250 and Counting

The raid on New Providence is probably one of those situations where we couldn’t really represent everything that was going on on this particular island, because there were a lot of moving parts. We especially overlooked the part at the end. Two of the ships went to St. Augustine, laden down mostly with gunpowder. Of […]

The post The Raid on New Providence–March 3, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Oh, that Royal Governor Josiah Martin. He might be defiant, he might be delusional. He might be in denial. What he was not, apparently, was cognizant of the effect that the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge had on Loyalist morale. Or, perhaps he did. At any rate, his order to raise the British flag anywhere […]

The post The NC Royal Governor is Defiant–March 2, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

We bumped into a little dilemma when putting together this episode. Specifically, what do we do when 1776 doesn’t match up with 2026? As it turns out, 1776 was a leap year, so that year had a February 29, whereas 2026 does not. So we decided to do what most Leap Babies seem to do: […]

The post The French Connection–March 1, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Phyllis Wheatley was an 18th century poet who was born in West Africa and sold into slavery as a small child, living with the Wheatley Family in Boston. Phyllis wrote a book of poems which was published in 1773, after which she was emancipated. This makes her the first African-American author of a published book […]

The post Phyllis Wheatley Gets A Fan Letter–February 28, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As Revolutionary battles go, the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge was relatively minor. It didn’t last very long, there weren’t a ton of losses on either side (though definitely more on the Loyalist side), and it led to the capture of hundreds of Loyalists. However, it changed the way the British viewed the Carolinas through […]

The post The Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge–February 27, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Innis Green served as a Jacksonian Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 20th (1827–1829) and 21st (1829–1831) Congresses, essentially holding the party’s populist line. But he did deviate from party alignment on May 26, 1830, when Green voted nay on H.R. 287, the Indian Removal Act. Despite this, the bill passed narrowly, […]

The post Innis Green–February 26, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

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 post Another Washington in Uniform–February 25, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

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 […]

The post British People Noticing Things–February 24, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

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 […]

The post Our New Man in Virginia–February 23, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

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 […]

The post The South Carolina 5th Regiment–February 22, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.