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This day 250 years ago

  1. 4h ago

    Landing In Brooklyn–August 22, 1776

    One fine Thursday morning in August of 1776, about 4000 British troops, led by General Henry Clinton and General George Cornwallis, landed at Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn. By the end of the day, their number had swelled to over 16,000. George Washington’s problem was that he only heard about the initial 4000 later that day and decided that his guess regarding any invasion of Brooklyn was little more than a feint. Washington was no fool, but he was definitely wrong about this one. The post Landing In Brooklyn–August 22, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    Landing In Brooklyn–August 22, 1776

  2. 1d ago

    Joseph Healy–August 21, 1776

    When looking at historical documents related to Joseph Healy, it appears that most of them relate to Healy in a rather ancillary manner. We know how many times he voted in Congress because someone keeps tallies of everyone in Congress. We know about his family tree because he was traced back via Ancestry.com. Healy is the stone that was thrown in the pond; what we know about him has to be read from the ripples. All of which is a rather long way of saying that I don’t have a lot to say here. The post Joseph Healy–August 21, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    Joseph Healy–August 21, 1776

  3. 2d ago

    The Battle Begins–August 20, 1776

    It’s been coming for at least two months, and the Battle of Long Island has finally begun. As we’ve noted a few times the past couple of days, George Washington had to make a few educated guesses about what the British were planning to do, but this left his troops thinly spread throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan, which left the Continental Army at a big disadvantage. While numerous skirmishes have broken out up and down the coast between the British and American militia forces from time to time, this was Washington’s first major tangle with the British Army. That it didn’t go so great wasn’t his fault; that it didn’t go as badly as it could have is entirely his doing, as we’ll learn in a few days. The post The Battle Begins–August 20, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    The Battle Begins–August 20, 1776

  4. 4d ago

    The Declaration, In Church–August 18, 1776

    Samuel Dunbar was born in Boston on October 2, 1704. When he was 4, his father died. At a very early age he attracted the attention of the Reverend Cotton Mather. With Mather’s guidance, Dunbar attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College. In 1727, the people of Canton reached out and sent letters of inquiry asking that the 23 year old accept a ministry over the Church of Christ in Stoughton. Dunbar was a Loyalist, much like nearly everyone else in New England in the mid-1700s, but as time went by he began to support Patriot causes. He was present at the meeting that brought about the Suffolk Resolves, and it was said that he opened that meeting with “the most extraordinary liberty prayer” ever heard. So it makes sense that Dunbar was the first minister to read the Declaration from the pulpit. The post The Declaration, In Church–August 18, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    The Declaration, In Church–August 18, 1776

  5. 5d ago

    Get Outta Town!–August 17, 1776

    Ever the polite man, George Washington strongly urged (rather than ordered) civilians to evacuate Manhattan before the British began their attack. Washington’s biggest problem was that he knew that the British were coming, but he had no idea how they were going to do it, given that Manhattan is an island, and while Brooklyn is not (its location at the west end of Long Island notwithstanding; work with me a little here), it’s still got a lot of coastline to defend. So even if Washington had a number of troops similar to the Howes, they’d likely be stretched a little thin. With slightly more than half the British strength, he’s definitely stretching thin. So to evacuate Manhattan was the smartest move, since there was practically no way he could defend the land and the people living on it. The best he could do it say “please go, and with any luck you’ll be back before you know it.” Unfortunately, “before you know it”, in this case, meant “not until 1783.” The post Get Outta Town!–August 17, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    Get Outta Town!–August 17, 1776

  6. 6d ago

    An Official Reprimand–August 16, 1776

    We’ve visited Esek Hopkins in the past, when we told you about the transgressions he committed that led to today’s activity. To be fair, when Hopkins chose to engage in the raid on Nassau, the reaction in Congress was mixed, especially at first. John Hancock was happy that the Continental Navy had seized badly-needed war supplies from the British, but members from the Southern colonies were upset by this failure to follow orders. The whole situation became politically quite complex. Part of the problem was that privateers were easier to hire than Continental Navy sailors, and here we had a guy behaving like a privateer. This could only make the problem harder to solve, because privateers wound up getting paid more. The debate went on for several weeks, with John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Richard Henry Lee, Robert Treat Paine, and John Paul Jones (who was at Nassau) coming to the defense of Hopkins. Regardless, in the end he was formally censured. In the long run it wound up worse than if he’d simply lost his command, because he had to return to his ship disgraced and with the respect of his officers lost. The post An Official Reprimand–August 16, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    An Official Reprimand–August 16, 1776

  7. Aug 15

    Greene Isn’t Happy–August 15, 1776

    Nathanael Greene was among the first to step up when the shooting started at Lexington and Concord. This is almost certainly because a British official seized a vessel owned by Greene and his brothers. After the Intolerable Acts were enacted in 1774, Greene organized a militia unit called the “Kentish Guards.” Despite his leadership, he was not selected as an officer in that militia because he had a limp he’d acquired in childhood (there are no records extant showing why this was the case.) However, when the war broke out, Greene was selected to lead the Rhode Island Army of Observation and head to Boston. That company was involved with the battle at Bunker Hill but Greene wasn’t there for it; he was visiting home at the time. Later that month, the Continental Army was established, and he became Brigadier General Nathanael Greene. Greene remained with the Boston-based forces after the siege of that city ended, but he rejoined Washington shortly thereafter in New York. As we note in today’s episode, Greene was ill with a severe fever when the Battle of Long Island broke out, but he was able to take command for the Battle of Harlem Heights in September, during the withdrawal from Manhattan. We’ll talk about that more in a few weeks. The post Greene Isn’t Happy–August 15, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    Greene Isn’t Happy–August 15, 1776

  8. Aug 14

    Mail From Braintree–August 14, 1776

    John and Abigail Adams were one of the great love stories of the 18th Century, and for John to receive a letter from Abigail must have been heavenly, even if it happened nearly every day. To be sure, Abigail didn’t always have good news with regard to whatever might be happening at home, and today’s letter is no exception to that. But Abigail was a woman with strong opinions and she wasn’t afraid to put them to paper and let John know what she thought. It was presumably her hope that John could sway the Congress to take on some of her ideas, and it’s entirely possible that he tried, but Abigail was a very progressive, forward-thinking woman and the men in Congress just weren’t realy for that level of social change. The post Mail From Braintree–August 14, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

    Mail From Braintree–August 14, 1776
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This day 250 years ago

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