250 and Counting

Author: Claude Call

  • The Fate of a Crew–January 31, 1776

    Cover art for January 31, 1776: Etching of William Alexander, Lord Stirling, as a Major General. Etching by H.B. Hall, 1892. via New York Public Library.
    Etching of William Alexander, Lord Stirling, as a Major General. Etching by H.B. Hall, 1892. via New York Public Library.

    The capture and ultimate disposition of the HMS Blue Mountain Valley and her crew was, in the bigger scheme of things, a relatively minor event in the American Revolution, however it did suddenly bring both New Jersey and New York into more active participation in the war.

    And even though the Blue Mountain Valley was beset by storms that they couldn’t possibly control, the fact that the ship was so easily captured despite the protections they’d put in place so far became a major point of debate back in England. It led to a policy prohibiting the use of transport ships to America unless they had a Naval escort.

    A policy like that is pretty good for keeping the ship and cargo losses down, but it wreaks havoc on the Naval resources. So this event was a win in the short run for the Americans, but it was a long-run win as well because of the way it inconvenienced the British over the next several years.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • Enlisting Apprentices–January 30, 1776

    Cover art for January 30, 1776: "Colonial Blacksmith, 1776". Wood engraving, attributed to "Granger" though this may be the name of the collection.
    “Colonial Blacksmith, 1776”. Wood engraving, attributed to “Granger” though this may be the name of the collection.

    While we’re talking about enlisting apprentices today, it should be noted that there was precious little difference between an apprentice and an indentured servant, except maybe their age. Thus, the rules that applied to apprentices when it came to enlistment could also be applied to indentured servants, especially inasmuch as some of those rules seemed designed more for them than apprentices.

    Also: Mike mentioned James Mease and his ketchup recipe. To clarify, ketchup had been around for hundreds of years, originating in China (or Vietnam; it’s a little fuzzy). What Mease did was add a tomato base, giving us the ketchup that we’re used to putting on our cookout foods. The Chinese stuff, commonly called “kê-chiap” was a fish-based sauce.

    Mease’s recipe involved brandy and spices; no sugar or vinegar. Here’s the recipe he published:

    Slice the apples* thin, and over every layer sprinkle a little salt; cover them, and let them lie twenty-four hours; then beat them well, and simmer them half an hour in a bell-metal kettle; then add mace & allspice. When cold, add two cloves of raw shallots cut small, and half a gill of brandy to each bottle, which must be corked tight, and kept in a cool place.

    *Mease called them “apples” because he was using the French word for tomatoes, “pommes d’amour” or “love apples.”

    Anyway, try it out and get back to us.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • From John To George–January 29, 1776

    A letter written by John Hancock.

    Letters from John Hancock to George Washington weren’t especially scarce, nor were letters going the other way. However, today’s letter takes on a few important topics for Washington that one hopes came greatly appreciated.

    There was commendation that Washington had the foresight to send troops to New York, there was some good financial news, there was also good news in the realm of troop recruitment, and there was a warning about likely military action coming fairly soon.

    All in all, it was a letter packed with information, and if we had to guess (because we don’t know), it was likely conveyed by courier rather than the postal system, which was still prone to interception by the British.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • Arrest of a Franklin–January 28, 1776

    Cover art for January 28, 1776: Portrait of William Franklin, 1790, attributed to Mather Brown. via Wikimedia.
    Portrait of William Franklin, 1790, attributed to Mather Brown. via Wikimedia.

    It used to be rumored that Benjamin Franklin had over 30 children out of wedlock, but that’s since been debunked. (And there goes a perfectly good “lightning rod” joke.)

    But William Franklin was considered illegitimate, though he was raised by his father and his common-law wife Deborah Read. There are some breadcrumbs here and there that lead some historians to believe that Deborah was, in fact, William’s mother, but nothing thick enough exists to confirm that.

    At any rate, William was one of the last great Loyalists, and while his arrest and move to Connecticut was alluded to in the play 1776, it didn’t quite happen the way it was described there. Or at the time the viewer was led to believe. Tune in to get the real story from Mike.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • Rules for Native American Trade–January 27, 1776

    Cover art for January 27, 1776: Engraving titled Washington and Fairfax and a War-Dance by John Rogers, 1857.
    Engraving titled Washington and Fairfax and a War-Dance by John Rogers, 1857. The event depicted actually took place in 1779.

    As noted in the episode, there were several different rules laid down for trading with Native Americans at that time, and some of them were designed to ensure that they remained on our side or, at worst, that they remained neutral in Revolution-based matters.

    But the rules wound up working out well for both sides: the various tribes were able to get the materials they wanted, and trade was conducted under better-controlled conditions.

    In addition, they led to trade-related treaties with several tribes up and down the coast during the next year or so. And with over 80 tribes east of the Mississippi River at that time, that’s a lot of treaties to negotiate.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • The Noble Train Pulls Into The Station–January 26, 1776

    Cover art for January 26, 1776: "Knox entering camp with artillery" by William H. van Ingen, c. 1831. via Library of Congress.
    “Knox entering camp with artillery” by William H. van Ingen, c. 1831. via Library of Congress. Depicts Henry Knox on horseback with soldiers transporting a disassembled canon on a sled through the snow, winter 1775-76, following his famous capture of artillery at Fort Ticonderoga. Wood engraving, hand-colored.

    The Noble Train of Artillery has finally arrived!

    Given that it was over 150 miles from Ticonderoga NY to Cambridge, MA, and that it was wintertime, and that Interstate 90 was still over 150 years in the future, it’s pretty amazing that Henry Knox was able to move so much artillery so efficiently.

