250 and Counting

This day in American History, 250 years ago.

  • A More Organized War–February 13, 1776

    Cover art for February 13, 1776: a posthumous portrait of Patrick Henry by Thomas Sully, 1815. Sully was clearly cribbing much of this painting from a portrait of Captain Cook by his brother, made 20 years earlier.

    So nearly a year ago, in March 1775, Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty or give me death.” Today the Continental Congress said “Bet,” and sent him to lead troops in Virginia.

    That was a coincidence, of course: practically anyone who showed any real leadership skills was given the opportunity to lead troops. Henry had the leadership and the oratory skills to get his troops into shape.

    We mentioned the various committees and their reports today. One of them was the committee that was directed to draft an address to the Colonies. John Dickinson wrote the first draft; James Wilson wrote the second. His version was much like the first, except he added the part about preparing for eventual separation from England. Dickinson was still mostly in denial about that but while Wilson wasn’t a strong personality, he was pragmatic in the end and figured he could see that ending coming.

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  • Mary Pickersgill–February 12, 1776

    Cover art for February 12, 1776: Mary Pickersgill and the Star-Spangled Banner flag, now on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.

    The thing that’s hard to understand when considering the flag that Mary Pickersgill put together, and that inspired our National Anthem, is that it’s huge. Mike says specifically that this flag is 17 feet by 42 feet, but that’s hard to picture.

    When the flag was first displayed at the Smithsonian, it hung out in the open, against the atrium wall. But a flag that big, and that old, eventually begins to give in to gravity. So the Smithsonian folks took it down and spent a couple of years restoring it. Part of the work involved undoing the restoration job from 1914:

    Now, a lot of it had been cut away for souvenirs (you can see the frayed bottom partially disguised by the painted stripes in the cover art today), and that red “V” shape is really meant to be an “A” for General Armistead. But the flag is back on display, lying flat at an angle making it easier to see, in a temperature- and humidity-controlled setting.

    The parts that have been cut away are still missing, and the “A” has been removed. but even with nearly half of it gone, this thing is still enormous. And an original-size replica often flies over Fort McHenry, weather permitting.

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  • Troop Movement in North Carolina–February 11, 1776

    Cover art for February 11, 1776: image believed to be a portrait of Richard Caswell as Governor of North Carolina. via Wikimedia.

    Richard Caswell was in charge of the Minutemen in New Bern, North Carolina until the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge. Not long after that, the Provincial Congress did away with the Minutemen in favor of a more broadly-trained milita. From that point, his position in the Continental Congress was pretty much over for good.

    Caswell remained active in the military throughout the Revolution, and was in charge of the Provincial Congress when it came time to write their first State Constitution. Shortly thereafter he became the state’s first governor. And after a couple of one-year terms, he stepped down from that position, since he was term-limited. But he remained active in state politics until he died in 1789 at the age of 60.

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  • Common Sense Comes to NC–February 10, 1776

    Cover art for February 10, 1776: Portrait of John Penn, ca. 1776. Artist unknown. Now at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. via Wikimedia.

    As the ideas behind Common Sense spread through the country, it’s an interesting coincidence that Common Sense came to both North and South Carolina a day apart. What’s curious is the way it caught on very quickly in South Carolina, but was more of a slow burn in North Carolina.

    It’s possible that the difference is as simple as Christopher Gadsden presenting the pamphlet orally before the Provincial Congress, whereas John Penn took more of a backdoor approach, giving a copy to a colleague and hoping word gets out. Sure enough it did, and while there was no hard line of “Wow! We need to act on this!,” it proved to be quite the influential pamphlet that led to a gradual changing of minds regarding whether or not the Colonies should be free from England.

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  • A New Job For John Adams–February 9, 1776

    Cover art for February 9, 1776: John Adams as portrayed by Mather Brown in 1788.

    One of John Adams’ stronger talents was being able to see the motivation behind the action, and because of this he was usually able to thwart unattractive actions somehow.

    In today’s case, he was able to thwart people who opposed him by simply agreeing with them. As a newly-minted Chief Justice of Massachusetts, some Loyalist (if not Loyalist, then certainly in the Don’t Declare Independence crowd) delegates from Maryland suggested that because he worked for Massachusetts, he had an inherent conflict of interest and therefore couldn’t vote in Congress.

    Now, at that time a colony’s quorum was exactly one delegate, so if he was the only person from Massachusetts attending that day, Massachusetts wouldn’t be able to cast a vote. So, Adams did the sensible thing and agreed with the Marylanders. Then he resigned from the position they thought he’d never give up.

