250 and Counting

Author: Claude Call

  • Helping New York Help Itself–February 21, 1776

    Cover art for February 21, 1776: "Bowling Green, Broadway," by artist James Dakin and engraved by the firm Barnard and Dick, 1831. The house on the left became Washington's headquarters when he came to New York.

    There’s a line in the play 1776 about how everyone in the New York Legislature is very loud and talks very fast and as a result nothing ever gets done. This was likely a side effect of the fact that New York was so politically mixed at the time. Everyone hollering at rather than talking to each other means that nobody is truly connecting with anyone else. Thank goodness we’ve moved past THAT! <eyeroll>

    But New York and the Hudson Valley in particular held great strategic value for the various parties involved in the conflict we call the American Revolution. Britain taking that area would separate New England from the other Colonies. What’s more, George Washington knew it. So he devoted a lot of energy into ensuring that that territory remained defended, even while the British were nowhere in sight, because he knew it was a matter of time.

    And he was right: the British did show up ready for battle. It didn’t happen when he expected it to happen, and we’ll talk about that when things start heating up.

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  • From Connecticut To Georgia–February 20, 1776

    Cover art for February 20, 1776: Portrait of Connecticut Founding Father Oliver Wolcott by the American painter Ralph Earl, oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Museum of Connecticut History.

    Oliver Wolcott was one of our Founding Fathers in that he was one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, but while he never achieved prominence on the level of Franklin or Adams, he nevertheless served an important role as a member of the Second Continental Congress.

    As the Revolution began, Wolcott was made a commissioner of Indian affairs, largely to work on ensuring that the northern tribes remained neutral. He was considered qualified for that position because he worked in that part of the continent during the French and Indian War.

    He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and although he was quite ill for a chunk of 1776, he did sign the Declaration of Independence, although it was some time later than everyone else. He was also a signatory to the Articles of Confederation, but he did not sign the US Constitution because by then he was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, becoming governor in 1796. A year later he died at the age of 71.

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  • Fort Moultrie–February 19, 1776

    Cover art for February 19, 1776: Diagram of Fort Sullivan (later Fort Moultrie) on June 28, 1776. From Edward McCrady's South Carolina in the Revolution 1775-1780, published 1902

    Today we’re looking at Fort Moultrie.

    I know, it wasn’t that long ago that I was gushing about Fort McHenry, but I live in Baltmore so it’s kind of the law around here to pump up the local history. Also, Fort, McHenry is a cool place to visit.

    And so is Fort Moultrie! In fact, Fort Moultrie itself was built several times, including its original Fort Sullivan incarnation, and as a result there are extensive historic exhibits throughout the park. The various forts went through three wars against America (see, I did a thing there), and consequently there are a lot of stories to tell here.

    And when you’re through touring the fort and the grounds, make sure you have your fishing pole with you, because there’s a fishing dock there (it’ll re-open sometime this spring); I hear the fishing is pretty good because of the location.

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  • William Scarbrough–February 18, 1776

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    Cover art for February 18, 1776: A US postage stamp from 1944, commemorating the USS Savannah's 125th anniversary.

    William Scarbrough, who was the owner of the USS Savannah more than he was anything else, purchased the ship when it was still on the slipway. It was purchased with the aim of converting it to an auxiliary steamship and give his company the distinction of offering the world’s first transatlantic steamship service.

    The Savannah had multiple sources of propulsion, though. The steam engine could drive the side paddlewheels on either side which were retractable when the engine wasn’t in use. But it also had rigging that allowed it to be used as a sailing ships. So when it made the crossing in 1819, the trip took the better part of a month because poor weather forced them to use the sails more than the steam engine, a ratio of about 89% to 11%.

    The ship wound up being more of a novelty than anything else, and unfortunately she ran aground off the south shore of Long Island and broke up. When Tropical Storm Ian passed through in 2022, some wreckage washed up on Fire Island that was thought to be part of the Savannah. You can visit those parts at the Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society‘s museum exhibit.

  • Making Money–February 17, 1776

    Cover art for February 17, 1776: A two-dollar bill from the February 1776 run. Note the stitches holding the two halves together. via the Smithsonian Institution.

    Back in June, Mike told you about the Continental Congress taking a stab at issuing common currency that could be used throughout the Colonies. It didn’t work out very well, and the Continentals became a joke because there was nothing backing them up.

    But this time around, they may have gotten it right, because the new Continental Currency had some specific backing to it. (We don’t even have that today, thanks to Richard Nixon.)

    Look carefully at the bill in the cover art and you’ll see that it tore in two at some point. It wasn’t clear whether a half-bill would be accepted by any merchants, so people came up with all kinds of clever ways to reunite the two halves; in this case it was a needle and thread. Many bills that have survived to this day used this method to repair them.