    As Mike notes in the episode, the arrival date is largely a guess, since Knox’s diaries ended the last time we checked in with him, about two weeks ago when he was in western Massachusetts and, it appears, nobody else kept accurate notes on the event. There are, however, notes on the disposition of the materiel, so that makes this a pretty good guess. And it allowed the Continental Army to maintain the Siege of Boston until the British finally bailed out two months later.

  • Our First Memorial–January 25, 1776

    Cover art for January 25, 1776: the monument erected to honor Richard Montgomery outside St. Paul's Chapel at Trinity Church. via Wikimedia Commons.
    The monument erected to honor Richard Montgomery outside St. Paul’s Chapel at Trinity Church.
    The inscription reads: This Monument is erected by the order of Congress, 25th, Janry, 1776, to transmit to Posterity a grateful remembrance of the patriotism conduct enterprise & perseverance of Major General Richard Montgomery
    Who after a series of successes amidst the most discouraging Difficulties Fell in the attack on Quebec. 31st, Decbr, 1775. Aged 37 Years.

    We weren’t even a nation yet and Congress had already commissioned the Richard Montgomery Memorial. And while the memorial itself was completed rather quickly by the commissioned artist, the war interfered with its transport and it took nearly ten years to find all the pieces.

    (Dirty Secret: they never found all of them; the urn at top center was a reproduction.)

    Montgomery was generally known to be a good general even if his death was practically inevitable, given the circumstances. But that didn’t stop people from turning him into a martyr for the cause of Independence.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

    PS. Trinity Church’s website has a page dedicated to the monument, which aided my research for this episode. There’s a huge, fascinating segment dedicated to the 2011 restoration process for this memorial.

  • Jean-Guillaume Hyde–January 24, 1776

    Cover art for January 24, 1776: Detail of an 1830 lithograph by Ducarme after a portrait by Legrand.
    Detail of an 1830 lithograph by Ducarme after a portrait by Legrand.

    While the United States has had its share of international mishaps, not all of them have been created by Americans. Jean-Guillaume Hyde, more properly known as “Jean-Guillaume, baron Hyde de Neuville”, would be an early example of this.

    Hyde was probably a textbook case of failing upward, as he appears to have suffered multiple setbacks and still managed to come out ahead later on. As early as 1793, when he was 17, Hyde liked to work behind the scenes, trying to nudge people into saying and doing things that would benefit France, and oftentimes failing. This eventually led to his being made to move to the United States in 1800. In 1814 when the Bourbons returned to power in France, he was allowed to return.

    That’s where his diplomatic career began, and he spent six years as the ambassador to the US, where he was rather universally despised. From there he went to Portugal, where he was again a disaster as a diplomat. This time it only took about three years to kick him out.

    In 1828 Hyde became Minister of the Navy and the Colonies where he did appear to have some luck improving the way the French Colonial Empire was organized and run, but he eventually resigned from the position as a symbol of protest.

    Hyde was involved with the internal discussions to decide whether a new commercial treaty with the US was a worthy idea, though we don’t think he did any of the actual negotiating with America.

    Hyde died in Paris in 1857 and the book of his “memoirs” is actually a collection of letters and notes compiled by his nieces.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

  • A Most Dreadful Voyage–January 23, 1776

    Cover art for January 23, 1776: "An English Ship at Sea Lying-To in a Gale," painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger, late 17th century.
    “An English Ship at Sea Lying-To in a Gale,” painted by Willem van de Velde the Younger, late 17th century.

    The HMS Blue Mountain Valley—which probably got its name from the place in eastern Jamaica—had rather a rough trip to America from London in late 1775 and early 1776.

    They left London in mid-October 1775 and ran into multiple storms before arriving somewhere near Boston nine or ten weeks later. Damage to the ship was such that it was judged unsafe to enter the Massachusetts Bay because safe navigation there couldn’t be guaranteed. They decided to head further south, arriving near Egg Harbor, NJ on January 18.

    Given that they were under orders not to approach the coast without an escorting warship (or reassurance from a warship that a given harbor was safe), they chose to take the Blue Mountain Valley a few miles north to Sandy Hook, where they could get a refit to navigate the ship safely. Bad luck for them; Patriot forces knew they were coming and laid a trap, capturing them easily. By that point, the sailors were hungry and thirsty, much of their cargo had died or gone rotten, and it’s entirely possible that the crew actually viewed capture as a kind of rescue. The ship was moved to Elizabethtown (now known as just Elizabeth, just south of modern-day Newark Airport) and the crew given parole in the town.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

    PS: much of my research for this episode came from Eric Wiser’s Journal of the American Revolution article “Blue Mountain Valley and the Rise of Lord Stirling,” which goes into much greater depth than I could provide either here or in the episode. It’s a pretty fascinating read.

  • “Which Will Be Your Choice?”–January 22, 1776

    Cover art for January 22, 1776: portrait of Francis Lightfoot Lee. Artist and date unknown, however the original painting is thought to have been created during his lifetime. This is the basis for many images of Lee.
    Portrait of Francis Lightfoot Lee. Artist and date unknown, however the original painting is thought to have been created during his lifetime. This is the basis for many images of Lee.

    Francis Lightfoot Lee is another one of those Founding Fathers who was there for much of the main action, but who doesn’t seem to get as much press as Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and a few others. That’s not to say he didn’t have any influence.

    In fact, as we learn today, he was one of the first to suggest the inevitability of a clean break with Britain. At least, one of the first to actually put it in writing, which was pretty brave considering the British habit of reading people’s mail.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed