250 and Counting

Category: Siege of Boston

  • August 12, 1775: George Washington Writes a “Dear John” Letter

    Cover art for August 12, 1775: a miniature portrait of John Brown by Edward Greene Malbone, created in 1794.

    One thing that you can’t say about George Washington is that he was a slacker. He was constantly communicating with people, whether it was the orders of the day, making plans to organize his army, or writing letters. And Washington was absolutely prolific at writing letters.

    In this case, he’s writing to a Rhode Island merchant, thanking him for the advance notice of an incoming shipment, and reassuring him that the shipment will reach its destination safely, at least to the extent that he had any control over the matter.

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  • August 11, 1775: Washington Gets Serious About POWs

    Cover art for August 11, 1775: A sample of George Washington's handwriting in a letter. It's NOT the letter described in today's episode (hence the blurring).

    While today is perhaps the earliest documented instance of George Washington expressing concern for his captured troops, it certainly wouldn’t be the last. For years he worried about this, largely because the British didn’t always consider the Continental Army to be a genuine army, nor did they consider themselves to be “at war” with America; instead this was some kind of petty grievance that needed to be put down.

    As a result, Washington was in frequent communication with his counterparts on the British side, and several people on the Colonial side, expressing his worry that his men were being treated poorly…or worse.

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  • August 10, 1775: John Adams Loses A Brother

    Cover art for August 10, 1775: Portrait of Elihu Adams.

    It’s peculiar, sometimes, how we know a lot of stuff about famous people, but we don’t often know much about their relatives. Sometimes we don’t realize that they even existed,

    John Adams had two brothers, one of whom died on this day in 1775. He wasn’t famous, but he did have some involvement with the Siege of Boston until illness struck. Something like that must have made the loss just that much more worse for John, and the war effort that much more personal.

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