250 and Counting

This day in American History, 250 years ago.

  • Busy Day For Mr. Rutledge–September 27, 1776

    Cover art for September 27, 1776: Portrait of Edward Rutledge by James Earl, 1791. via Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC.

    In putting this episode together, I realized that I used this same image of Edward Rutledge back in the September 9 episode. However, I neglected to put the information for the image in the alt text. And that’s something I do try not to overlook. On the other hand, I was still hopped up on cold medication, so there’s that.

    And before I forget, I mentioned the censure of Esek Hopkins during the episode, so I wanted to ensure that I linked back to that as well.

    In addition to being the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence, at the tender age of 26, Edward Rutledge was also a governor of South Carolina. By my count he was their ninth governor, from 1798 to 1800, but that’s if you count his brother John Rutledge twice, since John served twice, non-consecutively. Also, he was the ninth governor of the state of South Carolina; if you count the colonial governors, he’d be thirty-ninth.

    After leaving the Continental Congress, Rutledge did fight in the Continental Army. He was captured during the Siege of Charleston in 1780 and released in a prisoner exchange the following year.

    I should note that while Rutledge was governor he suffered from an attack of gout and went home to Charleston to recuperate. Not long afterwards, he heard the news of George Washington’s death and was so upset by this that he had an attack of apoplexy and died. (Modern-day medical types would probably say that he had a cerebral stroke.) Rutledge had been the Governor for 401 days.

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  • The French Commission

    Cover art for September 26, 1776: 1785 portrait of Arthur Lee by Charles Willson Peale. via Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.

    The Continental Congress, in the wake of Washington’s recent letter, finally realized that they weren’t going to be able to defeat the British on their own. Some outside assistance would be needed.

    So on this day in 1776, they appointed a three-man commission to undertake a diplomatic mission to France, seeking money, arms and other materials.

    France, as we’ve mentioned before, was a good country to hit up. They were still salty about the way the French and Indian War ended up, and they’d already been assisting America through gray and black markets, in order to give themselves plausible deniability should someone get caught. Should this mission succeed, the activity would be much more overt, and could be perceived as France’s official recognition of the United States as a sovereign nation.

    It ultimately didn’t work out that way; that particular distinction went to Morocco and France became the second nation to officially recognize the US.

    As Mike notes, the trip itself wouldn’t get underway for another few months, but there’s no doubt that the meeting with French authorities marked a critical turning point for the American Revolution.

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  • John Adams Wants To Go Home–September 25, 1776

    Cover art for September 25, 1776: the entire letter from John Adams to Abigail on this date. via Massachusetts Historical Society.

    Back in April, Mike and I had the opportunity to visit the Massachusetts Historical Society, and we were able to spend some time with the man whose job it is to curate, analyze and organize the papers of the Adams family. Not just John and Abigail, but their descendants and maybe a few ancillary branches of the family. At one point in the conversation I said to him, “It seems like John and Abigail were really hot for each other.”

    He was a little taken aback by this but he didn’t disagree with me, either.

    And I stand by my statement; it was clear by both the content and the tone of their writing that they were deeply in love with one another, and it was positively killing him that he had to spend so much time in Philadelphia, away from her.

    Which is why the letter discussed in today’s episode may come as a surprise.

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  • Washington’s Desperate Letter–September 24, 1776

    Cover art for September 24, 1776: portrait of George Washington commissioned by John Hancock shortly before the Declaration was issued, painted by Charles WIllson Peale in 1776. via the Brooklyn Museum.

    George Washington was a practical man, and he realized that without a standing army, he wouldn’t stand a chance against the British.

    Sure, it’s good to have motivated people who are passionate about the cause, but when they have setbacks, they’re more likely to bail out, and that’s exactly what he was facing once the dust began to settle from his losses in New York. Many of the recruits that he had weren’t finishing out the enlistment period they’d agreed on when they first joined up, and the fact that their supplies and their pay were sporadic didn’t help matters.

