12 NOVEMBER 1775, NORTH CAROLINA: Royal Governor Josiah Martin writes to Lord Dartmouth about the success he’s had recruiting soldiers among the Scottish settlers, praising “their readiness to lay down their lives in the defence of his Majesty’s government.”

12 NOVEMBER 1775, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: George Washington forbids the enlistment of “Negroes, Boys unable to bare Arms, nor old men unfit to endure the fatigues of the campaign” in the Continental Army. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

12 NOVEMBER 1775, QUEBEC: The defenses of the provincial capital swell with a new regiment of two hundred twenty men: the Royal Highland Emigrants, recruited from local Scottish immigrants by former Jacobite (and redcoat veteran) Allan Maclean of Torloisk.

12 NOVEMBER 1775, LONDON: The government are seeking German regiments to fight for them in America: “I have no objection to the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel and the Duke of Brunswick being addressed for troops to serve in America,” George III tells Lord North.

11 NOVEMBER 1775, CHARLESTON HARBOR: Ships of South Carolina and the Royal Navy exchange cannon fire for several hours as the navy attempt unsuccessfully to chase the South Carolinians off from sinking hulks in the Hog Island channel as a harbor defense.

11 NOVEMBER 1775, WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS: The Massachusetts General Court vote that Dr. Benjamin Church be “utterly expelled” from their membership for spying for the redcoats. Church had previously offered to resign, to avoid such expulsion, but his offer hasn’t been accepted.

10 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress orders the raising of “two Battalions of marines … to be distinguished by the names of the first and second battalions of American Marines”: the birthday of the United States Marine Corps.

10 NOVEMBER 1775, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: “Be strict in your discipline”: On learning his former subordinate William Woodford has been made colonel of the 2nd Virginia Regiment, George Washington writes with some advice on command: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

Now that Lord George Germain has entered the chat, a brief note on style. CORRECT: Lord Howe, Lord North, Lord Cornwallis, Lord George Germain. INCORRECT: Lord Richard Howe, Lord Frederick North, Lord Charles Cornwallis, Lord Germain.

10 NOVEMBER 1775, LONDON: Lord George Germain replaces the Earl of Dartmouth as American secretary; he will henceforth be the government minister with the greatest amount of responsibility for the war in America. Dartmouth remains in the cabinet as lord privy seal.

9 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: Pennsylvania’s revised instructions to its Continental Congress delegation are essentially the same as the previous instructions, but for the addition of absolutely forbidding them from supporting any measures leading toward independence:

9 NOVEMBER 1775, KILLINGWORTH, CONNECTICUT: “The Body … has the nearest resemblance to the two upper shells of a Tortoise joined together”: Benjamin Gale writes to Silas Deane describing the experimental combat submarine, the Turtle.

9 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: On the day that news arrives confirming King George’s rejection of the Olive Branch Petition, the Continental Congress requires all current and future members to sign a binding oath of secrecy regarding its proceedings: founders.archives.gov/documents/Je...

9 NOVEMBER 1775, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: Redcoats raid Lechmere Point for cattle: “To day a party of about 250 Light Infantry embarked at 11 o’clock in the flat bottom’d Boats; they landed on a Peninsula called Lechmere’s farm, which in spring tides is an Island;

9 NOVEMBER 1775, LONDON: “I think this country is undone, almost beyond redemption”: Horace Walpole puts his thoughts on the American war into words in a letter to the Countess of Upper Ossory.

8 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress dispatch a committee of three (Robert R. Livingston, Robert Treat Paine and John Langdon) to consult with Philip Schuyler on the military situation in Canada and to serve as an embassy to the Canadian people.

