Sept. 23, 1775: The 7th Connecticut Regiment, in which a 20 -year-old Nathan Hale is serving as a lieutenant, sets out on a march for Cambridge, Mass., to take part in the siege of Boston.

Sept. 23, 1775: A broadside appears in New York to warn against electing loyalists: “Why should we honor men with our suffrage who have done us all the injury they could, and who are under no restraint, but that of fear, from working our ruin?”

Sept. 23, 1775: Adam Stephen, who was sent by Virginia to negotiate with the indigenous nations at Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh), finds that the few Indians he has spoken to are jealous, divided and uncertain how to act. Their attitude will likely be shaped by the success or failure of the Canada invasion.

Sept. 23, 1775: Edinburgh’s sheriff proclaims that anyone wishing to emigrate to America “ought not to put themselves to the unnecessary trouble and expense of preparing for a removal of their habitations, which they will not, so far as it lies in my power to prevent, be permitted to effectuate."

Sept. 23, 1775: John Bentinck, a Royal Navy officer and inventor and member of the House of Commons, dies at 37 of an unspecified illness. He made many improvements to warships, including a “Bentinck boom,” “Bentinck sail” and “Bentinck shrouds.”

Sept. 23, 1775: Although Nova Scotia has refused to join the 13 colonies, their cause evidently remains popular in the capital Halifax. “Yesterday a schooner arrived, with two tons of tea, from Bristol; the liberty boys immediately committed it to the sea,” a letter reads. 1/2

Sept. 23, 1775: “It is almost impossible to move any Thing but you instantly see private Friendships and Enmities, and provincial Views and Prejudices, intermingle in the Consultation,” writes John Adams of today’s Congress session. “These are degrees of Corruption.” 1/2

Sept. 22, 1775: Adm. Samuel Graves advises the Admiralty not to rely on America for provisions this winter, but to arrange a supply from Britain. He issues a special warning against New England, “the most pernicious of all Liquors.”

Sept. 22, 1775: Maryland merchant John Smith observes that shipping has ground to a halt since an exportation ban went into effect, and people are turning to home industry. "Spinning Wheels going in every House. New Manufacturies Sitting up daily."

Sept. 22, 1775: Philip Milledoler, a Presbyterian minister who persuaded the philanthropist Henry Rutgers to make the donations that led to Rutgers University being named for him, is born in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Milledoler was president of Queen’s College, later Rutgers, from 1825-40.

Sept. 22, 1775: A large quantity of military stores are found buried in the garden of ousted Gov. Josiah Martin's mansion in New Bern, including shot and ball of various calibers, cannon, artillery implements and several casks of powder.

Sept. 22, 1775: The Continental Congress appoints a seven-member committee to “take into consideration the state of the trade of America, and report their opinion.” The members include Benjamin Franklin, John Rutledge, John Jay and Peyton Randolph.

Sept. 22, 1775: The former attorney general of Massachusetts, Jonathan Sewall, and his family, arrive in London after fleeing with fellow loyalists. Of London he writes: "Everything is upon a scale so much above what I have ever seen, that my mind seems to be lost & confounded in infinity."

Sept. 22, 1775: Gen. Washington’s orders of the day include punishments for 39 Continental Army soldiers. Fourteen are to be lashed and drummed out of the ranks, the rest given fines. The ones to be lashed were convicted of mutiny after they failed to win prize money for seizing the ship Unity. 1/2

Sept. 21, 1775: The Continental Congress names a five-member committee to assist the Army’s new commissary general, Joseph Trumbull, in supplying the army with provisions. The members are Silas Deane, Philip Livingston, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Ward and Thomas Willing.

Sept. 21, 1775: In London, the news from Boston indicates "the Provincials have made themselves matters of some important posts, which they have intrenched in a manner strong beyond conception; and that the talk among the King's officers of attacking them when the reinforcements arrive... 1/2

Sept. 21, 1775: Robert Rogers, a British veteran of the French and Indian War celebrated for leading a rangers unit, pays a visit to Congress member John Adams in Philadelphia to offer his services to America in the new struggle. 1/3

Sept. 21, 1775: Cannon arrive from Fort Ticonderoga to help American Gen. Richard Montgomery in his siege of Britain’s Fort St. Jean in Quebec. However, the guns are of too small caliber, and the artillerymen too inexperienced. Shots bounce off the fort’s eastern walls to no effect.