    It was with this in mind that Washington wrote to Congress, strongly recommending that they make some changes to the way that the Continental Army was being administered. Improving pay would be great, but simply ensuring that pay happened on a regular basis would be even better. And, of course, if a standing army could be established, then the men would be locked in for longer periods of time, and his officers wouldn’t spend so much time training new recruits.

    Whether Congress agrees to this change…stay tuned.

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  • The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition–September 23, 1776

    Cover art for September 23, 1776: map of the expedition's route across the Colorado Plateau. from Bancroft's History of Utah, 1540-1886 (1889). via Wikimedia Commons.

    The Dominguez-Escalante Expedtion was an effort to find an over-land route from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Monterey, California. Their journey took them north across the Colorado Plateau to Utah Lake Valley, which was a peculiar route at first, until you realize that they started with a route taken by Juan Rivera in 1765.

    Atanasi Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante were born in Mexico City and Spain, respectively. They left Santa Fe along with about a dozen others (one of whom had been on the Juan Rivera trip) beginning on July 30.

    Throughout their trip they were beset by spells of bad weather punctuated by areas of arid land, which meant little pasture for the horses to feed, and insufficient water. And while the Grand Canyon, which I mentioned during the episode, was certainly an obstacle, it wasn’t the only canyon they had to deal with that had difficult terrain for them to navigate. They crossed into the Utah territory on September 11 and reached Utah Lake on this date. Their stop at the Utah Lake Valley was a happy one, as the local natives treated them very well and gave them provisions, but shortly after leaving a few days later, the conditions became difficult again and they made the decision to return to Santa Fe on October 5.

    It was still almost three full months before they arrived back in Santa Fe, on January 2, 1777. They hadn’t accomplished their original mission, but they’d mapped a lot of territory and laid the foundation for a future trail.

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  • Nathan Hale Is Hanged–September 22, 1776

    Cover art for September 22, 1776: "The British Hang Nathan Hale in New York City, 1776", artist identified as M. Nevin. Published as a print in 1860. Via Library of Congress.

    For a long time the debate about what Nathan Hale said before he was hanged was whether he said “I regret that I have but one life to give for my country” or “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

    In more recent years, it’s emerged that what he said is probably lost to history, since contemporary accounts aren’t especially clear about it. More accurately, the most reliable-ish contemporary account is second-hand at best, so it’s a History version of the game Telephone. You kids remember telephones, right? I realize that nowadays a telephone is an app on your phone. (Leave me alone, I’m two hundred and six years old.)

    By all accounts, Hale comported himself well this day. He almost certainly said more than one sentence. Some have thought that when he said the “regret” line, he was reciting a passage from Joseph Addision’s play Cato, which includes:

    How beautiful is death, when earn’d by virtue!
    Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
    That we can die but once to serve our country.

    Many place names and buildings are named after Nathan Hale; one you may not realize comes from him is the town of Halesite on Long Island; until 1899 it was known as Huntington Harbor. In that year it was changed to honor Nathan Hale to mark the area where he first landed on Long Island from Connecticut not long before his capture.

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  • Nathan Hale’s Capture–September 21, 1776

    Cover art for September 21, 1776: Bronze bust of Nathan Hale, sculpted by Enoch Smith Woods between 1885 and 1900, located in East Haddam, CT. via Wikimedia Commons.

    One of the events that took place the same day of Nathan Hale’s capture is that there was a huge fire in New York that burned about a quarter of the city.

    Now, the British thought that it was started by American saboteurs to prevent the city from falling into British hands. However, while that idea had come up, George Washington was under orders not to do so, and they therefore denied any responsibility. For their part, the Americans suggested that British soldiers were responsible for the fire (without orders to do so), to enable them to sack the city.

