In this issue:

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President’s Message: Hamilton Monuments

(Loyalist Trails 26 August issue carried this lead article: “City of Hamilton Survey on Historical Monuments”
The City’s project, titled “Landmarks & Monuments Review: Honouring Our Indigenous Roots,” aims to gather feedback on how these monuments can better represent Indigenous stories and history. This initiative is part of a broader effort to provide a more equitable, balanced, and inclusive representation of Indigenous peoples’ histories and contributions in Hamilton. It also aligns with the ongoing spirit of reconciliation and education about the history of colonialism in Canada. )

By Carl Stymiest UE, President UELAC, 13 September 2024
Hamilton Monuments:
On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Central West Region Vice President & Councillor and members of the UELAC Hamilton Branch; the Executive Committee wishes to thank ALL members and guests who graciously responded to the 1st Survey made public by the City of Hamilton, Ontario.
As UELAC President, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to each and every one of you who responded to our recent memo regarding the City of Hamilton’s survey on historical monuments. Your prompt engagement and valuable input are a testament to the deep commitment we all share in preserving and honoring our loyalist heritage and history.
Your participation in this important dialogue ensures that the United Empire Loyalists’ legacy is accurately represented while contributing to the broader conversations of reconciliation and inclusion. I am deeply appreciative of the insights and perspectives you provided in response to the City’s initiative.
Together, we are ensuring that our history is recognized and remembered in a way that reflects the importance of both our Loyalist ancestors and the Indigenous communities with whom we share this land.
As we look forward to the second round of discussion with the City of Hamilton, as per their schedule of Survey No2 & In-person engagement sessions – September 09 → October 31, 2024. I am please to announce that Nathan Tidridge, UELAC Honorary Fellow Emeritus has agreed to be our representative at the ‘in-person’ engagement sessions.
“Nathan Tidridge has traveled across the country speaking and writing about the Crown in Canada for nearly 20 years, publishing numerous books, chapters and articles on the subject. The recipient of a number of awards for his work educating Canadians on the role of the Crown in Canada, and most recently its foundational role at the heart of Treaty relationships across the land, Nathan continues to explore the institution’s place at the heart of our democracy.”
If you are also interested in being heard, please contact Ruth Nicholson of the Hamilton Branch UELAC, Carol Childs, Central West VP or myself to be placed in contact with the City of Hamilton representatives.
Thank you once again for your dedication and support. It is through your efforts that we continue to make a meaningful impact.
With gratitude.
Carl Stymiest UE

