The Breed's Hill Institute

June 16, 1775
George Washington makes his acceptance speech in Congress.
As a gesture of civic virtue, he declines a salary but requests that Congress pay his expenses at the close of the war.

On July 1, 1783, Washington submits to the Continental Board of Treasury his expense account.

June 15, 1775
The Continental Congress commissioned George Washington as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.
Washington was selected over other candidates such as John Hancock based on his previous military experience and the hope that a leader from Virginia could help unite the colonies.

Washington left for Massachusetts within days of receiving his commission and assumed command of the Continental Army in Cambridge on July 3, 1775.
After eight years of war, Washington resigned his commission as Commander in Chief on December 23, 1783.

(Currier and Ives published this lithograph depiction of Washington's appointment as Commander-in-Chief in 1876.)

https://www.loc.gov/item/2002698163/

On June 15, 1776, the Assembly of the Lower Counties of Pennsylvania declares itself independent of British and Pennsylvanian authority, thereby creating the state of Delaware.
Delaware did not exist as a colony under British rule.

As of 1704, Pennsylvania had two colonial assemblies: one for the “Upper Counties,” originally Bucks, Chester and Philadelphia, and one for the “Lower Counties on the Delaware” of New Castle, Kent and Sussex. All of the counties shared one governor.

June 14, 1777
The Flag Resolution
The Continental Congress adopted a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."

On 14 June 1775, the Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted the New England Army of Observation, making it a “continental” army — a united fighting force — that could represent all 13 colonies with the addition of the troops from the three middle colonies. The Continental Army thus became America’s first national institution.
The Continental Congress further:
“Resolved, that six companies of expert riflemen [sic], be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; that each company consist of a captain, three lieutenants, four serjeants, four corporals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight privates.… that each company, as soon as completed [sic], shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the chief Officer in that army.”
That the pay of the Officers and privates be as follows, viz. a captain @ 20 dollars per month; a lieutenant @ 13 1/3 dollars; a serjeant @ 8 dollars; a corporal @ 7 1/3 dollars; drummer or [trumpeter] @ 7 1/3 doll.; privates @ 6 2/3 dollars; to find their own arms and cloaths.

June 13, 1777
19-year-old French nobleman, Marie-Joseph Paul Roch Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arrived at North Island, South Carolina accompanied by Baron Johann de Kalb (56 years old).

Shortly after the outbreak of the American Revolution, the American army was in need of experienced and professional officers.
American ambassador to France, Silas Deane, was a crafty American negotiator known to freely hand out commissions in the American army to those whose influence he deemed important.
With the promise of being made major generals upon landing in America, the party landed at Charleston, South Carolina and traveled north to Philadelphia.

June 12, 1775, the Battle of Machias is the first naval battle of the American Revolution. Citizens of Machias, Maine (then part of Massachusetts) captured the armed British schooner HMS Margaretta when it threatened their town.
The Battle of Machias, also known as the Battle of the Margaretta, took place around the port of Machias, Maine between the citizens of Machiasport and the British warship, the HMS Margaretta.
The Americans won the battle, killing Lieutenant Moore, the Margaretta's commander, and seizing the ship. The battle was an early sign that the American rebellion could succeed.

June 12, 1776
Virginia’s Constitutional Convention adopts the final version of the Declaration of Rights, consisting of sixteen sections.
Fairfax County delegate George Mason led the effort and drafted a document that outlined the rights. Other delegates suggested additional individual rights and the draft was debated for several weeks.
Thomas Jefferson drew on it when writing the Declaration of Independence and James Madison expanded on Mason’s ideas of guaranteed rights when he wrote the amendments to the United States Constitution that became known as the Bill of Rights.

June 11, 1741
Dr. Joseph Warren is born in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
A powerful and eloquent leader in the early Liberty movement of Boston. Had he not been killed at Breed's Hill his name would surely be remembered on par with Adams, Franklin and Washington.
Dr. Warren died at age 34, and in his short life he had already proven himself to be an indispensable political and military leader in Massachusetts.
Warren was buried at a family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery near Boston.

(Portrait of Warren by John Singleton Copley, c. 1765)