250 and Counting

This day in American History, 250 years ago.

  • The First State Constitution–January 5, 1776

    Cover art for January 5, 1776: the manuscript for the first New Hampshire constitution. Via New Hampshire Secretary of State social media account.
    The manuscript for the first New Hampshire constitution. Via New Hampshire Secretary of State social media account.

    It’s fun to say that the New Hampshire Constitution was the first time that an American commonwealth constitution, and that several of the others quickly followed, as though a dam had broken.

    But the fact is, the various colonies were putting together their own constitutions at the urging of the Second Continental Congress, and New Hampshire just happened to be the first.

    That said, let’s not take away from them the fact that they managed to get it done with a great deal of efficiency, and I’m also impressed at the way they got the subsequent documents done. But you’ll have to listen to the episode to hear that.

    Oh, yes: I promised you the recipe for Martha Washington’s cake she served for her Twelfth Night party. This comes from the New England Historical Society.

    Take 40 eggs and divide the whites from the yolks and beat them to a froth. Then work four pounds of butter to a cream and put the whites of eggs to it a Spoon full at a time till it is well work’d. Then put 4 pounds of sugar finely powdered to it in the same manner then put in the Yolks of eggs and 5 pounds of flour and 5 pounds of fruit. 2 hours will bake it. Add to it half and ounce of mace and nutmeg half a pint of wine and some fresh brandy.

    It was a big honkin’ cake.

    Bon appetit!

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  • Marines On A Mission–January 4, 1776

    Cover art for January 4, 1776: Historic Marine Corps portrait of Samuel Nicholas, artist and date unknown.
    Historic US Marine Corps portrait of Samuel Nicholas, their first Commandant. Artist and date of creation unknown.

    Although he held the title “Captain of Marines” at this point, Samuel Nicholas was the first officer commissioned to the Continental Marines (later the US Marine Corps), and by tradition is therefore considered to be the first Commandant of the Marines.

    Hey, are YOU going to argue with the USMC? I didn’t think so. Not me, either.

    Nicholas was commissioned on November 28, 1775, and almost immediately began setting up his recruitment operations in Philadelphia.

    His first major mission, which began on this day in 1776, took him hundreds of miles from the action in America, but with good reason.

    We’ll hear from Samuel Nicholas again in the future, as he was involved in at least one other important battle.

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  • A Plan For Reconciliation–January 3, 1776

    Cover Art for January 3, 1776: a 1913 painting of the Continental Congress in session, by John Ward Dunsmore.
    A 1913 painting of the Continental Congress in session, by John Ward Dunsmore. This is supposed to be the moment that John Adams recommends George Washington to lead the Continental Army. I couldn’t find any images of Lord Drummond, at least not the correct Lord Drummond.

    It was called “A Plan of Accommodation,” and it had been in the works for most of the previous year before Lord Drummond tried to present it to the Second Continental Congress.

    Taxation was the big ticket item originally, but they managed to work that out with a perpetual grant of a percentage of revenues of certain items. Once the Americans got past that, the negotiations moved quickly: Britain would modify many of its restrictions on the Colonies, and the Colonies would in turn observe certain trade rules and provide Britain with military support when needed.

    All of this was under the table, though: the next step was to begin formal negotiations. Drummond wanted the Americans to send an official delegation, but the delegates pointed out that they were likely to be arrested if they went to England, so Drummond offered himself as a hostage.

    It was all looking good until several pieces of bad news came in.

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  • A Furnace for Arms–January 2, 1776

    Cover art for January 2, 1776: the Mount Riga Ironworks Furnace in Salisbury, CT. via Wikimedia Commons
    The Mount Riga Ironworks Furnace in Salisbury, CT. There was more than one furnace at this location; this is the surviving one. It’s on the National Register of Historic Locations and a lovely place to visit if you’re in the northwest corner of the state.

