American Theatre from September 3, 1775, to October 31, 1775
Summary
The Delegates to the Continental Congress, Georgia now included, were journeying towards Philadelphia as August ended and September began. They had adjourned on August 1, 1775, to reconvene on September 5. In the month elapsing there had been no governing body to guide the destinies of the United Colonies, but each Provincial Congress or Committee of Safety had functioned well.
The army surrounding Boston had been strengthened by reinforcements from Pennsylvania and Virginia. While not yet ready to attack, it was set to repel any enemy effort to break out of its confined lines. A second army, of newly-raised regiments from New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey, was poised for an invasion of Canada by water ways of Lake Champlain and the Kennebec.
Local military forces of considerable strength were coping well with five royal governors, who had sought to stem the rising tide of American militarism. Went worth, of New Hampshire, and Martin, of North Carolina, had fled to safety on board ships of war; Campbell, of South Carolina, was preparing for a similar flight; Dunmore, of Virginia, was pinned down in Norfolk, supported by the guns of British Naval vessels, and Tryon, of New York, sat uneasily in Manhattan, backed also by the formidable cannon of a 64 riding in the Hudson.
Optimism was in the air for all save the merchants to whom the tenth day of September loomed ominously ahead - the last day upon which exports from American ports for Great Britain and her domains could be shipped.Wheat, flour, corn, from New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland; tobacco from Virginia and North Carolina, and rice and indigo from South Carolina and Georgia, were being rushed by cart and lighter to the shipping points, each merchant striving to meet the inexorable dead-line, set by Congress in October 1774, and reiterated forcibly at adjournment in August, 1775.
The British situation in Boston had remained static. No offensive moves had been made because it seemed best, in the minds of four generals, to pursue a policy of safety, hold the lines and wait for the heavy reinforcements expected to arrive for a Spring campaign. Also, the lesson learned on the slopes of Breed's Hill in June had had a sobering effect upon the British military mind. Likewise, accounts filtering through to the American army indicated a lack of harmony between the military and naval commanders.
Acutely aware of the colonial need for all forms of military stores, General Washington undertook the conversion of small vessels to armed cruisers in Massachusetts ports for the purpose of intercepting "Vessels, laden with Soldiers, Arms, Ammunition, or Provisions" destined for the British. Soldiers with sea experience were ordered to man the cruisers. The Hannah, first of "Washington's Navy," put to sea on September 5th.
Increased interest in naval affairs was also demonstrated by Congress, which, acting upon a report that two unescorted munition ships were bound from England to Quebec, resolved on October 13th to fit out two swift vessels, "to cruize east ward, for intercepting such transports as may be laden with warlike stores and other supplies" for the British. This was the first naval legislation enacted by Congress and, as such, is a truly significant event in the genesis of American naval power.
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