250 and Counting

By now the British appear to accepted the fact that the war was going to go on for much longer than they thought. They thought that fighting the colonies would be a cake walk. They discovered that it was quickly becoming a quagmire. Fortunately they recognized it and began to make plans. Lord Dartmouth and General Howe started drawing something up that involved isolating Washington’s army fr...

When the war first started, the Continental Army took on all comers, largely because they didn’t have a lot of choice. Frankly, they needed whatever bodies they could get. But it was around this time in 1775 that George Washington and his advisers decided that they could afford to get choosier about their recruits, So they decided not to take on any more Black soldiers. What’s more, so...

While Boston was under siege, the British were having a hard time getting food and other supplies. But they still controlled the water, so British naval vessels went in search. Captain James Wallace was especially good at procuring supplies, largely because he harassed people until they gave in, or he would threaten to shoot up the place. This second tactic was the one he chose for Bristol, Rhode...

We actually touched on this once before, but George Washington was known for being quite the gentleman, but he did have a temper, especially when things weren’t handled in a gentlemanly way. Cross the lines of civility and he was hoisting the Jolly Roger, my friend. In a previous episode we noted that Washington wrote to General Gage about the treatment that captured American soldiers were r...

Thomas Walker was born in England and emigrated to Boston in 1752. In 1763 he moved to Montreal and became a merchant. When the war broke out in the Colonies, both Walker and his wife’s sympathies remained with the Americans. So it was that he agreed to assist with the invasion of Montreal. The plan never got to the point where his task came in, but since he was known to be part of it, the w...

It’s actually kind of curious that Benedict Arnold gets all the “traitor” press when there were other spies and turncoats doing their thing during the Revolution. Of course there were! There were Loyalists among the Patriots! It was practically a civil war. Dr. Benjamin Church, essentially our first Surgeon General (but that wasn’t a thing yet, so), was a Loyalist in Patrio...

It’s often tough to remember that when the fighting first broke out, it wasn’t a bid for independence from Britain. It was an attempt to protect and defend rights that the Colonists thought they had as part of their relationship with Britain. Reconciliation was (amazingly) still on the table, even six months after Lexington. So while many colonies had created their own small navies (wi...

It was not so very long ago that some of us sought directions from Mapquest. Then we printed them out in order to make a trip of some kind. It was only a little bit longer ago that we depended on physical maps to get places. In fact, if you’re a fan of the HBO show The Wire , you may recall a plot point that revolved around printed maps. A secret code led to a point on the map. Back in the 1...

We have two fun events for you today: first up, North Carolina reaches an important deadline it had set back in August. Then, by sheer coincidence, John and Abigail Adams each wrote a letter to the other. Of course, they wrote to one another quite frequently, so this probably happened more often than you’d think. But remember also that any news they received was probably two weeks old by the...

Robert Adrain is one of those names that most people wouldn’t recognize, but back in the day he was a mathematical scholar in a place where there really weren’t any. At least, none of special note. Adrain made education his entire life, teaching youngsters while still pretty much a child himself, being 15 when he started. After moving to America, he resumed his teaching career and beca...

During the episode we noted that not much is known about David McConaughy’s early life. Even his adult life isn’t especially well-documented. We don’t even know who painted the portrait in today’s cover art. But there’s no question that, even if the man himself is a bit of a cypher, his legacy at Washington College is not. Meanwhile, another couple of Washingtons are...

First off: let me apologize for not tutoring Mike in the correct pronunciation of “Iroquois.” I’d make him record that part again but he’s at a podcasting conference and away from his studio. (It only looks like a French word, Mike; it’s not pronounced like one.) Of course, I grew up in New York so those tribes were kind of beaten into us during Social Studies classes...

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 th...

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...

And this, kiddies, is what happens when you don’t push the “publish” button. You get a late episode. At least the radio folks heard it today. BTW: Shout-out to Hillsboro’s News Hound, HBORO.com ! Welcome aboard! Ethan Allen was part of the Green Mountain Boys and the whole contingent that went north to invade/convince Canada in the effort to get them to join us in the Indep...

It could be argued that Captain Heald’s biggest claim to fame is that he was on hand for the disastrous outcome at Fort Dearborn, but at least he doesn’t eat the blame for it; it just happened to be the guy who was there. On the bright side (such as it is), the events at Dearborn were soon overshadowed by President Madison declaring war on the British, thus beginning the War of 1812. H...

For those of you new to this podcast (or those who haven’t been paying attention), I grew up on Long Island, and have lived or worked pretty much from one end of the map in today’s cover art to the other at one time or another. For instance, my childhood home is just about where the Long Island portion of the map ends at the top right. I did my undergrad work approximately where the &#...

Philip Milledoler was a minister and the fifth president of Rutgers University (Rutgers College, then), but it’s a little more complicated than that. Milledoler took a moribund college and transformed it into the intellectual powerhouse it is today. But how it happened is at the heart of our story. The post September 22, 1775: Philip Milledoler appeared first on 250 and Counting .

In the episode itself I took the time to hammer home the point that many of our historical legends aren’t quite what they seem to be. But also important is the forgotten people of our history as well. Not just the faceless folks who fought and died (or didn’t but remained in obscurity), but the people who were an important part of some events, yet go unnoticed today. And Abel Prescott...

Calling Bernard Romans a “Renaissance Man” wouldn’t be far from the truth, given his various talents and the fact that folks from that era were much more like people from the Renaissance than they are from modern times. Romans was a surveyor, a naturalist, an artist and an author. He was also an entrepreneur, which is what put him on our radar for today. And he was a ship’s...

We think of “Benedict Arnold” and the word “Traitor” comes immediately to mind. The two are essentially synonymous. Say one, and you’ve said the other. But Benedict Arnold was quite loyal to the Independence cause in the early days of the war. In fact, he was often eager to show what he could do. And why he switched sides is quite complicated and can’t really be...

The Committee of Secret Correspondence is one of those names that sounds like they should be on Double Secret Probation or something. However, when you look at their purpose, the name makes sense. The Committee of Secret Correspondence was formed to seek out support from other nations. They reached out to France, Spain, and a few others to get supplies, food, munitions…pretty much anything t...

The Minuteman statue in Lexington, Massachusetts is said to represent Captain John Parker, who died on this day. Except Parker wasn’t a minuteman. He also probably didn’t look like the man in the statue, given his age and what other small details we know about him. But as usual, nobody lets the facts get in the way of a good story, so just roll with it, hm? (We’re guessing he pro...

So obviously this Josiah Bartlett isn’t the guy on The West Wing , in part because President Bartlet is fictional. (Okay, maybe entirely because of that.) But he is supposed to be a direct descendant of the Founding Father. Why, and when, the terminal T dropped off was never explained. Anyway, Josiah Bartlett and John Langdon both arrived in Philadelphia from New Hampshire as delegates to th...

Since the early 1700s there have been several Fort Johnsons on James Island in the Charleston Bay. The curious thing is that few people know what happened to each fort as it was destroyed, with the exception of the third one, which was definitely damaged in a storm. But the first two? Who knows. Today’s episode focuses on the second version of the fort, which still has a few vestiges of the...