250 and Counting

Calling it “The Battle of Kip’s Bay” may actually be overstating it a little bit; there were 500 militamen from Connecticut in the area when the British landed, and their defenses were blown away almost immediately, after which they panicked and ran. But I tell you all about that in the episode. This is my chance to tell you a related story, and nobody knows whether it’s true. If you look at today’s artwork, you’ll see a piece of a map and an estate called Inclenberg, about where modern-day Murray Hill can be found. Kip’s Bay is just out of frame to the right. Inclenburg was owned by the Murray family (hence the neighborhood name), who were a family of Quaker merchants who owned a wharf and a fleet of ships at the base of Wall Street. Now, the story goes that the original plan was for the British to march across Manhattan, west to east, in order to cut off Washington’s army. As I note in the episode, about a third of them were still to the south in the city and would therefore be trapped and stranded. Then, once they were divided, the British would pursue the rest of them to the north, in Harlem Heights. What’s known as a fact is that the British did not complete their traversing of the island; they stopped somewhere around Inclenberg. The legend part of this story is that when they got to Inclenberg, Mary Murray, the socialite who ran the estate, and two of her lovely daughters came out to greet General Howe and his commanders and offered them some afternoon tea. Howe and his officers had a wonderful afternoon of hospitality, with tea and entertainment by the girls (singing, ya pervert), and the finest Madeira wine in New York City. In the meantime, Major Aaron Burr led the separated group of troops up through the western side of the city to Harlem Heights, and relative safety. It’s really more likely that Howe simply stopped while waiting for more forces to arrive, and that’s the story I tell during the episode. But it’s a fun story, and it is known for sure that General Putnam’s men did escape what would have been certain capture by the British, who had to be absolutely apopleptic to learn that so many soldiers had escaped yet again without their knowing about it. The post Battle of Kip’s Bay–September 15, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Washington was on the brink of retreating from New York City, but he was getting pushback from some of his generals regarding how it should be done. Fortunately for him, this Gordian Knot was cut by a letter arriving from John Hancock on behalf of the Continental Congress. Nathanael Green and William Heath weren’t necessarily in agreement with Hancock’s recommendations, but orders are orders and everyone prepared to move out based on those. But about a week later, something happened to render part of those orders moot. The post Word From Congress–September 14, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When Patriot forces saw four ships moving into Bushwick Creek, it was ominous but probably not a huge surprise, given that the British already held Brooklyn. They put up largely token fire from their own strongholds and that was pretty much that. Washington knew that Manhattan was next, but it wasn’t clear how the attack would come, or from where specifically, but he’d already begun the work of getting people and materials out of town, so it probably wasn’t much more than a distraction for him. In fact, it was a distraction and a diversion, as we’ll learn in a couple of days. Whether it was strictly necessary is another question. A quick note on today’s artwork: Robert Clevely was a marine artist who was an eyewitness to the landing on Kip’s Bay. I figured it was worth mentioning because so many of the art pieces I wind up presenting here aren’t necessarily contemporary to their subjects. But this one is someone who was actually there. The post Suspicious Movements–September 13, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

First off, my apologies to you, and to Mike (because it was his episode), for not double-checking that yesterday’s episode was actually loaded into the feed. I’ve been fighting off a ridiculous sinus infection and I think my medication had me woozy. On the bright side, I’m probably sounding extra sexy in today’s episode because my head still feels like a brick. Yesterday’s show should be in your podcast feed now, though, along with this one. Today we have a trio of delegates headed to New York to attempt peace talks with the British. Meanwhile back in Philadelphia, the Congress officially declares that our country’s name is the United States of America. Check out the story behind that. The post The Peace Delegation–September 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

