Tweets from 1776! The American Revolution and War of Independence and the world in which they happened, 250 years ago.
The Thirteen Colonies
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11 OCTOBER 1776, VALCOUR ISLAND, LAKE CHAMPLAIN: “At half-past twelve, the engagement became general, and very warm”: The British and American lake fleets begin exchanging general broadsides.
ALT The Battle of Valcour Island
8 NOVEMBER 1776, NORTH CASTLE, NEW YORK: Washington’s aide Tench Tilghman writes to Robert R. Livingston that, though the people of Westchester County are making their Toryism very visible, that isn’t protecting them from British and Hessian troops:
“[Royal] Governor Tryon summoned the inhabitants of this county to come to the White Plains and make their submissions. We are informed that four or five hundred went in and took the oaths, but this did not exempt them from plunder when their new friends came across them.
7 NOVEMBER 1776, WILLIAMSBURG: Thomas Jefferson submits a bill to the Virginia state legislature to raise the value of Virginia’s copper halfpenny coins to being worth one full penny of Virginia paper currency.
ALT Thomas Jefferson, painted by Charles Willson Peale in 1776
But the copper halfpennies (“halfpenny” pronounced “hape-knee”) are official Virginia currency, approved by the Crown and struck at the Tower Mint in London in 1773–74.
7 NOVEMBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: With Benjamin Franklin departed on his diplomatic to France, the Second Continental Congress replaces him as postmaster general with his son-in-law, Richard Bache.
ALT Richard Bache, painted by John Hoppner
7 NOVEMBER 1776, DOBBS FERRY, NEW YORK: “8 or 10 of our People taken Marauding,” says the American redcoat Stephen Kemble.
ALT Stephen Kemble
“Scandalous behavior for British Troops; and the Hessians Outrageously Licentious, and Cruel to such a degree as to threaten with death all such as dare obstruct them in their depredations. Violence to Officers frequently used, and every Degree of Insolence offered.”
7 NOVEMBER 1776, NEW YORK: Ambrose Serle “Took a delightful Ride on Horseback to see the Scylla and Charybdis of America, or the curious Phoenomenon of Hell-Gate between Long Island & the Islands in the East Sound,” in the East River.
“To make amends, the Country about the Confluence of the two Sounds [Hellgate, and the East River generally, is formed where the inflow of the Atlantic from Long Island Sound meets the inflow from New York Harbor] is the most delightful to the Eye that can be conceived.
6 NOVEMBER 1776, WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK: “The situation of our Affairs is critical and truly alarming; The dissolution of our Army is fast approaching and but little, if any prospect of levying a New one in a reasonable time,” Washington writes to the Massachusetts General Court.
ALT George Washington, painted in 1776 by Charles Willson Peale
By then, hopefully, the new Continental Army should have been raised, and the militia will no longer be needed:
“We flatter ourselves by that time, if not long before, such an Army will be levyed, as to render any future claims upon them unless in cases of the most pressing emergency, altogether unnecessary.” founders.archives.gov/docume…