinds of coercive measures, as fines, imprisonments, gibbets, &c. But with all their zeal about the church, they were, generally, persons of lax and dissolute morals, and would risk the whole Protestant religion, rather than go into any measures of exclusion or limitation. Most of the high-church clergy were for raising money without Parliament; one or two court bishops giving measures to the rest, and they to their clergy. No men did more to enslave the nation and introduce Popery, than they. Their adversaries, therefore, gave them the name of Tories: a name first given to Irish robbers or highwaymen, who lived upon plunder, and were prepared for any daring or villainous enterprise. The non-conformists fell in unanimously with the Whigs, or low-churchmen, in all points relating to liberty and the civil constitution, as they must do always, if they are consistent with themselves.

Whig and Tory, then, are names used only with allusion to their originals, from whence they are borrowed — sour milk and highway robber. Such as trust to our common dictionaries for an explanation, will only deceive themselves; and they should know, that they only discover their ignorance in history, when they profess they are not Tories, because they are not Irish robbers.

January 19 — Congress took action to support the Northern Army in Canada:

• It approved the raising of reinforcements from New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. 
• General Washington was ordered to send a battalion from Cambridge.
• Colonel Moses Hazen was authorized to raise a regiment in Canada.

January 19 — Colonel John Haslet was appointed head of the newly raised Delaware Continentals, one of the few American units that was equipped with bayonets.

January 20 — General Henry Clinton sailed from Boston with 1,500 men for Cape Fear, North Carolina, to assist Governor Josiah Martin and await the arrival of the Parker-Cornwallis Expedition. Clinton was instructed to lead all British forces and capture Wilmington, North Carolina, to use as a base for future operations.

January 23 — Capture of the Blue Mountain Valley

New Jersey — The committee of safety in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, was informed that a British supply vessel, HMS Blue Mountain Valley, was anchored off the coast. Colonel William Alexander and Colonel Elias Dayton were instructed to capture the ship. They led four boatloads of volunteers 40 miles out from Sandy Hook, New York. The unsuspecting British, assuming the approaching boats were transporting fishermen, were quickly subdued and brought into port.

AHC Notes

• William Alexander (1726–1783) — Alexander was a Major General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He rose to prominence for his brave defense of the American retreat at the Battle of Long Island and helped expose the Conway Cabal. He referred to himself as the Right Honorable William, Earl of Stirling, or Lord Stirling, because he believed he was the rightful heir to the title.
• Elias Dayton (1737–1807) — Dayton was a merchant, politician, soldier, and spy who served in the New Jersey Line of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He helped spy on British forces and fought with Washington’s Army during the Philadelphia Campaign and the Yorktown Campaign. He was an eyewitness to the British surrender at Yorktown.

January 23 — Letter From a Virginian to England

This letter from “A Virginian” appeared in the Middlesex Journal, warning the people of England that the Americans had no intention of agreeing to British concessions:

Mr. Washington is just such another character as my Lord Essex, the Parliament’s general in King Charles the First’s time. Putnam may very well be compared to Ireton. Hancock is one of the greatest desperadoes living. Adams generally sleeps with the memoirs of the Cardinal de Retz under his pillow. The slow and lenient measures of the British Government have been interpreted by our rulers into fear. 

We poor, distressed Americans, make a fine joke of your pity. Do not imagine we desire peace, even upon those terms we seem to solicit it. Were you to agree to those terms, behold, some new demands without satisfaction for which we cannot think of laying down our arms. The king must dismiss and punish those servants who have so highly offended us. 

After King Charles had granted the Rebel Parliament all they could ask, for want of a better pretence, they declared they could not trust him, and so began the Civil War. 

Let somebody remember that the Congress has amused you with proposals of accommodation, merely to gain time; it has answered their end, and they were tolerably well prepared by the latter end of the summer. 

This winter, some of their grand schemes are to be put in execution. They have had amazing success; for all Canada is in their hands already; the Canadians have used General Carleton extremely ill. Montreal was taken almost without a blow. Troops are now marching for Nova Scotia, and you may expect to hear of the surrender of Halifax sometime in February. 

The American cruisers have had as good luck with your transports; indeed, the country is so well provided for defence, that every town looks like a storehouse, filled with all kinds of warlike necessaries. All people, both high and low, seem as unanimous, as easy, and composed as if engaged in the most safe and justifiable undertaking in the world.

AHC Notes

• Israel Putnam (1718–1790) — Putnam was a military veteran who was affectionately known as “Old Put.” He served bravely at the Battle of Bunker Hill, but fell out of favor with George Washington after he failed against British forces in New York and Philadelphia.
• John Hancock (1737–1793) — A leader of the Patriot Cause in Massachusetts, President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, and President of the Second Continental Congress. He was also aligned with the Sons of Liberty. Hancock is widely regarded as one of the wealthiest men in the colonies.
• John Adams (1735–1826) — A leading figure in the American Revolution and early U.S. government, John Adams was a Massachusetts lawyer, political writer, and diplomat. He helped draft the Declaration of Independence, served in the Continental Congress, and was the second U.S. President. He promoted republican principles, avoided war with France, and influenced constitutional development through his writings and the Massachusetts Constitution.