There are lots of images of Nathan Hale that have him looking like a middle-aged fellow, and then there are others that have him looking like some kind of idealized young man, with a prominent jaw and youthful good looks. The fact is, nobody today is 100% sure what he looked like, because no contemporaneous images of him have been found. The best we have is a description written by a fellow soldier of his, Lieutenant Elisha Bostwick. Bostwick wrote: I can now in imagination see his person & hear his voice—his person I should say was a little above the common stature in height, his shoulders of a moderate breadth, his limbs strait & very plump: regular features—very fair skin—blue eyes—flaxen or very light hair which was always kept short—his eyebrows a shade darker than his hair & his voice rather sharp or piercing—his bodily agility was remarkable. I have seen him follow a football and kick it over the tops of the trees in the Bowery at New York, (an exercise which he was fond of)—his mental powers seemed to be above the common sort—his mind of a sedate and sober cast, & he was undoubtedly Pious; for it was remark’d that when any of the soldiers of his company were sick he always visited them & usually Prayed for & with them in their sickness. Hale was twenty-one years old in 1776, so the images of him as an older man are almost certainly incorrect. The statue used in today’s cover art is one of several copies cast in 1912 from a sculpture by Bela Pratt. (Baltimoreans note: Bela Pratt was a distant cousin of Enoch Pratt, the man who founded the city’s libraries.) In addition, Pratt’s sculpture was the model for two postage stamps issued in 1925 and 1929. We know nowadays that Hale’s efforts to infiltrate the British didn’t work out very well, and Mike and I will return to his story in a few days to tell you specifically how it shook out, and a long-standing controversy over his last words—what did he say, and how did he say it? The post Nathan Hale’s Fateful Decision–September 8, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

…but the situation was not excellent, for the American side, anyway. George Washington got a wake-up call in the form of a letter from Congress. In that letter he was told that it was not a good idea to burn down New York City; what’s more, they weren’t quite so invested in his holding the City as he thought they were. This was a good news/bad news situation for him, since he knew that strategically, the British occupying New York had the potential to be a huge problem, especially if they were able to take the entire Hudson Valley. But even if they didn’t, having one of our biggest and busiest ports was going to create a lot of headaches, regardless of what was supposed to be moving in or out of the city. Meanwhile, we have Ezra Lee making his first attempt at genuinely deploying the Turtle submersible. The currents plus the darkness made maneuvering very difficult, and while he did get close enough to Admiral Howe’s ship to stick the explosive charge to it, the spear he used couldn’t penetrate the hull enough to stick. In recent years it’s thought that he tried to pierce the hull near the rudder, which had an iron plate on it; another theory involved the recent use of copper on ships’ bottoms, but this copper was quite thin and would have been easily pierced. Lee made one more attempt with the Turtle, on October 6, but that try also failed. The Turtle was lost less than a week later when the sloop serving as her tender was sunk by British ships. Who knows? Maybe there are still pieces of her in the Hudson River. The post All Under Heaven Is Chaos–September 7, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

I’ve brought this up in the past, but Maryland appears to have an extraordinary grasp of its own history, even when it comes to naming Maryland counties. As Mike notes today, Maryland has the first two counties established by local representatives, and the first counties named after popular Americans. But even in Maryland, when the names come from old-world aristocracy, it’s not always easy to draw the lines from A to B. For instance, the colony of Maryland was established by Catholic settlers in what became St. Mary’s City, but the colony (and later state) name derives from Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of King Charles I (and namesake of Charles County). My favorite bit of trivia about Maryland counties (leave me alone, I know what that sounds like) is Anne Arundel County, named after the wife of Cecilius Calvert, whose last name actually had a second L (“Arundell”). Cecilius Calvert was the second Lord Baltimore. And now you know where Cecil County, Calvert County and Baltimore County and Baltimore City got their names. (I list the county and city separately because they’re separate regions politically and geographically. Baltimore County surrounds the city on three sides.) But getting back to Anne Arundel: unless I’m mistaken, and so far in my casual research, I’m not, Anne Arundel County is the only county in America that has someone’s first and last name in it. Beat that with a stick. The post Redrawing Maryland Maps–September 6, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The American Army has evacuated Brooklyn. Reports are coming in from all over that the Loyalists are being rather sore winners over the event. Refugees are coming into Connecticut from across the Long Island Sound. George Washington, literally the last man out of Brooklyn, is trying to figure out his next move, and that of […] The post More Brooklyn Aftermath–September 5, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When Nicholas Emery was born, the state in which he did most of his important work didn’t yet exist. At the time of his birth, Maine was still considered part of Massachusetts, which is a vast oversimplification, since New Hampshire also had claim to a lot of this land (and that partially explains why New […] The post Nicholas Emery–September 4, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The HMS Rose was a British ship that we first discussed a little over a year ago. Her job was largely to patrol the waters off southern New England to prevent smuggling activity on the part of the Americans. In July 1776 the Rose was dispatched—like many, many other British ships—to New York Harbor for […] The post Down By The Bay–September 3, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