Sept. 21, 1775: Virginia’s Safety Committee authorizes a flag for the colony’s militia units to carry into battle. On one side will be the legend “Virginia for Constitutional Liberty,” and on the other side the name of the district where the battalion was raised.

Sept. 21, 1775: Quebec Lt. Gov. Hector de Cramahé warns London the Canadians have failed to rally against America’s invasion. “No Means have been left untried to bring the Canadian Peasantry to a Sense of their Duty, and engage them to take up arms in Defence of the Province, but all to no Purpose.”

Sept. 21, 1775: “My situation is inexpressibly distressing,” Gen. Washington writes to Congress’ John Hancock. “To see the winter fast approaching upon a naked army, the time of their service within a few weeks of expiring, and no provision yet made for such important events. 1/3

Sept. 20, 1775: Gunsmiths of Frederick, Md., will "not come into agreement" with the directions of the Provincial Council of Safety on the manufacture of muskets. They insist "on single bridle locks instead of double" and delay the first delivery from Jan. 1 to March 1.

Sept. 20, 1775: Congress directs Gen. David Wooster, commander of New York troops outside the city, to assist in the invasion of Canada. “March with the Troops under your Command to Albany, there to wait the Orders of General Schuyler in Case he should want your Assistance,” John Hancock writes him.

Sept. 20, 1775: France assures Horace St. Paul, the British chargé d'affaires in Paris, that it has never permitted the export of gunpowder to America from its continental ports. It also rejects any proposition that the governor of a French West Indies island had shipped powder to the colonists.

Sept. 20, 1775: Loyalist Col. John Connolly, who had been dispatched by Virginia’s royal Gov. Lord Dunmore to try to secure Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) for the crown, is now in Boston. British Gen. reports Connolly seeks to go on a mission to Detroit, enlist the Indians, and seize the frontier forts.

Sept. 20, 1775: After a foray further into Quebec, Ethan Allen informs Gen. Richard Montgomery he has gathered 250 Canadians under arms with more coming in. He is returning to assist in the siege of Fort St. Jean. ”If we miscarry in this, all other acthievements will profit but little.”

Sept. 20, 1775: The American merchant brig Sea Nymph and its owner and captain, Joseph Blewer, are captured by the British warship Mercury on a trading voyage from Philadelphia to Jamaica. The Royal Navy will acquire the vessel and rename it the Hope.

Sept. 20, 1775: Lord William Campbell, the ousted royal governor of South Carolina, writes to Gen. Thomas Gage that he has taken refuge on the warship Tamar to escape “many mortifications and insults.” He dispatches Lt. Moses Kirkland with a plan to raise the backcountry for the loyalists.

Sept. 19, 1775: The British government puts a halt to the practice of using flintstones as ballast in ships bound for America. Adm. Samuel Graves is ordered to search all incoming craft; dump all flintstone ballast into deep waters and confiscate all flints suitable for immediate use in firearms.

Sept. 19, 1775: A reward of £3 each is posted for escaped slaves Michael and Aaron, who broke out of jail in Charles City, Va., while under a death sentence for unspecified crimes. “They are daring and dangerous villains, capable of attempting the most horrid crimes,” writes owner W. Byrd.

Sept. 19, 1775: The Committee that governs Philadelphia forbids irregular courts by which suspected Loyalists have sometimes been given summary judgments. Civic leaders act so that “proceedings against our domestick enemies may have the semblance as well as the reality of justice.”

Sept. 19, 1775: The Continental Congress names the nine members of its Secret Committee who will seek to procure gunpowder and arms: Benjamin Franklin, John Dickinson, Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Silas Deane, Thomas Willing, John Langdon, Thomas McKean and Samuel Ward.

Sept. 19, 1775: Col. Benedict Arnold’s force of 1,100 men sail from Newburyport, Mass., bound for Maine and a march up the wilderness of the Kennebec River Valley in their invasion of Canada. “We are at last embarked, with a fair Wind & Clear Coast,” he writes.

