250 and Counting

Category: Virginia History

  • Prelude To Battle–November 27, 1775

    Cover art for November 27, 1775: Portrait of William Woodford in the late 1770s when he was a general. Artist does not appear to be known.

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Many people celebrate the day by watching the parade, or some football, or some special episodes of television shows, or Thanksgiving-themed movies.

    Personally I like a combination: I’ll watch the parade, then play an episode or two of The West Wing (there are two Thanksgiving episodes), and then get in a little football. I live in Baltimore and the Ravens are playing tonight, so I’ll be parked in front of the TV for that.

    For the last few years I’ve hosted Thanksgiving, so all of this is going on while I’m cooking during the day, so this is the first time in a bit that I’ll actually be paying attention to what’s on the tube.

    Meanwhile, back in the Revolution, we have the events that precipitated what is probably one of the most overlooked battles of the Revolution, which is a shame because many future events hinged on this happening, and Colonel William Woodford (later a General) is also rather overlooked these days.

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  • The Birth of the Black Loyalists–November 14, 1775

    Cover art for November 14, 1775: art depicting a member of Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. Original artist is unknown but this image is frequently used to represent those soldiers.

    Lord Dunmore issued his Proclamation just a week earlier, but the response was much stronger than anticipated, probably because—who knew!—people hate being slaves.

    While the Proclamation only applied to the Virginia colony, because Dunmore had no authority conferred upon him anywhere else, a huge number of slaves and otherwise indentured servants from throughout the thirteen colonies fled to the British side of the lines.

    (We have to say “throughout” because slavery was a thing in the north at this point; it just wasn’t nearly as common as in the south.)

    This led to thousands of “American” blacks living ex-patriate lives throughout the British Empire after the Revolution.

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  • Dunmore Has A Tempting Offer–November 7, 1775

    Cover art for November 7, 1775: detail of Lord Dunmore's Proclamation as it appeared in the Philadelphia Journal and Weekly Advertiser, 12/6/1775. Via the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

    Lord Dunmore was driven from the Governor’s Mansion back in June, but he never went far. That same day he took refuge on a British ship near Williamsburg and continued playing the role of Governor, even though the House of Burgesses was already doing quite nicely, thank you.

    Slave revolts were a constant concern in the slave states, and Dunmore was almost certainly inspired by an incident just a couple of days earlier during the Battle of Kemps Landing. An enslaved man, serving alongside the British regulars, came face to face with his former enslaver, Joseph Hutchings, a local militia commander. Hutchings fired at him point blank and missed. In retaliation, the black soldier wounded him with a sword.

    Dunmore and his British compatriots, who were clearly already aware of the power of a general revolt, saw this event as an opportunity.

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  • An Unexpected Battle–October 25, 1775

    Cover art for October 25, 1775: portrait of William Woodford.

    William Woodford was both smart and able to see the bigger picture. He’d already begun training his troops in earnest in anticipation of a British attack. Then the word came in that his men were to protect Norfolk or Portsmouth.

    When they began the march, they had not idea that they were about to stumble into a British attempt to attack amphibiously. Woodford’s men repelled the attack and created the first important British casualties of the war effort.

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  • September 27, 1775: Virginia Prepares For Battle

    Cover art for September 27, 1775: Portrait of William Woodford, date and artist unknown to us b/c our Google-fu failed.

    William Woodford got his start in the military when he joined George Washington’s Virginia Regiment, and was promoted to Lieutenant in 1761.

    When hostilities with Britain began to turn into actual shooting at each other, Woodford became a colonel commanding the 2nd Virginia Regiment. Based on a letter he’d received from his fellow Virginian George Washington, he determined to ensure that his men were well-trained.

    In early December we’ll learn how that paid off handsomely.

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  • September 26, 1775: Commander Thomas Jefferson

    Cover art for September 26, 1775: Portrait of Thomas Jefferson by John Trumbull, 1788 but depicting Jefferson in 1776

    Thomas Jefferson was a writer, an inventor, a lawyer, a philosopher, a statesman, and of course a soldier.

    Wait, what?

    Yes, indeed. Thomas Jefferson was named commander of the militia in Albemarle County. It could be argued that the title was little more than ceremonial, but then again…Jefferson saw no combat. It’s entirely possible that his mere presence was a deterrent to the British, who wanted no part of this fierce warrior.

    It’s not likely, but it’s possible.

    OK, I’m kind of in a mood today, I admit. Go listen to Mike and his story of Jefferson the Soldier.

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  • September 12, 1775: Another Washington Enters the Fray

    Cover art for September 12, 1775: Portrait of William Washington in 1795, by Rembrandt Peale. via Wikimedia Commons.

    We mentioned a while back that John Adams had siblings, as did George Washington. This wasn’t one of them, and as far as anyone can tell, it’s more of a cousin-type relationship.

    William Washington essentially won a bet with his brothers, and his prize was the ability to join the militia in Virginia to fight for independence. From this day in 1775 until 1781 he was engaged in multiple battles against the British in Virginia and the Carolinas. It was in 1781 that his horse was shot out from under him. The fallen animal pinned him down. He was bayoneted and captured, and spent the rest of the war under house arrest in Charleston, SC.

    After the war he remained in South Carolina where he spent some time in the state legislature, but declined to run for governor because, as the story goes, he wasn’t a native Carolinian.

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  • August 20, 1775: George Tucker

    Cover art for August 20, 1775: Photo of George Tucker, 1845. Photographer unknown, uploaded to Wikimedia Commons from the University of Virginia Library.

    Lots of prominent early Americans weren’t Americans to begin with. For instance, the first President of the United States who was actually born in the United States would be Martin Van Buren, our eight president.

    But while most of these folks were born on the North American continent, the subject of today’s episode was not. He was born in Bermuda. So while George Tucker was still a British citizen by birth, he didn’t come to America until he was twenty years old, making him an honest-to-goodness immigrant.

    But let’s not hold that against him. As you’ll learn today, Tucker had a long and varied career as a politician, an educator and an author.

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  • August 6, 1775: A Long March in August

    Cover art for August 6, 1775: Portrait of Daniel Morgan by Charles Willson Peale, 1794.

    I’m the first to admit that my math didn’t work out during yesterday’s episode. I have no excuse other than I’m on vacation this week and perhaps not as detail-oriented as usual.

    You may remember a couple of days ago when we mentioned that one of the things that broke in George Washington’s favor was the timely arrival of a company of riflemen. These were the men in question. Rifles have different barrels from the typical guns that Colonial forces used, and were therefore more accurate. In addition, riflemen were specially trained for improved accuracy.

    Daniel Morgan’s crew was one of the reasons that Washington’s ruse against the British worked out well: with these men around, the British were less likely to attack, and Washington was able to replenish his ammunition stores within a couple of weeks.

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  • July 17, 1775: The Third Virginia Convention

    Cover art for July 17, 1775: an 1860 photo of St. John's Church in Richmond, site of the Second and Third Virginia Conventions. Photo by Matthew Brady.

    Given the fact that the existing government of Virginia was technically extra-legal, it’s a little amusing to think that they themselves felt the need to conduct extra-legal activities of their own. A more cynical mind would think that they were hedging their bets, so that if anything Revolutionary were to come up and the British started rounding up people, they could say, “That wasn’t us…it was that Virginia Convention crowd!”

    A more cynical mind would think that. Heh.

    But the various conventions, while not having large agendas, did have important ones, and they managed to help the colony get their act together and improve their overall effectiveness during the Revolution.

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