General John Sullivan had been captured only a few days before by the British, during the Battle of Long Island. Now, Mike tells us in this episode that the Howes talked him into approaching the Continental Congress with their peace offering, but equally likely is that Sullivan simply agreed to deliver the message because it […] The post A British Offer–September 2, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

If nothing else, Ezekiel Bacon was a fairly reliable Representatvie in Congress, given how often he voted with his party, and the fact that he had a good attendance record as well. Bacon became a representative in Massachusetts when his predecessor, Barnabas Bidwell, resigned from the state legislature over irregularities in the Berkshire County books […] The post Ezekiel Bacon–September 1, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Washington wrote two letters today: one to General William Heath, and the other to Congress. To Heath, he basically gave a little bit of an “attaboy” in agreeing with Heath’s assessment regarding the British Army’s next move. So he recommended that chevaux de frise be sunk in the waters nearby the next likely target (Huntspoint), […] The post Washington Is Back To Business–August 31, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Even though George Washington was in charge of the whole Continental Army, he still had people to answer to. Most directly that would be the Continental Congress and that will happen very soon, but in the meantime there were also some local officials he had to placate. Which brings us to today’s episode, in which […] The post GW Explains His Exit–August 30, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Maryland 400 (who got that name because “The Maryland 270 ” was too awkward?) was directly responsible for keeping the American losses relatively low, considering how badly the battle went for them. In the final accounting, about 300 soldiers were dead, another 650-800 were wounded and 1100 were captured. British and German casualties numbered […] The post The Maryland Heroes–August 29, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As we told you yesterday, Washington got the word rather late that the battle wasn’t going down the way he thought it would, largely because the Jamaica Pass, which was rarely used, was the path that most of the British Army took against the Continental Army. At the same time, they left a contingent of […] The post The Battle Winds Down–August 28, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Battle of Long Island was one of our largest engagements with the British, and it was also the first one after the Declaration of Independence. And it was a rout; the Americans got their heads handed to them. The British took New York and they occupied it for the rest of the war. After […] The post The Battle of Long Island–August 27, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

At this point, both George Washington and General William Howe know that they’re literally on the eve of battle, and they’re making their final preparations. The British, along with the Hessians, were making plans to move along the Jamaica Pass (it’s the road just above the Acroasis logo in today’s art), which, while they didn’t […] The post Eve of Battle–August 26, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Like the Continental Army didn’t have enough problems with being outnumbered nearly two-to-one, now they’re looking at another five thousand Hessians landing in Brooklyn. The name “Hessians” is what they call a synecdoche; that’s when a part of something is used to refer to the whole. For instance, when we say “boots on the ground,” […] The post More Hessians Arrive–August 25, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

That George Washington chose to add Israel Putnam to his leadership rolls in Brooklyn isn’t specifically mysterious. What is mysterious is that Putnam was added rather than used as a replacement for someone else. As a result of that move, there were essentially two men in charge on Long Island, with Putnam as the theater […] The post Meet The New Boss–August 24, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The day after the British landed on Long Island, George Washington was disheartened to learn that army provisioning wasn’t at the level he’d expected, despite his orders only a week earlier. It was bad enough that he’d been caught a little flatfooted by both the magnitude and the direction of the British movement, now he […] The post Reacting to Brooklyn–August 23, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

