15 FEBRUARY 1776, PORT-AU-PRINCE, FRENCH SAINT-DOMINGUE: Jean-Pierre Boyer is born, the son of a white French tailor and an emancipated Congolese mother, parentage that classifies him as a gens de couleur libre, a free person of color, in the French colonial social system.

15 FEBRUARY 1776, CROSS CREEK, NORTH CAROLINA: Around fourteen hundred Loyalists gather at the site of presentday Fayetteville, intending to march for the coast to meet an expected redcoat expedition. Most of them are Scottish Highland immigrants.

15 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress appoints an embassy of three members to travel to Canada: Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Carroll is the Continental Congress’s only Roman Catholic delegate.

15 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “This you may depend on, and should this Campaign open with furious Acts of Parliament, you may bid adieu to the American Colonies,” Pennsylvania congressional delegate Robert Morris writes in warning to Sir Robert Herries.

14 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “The Restraint … is now taken off”: John Adams writes to James Warren of how openly independence is being discussed in Philadelphia: founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

14 FEBRUARY1776, DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS: Before dawn, eight hundred redcoats land at either end of Dorchester Neck and, after the sixty Continental defenders retreat, burn 6 or 8 buildings and capture seven stragglers, then withdraw before Continental reinforcements arrive.

13 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “Independance, Confederation & foreign alliance are as formidable to some of the Congress … as an apparition to a weak enervated Woman”: Thomas Nelson bemoans the timidity of the Continental Congress. “These subjects have been but gently touch’d upon.”

13 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: John Adams rejects the idea that Prussia is better at waging war than the Thirteen Colonies because it’s an absolute monarchy: “That a Monarchy absolute or limited is better for War than a Republic I absolutely deny.” founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

13 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: Benjamin Franklin’s close friend Joseph Priestley doesn’t hold out much hope for a reconciliation with the colonies: “It is most probable that you will be driven to the necessity of governing yourselves,” he writes to Ben. founders.archives.gov/documents/Fr...

13 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: Arthur Lee, effectively the Continental Congress’s liaison in Britain, writes to America that he will refuse the instruction to cooperate with the Congress’s secret committee until the untrustworthy Benjamin Franklin & John Jay are removed from it.

12 FEBRUARY 1776, NEW YORK: The New York provincial congress convenes with representatives from every county except Queen’s (the presentday borough of Queens) and Richmond (Staten Island), whose heavily Loyalist populations refused to elect delegates.

11 FEBRUARY 1776, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA: Royal Governor Sir James Wright manages to sneak past the Patriot guard on his residence and escape to the warship Scarborough, anchored in the Savannah River. He sends a letter to the provincial governor’s council, but they do not reply.

11 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: Benjamin Franklin proposes to Charles Lee one solution the Continental Army’s desperate gunpowder shortage: take up bows and arrows: founders.archives.gov/documents/Fr...

11 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “There is a deep Anxiety, a kind of thoughtfull Melancholly, and in some a Lowness of Spirits approaching to Despondency, prevailing, through the southern Colonies, at present,” John Adams writes to his wife Abigail. founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

11 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “All Accounts from England seem to agree that we shall have a dreadfull Storm bursting on our heads thro’ all America in the Spring,” North Carolina delegate Joseph Hewes writes of expectations that the British intend to widen their war effort.

11 FEBRUARY 1776, DORCHESTER, MASSACHUSETTS: George Washington, Artemas Ward & Continental artillery experts inspect Dorchester Heights, the high ground overlooking Boston from the south. Washington previously rejected the idea of fortifying Dorchester at multiple war councils.

10 FEBRUARY 1776, MONTREAL: The 2nd Canadian Regiment, on paper the largest regiment the Continental Army will ever have, is formally organized, one of the few regiments maintained directly by Congress rather than the responsibility of an individual state.

10 FEBRUARY 1776, QUEBEC: Still nominally besieged by the Continental Army, the city undergoes “an excessive bad snow storm” so bitter that “some sentries froze dead.”

10 FEBRUARY 1776, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: “In short my Situation has been such that I have been obligd to use art to conceal it from my own Officers,” George Washington writes despondently to Joseph Reed: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

10 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: Lord Cornwallis departs to join the army in America. Cornwallis, recently promoted to major general, is in command of the reinforcements set to rendezvous with Henry Clinton off the coast of North Carolina.

9 FEBRUARY 1776, CHARLESTON: Christoper Gadsden presents to the South Carolina provincial congress “an elegant standard, such as is to be used by the commander in chief of the American navy”: the Gadsden flag.

9 FEBRUARY 1776, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: “I … ask pardon for intruding an opinion, not only unasked, but in some measure repugnant to [Congress’s] Resolves”: George Washington writes to Congress urging a change in how the Continental Army recruits troops. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

8 FEBRUARY 1776, CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS: Continental Major Thomas Knowlton leads a nighttime raid “into Charlestown, for the purpose of burning a number of houses, to deprive the enemy of their use.

8 FEBRUARY 1776, NEW YORK: In Patriot-controlled New York, redcoat general Henry Clinton receives a visit from famous American soldier Robert Rogers, who has come to offer his services to the Crown. Clinton is receptive:

8 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: In the Public Advertiser, the essayist “Nauticus” accuses the Earl of Sandwich of “sporting with the Miseries of Mankind” by deliberately ordering the burning of Falmouth, Massachusetts (Portland, Maine), by the Royal Navy.

7 FEBRUARY 1776, NEW YORK: “I did not doubt but that this Country might be conquered, but did much whether it was worth while to have it when conquered”: Redcoat general Henry Clinton records his thoughts on the British army’s best strategy in America.

