It’s nice, isn’t it, that not everything we have for your benefit concentrates on people shooting at each other or generally not being kind?
Take today, for instance. It’s Wedding Bells for the President of the Continental Congress! John Hancock got married to Dorothy Quincy today!
(Okay, never mind that the motivations to get these two together may have been a little corrupt. Let’s just be happy for this couple, hm? )
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After the Pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill, the fact that General Gage was about to be replaced probably came as a surprise to nobody.
That he was replaced by William Howe…well, that also probably wasn’t a surprise. Howe had experienced success in the Seven Years’ War. And while he was known to have shown some sympathy with the Colonies (he’d voted against the Intolerable Acts, for instance), it was thought that he could break the Siege of Boston.
So Howe came to America and on October 11 he took over the job from Gage. He stayed in Boston with the besieged soldiers. And he had lots of ideas about breaking the siege, and eventually the Continental Army. What’s more, Lord Dartmouth had some creative ideas as well.
But Howe chose something entirely different.
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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.
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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.
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While Boston was under siege, the British were having a hard time getting food and other supplies. But they still controlled the water, so British naval vessels went in search.
Captain James Wallace was especially good at procuring supplies, largely because he harassed people until they gave in, or he would threaten to shoot up the place.
This second tactic was the one he chose for Bristol, Rhode Island, and it’s unclear how much actual damage he did to the town (reports vary wildly). But what is known is that he came in search of 200 sheep and 30 cattle, and came away with 40 sheep after he cut a deal with the town.
We’re calling this one a draw.
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![Cover art for October 6, 1775: Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Basic design adopted by Governor John Hancock and the Council on December 13, 1780 [1], present design adopted in 1901, rendered by E.H. Garrett](https://250andcounting.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/1775-10-06-cover-1024x984.jpg)
We actually touched on this once before, but George Washington was known for being quite the gentleman, but he did have a temper, especially when things weren’t handled in a gentlemanly way. Cross the lines of civility and he was hoisting the Jolly Roger, my friend.
In a previous episode we noted that Washington wrote to General Gage about the treatment that captured American soldiers were receiving. In it was a thinly-veiled hint that he had prisoners too. And he’d be more than happy to treat them the way the British were apparently treating American soldiers. It’s not clear whether this had the desired effect. What is clear is that when something didn’t meet his expectations, he was going to make himself heard.
And by this date, Washington had a few things that needed to be addressed by the Massachusetts General Court. That sounds like a legal body but it was, in fact, the provincial government at that time. There were some things that the Continental Congress handled for the army, but the General Court took care of much more at that time. Unfortunately for Washington, the General Court was—in his opinion—dragging its feet and needed a nudge in the right direction.
And Washington was only too happy to provide that nudge.
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As the winter of 1775 approached, George Washington had to think about the state of the siege of Boston. In short, housing and clothing thousands of men in a New England winter is a very different proposition than doing it in the summer.
So Washington convened his War Council to discuss the possibility of breaking the siege by attacking the city from a different direction.
Meanwhile up in Canada, General Philip Schuyler takes another run at Fort St. Jean.
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Anyone who’s been to Boston in the modern day has a hard time recognizing that the city of Boston was just the segment in the top center of the map. The area called Boston Neck is clearly marked at the bottom left, and wasn’t part of the city. The Continental Army’s line ran about where the blue line ends. (The blue line is modern-day Washington Street.)
It was the city having that kind of geography that made the Siege of Boston relatively easy for the Patriots. Unfortunately for them, the British were still able to use the surrounding waterways.
This made the siege not the battle of attrition that it could have been, since supplies were able to get in via water. Consequently it was an ongoing battle of wits, as we learn today.
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Nothing beats the speed of gossip, and apparently the Virginia Gazette on this day had plenty of it to share.
A few of the stories were quite serious, relating to events in both Virginia and Massachusetts. They closed out with a local story that had a more humorous edge to it…though it’s likely that the people involved had a hard time seeing the humor in it all.
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PS Why is there a picture of a fish in today’s cover art? Well…mullet over a little and see if it comes to you.
The cover art for today’s episode may be one of the most famous art pieces depicting an event of the American Revolution, and it happened under the Liberty Tree, which is clearly marked here.
This event, the tarring and feathering of Loyalist John Malcolm, took place about 18 months earlier and shows Malcolm already tarred and feathered, and now he’s having (also marked) tea poured into his mouth. The Stamp Act is nailed to the tree, upside down. Really, there’s a lot to unpack in this picture. So it makes sense that people were upset that the tree had been cut down.
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