    There is a third possibility out there that’s been floated, and that would be that Hale was responsible for setting the fire. However, he was across the river in Queens when he was arrested, so it’s not likely at all that he was the culprit; in fact, there’s really no evidence that arson specifically was to blame for the fire. It’s not known where it started, or whether it began in more than one place. What is known is that the weather conditions (dry and windy), plus the wooden buildings and narrow roads, made it easy for the fire to spread, and when it stopped, it was as much by wind changes as any efforts by people to put it out. (Also, a large undeveloped property acted as a fire-break.)

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  • Pennsylvania Writes A Constitution–September 20, 1776

    Cover art for September 20, 1776: first page of the original Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776.

    The Pennsylvania Constitution turned out to have many unique qualities, but they were so good that before long they weren’t unique anymore, because so many people copied them.

    That’s not to say that everything about the Pennsylvania Constitution was unique, or even original. For instance, the document begins with a Declaration of Rights that was lifted directly from Virginia.

    Regardless, there were some radical ideas in there (for that time), which clearly demonstrated that some of the authors had a little bit of an ax to grind when it came to the way things were being done up until then. Government was designed to be relatively weak, in the sense that it was difficult for any one entity to seize power. Decisions were made by one body and they were largely carried out by another. Veto power wasn’t really a thing. And…anyone could vote? ANYONE? Yes, so long as they were taxpayers. And male. But that’s still a much bigger demographic than other states were offering the franchise to.

    The committee which worked on this document presented it to the rest of the Committee of Safety (which was running things for the time being), and in a few days we’ll look at the actual adoption of the Pennsylvania Constitution and some of the people who opposed its adoption.

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  • Battle of the Black Hole–September 19, 1776

    Cover art for September 19, 1776: Historical Marker noting the location in Wayah Creek (west of Franklin, NC) where the Battle of the Black Hole took place. via NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

    The Battle of the Black Hole, also known as the Battle of Coweecho River, lasted about two hours and had surprisingly few casualties, considering its location and just how fierce the fighting was.

    Colonel Andrew Williamson essentially marched into an ambush in a deep gorge, and had to fight their way out. They began by using a circular formation because they found themselves surrounded. But because they were in such a tight spot geographically, they realized that the only way out is through, as the expression goes. Williamson led a bayonet charge, which drove out the Cherokees, who were low on ammunition anyway.

    Four Cherokees were killed altogether, and eleven militiamen were killed, plus twenty-four men were wounded.

    Interestingly, the exact location of the battle is not known, but based on contemporary accounts, historians have placed it at or near Wayah Gap in Macon County, NC. For some time there was an argument that it took place further north, in Swain County, a place called “Indian Grave Gap.” But given the militia groups’ respective destinations as they moved, this location doesn’t make sense.

    The fact is, much of the correct information for this battle had to be painstakingly teased from contemporary reports. At one point it was thought that it was General Rutherford’s men who had fought the battle, but that was based on a single article written nearly a hundred years later. Furthermore, that article was based on sketchy research.

    So the Battle of the Black Hole was brief, it was relatively bloodless, and it was the last battle in the Cherokee-American War that would take place in North Carolina, though many more were to come in other states.

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  • Washington’s Report–September 18, 1776

    Cover art for September 18, 1776: "The Battle of Harlem Heights, September 16, 1776" (Cropped), multiple printmakers, via New York Public Library.

    Washington’s report to Congress regarding the events at Harlem Heights a couple of days earlier didn’t pull any punches with regard to how badly his army was beaten, or what mistakes he and his men might have made.

    It didn’t always make for cheerful reading in Congress, but at least they knew what they were up against. They knew they weren’t getting whitewashed “Everything Is Just Peachy” reports from someone afraid of dealing with Congressional fallout.

    And fortunately, Washington’s report in this case was a mixed bag of bad luck, extraordinarily good luck, unfortunate timing and the plain difficulty of defending an island that had so much coastline within sight of adjacent coastline (because Manhattan is surrounded by rivers, not oceans). New York ended badly for the Continental Army, but there were multiple times that it could have ended so much worse.

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