250 and Counting

There’s an episode of The West Wing in which Leo McGarry explains how, several years earlier, the President wanted to meet the Dalai Lama. The problem was that China was strongly opposed to such a meeting, so they arranged for an “accidental” meeting between the two: Set up a low-level meeting with someone else and […]

The post August 14, 1775: “Stolen” Goods From Bermuda appeared first on 250 and Counting.

As you may recall, several months ago some members of the Continental Congress thought it was important to make one last effort to reconcile with Britain before things got worse. So they composed the Olive Branch Petition and sent it off to England. Transit times being what they were then, the petition took several weeks […]

The post August 13, 1775: The Olive Branch Petition Arrives in England appeared first on 250 and Counting.

One thing that you can’t say about George Washington is that he was a slacker. He was constantly communicating with people, whether it was the orders of the day, making plans to organize his army, or writing letters. And Washington was absolutely prolific at writing letters. In this case, he’s writing to a Rhode Island […]

The post August 12, 1775: George Washington Writes a “Dear John” Letter appeared first on 250 and Counting.

While today is perhaps the earliest documented instance of George Washington expressing concern for his captured troops, it certainly wouldn’t be the last. For years he worried about this, largely because the British didn’t always consider the Continental Army to be a genuine army, nor did they consider themselves to be “at war” with America; […]

The post August 11, 1775: Washington Gets Serious About POWs appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It’s peculiar, sometimes, how we know a lot of stuff about famous people, but we don’t often know much about their relatives. Sometimes we don’t realize that they even existed, John Adams had two brothers, one of whom died on this day in 1775. He wasn’t famous, but he did have some involvement with the […]

The post August 10, 1775: John Adams Loses A Brother appeared first on 250 and Counting.

This. This artwork right here is why I’m reluctant to use A.I. to generate cover art. But this one came out too hilarious for me not to use, am I right? George Washington worried about supplies for his troops pretty much throughout the Revolutionary War. Sometimes it was ammunition, as we discussed a couple of […]

The post August 9, 1775: An Appeal for Supplies appeared first on 250 and Counting.

It was another net win for the Americans as the HMS Falcon, which had originally been assigned to the Colonies to enforce the Intolerable Acts, took a run at stealing livestock in order to provision the British who were stuck in Boston during the siege. Unfortunately for them, the Colonists were wise to their moves […]

The post August 8, 1775: The Battle of Gloucester appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Once again, complacency wins the day. An American ship heads to Florida to raid the British ammunition stores there, and instead stumbles on a ship carrying literal tons of gunpowder. And it’s easily captured because the crew was asleep. Wasn’t anyone on watch? Apparently not, or they still managed to allow the American ship to […]

The post August 7, 1775: A Victory in Failure appeared first on 250 and Counting.

I’m the first to admit that my math didn’t work out during yesterday’s episode. I have no excuse other than I’m on vacation this week and perhaps not as detail-oriented as usual. You may remember a couple of days ago when we mentioned that one of the things that broke in George Washington’s favor was […]

The post August 6, 1775: A Long March in August appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Meanwhile, three thousand miles away from the action… …the Spanish were exploring the West Coast and claiming a lot of territory in their name. It was largely exploration and planting flags, although there were some colonies established as well. But what’s interesting about the bit of exploration we’ll be looking at today is that, even […]

The post August 5, 1775: Open Up That Golden Gate appeared first on 250 and Counting.