Some American Dust in British Soil: Part One of Three
copyright Stephen Davidson UE
Lloyd Dulany of Annapolis, Maryland was killed in a duel in London’s Hyde Park. John Peters of Hebron, Connecticut died at Paddington of “gout in the head and stomach“. David Sproat of Philadelphia took his last breath at his home in Kirkcudbright, Scotland. Mary Hutchinson of Plymouth, Massachusetts died at Birmingham, England. Alexander Wallace, a New York merchant, was laid to rest in Waterford, Ireland. A New Jersey native, Elisha Lawrence, expired at Cardigan, Wales. Elizabeth Vassall of Cambridge, Massachusetts died at Clifton, England.
All of these people were Loyalists who had sought sanctuary in Great Britain during or following the American Revolution. They were just seven of the estimated 8,000 loyal Americans who made their homes in the United Kingdom. As many as 5,000 Black Loyalists also began new lives as free men and women in the same nation that had provided sanctuary to their white allies. The number of enslaved Africans who were forced to accompany their loyalist masters to Great Britain is not known.
Unaware of the fact that 40,000 other Loyalists had settled in the Maritime colonies of British North America, the men and women who found refuge in the United Kingdom thought that they represented a substantial population. In 1788, Thomas Jones, a New York judge, wrote, “The number who went to Great Britain and Ireland, especially the former, was very great. There is scarcely a town of any size in England and Scotland, where many expatriated Loyalists were not found for thirty years after the peace, and where their tombstones cannot now be seen.”
An anonymous loyalist correspondent had the same view when he wrote about the death of loyal American friend. “There will scarcely be a village in England without some American dust in it, I believe, by the time we are all at rest.”
Given the fact that Canadians tend to think of the Loyalist refugees as “ours”, it is worthwhile to consider the experiences of the “king’s friends” who did not settle in present day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Ontario. Who were they? Were their experiences in Great Britain different from those of Canada’s refugee founders?
Historians are indebted to the meticulous work of the American historian Lorenzo Sabine who identified a large number of the Loyalists who settled in the United Kingdom and ultimately became “American dust” in the graveyards of Britain. Sabine’s Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, first published in 1864, will be the starting point for this 3–part series that will make a closer examination of these often over-looked loyal colonists.
As one considers the list of American refugees who settled in Great Britain, one is struck by how well they fit the Loyalist stereotype that was created following the American Revolution. Rather than recognizing that the Loyalists were fellow Americans whose only “fault” was holding on to political beliefs that differed from those of their Patriot neighbours, some American historians reduced them to a small, traitorous minority within colonial society. The Loyalist stereotype they created was of an upper class male who owed his prosperity to the British government either as a civil servant, a clergyman, or a merchant with commercial ties to the mother country.
Any examination of the professions of the Loyalists who boarded evacuation vessels for safer shores immediately shows this stereotype to be a fabrication. A quick look at the claims for compensation will bring one to the same conclusion. The Loyalists who settled in what is now Canada were farmers, shoemakers, shipwrights, sailors, carpenters, sawyers, and coopers. Each was as typical an American as any Patriot.
However, a significant proportion of the Loyalist refugees who made it to Britain were, in fact, members of the colonial elite who had once held government positions, vast estates, or served in the Church of England. The incomes derived from these professions allowed these Loyalists to pay for their transatlantic journeys to safety and allowed them to pay for accommodation in England.
Later, they would be the first to take advantage of the British government’s Royal Commission on the Losses and Services of American Loyalists and receive compensation for their wartime losses. (From 1783 to December of 1785, one could only hope to be compensated for losses as a Loyalist if one made the expensive sea voyage to England to make one’s claim.)
The story of Daniel and Sarah Coxe is as a good a starting point as any. At the outbreak of the revolution, the coupled lived in Trenton, New Jersey where Daniel practiced law and was a member of the Mandamus counsel that governed the colony. His grandfather had once been the governor of New Jersey. Sarah was the daughter of Dr. John Redman, a distinguished physician based in Philadelphia.
When Coxe refused to sign an “association” (an allegiance oath), rebels marked him as a Loyalist. When the British army entered New Jersey in 1776, the local Patriots tried to capture all Loyalists, prompting the Coxe family to seek sanctuary in nearby Pennsylvania. After the British took Philadelphia, Coxe joined the army and was able to raise a corps of West Jersey Volunteers. He also served as the city’s magistrate of police.
When British forces and Loyalists evacuated from Philadelphia, Daniel and Sarah moved to New York City. Just a toddler, the Coxes’ son John R. Coxe remained behind and lived with his grandfather in Pennsylvania. The British military command appointed Coxe as the assistant secretary to the commissioners, a position he held until Loyalists left New York City in 1783.
After settling in London, Coxe was made a member of the board of directors that assisted Loyalist refugees who had found sanctuary in Britain. Within a year’s time, he had received compensation for his losses in New Jersey that included the burning of his house by British soldiers. Having testimony provided by as notable a man as William Franklin, the last royal governor of New Jersey, was, no doubt, very helpful.
In 1785, Sarah and their children were reunited with Daniel. The reason for Sarah’s delay in seeking refuge in Britain is not given, but it may be that she remained behind in the hopes of holding on to some of the family’s holdings in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
When Sarah Coxe left the United States, her parents were “well- nigh inconsolable” – a reminder of the many families divided by the revolution. With the death of her sister in 1806, Sarah became the only surviving Redman child. She crossed the Atlantic to “soothe her afflicted father, and to minister to the wants of her dying mother“.
The Coxes’ son John attended school in England where he studied medicine. In 1790, he took further training in Philadelphia, and then completed his studies in London, Edinburgh and Paris. Unlike his parents, Dr. John R. Coxe settled in Philadelphia where he established a medical practice.
Sometime before 1843, Daniel Coxe became part of the “American dust” that was laid to rest alongside other Loyalists in British graveyards. Sarah died in Brighton, England at the age of 91 in 1843.
The stories of other colonial politicians and civil servants will be told in the second segment of this series in next week’s Loyalist Trails.
To secure permission to reprint this article contact the author at stephendavids@gmail.com.