    The Mount Riga Iron Furnace isn’t an especially unique artifact on the east coast of the US. In fact, as someone who lives in Baltimore, I get to see one of them regularly when I visit my mother-in-law, who lives about a half-hour’s drive away in a more rural part of the state. Unfortunately, that one (the Northampton Furnace is in bad shape because of its location close to a modern-day reservoir, so it’s in the water a lot of the time.

    But it got me curious enough to wonder what they did, and how they worked. In the oversimplified version, you layer the iron ore and limestone, along with the fuel, usually charcoal or coke, into a tall stack.

    Once the fire is lit, air is pushed into the bottom and forced upward, creating superheated air which gets it to about 4000 degrees. The ore melts down and the limestone collects the impurities in the ore.

    The limestone and impurities float to the top as slag, and the molten iron can be removed as pig iron. This is the raw material for making iron and (later on) steel.

    (Steel did exist in the 18th century, but it would be nearly 100 years before Henry Bessemer came up with the mass production process that made the Industrial Revolution possible.)

    Iron furnaces aren’t unique, but they’re not especially common either, so it was important in the Revolutionary Era to locate them and ensure that they were adequate for creating the raw materials for producing weapons.

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  • The Burning of Norfolk–January 1, 1776

    Cover art for January 1, 1776: "Incident in the Burning of Norfolk," engraving, artist unknown. Originally appeared as an illustration in Cassell's History of the United States in the late 1870s.
    “Incident in the Burning of Norfolk,” engraving, artist unknown. Originally appeared as an illustration in Cassell’s History of the United States in the late 1870s.

    Happy New Year to you!

    The burning of Norfolk was the follow-up to the Battle of Great Bridge and the Patriot occupation of that town. Colonel Howe probably overplayed his hand with this one, and the consequences were catastrophic for the town.

    The Declaration of Independence is just a few months away, now, and (spoiler alert) the part you may be most anticipating doesn’t happen on July 4. But in the meantime, there’s lots and lots of extremely historic things for us to talk about in the run-up to the Declaration, and the immediate aftermath.

    Running through 1775, one day at a time, has been a huge privilege for us, and we hope you’ll stay with us through 1776. This was a project that I’d been thinking about for a long time, longer than I’ve known my partner, Mike Messner. And when I suggested to him that we team up, he jumped on the idea immediately. He’s been instrumental in helping with the research, with brainstorming the ideas, and with keeping me committed to the idea of actually doing a podcast that runs every single day.

    We put a couple of hours into researching, writing, recording, (sometimes re-writing and re-recording) and editing these episodes, and I hope the effort shows. Thank you so much for taking this ride with us, and here’s to the next year.

    Have a wonderful 2026!

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  • The Battle of Quebec–December 31, 1775

    Cover art for December 31, 1775: The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec (detail), by John Trumbull, 1786.
    The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec (detail), by John Trumbull, 1786. Montgomery was struck in the head by grapeshot, so it probably wasn’t nearly as tidy as this.

    While hindsight is very much a 20/20 vision, it’s still worth exploring why the Battle of Quebec went so poorly for the American side:

    • While General Montgomery was clever enough to attack during a storm, he didn’t necessarily expect Nor’easter blizzard conditions, which made it tough for his men to see where they were going without lanterns…
    • …which meant that there were likely sentries who probably got curious about a bunch of lanterns coming their way.
    • Many of the men on the American side were literally on their last day of enlistment, so they probably weren’t motivated to give it their all.
    • In fact, only about 50 Americans (including General Montgomery) were killed, and 34 wounded (including Benedict Arnold), but over 400 men were missing or captured. “Missing” could easily mean “went home.”
    • Many of the Americans were probably unprepared for the relatively close quarters of fighting in a city, which meant that they were unprepared for attacks from above.

    Now, I am by no means a military expert, but these are the things that stood out for me just based on a quick read of the situation. It was hubris, and a brand of short-sightedness that this particular city got deep into the heads of Montgomery and Arnold, and they refused to let it go.