8 NOVEMBER 1775, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: Amid the thorough reorganization the Continental Army is undergoing due to its reenlistment crisis, Washington asks the Continental Congress to appoint Boston bookseller Henry Knox to command the artillery: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

8 NOVEMBER 1775, BOSTON: Admiral Graves makes his official report to the Admiralty on the destruction of Falmouth, Massachusetts. The burning of the seaport by the Royal Navy has produced outrage across the Thirteen Colonies, but Graves is proud of it:

7 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: The Second Continental Congress declare it a crime for a Continental officer or soldier to “hold a treacherous correspondence with, or give intelligence to the enemy,” and one whose perpetrators “shall suffer death.”

7 NOVEMBER 1775, QUEENS COUNTY, NEW YORK: Patriot authority is finally thought to be strong enough in the mostly Loyalist county to hold an election for delegates to the provincial congress—but the Tories nevertheless outvote Patriots by a 4-1 margin, refusing to elect delegates.

7 NOVEMBER 1775, NEW YORK: John Tabor Kempe, provincial attorney-general, writes to Anglican clergyman Myles Cooper after taking refuge aboard the Royal Navy transport Duchess of Gordon. Before he fled Manhattan, he burned the letter Cooper had sent him:

7 NOVEMBER 1775, BOSTON SIEGE LINES: Clouds of migrating geese overhead are so depleting the Continental Army’s desperately short supply of gunpowder that the men have to be ordered to stop firing at them.

7 NOVEMBER 1775, LONDON: King George III rejects an offer from Lord North to resign as prime minister. “I can never consent to it; the profits and honour of your employment are in the best hands.”

6 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: “It is my opinion that unless we exert our selves in this Matter & have some tollerable Success it is very uncertain whether every thing else we can do will Avail as much,” writes Robert Treat Paine of the colonists’ attempts to manufacture their own gunpowder.

6 NOVEMBER 1775, FORT TICONDEROGA: The Patriots put much effort into portraying the Canadians as oppressed by Parliament and wooing them to the Patriot cause, but Philip Schuyler, in command of the Continental invasion of Canada, clearly does not see them as likely allies:

6 NOVEMBER 1775, BRISTOL, GLOUCESTERSHIRE: Anglican clergyman James Rouquet writes to John Wesley, founder of Methodism, accusing him of hypocrisy in the public controversy that surrounds Wesley’s strong support of the Crown against the American colonists.

5 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: “We shall Soon think of maritime Affairs, and naval Preparations,” John Adams writes of the Congress’s plans for a Continental Navy. “No great Things are to be expected at first, but out of a little a great deal may grow.” founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

5 NOVEMBER 1775, BRAINTREE, MASSACHUSETTS: Abigail Adams describes having recently met Benjamin Franklin, “whom I had the pleasure of dining with, and of admiring him whose character from my Infancy I had been taught to venerate.” founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

5 NOVEMBER 1775, CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS: Harvard professor John Winthrop & his wife Hannah have relocated from Cambridge to be further from the front lines, to a house “in the humble Stile & [that] has been the habitation of many Donation poor.” www.masshist.org/database/333...

5 NOVEMBER 1775, SOUTHERN QUEBEC: Benedict Arnold’s brigade continue their march into Quebec as they recover from near-starvation on their crossing from Maine, but Arnold sees to it that they’re fed as they do:

5 NOVEMBER 1775, CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS: George Washington forbids the New England soldiers under his command from celebrating “that ridiculous and childish Custom of burning the Effigy of the pope”—Pope’s Night, the New England variant of Bonfire Night. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

4 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: John Adams writes to Abigail of his mother’s constant worries for his safety as a member of the Continental Congress: “I wish she would not be concerned about me. She ought to consider that a Dissentery can kill as surely as a Cannon.

4 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: Concerned that settlers from Pennsylvania and Connecticut are about to go to war with each other in the Wyoming Valley (near modern Scranton), the Congress asks the two colonial assemblies “take the most speedy and effectual steps to prevent such hostilities.”

4 NOVEMBER 1775, ROXBURY, MASSACHUSETTS: “The Pirates and Rebels in Boston are very busily employed in fortifying themselves, and by late accounts from them, they are very much afraid we shall attack the Town,” Joseph Ward tells John Adams.