Book Review: From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia
Author: Greg Brooking (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2024.)
Review by Sam Short ( sept 20242 Journal of the American Revolution
Greg Brooking’s From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia is a biography of colonial and revolutionary Georgia’s royal governor set as an enticing and highly readable story of an Englishman who came to form his life and identity around his work overseas before it was swept away by the Patriot cause. Brooking draws inspiration from previous loyalist histories. Specifically, he mentions in his introduction Bernard Bailyn’s The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, which he hopes the reader will see influencing his work on Wright.
James Wright was born on May 8, 1716 in London. Nine years later, his father Robert Wright took his family to Charlestown, South Carolina (today’s Charleston) where his son James would come to establish himself both as a colonial official and a wealthy planter. James Wright served as South Carolina’s attorney general and its agent to London before assuming the position of Georgia’s lieutenant governor under Henry Ellis, who he would later replace as the colony’s last governor. Read more…

The Battle of Kings Mountain: New Insights from Forgotten Documents
by Jim Piecuch 12 Sept 2024 Journal of the American Revolution
On January 4, 1881, historian James Watts de Peyster delivered an address to the New-York Historical Society in New York City. The lengthy oration dealt with the Battle of Kings Mountain, fought on October 7, 1780, in South Carolina, where the Revolutionaries achieved a decisive victory over a force composed of Loyalists. Although de Peyster raised several important questions about the battle, and his remarks were later published in pamphlet form, his work vanished into oblivion, perhaps due in part to the publication of Lyman C. Draper’s exhaustive study, Kings Mountain and Its Heroes, later that same year. Yet some of the issues that concerned de Peyster merit further inquiry, including the numbers engaged on each side, casualties, and the curious inactivity of six hundred Loyalist militiamen who were nearby but did not come to the aid of their comrades.
De Peyster may not have been an impartial researcher. He was a nephew of Capt. Abraham de Peyster of the King’s American Regiment, who was Maj. Patrick Ferguson’s second-in-command at Kings Mountain and surrendered to the Revolutionaries there. Although Captain de Peyster died more than twenty years before J. Watts de Peyster’s birth, the nephew very likely wanted to defend his late uncle’s reputation as both a Loyalist and an officer, since he devoted a portion of his address to defending the Loyalists’ military service during the Revolution. Read more…

Hessian Soldiers Travelling to America: New York – A Soldier’s Life February 1781
From a Hessian Diary of the American Revolution.
This excerpt from the diary of Johan Conrad Dohla (170 pages).

Major Moves during Johan’s deployment:

  • March 1777: Depart Germany
  • 3 June 1777: Arrive New York, then Amboy NJ
  • November 1777: To Philadelphia
  • June 1778: to Long Island
  • July 1778: To Newport RI
  • October 1779: to New York

February 1781: At New York (page 93)

Continuation of Occurences in North America During the Fifth Year, 1781

IN THE MONTH OF FEBURARY [1781]
1 February. The state of Maryland, which had previously remained neutral, joined the Confederation of the Thirteen United Provinces.
3 February. I partook of confession and communion. Today it was made known to us that Brigadier General Arnold happily had reached New Virginia and seized the capital city of Richmond. With a minimal loss, he had captured nine hundred Americans, forty-three cannon, and large amounts of other booty. In capturing Richmond, he suffered not more than thirty-nine dead and seventy-two wounded.
7 February. The rebel Lieutenant Colonel Lee, with thirteen hundred men, captured Georgetown, a small city in South Carolina, drove the English troops out, captured two flags and six cannon, and made Major Pootlings prisoner with 143 English.
8 February. Private Neupert, of Quesnoy’s Company, received his marriage license from Colonel von Seybothen. During the afternoon he married Christiana Dullayin, an American from Flatbush on Long Island. I attended the ceremony, and we had a very good time.
9 February. Between nine and ten o’clock in the morning, a single-masted ship sank in the North River. It was a sloop from Long Island, carrying wood.
10 February. A heavy snow fell here.
14 February. I went on picket duty. Today the Loire, twenty-eight guns, brought in six captured prize ships sent here from Virginia by Brigadier Arnold. On today’s date the English Admiral Sir [George] Rodney captured Saint Eustatius, a Dutch island in the West Indies. He captured the eight-hundred-man Dutch garrison, sixteen ships, including two frigates of thirty-six guns each, and a great amount of food, with minimal losses.
22 February. We received an allowance to cover the cost of our cooking utensils. Each man received nineteen coppers, or English half-pennies.
23 February. I went on regimental picket duty.
28 February. An American spy was captured in New York. He had documents in his hair band and in his hat lining. A local resident betrayed him. He was immediately shot and allowed to hang for a few days thereafter.
(to be continued)

The Battle for Quebec, 1759
By Eamonn O-Keeffe 13 Sept 2024 on his blog
This week I gave a speech in London at a dinner commemorating the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. I’ve decided to share an edited version of my remarks, which were delivered in my capacity as a National Army Museum research fellow, to mark the 265th anniversary of the battle. I have also included a brief list of books at the end of the post for readers wishing to learn more. – Eamonn O’Keeffe
The 1759 siege of Quebec, of course, commands particular prominence as a turning point in Canada’s past. But it also remains a storied episode in military history on both sides of the Atlantic. This should come as no surprise, for quite apart from its profound repercussions, as C.P. Stacey observed long ago, the truth of the campaign’s climax seems almost stranger than fiction. There’s the hushed, suspenseful transit across the St Lawrence River; the nocturnal clambering up the cliffs; and the mortal injury of both commanders in a brisk showdown before the city walls. It all feels like a scriptwriter’s flight of fancy – the somewhat rushed wrapping up of a television series.
And the news certainly felt incredible to observers at the time, not least because tidings of victory arrived in England hot on the heels of an earlier, despairing despatch from Major-General James Wolfe, which seemed to foreshadow a humiliating withdrawal.
In June of 1759, Wolfe had cruised down the St Lawrence aboard a flotilla of forty-nine warships and one hundred and nineteen transport and supply vessels. Aged thirty-two and entrusted with his first independent command, the general arrived with great hopes of success. But the end of August found Wolfe no closer to conquest, his many plans frustrated by the forbidding geography of the capital of New France and the resolve of its garrison. The defenders – comprised of French soldiers, indigenous warriors, and Canadian militia, headed by the Marquis de Montcalm – outnumbered his own army. Read more…

Cool Heads in Crisis: HMS Venerable, 1804
On 16 Feb. 2024 on the Dawlish Chronicles
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars locked Britain and France into almost twenty-two years of continuous warfare from 1793 and conflict at sea was a critical part of this. What is surprising however is how few ships were actually destroyed in combat. Whether in large fleet actions or in “single ship” duels, wooden ships tended to survive very heavy damage and could often be repaired sufficiently at sea to get them to port. When captured, such ships were often to get a new lease of life in the victor’s navy. Little use was made of explosive projectiles and though solid shot could inflict severe structural injury above the water-line, it seldom caused outright sinking. The relatively few ships that were lost due to combat mainly succumbed to magazine explosion, or to burning.
The greatest threat to a wooden warship’s survival came from stormy weather, especially if it were to be cast on a lee shore, where it could be battered to matchwood. One such loss occurred in 1804 when a Royal Navy “74”, HMS Venerable, encountered disaster. Built in 1784, HMS Venerable had played an important role at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797 as Admiral Duncan’s flagship and assisting in the capture of the Dutch admiral’s flagship Vrijheid.
Much of HMS Venerable’s service – like that of so many other 74s – consisted of participation in the blockade of the French coast – gruelling work, often in atrocious weather conditions, that continued day-in, day-out for months on end. This was never more the case than in 1804-05 when fears of a French invasion were at their height and the Channel Fleet, under Admiral William Cornwallis (1744 –1819), represented Britain’s first line of defence.
On 24th of November, 1804, the Cornwallis’s fleet, including HMS Venerable, lay in the large anchorage at Torbay, in Devon. Deteriorating weather conditions, and an onshore gale, caused orders to be given to put to sea. HMS Venerable was under the command of Captain John Hunter (1737 –1821). Read more…

