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On this date 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Convention adopted a Constitution for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The first Pennsylvania Constitution was the most democratic and forward-looking of the constitutions of the 14 states during the Revolution (Vermont adopted its first constitution while the Revolution was underway). It was so forward-looking that a…
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On this 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Virginia Congressman Richard Henry Lee wrote to Thomas Jefferson who had returned to Virginia about his appointment as one of the Commissioners to France: The plan of foreign treaty is just finished, and yourself, with Doctor Franklin, and Mr. Deane now in France, are the Trustees to execute…
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On this day 250 years ago in Rye, Westchester County, New York, 67-year-old Col. Jonathan Pettibone of Simsbury, Conn., commander of the 18th Regiment of Connecticut militia died of illness, the day after Gen. Washington discharged his regiment to return to Connecticut. Col. Pettibone left his sword to his son Jonathan who served as a…
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On this day 250 years ago at his headquarters in New York, Gen. Washington wrote John Hancock to implore the Continental Congress to provide pay for the Continental Army because “something is due to the Man who puts his life in his hand, hazards his health & forsakes the Sweets of domestic enjoyments” and a…
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On this day 250 years ago in New York, Gen. Washington issued General Orders from his Headquarters at the Roger Morris mansion on Harlem Heights (the Morris-Jumel Mansion in present-day Manhattan) that discussed the burial of Maj. Thomas Henley killed the previous day: Major Henly Aid-de-Camp to Genl Heath, whose Activity and Attention to duty,…
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On this day 250 years ago before dawn in New York, 240 men from two Connecticut regiments of the Continental Army and New York Militia commanded by Lt. Col. Michael Jackson of Massachusetts and other officers who volunteered for the mission conducted an unsuccessful raid on the British outpost on Montresor’s Island (now Randall’s Island…
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On this day 250 years ago on Manhattan Island in New York, Capt. Nathan Hale was executed by the British as a spy. Although it was first asserted years later that Hale’s final words were “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” contemporary accounts state that he said…
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On this day 250 years ago, New York City burned. Although it still debated whether General Washington or the Continental Congress secretly ordered the burning of New York, a recently published book presents compelling evidence that the fires were started by arsonists at multiple locations in the City. At least two and maybe as many…
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On this day 250 years ago at New Utrecht (now part of Brooklyn), New York, Brig. Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull, the President of the Congress of the State of New York (at that point making him equivalent to the Governor of New York), died of wounds he had received after he was captured by the British…
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On this day 250 years ago at the “Black Hole” on the Coweecho River in present-day Macon County, North Carolina, about 500 Cherokees and 50 Loyalists ambushed the vanguard of Col. Andrew Williamson’s column of 1696 South Carolina militia and about 50 Catawbas under Kesegowaase that was invading Cherokee territory. The Americans won because the…
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