250th

Notes of the 250th anniversary of the United States, from a Kingston, NJ perspective.

June 23-25, 1775 – Washington travels through Kingston going north.

George Washington had just been appointed General and Commander in Chief by the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. Because of distance and the desire for accuracy, reports of the British victory in the June 17 “Battle of Bunker Hill” (actually Breeds Hill) had not come south to Philadelphia.

Washington rode from Trenton to (new) Brunswick, through Kingston on the 23rd or 24th of June. During this period he stopped keeping a personal diary and had not begun with his officer’s diary, but did write the Congress from New York. That letter is dated June 24, but is said to be written on June 25.

(Was he on horseback with other officers, or in one of the stage coaches that traveled the Kings Highway? We don’t know. We assume that his enslaved servant William Lee was with him. )

Sources:

Washington, George. George Washington Papers, Series 3, Varick Transcripts, 1775 to 1785, Subseries 3A, Continental Congress, 1775 to 1783, Letterbook 1:- Sept. 22, 1776. – September 22, 1776, 1775. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mgw3a.001/.

https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-slow-spread-of-official-news-about.html