Not “Three-Fifths of a Person”: What the Three-Fifths Clause Meant at Ratification
by Nathaniel C. Green, Sept 2024 in A Common Place
Denials of Black humanity, free and enslaved, coexisted with explicit acknowledgment that enslaved Black people, though legally deemed “property,” were people.
“Let the case of the slaves be considered as it is in truth a peculiar one. Let the compromising expedient of the Constitution be mutually adopted, which regards them as inhabitants, but as debased by servitude below the equal level of free inhabitants, which regards the slave as divested of two fifths of the man.” So wrote James Madison in Federalist 54.
Madison was talking about the three-fifths clause of the United States Constitution. Appearing in Article I, Section 2, the clause read:
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
At its most basic, the three-fifths clause stipulated that three-fifths of the enslaved population of a state would be counted alongside five-fifths of the free population for determining how many members in the House of Representatives each state received. Three-fifths of the enslaved population would also be subject to “direct Taxes,” should Congress impose any. Read more…

Advertised on 11 September 1774: “Celebrate the Battle of Quebec”
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
September 11

“Celebrate The Battle of Quebec, And the Memory of The late General Wolfe.”

Even as turmoil brewed in the wake of colonizers learning of the Coercive Acts and the Quebec Act in the spring and summer of 1774, most continued to embrace their British identity while condemning Parliament for its treatment of the colonies. As the First Continental Congress commenced its meetings in Philadelphia at the beginning of September, a notice in the September 8 edition of Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer advised “Military Gentlemen” of an upcoming dinner to celebrate “The Battle of Quebec, And the Memory of The late General Wolfe.” The event would take place at Hull’s Tavern on September 13, marking the fifteenth anniversary of the death of General James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham outside the walled city of Quebec during the Seven Years War. Although Wolfe perished, the battle resulted in a British victory that ended the siege of Quebec, one of the most decisive moments of the war in North America. Read more…

Billy Butterworth, The Oldham Hermit
By Sarah Murden 9 Sept. 2024 at All Things Georgian
On the outskirts of Oldham, Lancashire, between 1781 and 1799, Abraham Butterfield, a weaver, and his wife, Sarah 14 had 6 known children – William being the eldest and Abraham being the youngest. This article is going to take a look at their eldest son, William, better known in his lifetime and to history as Billy, The Oldham Hermit.
Billy was presented for baptism at St Mary’s church, Oldham on 14 October 1781. Little would they know at that time how their son’s life would progress; they could only hope for a happy and prosperous one.
According to the Liverpool Albion, 22 July 1834, Billy followed his father (a quiet, sober man), who gave Billy a tolerable education, into the weaving industry, but it was not for him, and he had a complete change of direction and became a house and sign painter working for many neighbouring gentleman. Billy then became rather stage struck and worked as a scene painter, then began to tread the boards working in the company of Samuel William Ryley, the author of The Itinerant. Read more…

Politics and Political Culture in the Early American Republic (Podcast)
By Jonathan Gienapp and Rachel Shelden at Ben Franklin’s World
The ways Americans have supported, debated, and interpreted the Constitution since 1787 have played a vital role in the rise of politics and political parties within the United States.
These two historians and Associate Professors discuss early American political culture and political civility in the early American republic. Listen in…

It Is Pictured – Indigenous Rock Art
by Rob Alexander — 8 July 2021 in Canada’s History
The largest concentration of Indigenous rock art on the Great Plains sits in a sacred landscape with ancient connections.
With a strong prairie wind buffeting our backs and a hot southern-Alberta sun baking our arms, my daughter, Alaina, and I float down the tranquil Milk River in our kayaks. The river quietly sweeps us past sheer sandstone cliffs that reach into the pale prairie sky, while swallows dart overhead, tacking across the wind like tiny sailboats.
At the bottom of the Milk River Valley, surrounded by the mixed-grass prairie of southern Alberta and with only the birds in sight, we feel utterly alone but certainly not lonely. After all, we’re in the middle of Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi — a provincial park, a National Historic Site, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site all rolled into one impressive place.
This is a land with a long memory. Read more…

Events Upcoming

London Branch: Plaquing Veterans’ Gravesites Sunday 15 Sept. 2:30

The London & Western Ontario Branch UELAC will be plaquing the Old St. Thomas Church, as a ‘Loyalist Burial Site’ honouring two UELs, who along with six others resting in the churchyard, were combatants during the War of 1812-15. Each of the eight veteran combatants will have their gravesite honoured with a Govt of Canada War 1812-15 Combatant plaque, cut from Canadian Shield granite.
Trumpeters, a piper and uniformed War 1812 Re-enactors firing volleys will be honouring these combatants during the Act of Remembrance. Also in attendance will be representation from four current Canadian Forces Reserves Units which perpetuate the honours and legacy of the War of 1812 Royal Navy, Lincoln, Middlesex, and Norfolk Militia Regiments during this very moving commemoration. This service has been scheduled during the 200th anniversary of the Old St. Thomas Church. Many dignitaries are planning to attend.
See more (invitation flyer, photo of the Old St. Thomas Churchyard, map.)

Kawartha Branch: “Frankford ON history and area Loyalists” Sun. 15 Sept @2:00 ET

This meeting will be hybrid – both in-person and on zoom – from Peterborough Activity Haven, 180 Barnardo Ave, Peterborough.
Illustrated presentation by Peter UE and Angela Johnson UE, speaking about the Loyalists who founded the village of Frankford and area.
Peter and Angela are well-known for preserving Loyalist military and domestic history and genealogy in particular. Executive members of Toronto Branch before returning to their roots in Frankford, where they have since been members of the Board of Bay of Quinte Branch and avid supporters of Hay Bay Church
Zoom link . The meeting details at Kawartha Branch.

America’s History: Bus Tour: Capture of Fort Ticonderoga Fri 20 Sept.

In the Footsteps of Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and John Brown: The Capture of Fort Ticonderoga – Friday September 20, 2024
Led by: Jim Rowe and Bruce Venter
Departure: Fort Ticonderoga parking lot
Tour Registration: $150.00
Registration and details…

Sir Guy Carleton Branch (Ottawa): Tour of Beechwood Cemetery Sun. 22 Sept @1:00-2:30 ET

Hosted by the Sir Guy Carleton Branch, UELAC and Beechwood Cemetery, the guided tour will visit selected gravesites of Loyalists interred at Beechwood Cemetery.
We will meet at the Gazebo [next to the main building​] at 12:45. The sites visited will be within easy walking distance.
We’re looking forward to seeing you there! Sir Guy Carleton events.
Beechwood Cemetery 280 Beechwood Avenue, Vanier, Ontario: Map

Kingston Branch: “The Early Buildings of Kingston” Sat 28 Sept @1:00

Kingston and District Branch, UELAC will meet on Saturday, September 28 at 1:00 p.m. at St. Paul’s Anglican Church Hall, 137 Queen Street (doors open at noon); or if you prefer on Zoom (open at 12:30 p.m.). Jennifer McKendry will speak on “The Early Buildings of Kingston, 1783-1830”. Jennifer is an Architectural Historian and author of numerous articles and books. For the meeting Zoom link, visit the website www.uelac.org/ Kingston-Branch. All with an interest in Canadian history are welcome!

