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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 1h

30 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: “Such is my situation that if I were to wish the bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should put him in my stead with my feelings”: George Washington writes a deeply despondent & depressed letter to his cousin Lund.

George Washington, painted in 1776 by Charles Willson Peale

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 3h

30 SEPTEMBER 1776, COVENTRY, CONNECTICUT: No one from the Continental Army has informed Nathan Hale’s family of his death, and certainly not of the circumstances surrounding it, so the first his brother Enoch, a congregationalist minister, hears of it is by rumor:

A noncontemporary, non-eyewitness depiction of the execution of Nathan Hale

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 22h

29 SEPTEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: John Adams writes to Henry Knox, asking for his input on the widespread rumors that it is New England soldiers in particular whose cowardice has led to the disastrous spate of defeats suffered by Washington’s army:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

29 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: Redcoat captain Frederick Mackenzie records how impressed he is with Continental fortifications in New York City, and how much of a blow to Continental morale it must have been to abandon them without a fight:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

29 SEPTEMBER 1776, BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS: Abigail Adams writes to John Adams that the pastor of Braintree’s Anglican church continues to pray for George III during his Sunday services, unlike other nearby Anglican priests: founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0090

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

28 SEPTEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: William Williams, part of the Continental Congress faction that wants to see Philip Schuyler replaced in command of the Northern Army by Horatio Gates, is dismayed that Congress apparently aren’t going to accept Schuyler’s resignation:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

28 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: From its temporary publishing location after the British army took New York, the New York Gazette and Mercury publishes the first full account of the Great Fire a week earlier.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

28 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: Redcoat captain Frederick Mackenzie records the defection of a man who has escaped enslavement by Continental Congress delegate John Alsop, and who tells British authorities that the American war effort is about to collapse:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

28 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Hearing that the colonel assigned to raise a battalion of riflemen in northern Virginia has died, Washington writes to Congress recommending he be replaced by Daniel Morgan, currently a paroled British POW: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0324

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

28 SEPTEMBER 1776, FLUSHING, NEW YORK: Cadwallader Colden, scientist, correspondent of Benjamin Franklin and Carl Linnaeus, dies age seventy-eight. He has been part of the royal government of New York for 56 years, having been appointed to the council in 1720.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

27 SEPTEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: Pennsylvania troops with the army in New York have become so notorious for deserting that the Continental Congress asks “the convention of Pensylvania, to take the most effectual measures to compel such of their troops,

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

27 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: To conserve ammunition, Washington bans any firing of firearms without permission from a brigadier general, and that only sentries are “ever [to] have their Musquets loaded;

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

26 SEPTEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: North Carolina congressional delegate William Hooper writes that the Continental Army’s recent defeats have emboldened opponents of American independence into declaring themselves publicly:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

26 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Colonel Rufus Putnam writes to George Washington urging the Continental Army to create a dedicated corps of engineers, equivalent to the Royal Engineers, for the construction of fortifications. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0312

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

26 SEPTEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Second Continental Congress appoint Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane and Thomas Jefferson its ambassadors to France, to negotiate the recognition of American independence. founders.archives.gov/documents/Je...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-01-02-0218

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

25 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: To illustrate the state of discipline in the Continental Army, Washington relates to Congress the case of Matthew Macomber, who ordered his men to fire on a major who tried to stop them looting a house—and was sentenced to asking the major’s pardon.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

25 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: “Had [the British army] at their head our amiable and worthy General I think poor America would have ere’ now have felt [it] severely”: Henry Knox thinks the only reason the Continental Army has survived the last month is the timidity of British generals.

Henry Knox, painted by Charles Willson Peale

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

24 SEPTEMBER 1776, SAYBROOK, CONNECTICUT: “A Reward of £500 is offered for my Head by General Delancey I am told”: Henry Beekman Livingston reports to George Washington on his transformation from Continental colonel to Long Island guerrilla leader. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0302

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

24 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: “Great numbers of the Rebels desert to us daily, and among them are some officers,” records redcoat Captain Frederick Mackenzie.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

24 SEPTEMBER 1776, WOOLWICH, KENT: On the same day he arrives back in England after a journey of six months from India, eighteen-year-old Horatio Nelson is commissioned Acting Fourth Lieutenant of the man-of-war Worcester, assigned to convoy duty to Gibraltar.

Horatio Nelson, painted by Jean Francis Rigaud in 1781

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

24 SEPTEMBER 1776, CANTLEY, SOUTH YORKSHIRE: A horserace for a 25-guinea sweepstakes marks the first running of the St. Leger Stakes, now the third leg of the English Triple Crown. It’s the brainchild of Anthony St. Leger, brother of Barry St. Leger.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

23 SEPTEMBER 1776, PAULUS HOOK, NEW JERSEY: The British army seize the ferry landing across the Hudson River from New York City, the Continental garrison withdrawing as soon as they see the boats carrying the redcoats approaching: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0293

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

23 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: “Almost every Villainy and Rascality that can disgrace the Man, the Soldier or the Citizen, is dayly practised without meeting the Punishment they merit,” William Tudor writes of discipline in the Continental Army: founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

founders.archives.gov

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-05-02-0019

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

23 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: At Joseph Reed’s urging, Washington pardons Ebenezer Leffingwell, convicted of cowardice for fleeing the Battle of Harlem Heights & of the attempted murder of Reed when Reed ordered him back. The pardon arrives when he’s already kneeling to be shot.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

23 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Washington’s aide Tench Tilghman meets with British captain John Montresor to deliver Washington’s reply to William Howe’s letter regarding POW exchanges. Also present is Nathan Hale’s friend William Hull:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

23 SEPTEMBER 1776, LONDON: Arthur Lee, Congress’s secret representative in London, is at pains to stress to European merchants that news of a battle in North America would be significant only if it’s the redcoats who lost: leefamilyarchive.org/arthur-lee-t...

leefamilyarchive.org

Arthur Lee to Charles William Frédéric Dumas, 23 September 1776 - Lee Family Archive

London, September 23, 1776.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

23 SEPTEMBER 1776, MONTRESOR’S ISLAND, NEW YORK HARBOR: The Continental Army sends six boats of troops to attack modern Randall’s Island, but when the first boat is fired upon when it makes landfall, the other five turn and flee. The first boat is captured. allthingsliberty.com/2019/04/fias...

allthingsliberty.com

Fiasco: The Disastrous Raid on Montresor's Island - Journal of the American Revolution

By the evening of September 30, 1776, George Washington was, as he put it, “bereft of every peaceful moment.” During the previous month, his army had been badly mauled on Long Island and narrowly…

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

22 SEPTEMBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Captain John Montresor of the Royal Engineers passes on news of Nathan Hale’s execution to Joseph Reed, Israel Putnam & Alexander Hamilton. Embarrassed by the affair, the Continental Army will cover it up.

John Montresor, painted by John Singleton Copley

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”: It will take many years before Nathan Hale becomes known as a famous martyr of the Revolution, and many more before his friend William Hull invents for him his famous last words (a paraphrase from the play Cato).

A noncontemporary, noneyewitness illustration of the hanging of Nathan Hale

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

22 SEPTEMBER 1776, UPPER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country”: Nathan Hale is hanged by the British army for espionage, at what is today the site of the intersection of Third Avenue and Sixty-Sixth Street.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

21 SEPTEMBER 1776, LONG ISLAND: The Tory spy hunter Robert Rogers arrests Nathan Hale for spying for the Continental Army after Hale confesses to Rogers and some of his men, whom he believes to be Continental militia trapped in enemy territory after the Battle of Long Island.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

21 SEPTEMBER 1776, BEEKMAN HOUSE, MANHATTAN: William Howe writes to George Washington regarding arrangements for a prisoner of war exchange, enclosing a list of all his officers currently held by the Continental Army.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: The fire’s expansion is eventually checked around eleven a.m., when enough buildings in its path are pulled down that it can no longer bridge the gap to the next collection of rooftops. By noon, it’s still burning but has been contained.

A French illuminated diorama of the Great Fire of New York

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

PAULUS HOOK, NEW JERSEY: As he watches it progress through the night, the chaplain of a Continental regiment charts the growth of the Great Fire of New York: “The fire began at the South East end of the city, a little East of the grand battery,

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: A “Negro man … accosted” a Royal Artillery lieutenant, offering to “show him a Man that set fire to the City.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: At the northern end of town, away from the main spread of the fire, an arsonist is prevented from burning down what is now Columbia University:

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: Though, under orders from Lord Howe, sailors and marines come ashore early to fight the fire, no soldiers are sent to assist during the night, because William Howe is worried that Washington will use the fire to launch an attack.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: The expanding fire forks in two directions. General James Robertson, who has been appointed commandant of the city by William Howe in part because he owns a house in town, watches one tongue roar up the west side of Broadway, straight toward his home.

A French propaganda illustration of the Great Fire of New York

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: The best-documented instance of a man murdered for propagating the fire is actually a Loyalist, the carpenter Wright White, whose turn to alcoholism in recent months has been noted by his neighbors.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: Men are summarily murdered by British soldiers and sailors who believe they’re arsonists. Two privates find “a short old” Scot at Oswego Market with “a bundle of matches under his arm” and “push’d him into the flames” when he tries to run from them.

An illuminated French diorama of the Great Fire of New York

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: “It is almost impossible to conceive a Scene of more horror and distress”: Fire rages across New York. “The Sick, The Aged, Women, and Children, half naked were seen going they knew not where,

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: Different witnesses see Trinity Church catch fire through burning embers carried in the stiff breeze and by deliberate arson. Andrew Kerr sees “Sparks that fell upon” the church’s roof from 1200 feet away; Major Alured Clarke “saw flakes of fire fall.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

THE GREAT FIRE OF NEW YORK: In a house behind St. Paul’s Chapel, redcoat George Kerr finds five men and a woman with a keg full of gunpowder and a bundle of matches, which they claim are always kept in the house’s cupboard.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

21 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: The chaos accompanying the city’s changing of hands five days ago, from the Continental Army to the British, conspires to hamstring the efforts of those who would fight the fire. It’s difficult even to raise the alarm.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

21 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: Between midnight and 1 a.m., witnesses aboard ships in the harbor or watching from the Continental camps on the Jersey Shore see fires breaking out across New York City, sometimes hundreds of yards from existing blazes, and merging into one great fire.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

20-21 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: James Wells discovers the shed by the Whitehall Slip ferry house on fire when his dog wakes him from his bed just before midnight. He and the Loyalist officer who’s also been drawn to the blaze can’t extinguish it before the stiff wind spreads it.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

20 SEPTEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: Late in the evening, independent witnesses see “several Sailors women & others … some of whom were drunk” carousing near Hilyard’s tavern and Whitehall Slip on the waterfront.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

20 SEPTEMBER 1776, PAULUS HOOK, NEW JERSEY: The American garrison sends a whaleboat across the Hudson River to British-held New York City carrying eight men, “one of which was a Mulatto, with directions to land behind Trinity Church among the Stink Weeds.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

20 SEPTEMBER 1776, BRITISH-HELD LONG ISLAND: The Tory spyhunter Robert Rogers approaches Continental spy Nathan Hale in a tavern and, posing as a Patriot militiaman left behind when the Americans retreated from Long Island, easily gets him to confess that he’s a spy.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

20 SEPTEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “These Events … are loud speaking Testimonies of the Displeasure & Anger of almighty God against a sinful People, louder than sevenfold Thunder”: Continental Congress member William Williams tries to reconcile the British army’s recent victories.

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