Sept. 19, 1775: Congress takes up the case of John Fenton, a notorious New Hampshire loyalist who has been in jail since that colony ousted its royal governor in June. Washington is instructed to send Fenton on a ship to Britain, “not to take up arms against the good people of this Continent.”

Sept. 19, 1775: American Gen. Richard Montgomery begins a siege of Fort St. Jean in Quebec after two failed attempts to storm it. He reports sending 80 men led by John Brown to block the road to Montreal; “The Enemy after an ill directed Fire for some Minutes retired with Precipitation.” 1/2

Sept. 18, 1775: A British spy in Philadelphia reports to London on the patriots' defense of the Delaware valley: "Fifteen large galliots [small galleys], carrying at their bows guns from 32 to 48 pounders, swivels, &c. and fifty men each, are built at Philadelphia... 1/2

Sept. 18, 1775: Vessels seized by British in the blockade of Newport, R.I., were "stripped of every rag of sails, all their rigging except the shrouds, all their small stores, cables and anchors, turned adrift, and drove ashore...These vessels, we understand, belonged to poor, laborious people."

Sept. 18, 1775: The Royal Navy sloop Weazel is directed to patrol the coast of West Africa from Sierra Leone to Ouidah and "seize all ships & Vessels belonging to the twelve associated Colonies that shall be found trading in any Fort or Factory on the Coast." These are, of course, slave ships.

Sept. 18, 1775: Andrew Foulis, a Scottish printer who in partnership with his brother, Robert, published some of the best-regarded and most beautiful Greek and Latin volumes of the era, dies at 63 in Glasgow. He also established an art school in the city.

Sept. 18, 1775: The South Carolina patriot troops who occupied Fort Johnson overlooking Charleston harbor three days ago seize a small vessel carrying supplies to British warships Tamar and Cherokee. Their haul consists of 21 casks of water, and one case and two bottles of liquor.

Sept. 18, 1775: The drunken rowdiness of New York's minutemen scandalizes the Rev. Oswald Shewkirk, pastor of the Moravian Church. He records in his diary how early in the day they went on a "Trial" march carrying their full pack: "They went but 5 miles, & came back in the Ev'ning;... 1/3

Sept. 18, 1775: The Continental Congress agrees to create "a secret Committee" to handle procurement for the Army. The 9-member panel will see to acquire "gunpowder, saltpetre, brass field pieces, double bridled musket locks, and good arms." Members will be chosen tomorrow.

Sept. 17, 1775: "The Enemy and we are very near Neighbours," writes Gen. Washington from Cambridge, Mass. "Our advanced Works are not more than five or 600 Yards from theirs, and the main body of the two Armies scarce a Mile. We see every thing that passes, and that is all we can do..."

Sept. 17, 1775: The Americans and British engage in a brisk exchange of artillery fire across Boston Neck. Colonists report two redcoats are killed and several wounded.

Sept. 17, 1775: British warships in Charleston harbor in South Carolina make a futile show of force against Fort Johnson, which was occupied by the patriots two days ago when Gov. Lord William Campbell fled the capital. Campbell is now aboard the Tamar. 1/2

Sept. 17, 1775: Because of a weapons shortage, the New York Provincial Congress calls on all armed people not members of a military unit to turn in their guns. They will receive reimbursement in the event the piece is returned in an unusable condition.

Sept. 17, 1775: A cargo of gunpowder that was meant as a royal gift to the Indians ends up in the hands of the patriots. Infiltrators quietly board a vessel off Tybee Island and remove 250 barrels of gunpowder. The materiel ends up in Savannah in the hands of the Liberty Boys.

Sept. 17, 1775: Adm. Samuel Graves, the much-loathed commander of British naval forces in North America, is recalled by the Admiralty. The Earl of Sandwich writes of being "obliged to inform you that I have received His Majesty's commands for your returning home at the close of this year." 1/2

Sept. 17, 1775: John Parker, the captain of militia in Lexington, Mass., whose men fought there in the first engagement of the Revolution, dies of tuberculosis just five months after the battle. The French and Indian War veteran, farmer and father of seven was 46. 1/3

Sept. 16, 1775: Giuseppe Rosaroll, an Italian general and writer, is born in Naples. He served as a field marshal in Napoleon’’s army, fighting with distinction in many campaigns; after the wars he wrote influential treatises on military tactics and fencing.