7 FEBRUARY 1776, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: Newly recruited Private Obadiah Brown, who only arrived at the Boston siege lines four days ago, records in his diary that “Two Sodiers Drank 33 glases of Brandy & Gin one Died.”

7 FEBRUARY 1776, WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS: Mercy Otis Warren “only Wish[es] that the Aquisition of Boston and Quebec may make the opening of the year 76 an Era of Glory to the arms of America, and May hand down the Name of [George] Washington and [Benedict] Arnold to the Latest posterity.”

7 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: The Earl of Huntingdon writes to Henry Clinton that the mood in London this winter has been “very gay, and not in the least concerned about what is passing on the other side of the Atlantic.”

6 FEBRUARY 1776, WRIGHTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA: The Quaker monthly meeting formally disowns John Lacey, Jr., for serving in the Pennsylvania militia and, now, the Continental Army. Last month, Lacey was commissioned a captain in a new Continental regiment, the 4th Pennsylvania.

5 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress passes a resolution that the New York militia who assisted General Philip Schuyler in disarming Tories in Tryon County surely don’t want paying for their service, because that would make them look unpatriotic:

5 FEBRUARY 1776, CHARLESTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS: Redcoats are attacked by the Continental Army while rounding up four cattle, which were probably sent out as a decoy. The British soldiers get the cattle, but two redcoats are killed.

5 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: Richard, Lord Howe, is appointed commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy fleet in America; he replaces Molyneux Shuldam, who was himself appointed so recently that he arrived in Boston to take up his post only a week ago.

5 FEBRUARY 1776, HESSE-HANAU, HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE: Great Britain signs a treaty with the County of Hesse-Hanau for a battalion of seven hundred Hessian troops to serve in America. William, Count of Hesse-Hanau, is a grandson of George II and first cousin of George III.

4 FEBRUARY 1776, NEW YORK: On the same day Continental Army general Charles Lee arrives to take command of the city’s defenses, redcoat general Henry Clinton also arrives—alone, paying a private visit to his friend the royal governor. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

3 FEBRUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: “I affirm it the only step that can bring the contest to a speedy and happy issue”: Writing anonymously using his favored pseudonym of Candidus, Samuel Adams calls for the colonies to declare independence from Great Britain.

3 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: Rumors abound of a change in command of both the army & naval commanders in America, even though both have already changed within the last four months. One rumor is true; the other is not:

3 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: The American Stephen Sayre sues the Earl of Rochford for “trespass, assault, and imprisonment,” stemming from when Rochford had Sayre arrested & imprisoned in the Tower in October for supposedly plotting to kidnap George III.

2 FEBRUARY 1776, LEBANON, CONNECTICUT: Governor Jonathan Trumbull Sr. & the Connecticut council of safety interview the inventor David Bushnell about the progress of his top secret project: the development of a submarine, to be used to plant bombs on the hulls of Royal Navy ships.

2 FEBRUARY 1776, BOSTON: A deserter from the Continental Army brings the redcoats news of how disillusioned Massachusetts towns are with the rebellion: “A Deserter that came in says that the County about Boston are very uneasy that no Attempt is made on the Town,

2 FEBRUARY 1776, BOSTON: William Howe calls off a prisoner exchange George Washington has proposed to him in order to free Boston schoolteacher James Lovell when Howe “discover[s] a prohibited correspondence [being] carried on by” Lovell. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

1 FEBRUARY 1776, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS BAY: George Washington finds American soldiers to be brave when under cover but bemoans that they can’t stand up to the enemy out in the open, preventing the Continental Army from attacking Boston: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

1 FEBRUARY 1776, LONDON: Twenty-two Loyalist refugees attend the first meeting of the New England Club at the Adelphi Tavern, where they have “agreed on a weekly dinner at the rate of 2/6 each, besides wine.”

31 JANUARY 1776, MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA: George Washington’s cousin and estate manager Lund Washington writes of worries that the Potomac River is about to be the next target of Lord Dunmore’s Loyalist fleet: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

31 JANUARY 1776, QUEBEC: Life for American prisoners of war: “The time seems very long; no employment. Nothing heard or seen but playing at cards, swearing, and some playing away all their allowance of victuals; some employ themselves in making wooden spoons, wooden boxes, &c.”

31 JANUARY 1776, HUNTINGDON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE: Constantine Phipps is elected unopposed to represent Huntingdon in the House of Commons, filling the vacancy from the death of William Montagu. He was advanced £2000 by Montagu’s father, the Earl of Sandwich, for the campaign.

30 JANUARY 1776, CARRIZAL, NUEVA VIZCAYA (modern Chihuahua): Lieutenant Colonel Hugo O’Conor (or Oconór) writes the report that is the product of his four-year survey of the defenses of northwestern Mexico & the southwestern USA: (requires JSTOR access) www.jstor.org/stable/40167...

30 JANUARY 1776, PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY: “To fly-- I reck/Not where: And, by that flight, t' escape/Feathers and tar, and thousand other ills/That loyalty is heir to”: The Middlesex Journal publishes “The Pausing American Loyalist.” www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/active_learn...

30 JANUARY 1776, OFF PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS: The 6-gun Hancock is intercepted by the 14-gun Royal Navy brig Hope, sent out from Boston specifically to hunt her down. The Hancock runs aground near the shore, but the draft is too shallow to allow the Hope to get near her, and she must withdraw.

29 JANUARY 1776, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress order captured redcoat General Richard Prescott “committed to, and kept in close confinement in the gaol of Philadelphia, till farther orders of Congress,” much harsher treatment than 18th-century European military custom.