250 and Counting

The Battle of Great Cane Brake took place near modern-day Simpsonville, South Carolina. That’s a few miles southeast of Greenville. A “Brake of Canes” is pretty much what it sounds like. The cane stalks in question are a kind of bamboo that grows in the area, and a “Cane Brake” is a large thicket of […]

The post The Battle of Great Cane Brake–December 22, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

General Richard Richardson was a delegate to the Provincial Congresses in South Carolina in 1775 and 1776, and he served in both the South Carolina Militia and the Continental Army during the Revolution. He was instrumental in the Americans winning the Battle of Charleston in 1776, but doesn’t get much else attention, perhaps because he […]

The post One Thing Ends, Another One Begins–December 21, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s arguably the most recognizable and popular symbol of the Revolutionary Era, and its debut turns 250 years old today. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s the Gadsden Flag. The concept of the snake image representing the Colonies is a little older than this by about twenty years, with the “JOIN OR DIE” image of the snake […]

The post The Gadsden Flag Debuts–December 20, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The Great Chesapeake Bay, which is protected by the Delmarva Peninsula (DELaware, MARyland, VirginiA, get it?) is a watershed area that is hugely important for these three states, plus New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Because of its importance, there are sensor buoys all over the place, measuring water temperature, salinity levels, turbidity (how clear […]

The post Protecting the Chesapeake–December 19, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Military Intelligence is a peculiar thing, if only because you never know where it’s going to come from, and/or what it’s going to affect. And that’s where today’s episode comes in, because Congress received a letter written today which detailed some plans for British military activity in Virginia. What’s surprising is that the intelligence came […]

The post Washington Has Some Intel–December 18, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Colonel Henry Knox was just about ready to begin moving the Noble Train of Artillery (a phrase he coined, incidentally). He’d have everything he needed to move by the 20th or 21st of December, and then just seventeen days later, he’d be marching into Cambridge. As we all know, he was wrong about how long […]

The post The Noble Train Of Artillery–December 17, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

I rather dislike using historical markers back-to-back for the cover art, but there are no images of Chief White Eyes, and I’d about run out of images of Great Bridge yesterday, so here we are. Also—and I admit I only know this because there’s a town not far from where I grew up with this […]

The post The Delaware Who Came To Congress–December 16, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

We’ve done several episodes about the Battle of Great Bridge, and there’s a reason for that. Bunker Hill gets all the press, but remember we LOST that battle. Great Bridge was the first real Patriot victory, it was the first major battle in Virginia, and therefore it poked the Virginia Convention into adopting the first […]

The post Colonel Woodford’s View–December 15, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Thomas Cochrane had quite the colorful, storied life, and it’s too bad that we can only cram so much into a twenty-minute podcast episode. For instance, it’s entirely possible that he was involved in a stock fraud scheme based on false rumors of Napoleon’s death. Fortunately for him, he was elected back into the House […]

The post Thomas Cochrane–December 14, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

If you’re going to build a navy, you’ve got to get serious about it. Congress established the need for a Navy back in October, but they were kind of sloppy about executing the plan. For the last several weeks, the Congress has been purchasing existing ships and retrofitting them to make them battle-worthy. That’s great […]

The post Time To Buy A Navy–December 13, 1775 appeared first on 250 and Counting.