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  • Nicholas Ware–February 16, 1776

    Cover art for February 16, 1776: portrait of Nicholas Ware. Date and artist unknown. Via US Senate Historical Office.

    Mike already tells you about all you need to know about Nicholas Ware in today’s episode, so let me focus on his home, which was derisively nicknamed “Ware’s Folly.”

    The house was completed in 1818 at a total cost of $40,000, which would be well over $12 million today. Part of this derives from the elaborate styling on the outside, and part of it is from the extravagant details on the inside, including a three-story elliptical staircase.

    The house, as Mike noted, is now the home of the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, which was founded in 1932 as the Augusta Art Club and later renamed in honor of founder Olivia Herbert’s daughter Gertrude Herbert Dunn.

    By 1936 the Art Club was in need of classroom and gallery space, and the house had been neglected for many years and was facing demolition. Olivia Herbert saved the building and donated the money for renovation. The following year the Institute was established and renamed after Gertrude, who had recently died of spinal meningitis.

    The house acts as the Main Gallery building and Administrative Offices for the Institute, while another house directly behind it was expanded, renovated and converted into classrooms in 2001.

    If you’re in Augusta, the Institute could make for an interesting diversion.

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  • Things Heat Up in Wilmington–February 15, 1776

    Cover art for February 15, 1776: A map depicting troop movements in mid-February of 1776. Base map originally published in 1794, from the North Carolina Collection at UNC; overlay created by Wikipedia contributor Thomas Kitchin.

    We should confess that by the time we actually get to the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, it’s not going to be as big a battle as anyone thought it was going to be. But the buildup was something else again. It seemed pretty clear to everyone involved that this was going to be epic and a veritable cast of thousands would be involved.

    But, things happen. Motivations change. Cynicism and even capriciousness sets in. And there’s still a battle, but it involves hundreds, not thousands. So from a battle standpoint, it wasn’t a lot. But by many other standards, which we’ll explore a little further down the line, there was a huge lasting impact.

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  • Washington Goes Mail-Order Shopping–February 14, 1776

    Cover art for February 14, 1776: an engraving of George Washington (artist unknown) based on a painting of him by Alonzo Chappel in 1862.

    There were many reports from George Washington over the course of the Revolutionary war, but for the most part I think they were carefully crafted and frankly not always worthy of the reactions they proposed.

    The careful craftsmanship does makes sense, though, because Washington was a diligent collector and reader of books. As an autodidact, he was constantly learning, and he was the teacher. It’s just a huge shame that when Washington died, his book collection was broken up and sold off. In recent years, author Kevin Hayes tracked down a huge portion of those books, largely to see what kind of notes he’d left in the margins, as he was prone to doing.

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  • A More Organized War–February 13, 1776

    Cover art for February 13, 1776: a posthumous portrait of Patrick Henry by Thomas Sully, 1815. Sully was clearly cribbing much of this painting from a portrait of Captain Cook by his brother, made 20 years earlier.

    So nearly a year ago, in March 1775, Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty or give me death.” Today the Continental Congress said “Bet,” and sent him to lead troops in Virginia.

    That was a coincidence, of course: practically anyone who showed any real leadership skills was given the opportunity to lead troops. Henry had the leadership and the oratory skills to get his troops into shape.

    We mentioned the various committees and their reports today. One of them was the committee that was directed to draft an address to the Colonies. John Dickinson wrote the first draft; James Wilson wrote the second. His version was much like the first, except he added the part about preparing for eventual separation from England. Dickinson was still mostly in denial about that but while Wilson wasn’t a strong personality, he was pragmatic in the end and figured he could see that ending coming.

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  • Mary Pickersgill–February 12, 1776

    Cover art for February 12, 1776: Mary Pickersgill and the Star-Spangled Banner flag, now on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

    The thing that’s hard to understand when considering the flag that Mary Pickersgill put together, and that inspired our National Anthem, is that it’s huge. Mike says specifically that this flag is 17 feet by 42 feet, but that’s hard to picture.

    When the flag was first displayed at the Smithsonian, it hung out in the open, against the atrium wall. But a flag that big, and that old, eventually begins to give in to gravity. So the Smithsonian folks took it down and spent a couple of years restoring it. Part of the work involved undoing the restoration job from 1914:

    Now, a lot of it had been cut away for souvenirs (you can see the frayed bottom partially disguised by the painted stripes in the cover art today), and that red “V” shape is really meant to be an “A” for General Armistead. But the flag is back on display, lying flat at an angle making it easier to see, in a temperature- and humidity-controlled setting.

    The parts that have been cut away are still missing, and the “A” has been removed. but even with nearly half of it gone, this thing is still enormous. And an original-size replica often flies over Fort McHenry, weather permitting.

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