Okay, first off, it’s only appropriate that I apologize for the stupid title. I really shouldn’t write when I’m low on sleep.
Manley’s beginnings were murky (e.g. his year of birth is approximate) but he was a quick study and it’s no wonder that George Washington selected him as one of his first captains in the Revolutionary War. Just a few months later he was promoted to Commodore.
Manley spent a couple of years harassing and capturing British ships, until he himself was captured. After nearly a year of imprisonment he was released. It was at that time that he became a privateer. A few years after that he re-joined the navy and remained there until his death in 1793.
To be clear, the actual burning of Falmouth took place on October 18, but the events that led directly to it happened on this day.
Captain Henry Mowat had been captured by patriots in Falmouth some time earlier. When he returned, he brought five gunships with him. When he demanded that the locals swear allegiance to King George III, he gave the command that laid waste to the town.
Fort St. Jean was a relatively soft target compared to Boston. Plus, it wasn’t as well fortified because the British weren’t holed up there. Sooner or later something would come along to break up the stalemate.
On this day, a couple of somethings arrived, from Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The big guns that Montgomery had hoped for finally arrived. And not long behind that, Montgomery was able to take Fort Chambly, which wouldn’t have been a huge deal had its commander not forgotten an important detail while he was high-tailing it out of there.
Programming Note: Mike came down with a case of electronic laryngitis, so you’re getting me again for today’s episode. But Mike wrote it, so there’s that.
John Dabney Terrell Sr. was…not one of our best and brightest Americans, but the work he did will lead us to a bigger story some time down the road. Much of what he did laid down the foundation for the event that became known for the Trail of Tears.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, he was a slave owner who put some of his slave property (ugh, but that was the legal term) in his son’s name to avoid losing them in a pending lawsuit against him.
That he did all this and chose to be buried in a very Native American fashion is kind of amazing.
It’s Cake and Candles for the US Navy, born this day in 1775.
The Continental Congress initially authorized the purchase and retrofitting of two ships. But before long they saw the wisdom of having a navy, and soon many more ships were purchased, and commissioned into service.
The Continental Navy, to be honest, didn’t have a huge impact on the war. Many ships were lost to British attacks, weather, or accidents. What it did have a big impact on, however, was the War of 1812. The seamen who fought in the Revolution were well-seasoned officers by the time that war came along.
It’s also worth noting that the Continental Navy was disbanded after the Revolution, but a few years later the US Navy was officially established. However, given the continuity of tradition and the fact that today was the day that Congress authorized the purchase of the vessels, the Navy decided in 1971 that October 13, 1775 was the date of its official establishment.
Although Lyman Beecher could be considered famous just for being the father of several prominent writers and ministers, he also had some achievements in his own right.
Beecher first became known for a sermon which was published shortly afterward on the evils of duelling. Because it was in the wake of Alexander Hamilton’s death, it proved quite popular.
Beecher next turned his eyes to intemperance, which is what intoxication was called at the time. It was a concern throughout America in the mid 1820s, so he delivered and published a half-dozen sermons which sold very well in America and in Europe. Those sales continued well into the 1870s.
By the time Beecher arrived at Lane Seminary in the early 1830s, slavery was coming to the fore as an important social topic. While he was an abolitionist at heart, his public stance was with colonization: the freeing of slaves and then moving them to start a colony in West Africa. (This is where Liberia got its start, incidentally.) Unfortunately, a multi-day public debate about colonization morphed into a discussion of abolitionism, and many students left the school altogether in protest.
Shortly after that, his views on changes in the church led to accusations of heresy, which he successfully defended. However, the seminary was left gutted and he moved back to New York to live with his son Henry in Brooklyn, where he remained until his death.
Benedict Arnold and Company are still on the move toward Quebec. Over a three-week period they’ve moved fewer than 90 miles, with only…300 to go. Today they’ve reached The Great Carrying Place, a 13-mile walk alternating between woods and knee-deep mud, all while carrying everything they’ll need to get to Canada.
Back in the Colonies proper, General Gage is being replaced by General Howe. Gage was largely responsible for the Siege of Boston, especially since they weren’t able to break that siege. And then Bunker Hill came along. Sure, the British won but at great cost—a Pyrrhic victory. Once word got back to Britain about that, Lord Dartmouth appointed Howe within a couple of days. Of course, it took several weeks for the news to get back to America, and on September 26 he learned he was being replaced. By this days’ end, Gage was on his way back to Britain.
That’s an interesting goof I made with today’s cover art, with the tiny black stripe down the right. It’s a mistake, but it looks like the picture has a shadow, so I’m keepin’ it.
The Second Continental Congress was a very serious, thoughtful body of men who did not shirk their duties. They often worked very long hours, six days a week, and might have gone for seven had it not been for, y’know, God stepping in and commanding, “Hey, none of that. That’s My day.”
So the fact that Congress chose to knock off early one day—and a Tuesday, besides—suggests that maybe they really needed this one.
By now the British appear to accepted the fact that the war was going to go on for much longer than they thought. They thought that fighting the colonies would be a cake walk.
They discovered that it was quickly becoming a quagmire.
Fortunately they recognized it and began to make plans. Lord Dartmouth and General Howe started drawing something up that involved isolating Washington’s army from the rest of the Colonies, but George Germain, who was about to replace Lord Dartmouth, thought more aggressively. He didn’t want to defeat the Colonies; he wanted to punish them, besides.
When the war first started, the Continental Army took on all comers, largely because they didn’t have a lot of choice. Frankly, they needed whatever bodies they could get.
But it was around this time in 1775 that George Washington and his advisers decided that they could afford to get choosier about their recruits, So they decided not to take on any more Black soldiers. What’s more, soldiers who were already there would not be permitted to re-enlist.
Eventually—in a couple of years—they’d reverse their stance, for the same reason they took on the Black soldiers in the first place. They were getting low on manpower,
