250 and Counting

Horatio Gates did move up quickly through the ranks, and partially because he knew George Washington well, but it was also because he had a pretty good handle on getting things done. As an Adjutant General, Gates was the man who ran the administrative side of the Continental Army, and is now thought of as […]

The post Gates Moves Up Quickly–April 27, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Jonathan Trumbull was first and—for a while—the only Colonial Governor to support the American Revolution. (Most of the other colony leaders either didn’t hold that title, or remained quiet, as if hedging their bets.) Througout the Revolution, Trumbull supported the troops in general and George Washington in particular, and was often a close advisor to […]

The post George Washington Has Concerns–April 26, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Thomas Stone was a delegate to the Second Continental Congress who served with strict instuctions to “arrive at a happy settlement and lasting amity” with the Mother Country. What’s more, he and his fellow delegates were told not to vote for any proposition that declared independence. Fortunately, just a few days before Richard Henry Lee […]

The post Thomas Stone Writes Home–April 25, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It may seem as though a large number of men were suddenly being appointed as South Carolina delegates to the Continental Congress, but in fact they weren’t all new appointees. Some of them had already been delegates and were re-appointed. It’s also worth noting that while many of them were supporters of Colonial rights, they […]

The post New Kids In Town–April 24, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

William Henry Drayton was born in 1742 on his family’s plantation just outside of Charleston. The plantation was dedicated to growing rice. In 1764 he married Dorothy Golightly. In the early 1770s he was a Loyalist and enjoyed some of the perks that came with it. Then in 1774 he wrote a pamphlet supporting a […]

The post South Carolina’s Small Declaration–April 23, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

North Carolina’s Orange County Regiment went through a lot of change in a very short amount of time. First they were divided, then reabsorbed into a different group, all in the span of about two weeks. Fortunately things stablilized for them then, but the resulting Hillsborough District Brigade of militia saw a lot of action […]

The post Reorganizing in North Carolina–April 22, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When Henry Knox wrote to George Washington apologizing for getting to Noweich,Connecicut so late, he had a pretty good excuse: he spent a bunch of money on hiring people to move materials down; and those people had trouble getting the job done. But then Henry Knox also tells the story of leaving the caravan briefly […]

The post Letters From New England–April 21, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

If nothing else, the tenacity of the Continental Congress has to be admired, because sending a delegation to Canada, especially after the recent New Year’s Eve disaster in Quebec, and then the “who knows how well it went” trip in March, was a sign of either eternal optimism or an inability to get the hint. […]

The post Once More To Canada–April 20, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It seems like only a year ago we were marking the date the war began at Lexington and Concord, and how it became Patriots’ Day. So we’re here once again: the battle ended with the British retreating into the city of Boston, and holding siege there for the better part of a year, until Washington […]

The post Patriots’ Day–April 19, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

When you have seven ships and you encounter a single ship belonging to the enemy, the Battle of Block Island teaches us that it’s still possible to be overconfident. Some people tried to frame the Battle of Block Island as a draw, but those people really weren’t paying attention. The HMS Glasgow took some damage, […]

The post Battle at Block Island–April 18, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.