One fine Thursday morning in August of 1776, about 4000 British troops, led by General Henry Clinton and General George Cornwallis, landed at Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn. By the end of the day, their number had swelled to over 16,000. George Washington’s problem was that he only heard about the initial 4000 later that day […] The post Landing In Brooklyn–August 22, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When looking at historical documents related to Joseph Healy, it appears that most of them relate to Healy in a rather ancillary manner. We know how many times he voted in Congress because someone keeps tallies of everyone in Congress. We know about his family tree because he was traced back via Ancestry.com. Healy is […] The post Joseph Healy–August 21, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s been coming for at least two months, and the Battle of Long Island has finally begun. As we’ve noted a few times the past couple of days, George Washington had to make a few educated guesses about what the British were planning to do, but this left his troops thinly spread throughout Brooklyn and […] The post The Battle Begins–August 20, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The reason that this portrait—and most of the others—of Rufus Putnam is in profile is that, when he was a child, one of his eyes was disfigured in an accident, giving it a, “outward, oblique cast.” Putnam joined the Revolutionary War effort the very first day, after the battle at Lexington and Concord. During the […] The post Not Making It Easy–August 19, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Samuel Dunbar was born in Boston on October 2, 1704. When he was 4, his father died. At a very early age he attracted the attention of the Reverend Cotton Mather. With Mather’s guidance, Dunbar attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College. In 1727, the people of Canton reached out and sent letters of inquiry […] The post The Declaration, In Church–August 18, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Ever the polite man, George Washington strongly urged (rather than ordered) civilians to evacuate Manhattan before the British began their attack. Washington’s biggest problem was that he knew that the British were coming, but he had no idea how they were going to do it, given that Manhattan is an island, and while Brooklyn is […] The post Get Outta Town!–August 17, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

We’ve visited Esek Hopkins in the past, when we told you about the transgressions he committed that led to today’s activity. To be fair, when Hopkins chose to engage in the raid on Nassau, the reaction in Congress was mixed, especially at first. John Hancock was happy that the Continental Navy had seized badly-needed war […] The post An Official Reprimand–August 16, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Nathanael Greene was among the first to step up when the shooting started at Lexington and Concord. This is almost certainly because a British official seized a vessel owned by Greene and his brothers. After the Intolerable Acts were enacted in 1774, Greene organized a militia unit called the “Kentish Guards.” Despite his leadership, he […] The post Greene Isn’t Happy–August 15, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

John and Abigail Adams were one of the great love stories of the 18th Century, and for John to receive a letter from Abigail must have been heavenly, even if it happened nearly every day. To be sure, Abigail didn’t always have good news with regard to whatever might be happening at home, and today’s […] The post Mail From Braintree–August 14, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Abraham Shepherd hails from Shepherdstown, West Virginia, but when he was born it was Mecklenburg, Virginia. As near as I can put it together, there were originally two large tracts of land belonging to Shepherd families; one was over 200 acres and the other was a 750-acre plot of mostly farmland. In 1776 there were […] The post Abraham Shepherd–August 13, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Andrew Pickens was a plantation owner whose property was near Seneca, South Carolina, which is almost as far west as you can go and still be in South Carolina. As the Cherokee-American wars wore down, Pickens was able to sign peace treaties with the tribe, which was known as the Treaty of Hopewell. Meanwhile, in […] The post Do The Fight Ring–August 12, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

George Washington’s means for maintaining motivation in the Continental Army came from two directions: discipline and stirring rhetoric as a means of providing the troops with something to rally for. And his Orders of the Day for this day seem to be focused simultaneously on both. As noted elsewhere, Washington could be a stickler for […] The post Maintaining Motivation–August 11, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Once again, we have a situation where the technology of the eighteenth century has to be seen to be believed. Only a few days ago, we mentioned an event that took place in France without knowledge that the United States had declared independence, and now we have today’s entry, suggesting that it’s only in the […] The post The Big News–August 10, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The idea to have a flying camp at all belonged to Geroge Washington. He knew that he was going to be facing huge numbers of British soldiers soon, and he proposed having a mobile unit that could show up wherever they were needed. While the soldiers came from three specific states, they were intended to […] The post Flying Camp Rations–August 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The career of John Paul Jones, or Captain Jones, as he became on this day, is marked by both brilliance and controversy. Jones was born in Scotland and sailed on merchant ships before coming to America and joining the nascent navy here. Through the Revolutionary War, he was involved with several key battles, many times […] The post Captain Jones–August 8, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