From the Social Media and Beyond

  • There are now 40 videos of Loyalist Cemeteries and gravestones in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that can be viewed using the link below on YouTube. Approximately 10 years ago I started visiting these locations from Sydney in Nova Scotia to Fredericton in New Brunswick. Brian McConnell UE @brianm564
    As I stated in my book “Loyalist Cemeteries & Gravestones of Nova Scotia: Annapolis & Digby Counties” these gravestones “can be considered as historical artifacts. They are part material culture and part historical document. They are dated , associated with known individuals, and were placed to convey information to future generations. For this reason it is worth learning about them and documenting where they exist.”
    See the post…
    Go to Youtube for the playlist…
  • Townsends, and “anything food”

    • Campfire Cooking Marathon! brief overview about soldiers’ rations, then a series of short vignettes of different foods. – (3 hr, 50 min)
  • This week in History
    • 13 Sep 1769 Boston, MA Royal Gov Francis Bernard refuses to discuss the expected arrival of more British troops to occupy Boston. image
    • 9 Sep 1774 Suffolk, MA This county adopts Dr. Joseph Warren’s Suffolk Resolves – essentially a blueprint for taking on the British by resisting the Coercive Acts & dismantling levers of authority & preparing to defend the colony by force of arms. image
    • 14 Sept 1774 “The Govenor is making all kinds of warlike preperations such as mounting cannon upon Beacon Hill, diging entrenchments upon the Neck, placeing cannon there, encamping a regiment there, throwing up Brest Works &c.” —Abigail Adams
    • 7 Sep 1775 Off the MA coast. The schooner Hannah seizes HMS Beverly – the first naval prize of the war. The ship’s gunpowder was immediately sent to the munitions-starved American army outside Boston. image
    • 10 Sep 1775 Ile aux Noix Gen Phillip Schuyler’s 1,700-strong army advances on St. Johns in an inept night attack, forcing their retreat & Schuyler’s replacement by Gen Richard Montgomery. image
    • 11 Sep 1775 Cambridge, MA Gen Washington holds a council of war to consider storming the British defenses at Boston. The idea was tabled as a direct assault was judged impractical at the time. image
    • 13 Sep 1775 Adm Graves ordered Capt Vandeput of the HMS Asia to seize and hold in custody any delegates to the Continental Congress and any “Rebel General Officers, or the chief radical leaders in New York.” image
    • 7 Sept 1776, NY Harbor Sergeant Ezra Lee pilots the submarine Turtle attacks HMS Eagle just after midnight. Armed with a torpedo designed to be attached to the hull of a ship, a problem with attaching it caused the torpedo to explode harmlessly. image
    • 7 Sep 1776 NYC At a council of war Gen Washington decides not to evacuate the city & leaves Gen Israel Putnam’s division as a garrison. Gen Nathanael Greene’s division defends Kips Bay & Gen William Heath’s division establishes defenses on Harlem Heights. image
    • 9 Sep 1776: The name United States of America was officially adopted by Congress. “Resolved, -, where, heretofore, the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the “United States.” image
    • 10 Sep 1776 A British force under Canadian Gov-Gen Guy Carleton began its move down Lake Champlain & an invasion of NY. image
    • 11 Sep 1776 Dr. Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge met with Admiral Howe in Tottenville, Staten Island for a last-ditch peace effort before more blood was shed. Independence was outright refused, so the meeting was cordial but fruitless. image
    • 12 Sep 1776 Nathan Hale is ferried across the LI Sound to Huntington, NY, on British-controlled LI. Disguised himself as a schoolteacher looking for work. image
    • 12 Sep 1776 New York With the British grip on the Island of New York growing ever-stronger, Gen George Washington begins to move troops north to the mainland, occupying Kingsbridge & parts of Westchester. image
    • 9 Sep 1777 Gen Washington fears British forces under Gen Howe slipping around his right flank and taking Philadelphia, positions his forces along the Brandywine Creek at Chadds Ford, PA. image
    • 11 September 1777 near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. General William Howe’s campaign to capture Philadelphia, the American capital, began in mid-1777. By September, he was approaching the capital from the south, but barring his way was Brandywine Creek and General Washington’s Continental Army. Howe’s 16,000 British and Hessian troops clash with Washington’s 15,000 Continentals and militia in the vicinity of Chadds Ford, some 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Philadelphia. Howe employed the fix-and-turn tactics that served him well on Long Island. A Hessian frontal assault to “fix” the rebels and a turning movement upstream resulted in heavy fighting and forced the Americans from the field with over 1,000 casualties while leaving 11 guns on the field—but the army intact. The 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette made his combat debut in the battle, wounded while rallying American troops and helping the beaten Army to withdraw in good order and fight another day. image
