250 and Counting

Samuel Dunbar was born in Boston on October 2, 1704. When he was 4, his father died. At a very early age he attracted the attention of the Reverend Cotton Mather. With Mather’s guidance, Dunbar attended Boston Latin School and Harvard College. In 1727, the people of Canton reached out and sent letters of inquiry […]

The post The Declaration, In Church–August 18, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Ever the polite man, George Washington strongly urged (rather than ordered) civilians to evacuate Manhattan before the British began their attack. Washington’s biggest problem was that he knew that the British were coming, but he had no idea how they were going to do it, given that Manhattan is an island, and while Brooklyn is […]

The post Get Outta Town!–August 17, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

We’ve visited Esek Hopkins in the past, when we told you about the transgressions he committed that led to today’s activity. To be fair, when Hopkins chose to engage in the raid on Nassau, the reaction in Congress was mixed, especially at first. John Hancock was happy that the Continental Navy had seized badly-needed war […]

The post An Official Reprimand–August 16, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Nathanael Greene was among the first to step up when the shooting started at Lexington and Concord. This is almost certainly because a British official seized a vessel owned by Greene and his brothers. After the Intolerable Acts were enacted in 1774, Greene organized a militia unit called the “Kentish Guards.” Despite his leadership, he […]

The post Greene Isn’t Happy–August 15, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

John and Abigail Adams were one of the great love stories of the 18th Century, and for John to receive a letter from Abigail must have been heavenly, even if it happened nearly every day. To be sure, Abigail didn’t always have good news with regard to whatever might be happening at home, and today’s […]

The post Mail From Braintree–August 14, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Abraham Shepherd hails from Shepherdstown, West Virginia, but when he was born it was Mecklenburg, Virginia. As near as I can put it together, there were originally two large tracts of land belonging to Shepherd families; one was over 200 acres and the other was a 750-acre plot of mostly farmland. In 1776 there were […]

The post Abraham Shepherd–August 13, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Andrew Pickens was a plantation owner whose property was near Seneca, South Carolina, which is almost as far west as you can go and still be in South Carolina. As the Cherokee-American wars wore down, Pickens was able to sign peace treaties with the tribe, which was known as the Treaty of Hopewell. Meanwhile, in […]

The post Do The Fight Ring–August 12, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

George Washington’s means for maintaining motivation in the Continental Army came from two directions: discipline and stirring rhetoric as a means of providing the troops with something to rally for. And his Orders of the Day for this day seem to be focused simultaneously on both. As noted elsewhere, Washington could be a stickler for […]

The post Maintaining Motivation–August 11, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

Once again, we have a situation where the technology of the eighteenth century has to be seen to be believed. Only a few days ago, we mentioned an event that took place in France without knowledge that the United States had declared independence, and now we have today’s entry, suggesting that it’s only in the […]

The post The Big News–August 10, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.

The idea to have a flying camp at all belonged to Geroge Washington. He knew that he was going to be facing huge numbers of British soldiers soon, and he proposed having a mobile unit that could show up wherever they were needed. While the soldiers came from three specific states, they were intended to […]

The post Flying Camp Rations–August 9, 1776 appeared first on 250 and Counting.