I promised you a postscript for the Christopher French story, but let me offer up some broader context first. In July 1776, French wrote to George Washington from Connecticut, where he was being held as a prisoner of war. The purpose of the letter was to request parole from his confinement. Washington’s reply reads: Sir: […] The post A Gift For George, None For Chris–August 7, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

We didn’t spend a whole lot of time talking about John Morton, who comes up as part of today’s episode, and he does have an important part in the quest for Independence. John Morton’s father died the same year he was born. John had very little formal schooling; most of what he learned, he learned […] The post Confederation Talk And A Trade–August 6, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Charleston Liberty Tree has something in common with its more famous counterpart in Boston: neither tree made it to the end of the Revolutionary War. The Boston Liberty Tree was cut down by Loyalists in 1775, and the Charleston Liberty Tree was burned down by the British in 1780. In researching these trees and […] The post The Charleston Liberty Tree–August 5, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When it came to army discipline, George Washington had some definite opinions. The punishments we hear about were rather harsh by modern standards, but Washington had some problems with his recruits that modern armies don’t tend to have. Specifically, (and we’ve mentioned this before), the Continental Army had a relatively short enlistment period, which meant […] The post Laying Down The Law–August 4, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

George Washington had a deep-set sense of right and wrong, and sometimes his sense of Army decorum could get in his way. Our July 14 episode demonstrated that to a certain extent. Other times it demonstrate the high expectations he placed on himself and others. He wanted his officers to be behavior models, especially because […] The post It’s Only Proper–August 3, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The approval of the Lee Resolution was July 2, the Declaration was approved July 4, the signingof the Declaration was (mostly) on August 2. Which date would you have considered for Independence Day if you were in charge back then? Ah, who are you kidding. You’d have picked the Fourth as well. The approval of […] The post Sign Here, Please–August 2, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

At this point, Americans were fighting a two-front war. More accurately, they were fighting two wars against different enemies: the Cherokee in the southwest areas of the country (so far), and the British…well, practically everywhere else. But today we’ll focus on the British in New York. After yesterday’s disaster in the Ninety-Six District of South […] The post Escalation Everywhere–August 1, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As I mentioned very early in this podcast, Francis Salvador’s life was especially notable for two things: the day he was elected to public office, and the day he died. And in his case, the dates were notable largely for the fact that Francis Salvador was a Sephardic Jew, making him the first man of […] The post Farewell, Francis–July 31, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Both Dr. Benjamin Franklin and the Reverend John Witherspoon made good points when they discussed state representation in Congress under the Articles of Confederation they were trying to put together. The interesting thing is that the debate sounds very much like a modern-day discussion with regard to the nations that participate in NATO. Smaller nations […] The post Getting The Finer Details–July 30, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The presence of the British in Staten Island wasn’t a big mystery, but within a month after they first arrived, the number of ships in New York Harbor was well over 100, and still growing. And, as George Washington suspected (along with many others), the British began moving up the rivers surrounding Manhattan, working their […] The post British Forces Gather in NY–July 29, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Hygiene in the Continental Army was practically nonexistent. As you can imagine, things got pretty ripe around camp, especially in the summer. And when people don’t take good care of such things, they’re probably going to wind up sick. Getting sick when you’re supposed to be on duty likely means that you’re going to do […] The post Cleaning Up The Act–July 28, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Getting arms and credit wasn’t an overly tough task for Silas Deane. But it wasn’t because the French liked us so much; it was because they were still a little salty about the French and Indian War. So they were willing to do almost anything to embarrass the British. As a delegate to France (essentially […] The post Credit From France–July 27, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

That Native American relations were considered at all as part of the Articles of Confederation is a little bit of a mystery, but it’s possible that the Congress was just looking for some across-the-board consistency when it came to that sort of thing. After all, you couldn’t have the folks in the Southern States battling […] The post What To Do With Those Natives?–July 26, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Representatives from each colony were already working on draft Articles of Confederation beginning one day after Thomas Jefferson, et.al. started work on the Declaration of Independence. The first draft Articles were presented to the Congress on July 12, and this day was another day of discussion and debate. The ultimate disposition of the articles discussed […] The post Drafting A Confederation–July 25, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.