250 and Counting

When a statue of King George III was pulled down in New York, it was a good sign for the city, since there were times that it felt that the spirit of Independence was rather squashed by the sight of the British fleet, which was still arriving. A brief digression: several years ago (ugh, longer […]

The post Down With The King–July 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Battle of Gwynn’s Island doesn’t seem to get much attention these days, which is a shame because it was rather important at the time. First, Lord Dunmore, the former Royal Governor of Virginia, had been there since May, having retreated there after the bombardment of Norfolk in January. The Patriots made their lives very […]

The post Battle of Gwynn’s Island–July 8, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

William Howe had already been in New York for a little over a week when he wrote to George Germain from his Staten Island headquarters. Not everyone had yet arrived from Halifax, of course; it was a long trip and the ships moved at different speeds. Howe took the time to detail what troops and […]

The post Howe Checks In–July 7, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Pennsylvania Evening Post is an interesting study in media relations and what a publication sometimes has to do in order to survive. The Post was America’s first daily newspaper, but early on it published three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. They were generally supportive of the Revolution and published pro-Patriot articles. […]

The post Some Big News–July 6, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

In the biography of Bernard Smith in today’s episode, it was noted that he spent a couple of years as the Collector of Customs in 1809 and 1810. Which set up the question for me: what does a Collector of Customs do? My guess wasn’t too far off, tell the truth. The Collector of Customs […]

The post Bernard Smith–July 5, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which […]

The post Bonus Episode: The Declaration appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Happy Independence Day! I don’t know if we ever mentioned this, but People of a Certain Age may remember that back in the Bicentennial Days, on our television every night during the 8:00 PM hour there was a one-minute (two, if you count the commercial) which offered up some snippet of history from that day […]

The post Independence Day–July 4, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

In the play/film 1776, with nearly every vote cast throughout the show, a delegate from New York (Lewis Morris) steps up to announce New York’s abstention from the vote, “courteously.” It’s played for comedy, and at one point even the explanation is rendered comedic, when Morris tells the assembled delegates that the members of the […]

The post Why New York Abstained–July 3, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s been twenty-five days since the Lee Resolution was introduced, asking the delegates of the Continental Congress to vote for Independence from Great Britain. Some of the delegates returned to their homes to get the formal instructions in the affirmative, others stayed behind and worked on drafting a Declaration. Finally all the stars have aligned, […]

The post The Question Is Called–July 2, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Chickamauga Wars, also known as the Cherokee-American Wars, was really just an escalation of the hostile relationship between Americans and the Cherokee tribe. The problem really started during the French and Indian War, which ran from 1758-1761. During that war, British forces simply destroyed many Cherokee towns, which were never reoccupied. Some treaties were […]

The post The Chickamauga Wars–July 1, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.