PODCAST

250 and Counting

Acroasis Media

This day 250 years ago

history

All Episodes

2:00

Sam Adams Has Thoughts–December 26, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/26

Portrait of Samuel Adams, 1772. by John Singleton Copley – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Wikimedia CommonsMost of us have a pop culture view of the American Revolution period, and some of us go so far as to have some idea of what happened via the 1970 film 1776. Oddly enough, that movie has both a ton of accuracy with its facts (but not necessarily in the right order), and a ton of dramatic license. One thing the film gets right is that John Adams was a bit of a nudge, constantly

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2:00

Confusing–And Howe–December 25, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/25

Cover art for December 25, 1775: A portrait of Major General Howe, artist unknown. From the book A brief history of the North Carolina troops on the Continental establishment, by: Charles Lukens Davis & Henry Hobart Bellas, published 1896.The Battle of Great Bridge may be over, but its effects linger on. Lord Dunmore, the former Royal Governor of South Carolina, communicated to General Robert Howe that he’d like to effect a prisoner exchange. It’s not clear whether Howe

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2:00

Merry Christmas, Indeed–December 24, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/24

Joseph Warren conferring with Israel Putnam before the battle at Bunker Hill, at which Warren was killed. Mike’s pretty much covered the story of the capture of a British ship in the episode, so I’m going to tell you a little bit about Joseph Warren, who (you may recall) was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill. Warren became a doctor early in his career, and he also became a Patriot before it was fashionable. He was a powerful speaker, and for several years in a row he would

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2:00

The Snow Campaign–December 23, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/23

A 1775 map of Charleston and surrounding areas, owned by Henry Laurens. Charleston is the small dark patch above the first ‘a’ in “Campaign”. As important as some of the action in the southern colonies was—and make no mistake, Colonel Richard Richardson’s campaign to sniff out the Loyalist leaders in the western part of the state wound up being very important—other events were important in different ways. One such event would be the Snow Campaign. There came a

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2:00

The Battle of Great Cane Brake–December 22, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/22

Historical marker placed at the site of the Battle of Great Cane Brake, explaining where another historical marker is located. The Battle of Great Cane Brake took place near modern-day Simpsonville, South Carolina. That’s a few miles southeast of Greenville. A “Brake of Canes” is pretty much what it sounds like. The cane stalks in question are a kind of bamboo that grows in the area, and a “Cane Brake” is a large thicket of these stalks. It would probably be a

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2:00

One Thing Ends, Another One Begins–December 21, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/21

Undated portrait of Richard Richardson, attributed to Jeremiah Theus. General Richard Richardson was a delegate to the Provincial Congresses in South Carolina in 1775 and 1776, and he served in both the South Carolina Militia and the Continental Army during the Revolution. He was instrumental in the Americans winning the Battle of Charleston in 1776, but doesn’t get much else attention, perhaps because he was captured a few years later and then sent home, essentially to die. But the

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2:00

The Gadsden Flag Debuts–December 20, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/20

One variation of the flag. Some of them have an apostrophe in “DONT”, some use a non-serifed font, some don’t have any greenery under the snake. A few have the snake facing right. It’s arguably the most recognizable and popular symbol of the Revolutionary Era, and its debut turns 250 years old today. Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s the Gadsden Flag. The concept of the snake image representing the Colonies is a little older than this by about twenty years, with the

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2:00

Protecting the Chesapeake–December 19, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/19

The Fry-Jefferson Map of the Chesapeake Bay area, commissioned in 1750 and completed in 1753. This was also one of the first maps of the area that had the “North is Up” orientation. The Great Chesapeake Bay, which is protected by the Delmarva Peninsula (DELaware, MARyland, VirginiA, get it?) is a watershed area that is hugely important for these three states, plus New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Because of its importance, there are sensor buoys all over the place,

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2:00

Washington Has Some Intel–December 18, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/18

A hand-colored printed halftone of a 19th-century illustration of George Washington writing at his desk. Military Intelligence is a peculiar thing, if only because you never know where it’s going to come from, and/or what it’s going to affect. And that’s where today’s episode comes in, because Congress received a letter written today which detailed some plans for British military activity in Virginia. What’s surprising is that the intelligence came

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2:03

The Noble Train Of Artillery–December 17, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/17

One of many, MANY images mistakenly showing the Ticonderoga artillery being transported on ox-drawn sleds. Author unknown, National Archive Collection number 111-SC-100815.Colonel Henry Knox was just about ready to begin moving the Noble Train of Artillery (a phrase he coined, incidentally). He’d have everything he needed to move by the 20th or 21st of December, and then just seventeen days later, he’d be marching into Cambridge. As we all know, he was wrong about how long it

