I mention in today’s episode that William Augustine Washington lived on a Virginia plantation he’d inherited, and that his first house burned down.
The second house he moved to, on the same property but a mile away (yow!), was called Blenheim. Washington used some of the bricks from the original house to add on to the Blenheim house, but he also used a bunch of them to start on a house and barn on a separate property.
What a thrifty fellow!
For what it’s worth, Blenheim is still standing and is on the National Register of Historic Places. You may be able to see it from the street but it is privately occupied and not open to the public.
A Coruña is a coastal city in northeastern Spain that’s often stylized as La Coruña, as Mike says in this episode. Its location makes it an ideal port for trade with other nations, and the American Colonies was no exception.
Now, France gets a lot of attention for the assistance they gave us during the Revolution, but Spain was at least as helpful as France was. They were just quieter about it. So it was probably just a matter of time before some British officials noticed ships in the Spanish harbors that appeared to be engaging in more than your typical trade. What’s more, the presence of Dutch materiel suggested that Spain may have been acting as a third party between Holland and America, to enact some nearly-clandestine trade with the Colonies for gunpowder and other stuff.
As the year wore on, Spain would become a little more openly involved in the war effort.
Carter Braxton was born into money, as his grandfather was probably the wealthiest man in Virginia. This gave him the “in” he needed to become a gentleman farmer and a public official.
In 1761 he was elected to Virginia’s House of Burgesses, and in 1769 he was a signatory to the Virginia Resolves, which protested parliamentary interference with colony affairs. While he was a Patriot at heart, as 1776 rolled around and he replaced Peyton Randolph as one of Virginia’s delegates to the Continental Congress, he thought that independence from England was a little premature, but he did sign the Declaration of Independence when the time came. Not long after that he returned to Virginia and resumed his term in the state legislature.
Carter Braxton had some notable progeny. His second great-grandson was William Tyler Page, composer of the Amercan’s Creed, which reads:
I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.
This was accepted by the US House of Representatives on April 3, 1918.
The South Carolina 5th Regiment ultimately wasn’t a huge success, with a single exception, which we’ll talk about in greater detail in a few months. But in those losses there were some long odds going on, so we’ll not judge too harshly.
I learned a couple of things as a result of today’s episode. I own a piece of property in South Carolina, in the Myrtle Beach area, which is located in Horry County. I always wondered how it got that name, and now I’ve learned that Horry County was named after Peter Horry, who was a commander of the SC 5th. The other thing I learned was that when I looked for a picture of Peter Horry, I stumbled on his biography and learned that he was a great-grandchild of French Huguenot refugees who arrived in Charleston in the 1680s.
And that is how I learned why Horry County is pronounced with a silent “H”.
There’s a line in the play 1776 about how everyone in the New York Legislature is very loud and talks very fast and as a result nothing ever gets done. This was likely a side effect of the fact that New York was so politically mixed at the time. Everyone hollering at rather than talking to each other means that nobody is truly connecting with anyone else. Thank goodness we’ve moved past THAT! <eyeroll>
But New York and the Hudson Valley in particular held great strategic value for the various parties involved in the conflict we call the American Revolution. Britain taking that area would separate New England from the other Colonies. What’s more, George Washington knew it. So he devoted a lot of energy into ensuring that that territory remained defended, even while the British were nowhere in sight, because he knew it was a matter of time.
And he was right: the British did show up ready for battle. It didn’t happen when he expected it to happen, and we’ll talk about that when things start heating up.
Oliver Wolcott was one of our Founding Fathers in that he was one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, but while he never achieved prominence on the level of Franklin or Adams, he nevertheless served an important role as a member of the Second Continental Congress.
As the Revolution began, Wolcott was made a commissioner of Indian affairs, largely to work on ensuring that the northern tribes remained neutral. He was considered qualified for that position because he worked in that part of the continent during the French and Indian War.
He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, and although he was quite ill for a chunk of 1776, he did sign the Declaration of Independence, although it was some time later than everyone else. He was also a signatory to the Articles of Confederation, but he did not sign the US Constitution because by then he was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, becoming governor in 1796. A year later he died at the age of 71.
I know, it wasn’t that long ago that I was gushing about Fort McHenry, but I live in Baltmore so it’s kind of the law around here to pump up the local history. Also, Fort, McHenry is a cool place to visit.
And so is Fort Moultrie! In fact, Fort Moultrie itself was built several times, including its original Fort Sullivan incarnation, and as a result there are extensive historic exhibits throughout the park. The various forts went through three wars against America (see, I did a thing there), and consequently there are a lot of stories to tell here.
And when you’re through touring the fort and the grounds, make sure you have your fishing pole with you, because there’s a fishing dock there (it’ll re-open sometime this spring); I hear the fishing is pretty good because of the location.
We should confess that by the time we actually get to the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, it’s not going to be as big a battle as anyone thought it was going to be. But the buildup was something else again. It seemed pretty clear to everyone involved that this was going to be epic and a veritable cast of thousands would be involved.
But, things happen. Motivations change. Cynicism and even capriciousness sets in. And there’s still a battle, but it involves hundreds, not thousands. So from a battle standpoint, it wasn’t a lot. But by many other standards, which we’ll explore a little further down the line, there was a huge lasting impact.
There were many reports from George Washington over the course of the Revolutionary war, but for the most part I think they were carefully crafted and frankly not always worthy of the reactions they proposed.
The careful craftsmanship does makes sense, though, because Washington was a diligent collector and reader of books. As an autodidact, he was constantly learning, and he was the teacher. It’s just a huge shame that when Washington died, his book collection was broken up and sold off. In recent years, author Kevin Hayes tracked down a huge portion of those books, largely to see what kind of notes he’d left in the margins, as he was prone to doing.
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.
![Cover art for February 24, 1776: "Entrada al Castillo de San Antón [Entrance to the Castle at St. Antón]", in La Coruña, Spain. Uploaded by "Marcus", via Wikimedia and used under Creative Commons under SA 3.0](https://250andcounting.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/1776-02-24-Cover-1024x1024.jpg)