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  • Washington Has A Change Of Heart–December 30, 1775

    Cover art for December 30, 1775: Soldiers at the siege of Yorktown, by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine DeVerger (cropped), watercolor, 1781.

    Back on October 8, the Continental Army determined that Blacks were no longer to be permitted to enlist, and that existing soldiers would not be allowed to re-enlist.

    But on this date, George Washington changed his mind. Was he suddenly an abolitionist? Not a chance. He owned slaves until the day he died. This was a more pragmatic decision. It was borne of the fact that he and his staff suddenly realized that a lot of soldiers were going to end their enlistment come January. That October decision was starting to look rather short-sighted.

    Add to that the fact that word had gotten about about Lord Dunmore’s offer to free slaves who fought on the British side. Now, he really couldn’t do anything for slaves who came from anywhere other than Virginia, but the offer was still hanging out there.

    Finally, it was quite apparent that there was a growing number of Blacks, whether slave or free, who had shown interest in fighting for the Patriot cause.

    It suddenly looked like a whole lot of bodies were getting turned down by the Continental Army for no good reason.

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  • Birth Of A Navy–December 29, 1775

    Cover art for December 29, 1775: The Pine Tree Flag, which was the ensign of the Massachusetts State Navy.
    The Pine Tree Flag, which was the ensign of the Massachusetts State Navy. There are a few variations of this, because the original was destroyed by the British.

    While the Massachusetts Naval Militia was pretty much wiped out in 1779 (oops, spoiler alert), it wasn’t the end of a state-based Navy for Massachusetts.

    Massachusetts began to rebuild, but in 1780 a new state constitution was adopted, and just as the navy was delayed in its original inception by bureaucracy, the Massachusetts State Navy wound up dissolved the next year. They were re-established for the War of 1812, but again disbanded when that war ended.

    Nowadays, any state naval militia are automatically part of the United States Militia, and in Massachusetts specifically, any attempt to reactivate a naval militia in Massachusetts must be done either by the governor of Massachusetts or the Massachusetts General Court.

    There are five state naval militia extant, so far as I can tell: Alaska, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas.

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  • Congress Organizes Military Support–December 28, 1775

    Cover art for December 28, 1775: plaque commemorating the table where the Secret Committee met with Julien Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir.
    The plaque in Carpenters Hall, commemorating the table where the Secret Committee met with Julien Alexandre Achard de Bonvouloir.

    You’ll remember I mentioned Samuel Adams in this space a couple of days ago, as a member of the Continental Congress, and as a member of several committees, most of them related to defense. He was almost certainly at the heart of the events of today that took place in Congress which Mike describes in our episode, even though he isn’t named directly in conjunction with either of them.

    But organizing the military, and forging alliances with other nations are activities that are definitely in Samuel Adams’ wheelhouse, so it’s likely that he was in the middle of both of these.

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  • Ben Franklin Analyzes the Snake–December 27, 1775

    Cover art for December 27, 1775: the Gadsden Flag, featuring a rattlesnake warning people away.
    Yeah, I cheated and used the same image from last week.

    While he didn’t use a rattlesnake, Benjamin Franklin was the guy who came up with the original “Join or Die” snake image [right]back in 1754. (At least most people give him credit for it.)

    It was based in a superstition that if you cut up a snake into pieces and then reassembled those pieces before sunset, the snake could be resurrected. In 1754, during the French and Indian War, Delaware was part of Pennsylvania and New England’s four colonies were simply grouped together. Georgia was altogether omitted and nobody knows why.

    At any rate, it’s only fitting that when the Gadsden Flag, which we talked about in the December 20th episode, made its debut, Franklin was the one who took the time to opine on why a snake was so appropriate; what’s more why a rattlesnake was the best choice. He published an essay in a local newspaper under a pen name, but his identity was figured out anyway.

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