January 24 — Congress started deliberations on independence and appointed a committee under James Wilson of Pennsylvania. The defeat at the Battle of Quebec prompted them to investigate establishing a war office to coordinate military efforts.

January 24 — Knox Returns to Cambridge

Cambridge — Colonel Henry Knox returned to Cambridge after transporting 44 cannon and 16 mortars from Fort Ticonderoga. He accomplished this remarkable journey of 300 miles in the dead of winter and without the benefit of wagons or roads.

AHC Notes

• Henry Knox (1750–1806) — Knox was a General in the Continental Army and a close friend of George Washington. Knox led the expedition to retrieve cannon and artillery from Fort Ticonderoga in 1775 and served as Chief Artillery Officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Following the war, he served as the first Secretary of War and helped establish the Society of Cincinnati.

January 25 — The schooner Hancock seized two British transports off Plymouth Harbor, Massachusetts, and fought off a British schooner attempting to recapture them.

January 25 — The New England Gazette reported on two events:

• Lately, we have had several deserters from the enemy. One of them, stationed at Charlestown mills, pitched his companion over the dam, and then ran for Cobble Hill.
• Last Friday, General Clinton, with a considerable number of grenadiers and light infantry, sailed from Boston, and were supposed to be bound for Virginia.

January 25 — Hunting Loyalists in the Jerseys

On January 25, 1776, the Pennsylvania Evening Post reported:

The Jersey boys are scouring Long Island. They have taken Justice French and some more ringleaders, and a great many arms. No opposition is made to them. The people curse their leaders, say they deceived them, promised to support them, and in the time of danger left them. 

They will never trust them again. An officer in this expedition says: “We set out from Woodbridge on Wednesday the seventeenth instant, with about six hundred militia, and were joined at New York with a detachment from Lord Stirling’s battalion, consisting of near three hundred. 

On Friday morning we crossed, with all our troops, at Horn’s Hook, near Hell Gate, and met with no opposition; we then proceeded on our way towards Jamaica, took in custody some of the principal persons proscribed; sent out parties, and brought in many of those who voted against sending delegates; disarmed them and required them to sign an obligation we had drawn up, in which we enjoin them not to oppose either tlie Continental or Provincial Congresses, but to be subject to them, and not to aid or assist the ministerial troops in the present contest. 

From Jamaica, we went to Hampstead town, where we expected the warmest opposition, but were disappointed, as the inhabitants came in and brought their arms voluntarily, for two days, as fast as we could receive them. We have about three hundred stand of arms and a considerable quantity of powder and lead. We are now on our way to Oyster Bay, and shall scour the country as we go, and exert ourselves to discharge the trust enjoined on us. 

Colonel Heard sent his detachment home last Tuesday, as he thought the militia sufficient. He is indefatigable in discharging his duty; treats the inhabitants with civility and the utmost humanity. The delinquents express themselves well pleased that a detachment of Jerseymen, and not of just New England, were sent to disarm them. Many of those who are proscribed as principals, have either fled or secreted themselves; several we have in custody. Some others, I believe, are yet to be had, but by some means or other they procured a list of the persons pointed out as principals before our arrival. We are making inquiry how they got their intelligence, but are not yet informed. 

Those that have come in and surrendered their arms, are much irritated with those who have led them to make opposition, and have deserted them in the day of difficulty. I conceive they will be as safe if not safer in our custody, than at present among their neighbors, of whom some of them seem very apprehensive, and complain that they have met with insults already.”

January 25 — Congress Authorizes the First National Memorial

Philadelphia — Congress authorized the design and construction of a monument in honor of General Richard Montgomery.

• Benjamin Franklin hired French sculptor Jean Jacques Caffieri to design and build the monument.
• It was completed in 1778 and sent to Edenton, North Carolina.
• In 1788, it was installed at St. Paul’s Church in New York City.
• Montgomery’s remains were moved to the chapel in 1818.

January 25 — Congress authorized the Marine Committee, with one member from each state, to oversee affairs of the Continental Navy.

January 26 — Father Louis Eustace Lotbiniere was appointed as the first Roman Catholic chaplain in the Continental army. He was assigned to the Canadian regiment being raised by Benedict Arnold.

January 26 — Admiral Samuel Graves was replaced as Supreme Naval Commander by Admiral Molyneux Shuldham.  On January 13, the Constitutional Gazette reported, “Yesterday the new Admiral Shuldam arrived at Boston, with several ships, which occasioned great firing most of the day.”

January 30 — False Rumors from England

The Pennsylvania Evening Post printed rumors that appeared in the London Packet:

• By a letter from Boston, we learn that the army now have plenty of provisions, and are in much better health and spirits than of late. General Lee, a few days before the letter writer sent his information, had a mutinous soldier in his corps, upon whom he drew his sword, and, running it through his body, instantly despatched him. It is thought that General Lee is not now alive, in consequence of this violence.
• Mr. Washington, we hear, is married to a very amiable lady, but it is said that Mrs. Washington, being a warm loyalist, has separated from her husband since the commencement of the present troubles, and lives, very much respected, in the city of New York.

AHC Notes

• Charles Lee (1732–1782) — Lee was an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He helped defend Charleston during the American victory at the Battle of Sullivan’s Island but fell out of favor with George Washington. Lee was critical of Washington, tried to help the British win the war, and was then relieved of command during the Battle of Monmouth.