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2:00

The Delaware Who Came To Congress–December 16, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/16

Historical Marker on Ohio Highway 93, just south of US 36, commemorating Chief White Eyes’ founding of a Delaware Tribe-based town not far from this place. Image via remarkableohio.org. I rather dislike using historical markers back-to-back for the cover art, but there are no images of Chief White Eyes, and I’d about run out of images of Great Bridge yesterday, so here we are. Also—and I admit I only know this because there’s a town not far from where I grew up with this

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2:00

Colonel Woodford’s View–December 15, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/15

Historical marker commemorating the Battle of Great Bridge. We’ve done several episodes about the Battle of Great Bridge, and there’s a reason for that. Bunker Hill gets all the press, but remember we LOST that battle. Great Bridge was the first real Patriot victory, it was the first major battle in Virginia, and therefore it poked the Virginia Convention into adopting the first public declaration expressing a spirit of independence. Also of note is that, according to the

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2:00

Thomas Cochrane–December 14, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/14

Engraving of Thomas Cochrane, Lord Dundonald. Original painting by James Ramsay, engraving by John Cook, published 1866. Thomas Cochrane had quite the colorful, storied life, and it’s too bad that we can only cram so much into a twenty-minute podcast episode. For instance, it’s entirely possible that he was involved in a stock fraud scheme based on false rumors of Napoleon’s death. Fortunately for him, he was elected back into the House of Commons about a month after his

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2:00

Time To Buy A Navy–December 13, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/13

This image depicts the Battle of Nassau, one of the first major battles won by the Continental Navy in March of 1776. Oil painting on canvas by V. Zveg. If you’re going to build a navy, you’ve got to get serious about it. Congress established the need for a Navy back in October, but they were kind of sloppy about executing the plan. For the last several weeks, the Congress has been purchasing existing ships and retrofitting them to make them battle-worthy. That’s great if

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2:00

Ben Franklin Wants A Friend–December 12, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/12

Ben Franklin and Gabriel de Borbón had corresponded with one another previously, so while the letter that is the subject of today’s episode has a very specific (and relevant) ask in it, it was also just another in a chain of correspondence between the two. For his part, Prince Gabriel was probably receptive to Franklin’s suggestions, but he wasn’t likely to be in a position to act on them in the way that Franklin hoped. As the fourth son of Charles III, the throne was a

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2:00

Martha Comes to Cambridge–December 11, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/11

Most of the portraits we see of Martha Washington were made when she was older, so we have (I think) this image of her as a bit of a crabby old frump. And maybe she was, by the time her husband got to be President. She didn’t really love the life of the public spouse and charming party hostess. But it turned out she was good at it, and if it made her crabby, nobody who mattered knew about it on a firsthand basis. In fact, Martha Washington was known to be fashionable, calm,

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2:00

Raid on Conanicut–December 10, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/10

Conanicut Island isn’t much of an island to look at, but they had supplies of some kind, and the British were looking. Admiral Graves had the task of finding supplies for the British who were under siege in Boston, and he decided to move beyond the local waters, and went into Narragansett Bay. In some towns (such as Newport, which was Loyalist) he was able to just buy supplies. But if the locals resisted, that’s when he broke out the guns. Conanicut Island looked like a

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2:00

The Battle of Great Bridge–December 9, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/09

Note once again that the map is drawn with North on the bottom. Hover to get the guide to the markers. The Battle of Great Bridge is a little bit overlooked these days, and more’s the pity. It was the first battle in Virginia, it was a big victory for Patriot troops, the Royal Governor and his crowd got pushed out altogether, and nobody died on the Patriot side. On the British side, about 100 soldiers were dead. The last time the British lost a substantial number of troops, it was at

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2:00

The Siege of Quebec–December 8, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/08

The siege of Quebec was an event that was months in the making, and it was still just the penultimate act of the play. Benedict Arnold and his troops thought they could get to the American side of the St. Lawrence River within 21 days; instead it took several weeks. Along the way they lost about a third of their troop strength. Some of the men died of illness en route, but most of them finally gave up altogether and headed home. When they finally arrived they realized they didn’t

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2:00

Tensions Rise At Great Bridge–December 7, 1775

250 and Counting ·

2025/12/07

The map in today’s cover art might be a little confusing to people who live and work in the modern-day Norfolk area. That’s because it’s oriented with North at the bottom. What’s not known is why this was done in this particular case. North/Up South/Down is, of course, the usual convention, and there are arguments that there’s a psychological component to this (e.g. north/up is somehow “better” than south/down). From a cartography standpoint, there

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