    • 11 Sep 1777 While the main army under Gen Howe squares off with Gen Washington’s Continental Army at Brandywine, British Gen John Campbell captures Elizabethtown, Newark & Passaic, NJ. image
    • 12 Sep 1777, some 6,000 patriot forces under Gen Horatio gates begin to occupy Bemis Heights on the banks of the North (Hudson) River, some 24 miles north of Albany & 10 miles south of Gen Burgoyne’s army at Saratoga, NY. Image
    • 8 Sep 1778 Gen Charles Grey leads a raid on Martha’ Vineyard, MA. His men destroy property and confiscate 10,000 sheep and 300 oxen to feed the British Army. image
    • 11 Sep 1778 Adm James Gambier arrives at NYC to succeed Adm Richard Howe as interim commander of Royal Navy ships in North America. Gambier was repeatedly accused of corruption & despised by contemporaries. He was relieved by Adm John Byron in Oct 1779. image
    • 13 Sep 1778 German Flatts (today Herkimer) NY. 450 Iroquois & Loyalists under Chief Joseph Brant & Capt William Caldwell launched an attack, but the settlers escaped to nearby forts Herkimer & Dayton. 100 buildings burned before the raiders departed. image
    • 7 Sep 1779 #RevWar expands as British outpost at Ft Bute in LA falls to Spanish under Gen Bernardo de Galvez, giving Spain control of the lower Mississippi waters leading to the of Mexico. Next up, Baton Rouge. image
      12 Sep 1779 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Gov Bernardo Galvez’s arrives with 1,000 men & 13 guns. The 400-man garrison under Col Alexander Dickson is well prepared, Galvez surrounds the town & begins a siege. image
    • 8 Sep 1780, American Gen Enoch Poor dies of typhus, although some speculate, he was killed in a duel. The Andover, MA born Poor served at Bunker Hill, in Canada, Saratoga, Monmouth and was considered a top-notch battlefield commander. image
    • 9 Sep 1780 Defying orders from Gen Clinton in NYC, Gen Charles Cornwallis starts his move north to North Carolina by advancing on Charlotte. image
    • 8 Sep 1781 Eutaw Springs, SC. Gen Nathanael Greene launches attack on British Lt Col Alexander Stewart’s army in a slug-fest, resulting in 500 American & over 700 British casualties. The exhausted rebels left the field but Stewart withdrew to Charleston. image
    • 8 Sep 1781 American & French forces of Washington & Rochambeau reach Head of Elk MD and get ready to load on ships provided by the French navy. Destination: Yorktown, VA. image
    • 9 Sept 1781 George Washington arrived at Mount Vernon for a brief stay on his way to Yorktown. ⁣During the visit, he and the Comte de Rochambeau refined their plan for defeating Charles Cornwallis’ forces.⁣ image
    • 13 & 14 Sep 1782 Gibraltar, Spain A Franco-Spanish assault is repulsed by the British garrison under Gen George Augustus Elliot. He destroys 10 floating batteries with red-hot shot, sinking all & costing besiegers 2,000 killed. image
  • Clothing and Related:

    • Three pairs of late 18th century shoes, two with #silk uppers & one of #wool each lined with #linen Currently on view @WoodmanMuseum & from the collections of @UofNH & #MoffattLadd. Read more about: Wool Shoes (late 18th-century brown-black woolen shoes were likely made in New England, possibly in New Hampshire, and they are lined with locally produced linen.) Embroidered Cream Silk Shoes (with embroidered toes are lined with linen and feature diminutive string ties rather than the straps for buckles ) and Red Silk Shoes ( possibly made in England and likely worn by a woman of means in New Hampshire; stylish red silk satin, linen-lined buckle shoes) Read more…
  • Miscellaneous
    • If you haven’t heard, Virginia is one of the largest producers of peanuts in the country, and we’re proud of it! At the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown, we grow peanuts at our Revolution-era Farm.
      Although peanuts originated in South America where they were cultivated by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years, they eventually traveled around the world via Spanish and Portuguese explorers during the colonial period.
      It is likely that cultivars of the peanut made their way to West Africa and were brought to North America via the transatlantic slave trade. Image

 

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