250 and Counting

This day in American History, 250 years ago.

  • July 12, 1775: Admiral Howe Comes to Town

    Cover art for July 12, 1775: Admiral Richard Howe portrait by John Singleton Copley, 1794. The gold circle is part of the painting.

    General Sir William Howe was already in Boston when his brother, Admiral Richard Howe, arrived. So, say what you will about Boston during the siege, but you can’t say there was a lack of no Howe.

    Hi-yooooooooooooooooo! I apologize.

    Richard’s biggest problem was that he was known to have been part of prior reconciliation efforts and therefore known to sympathize with the colonists. But even though he did his duty, he was sometimes short on materiel to get the job done, and as a result he took the blame for blockade failures. People thought he was deliberately letting blocked vessels through. But the fact was, he just didn’t have what he needed to do it properly.

    For some reason, William didn’t catch quite the same level of ire, though he was also part of the reconciliation effort. He did catch plenty of blame as the revolutionary dust began to settle, though.

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  • July 11, 1775: From John to James, and The Other Long Island

    Cover art for July 11, 1775: Portrait of James Warren, 1763 by John Singleton Copley. Now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

    Oof, that’s a mouthful of title. Oh well, what’s done is done.

    As noted in today’s episode, James Warren was not related to Joseph Warren. On the other hand, he is related to Mercy Otis Warren, because he’s her husband.

    James and John Adams had a few ideas in common; the hard part was convincing a few others that they were in the right.

    Meanwhile, did you know there’s another Long Island? That sort of thing really plays havoc with our research. This one is in the Boston Bay, and it’s a familiar story because something similar happened a few weeks ago. But tune in anyway.

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  • July 10, 1775: The Georgian Navy

    Cover art for July 10, 1775: Historical marker in Savannah commemorating the first ordered capture in Southern waters of the Revolution.

    Hey! We have a Navy now!

    Okay, it’s only one ship, but it’s a start. And to be clear, it’s Georgia’s navy, not the navy of the Continental forces. But we’re getting somewhere.

    And what’s more, on its first day it took on a British ship, with amazing results. Listen in and learn the story.

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  • July 9, 1775: Orders of the Day

    Cover art for July 9, 1775: the first half of Washington's Daily Orders for this date. Via Library of Congress.

    Day Four of this thing and I’m still sounding kinda sexy. Or not, I have no idea.

    A look through George Washington’s orders of each day gives us an interesting peek into his mind. This was a guy who definitely had his finger on the pulse of what was going on with his troops. But if there was something he didn’t know about, he also recognized that there were things he didn’t know, so he would endeavor to find out.

    He was a strict commander; there are numerous accounts of his ordering courts martial for assorted men, with various punishments that we’d consider medieval today.

    A Spanish version of the Wooden Horse punishment device.

    One of these was the “Wooden Horse.” As described by Francis Grose, in 1786, “The wooden horse was formed of planks nailed together, for as to form a sharp ridge or angle about eight or nine feet long; this ridge represented the back of the horse; it was supported by four polls or legs, about six or seven feet long, placed on a stand made movable by trucks [wheels]; to complete the resemblance, a head and tail were often added. When a soldier or soldiers were sentenced by a court-martial, or ordered by the commanding officer of the corps, to ride this horse… they were placed [on the plank] with their hands tied behind them, and frequently, to increase the punishment, had muskets tied to their legs, to prevent, as it was jocularly said, their horse from kicking them off…” (At right: a Spanish version of this device.)

    Had enough? It was abandoned in the 1760s by the British because too many people had been permanently injured by it. However, its use persisted in the Colonies for another few years. Then it returned during the Civil War before being left behind permanently.

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  • July 8, 1775: Judge William Davies

    Cover art for July 8, 1775: Picture of Judge William Davies. Creator unknown, via findagrave.com

    N.B. While it’s Mike recording today, I write this part and I’m still a little under the weather, so I’ll be brief again.

    It’s Cake and Candles today for William Davies, born in Savannah on this day in 1775. Davies enjoyed careers in both the legal and political fields, and appeared to do well in both of them.

    Also, my brain might be addled by the drugs the doctor gave me, but my calculation has him dying at the age of 54, so Mike was a little off, there. That’s probably why he teaches History and not Math.

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  • July 7, 1775 (no, really): Dear Abby

    Cover art for July 7, 1775: Detail of the letter that John Adams sent to his wife Abigail on this day. Source: Massachusetts Historical Society digital archives.

    As you’ll hear today, I have a huge sinus infection and it took a lot of effort to get today’s episode recorded, so I hope you’ll excuse this part being rather brief.

    John and Abigail Adams was probably one of the best documented relationships of the Colonial Era, and it’s a ridiculously touching love story. It’s clear that they hated being apart, and you’d do well to watch the HBO/Max miniseries about him.

    In future episodes we’ll have to dedicate some portion to the literal language between the two. In the meantime, enjoy my Barry White impression.

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  • July 6, 1775: The Declaration Before The Declaration

    Cover art for July 6, 1775: Detail of a broadside published in Portsmouth, NH relating the Declaration adopted on this date. (from Library of Congress digital collection)

    Note: I realized belatedly that the episode that dropped yesterday was titled July 7, as was the audio file itself, but if you’ve listened, you know that it was in fact the July 5 file and what we’ve got here are a couple of typos that have mostly been fixed. My apologies for the error and thanks for your forbearance.

    While the Olive Branch Petition was a step toward reconciliation, and the Declaration that Congress adopted today was meant to be in the same vein, in fact it had the opposite effect. Even though the Olive Branch Petition arrived late, the fact that this one, outlining why we’re willing to go to war, effectively cancelled out the other one. Not that it mattered anyway, since King George III declared the Colonies to be in rebellion before he ever saw either one. Plus, much of Parliament was in the mood to squash the Colonies as flat as possible.

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  • July 5, 1775: The Olive Branch Petition

    When the Second Continental Congress convened in May, there was a large faction of delegates who thought that peace with England was still possible, and made a specific effort to draft a message of reconciliation with King George III.

    They finished their document and presented it to the whole body of Congress on this day in 1775, which approved it and it was subsequently prepared and sent to Great Britain. In a few weeks we’ll talk a little bit about what happened at the other end.

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    Note: I realize that the file reads “July 7,” as did the headline on this post originally. That was a typo that got carried over from one to the other via copy and paste. This was in fact the July 5 file and apologies for any confusion.

  • July 4, 1775: Washington’s First Orders

    Cover art for July 4, 1775: the first page of George Washington's first set of general orders to the Continental Army.

    As mentioned yesterday, when George Washington came to Cambridge, he found a bit of a mess there: several disorganized groups of men, with more on the way, along with supplies still in transit.

    The first thing he needed to do was to get the fighting force organized, so he began a log book of his official orders. His first set, which came out on this day in 1775, took up about five pages of manuscript. But Washington wasn’t done, not by a long shot. Every few days he’d come up with something new, but it was all reasonable and made sense in the bigger picture. It’s not as though Washington had grabbed power with no intention of relinquishing it later on; he just wasn’t wired that way.

    Eventually his book of orders grew to over 500 pages over the next couple of years.

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    P.S. Happy Independence Day! Our 250th anniversary is exactly one year away, but there’s a lot of stuff before, and after, that date that we’ll need to look at in order to get the entire story.

  • July 3, 1775: Washington Takes Command

    Cover art for July 3, 1775: Washington Taking Command of the American Army, detail from an 1876 Currier & Ives print.

    On June 15, 1775, George Washington was appointed Commander of the newly-formed Continental Army.

    On July 2, Washington finally arrived in Cambridge after a few stops in Trenton, New York and presumably a couple of other places. What he found was a huge mess.

    So on July 3, he officially took command and started the work of turning this ragtag crew into some kind of organized fighting force.

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