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  • Gadsden, Come Home–February 8, 1776

    Cover art for February 8, 1776: portrait of Christopher Gadsden, ca. 1760-1770 by Jeremiah Theus. via Wikimedia.

    Christopher Gadsden is famous almost entirely for the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. But even for that, most people don’t know that the flag was named after a person. And those who do, don’t necessarily know Gadsden’s first name.

    And yet, he was instrumental in getting America to break away from England.

    Christopher Gadsden was the one who got South Carolina more excited about Independence. He was a Brigadier General in that colony during the war. He helped draft a state constitution and was then elected Lieutenant Governor. When Charleston was overrun by the British, Gadsden stuck around so he could surrender the city like a gentleman.

    For his gentlemanly act, he was allowed to return home on parole. But when the next British leader came in and broke the parole by arresting him, he refused new parole because they’d already lied to him about the first one, so why believe them now? That cost him the better part of a year in solitary confinement.

    In short, he was a badass. Go listen to part of the reason why.

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  • What To Do With Prisoners?–February 7, 1776

    Cover art for February 7, 1776: detail from "The Battle of Bennington" by Grandma Moses, 1953, depicting British prisoners being taken. Originally commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution but rejected because of some inaccuracies. Now at the Bennington Museum.
    Detail from “The Battle of Bennington” by Grandma Moses, 1953, depicting British prisoners being taken. Originally commissioned by the Daughters of the American Revolution but rejected because of some inaccuracies. Now at the Bennington Museum.

    When I mentioned in today’s episode that American prisoners were left to disease or neglect, I wasn’t telling you the half of it.

    The British used captured, damaged or obsolete ships as their prisons. Conditions were so bad that more Americans died as a result of disease than died on the battlefield. Over 10,000 men died that way, and their bodies were either dumped overboard or buried in shallow graves along the shoreline.

    At that time, supplies for combatants were expected to be supplied by their own side, or through the largesse of private resources. But when the prison is a ship off-shore, getting those supplies through was nearly impossible.

    British prisoners, on the other hand, were generally treated much better. This isn’t to say that there weren’t instances of them being abused, but it wasn’t the norm.

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  • Vive La France–February 6, 1776

    Vive La France–February 6, 1776

    Much like the Hessians of our last episode, the story involving our getting French recognition and friendship is longer and more complex than most people realize.

    The events of today were important, but they laid the groundwork for so much more in the future. France was already annoyed with Britain over the Seven Years’ War, so supporting the Colonies was the shrewd thing to do: France would annoy Britain with the treaty, America would get arms and soldiers (and naval support), and we wound up with a good friend later on for trade and merchant support.

    The French were reluctant to cooperate at first, in part because they were hedging their bets about the war’s outcome. But with a little luck and a few battle victories, a lot of formerly-clandestine activites became more overt. What’s more, without French assistance throughout the war, we might all be speaking British now.

    Oh, wait.

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  • Here Come The Hessians–February 5, 1776

    Here Come The Hessians–February 5, 1776

    I think I need to clarify something that I said during today’s episode. I mentioned that about 2200 Hessian soldiers fought in the Revolution.

    That number is accurate, but it only refers to the soldiers who came from Hesse-Hanau and were affected by the treaty alluded to today. Another big chunk came from Hesse-Kassel and the rest came from elsewhere in Germany.

    In all, more than 30,000 Hessians fought in the Revolutionary War, comprising about a fourth of the British land forces. According to the now-defunct website Mad Mike’s America, only a little more than half of these soldiers made it home: 5000 opted to remain in America; about 6300 died from illness or accident, and the rest died in battle or as a result of their wounds.

    Incidentally, a Hessian features in one of the New York downstate area’s favorite stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The headless ghost in that story is said to be a Hessian soldier whose head was struck off by a cannonball “in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War.”

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  • When Generals Meet–February 4, 1776

    Cover art for February 4, 1776: a war map of New York City from 1776. This was almost the entire city at that time.
    A war map of New York City from 1776. This was almost the entire city at that time.

    OK, I’ll admit I cheated the title a little bit. The fact is, both General Charles Lee, who was part of George Washington’s inner circle, and General Henry Clinton, who was a British general, did arrive in New York City on the same day.

    The odds are pretty low that, despite how small New York City is compared to today, they actually encountered one another on this day.

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