3 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: In answer to a request for guidance from the New Hampshire provincial convention, the Continental Congress recommends the convention “call a full and free representation of the people” of New Hampshire.

3 NOVEMBER 1775, FORT ST. JOHN’S, QUEBEC: “The Troops march’d out of the redouts and embark’d for an Encampment of the Rebels two miles above St. John’s,” records the fort’s quartermaster, young Lieutenant John André, as the garrison surrenders to the Continental Army.

3 NOVEMBER 1775, BRUSSELS: A junior diplomat writes to the British government that the British minister in the Austrian Netherlands has lost his mind with depression, brought on by a hunting accident in which he shot a Belgian nobleman in the face, blinding him for life.

2 NOVEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress approves a fund of a hundred thousand dollars for the fitting out of its four previously authorized warships. Officers & crew will receive half the prize money from captured warships & one third from other captured vessels.

2 NOVEMBER 1775, SOUTHERN QUEBEC: The first of Benedict Arnold’s starving troops emerge from the wilderness into the settled portions of Quebec. “About noon we met some Frenchmen, with cattle for our army, and some meal in a canoe,” says James Melvin, of Henry Dearborn’s company.

2 NOVEMBER 1775, FORT ST. JOHN’S, QUEBEC: The redcoat garrison agrees to surrender after a siege of six weeks, removing the obstacle blocking the Continental army led by Richard Montgomery from advancing on Montreal.

2 NOVEMBER 1775, ESSEX, CONNECTICUT: The New England Chronicle alerts readers to “one Simeon Smith of Greenfield,” who “Deserted from Col. Brewer’s regiment, and Capt. Harvey’s company.”

1 NOVEMBER 1775, PENSACOLA, WEST FLORIDA: The governor’s council considers an appeal by Absalom Hooper, one of a group of men convicted of the murder & robbery of the crew of a Mississippi river boat in 1772. genfiles.com/hooper/the-h...

1 NOVEMBER 1775, WATERTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS: An act authorizing privateering is passed by the Massachusetts provincial congress. Privateers are privately-owned vessels possessing letters of marque—formal permission from a government to wage war upon its enemies.

1 NOVEMBER 1775, LONDON: “The page of future history will tell how Britain planted, nourished, and for two centuries preserved a second British empire,” says the Duke of Manchester in the House of Lords. Manchester is an opponent of the North government;

1 NOVEMBER 1775, LONDON: Thomas Hutchinson’s diary records the treatment prescribed to his daughter for her fever: “8 oz. blood taken from her, and took a mixture of oyl of almonds, syrup of balsam, alexitarian simple, water, & sal volat.: a doze at six; another at bed time; a third in the morning.”

31 OCTOBER 1775, QUEBEC WILDERNESS: The men of Benedict Arnold’s invasion of Canada are starving and desperate for food: “Goodrich’s company marched three miles, and were overtaken by Captain Smith who informed them that Captain Goodrich had left two quarters of a dog for them.

31 OCTOBER 1775, CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: Amid the Continental Army’s enlistment crisis, George Washington’s daily orders promise any soldier who reenlists will receive “Goods, to cloath the Army,” provided by Congress—“Negroes excepted, which the Congress do not incline to inlist again.”

30 OCTOBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: The Continental Congress doubles the size of its projected Continental Navy, authorizing two more, larger ships in addition to the two it authorized on the 13th, despite Pennsylvania’s George Ross objecting, “We cant get Seamen to man 4 Vessells.”

30 OCTOBER 1775, NEW YORK: “Sufice it that the Tories are chearfal, and too many of the Whigs make long Faces”: Alexander McDougall writes to John Jay about the state of affairs in New York. founders.archives.gov/documents/Ja...

30 OCTOBER 1775, CHAUDIÈRE RIVER, QUEBEC: Treacherous river conditions lead to the destruction of what few supplies the malnourished men of Benedict Arnold’s column have left: