Fishkill Supply Depot Historic Site

Lexington and Concord...

On this day in 1775, America’s first abolitionist group is formed. Wait. What? Some of our Founders were trying to end slavery, even before the American Revolut...ion? Yes, that’s right. Even during the early years of our country, some Americans were working to end slavery. The much-respected Benjamin Franklin was one of these individuals. Of course, Franklin hadn’t always been such an outspoken advocate for ending slavery. Indeed, before the Revolution, his newspapers had carried advertisements for the sale of slaves. He’d owned slaves. For a while, he believed that white Europeans were superior. As early as 1763, however, he began to question these views. He wrote a friend at the time that he’d conceived a higher opinion of the natural capacities of the black race, than I had ever before entertained. Some historians speculate that Franklin’s views were influenced by the Revolution. He thought that the British meant to enslave the American colonists. If that type of slavery was wrong, then by what right did Americans enslave the Africans who had been brought into their country? Franklin was in France for much of the Revolution; however soon after his return to America, he was elected President of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. This society was the successor of the group that had been formed on April 14, 1775. Franklin became quite outspoken about the need to end slavery. His position developed late in his life, but it was a strong one! He not only wanted to see slaves freed, but he also wanted the country to adopt a general policy of educating former slaves and helping to integrate them into free society. It would essentially promote the public good, he wrote in 1789, [t]o instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life. One of Franklin’s last acts before he died was to present a petition to Congress. The petition was presented to the House on February 12, 1790, on behalf of his abolition society. It urged congressmen to countenance the Restoration of liberty to those unhappy Men, who alone, in this land of Freedom, are degraded into perpetual Bondage. He reminded Congress that mankind are all formed by the same Almighty being, alike objects of his care & equally designed for the Enjoyment of Happiness the Christian Religion teaches us to believe & the Political Creed of America fully coincides with the Position. The petition did not get too far in a Congress that was not yet ready to deal with slavery. (Possibly Congress could not have done much, anyway. The U.S. Constitution prohibited Congress from interfering with the slave trade until the year 1808.) Unfortunately, Franklin passed away two short months later. Many of today’s history books are quick to brand the founding generation as a bunch of evil slave owners. But isn’t it nice to know that at least some of our Founders were fighting against the institution of slavery? Yes, they may have done it imperfectly, but at least they saw the need for it, right from the beginning. P.S. The painting is Franklin’s return to Philadelphia, 1785, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. --------------------------- If you enjoy these history posts, please see my note below. :) Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright 2013-2021 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the shar e feature instead of cutting/pasting. #TDIH #OTD #AmericanHistory #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistory

Church burnt down by Tarleton. Inspired the church burning scene in "The Patriot." Also Revolutionary War soldiers are buried here. Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site

Revere was just one of riders sent out to warn of the British March to Lexington

During this week in 1781, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse takes place. It was technically a British victorybut only technically. Indeed, one member of Parlia...ment later noted: Another such victory would ruin the British army. The British had become frustrated with the status of the war in the North, and they decided to turn to the South. They hoped to win and build a base there, then use it to crush the North. The strategy worked at first, as multiple cities fell into British hands. Finally, the American southern commander Horatio Gates was replaced. Nathanael Greene arrived in late 1780, just before Daniel Morgan’s stunning victory at the Battle of Cowpens. Naturally, British General Charles Cornwallis would not let such a victory go unanswered. Greene thus moved to consolidate his troops with Morgan’s and to gain reinforcements. The weeks that followed have been called the Race to the Dan. Greene’s troops were trying to get to Virginia and to reinforcements. Cornwallis was trying to catch them. Greene won the race to Virginia, but he gained another important objective as well: Cornwallis’s pursuit had separated him from his base of supplies. Cornwallis realized his vulnerability and turned back. By then, Greene was ready to engage. Greene chose a spot back in North Carolina near the Guilford Courthouse. He arrived on March 14 and set up camp; he intended to attack the British the next morning. It didn’t quite work out that way. Greene later reported to Governor Thomas Jefferson that the British anticipated our designs and moved down upon us. We were in perfect readiness to receive them. Greene had dispatched William Washington and Light Horse Harry Lee to guard two possible roads to the Guilford Courthouse. For his part, Cornwallis had ordered British soldiers to leave camp at 5:30 a.m., and he had dispatched Bloody Banastre Tarleton to move ahead of the main army. Tarleton’s advance guard clashed with Lee on one road to the courthouse. Lee was successful in inflicting damage, then returned to report the skirmish to Greene. In the meantime, Greene had his defenders arranged in three lines of defense at the courthouse, and Americans were ready when the British finally arrived. The British forced their way through the first two lines of Americans, taking significant casualties during the process. The third line of Americans were Continentals. They were not as experienced as the British, but they were rested and better trained than militia. This group fought hard! Of the battle, Cornwallis later observed that I never saw such fighting since God made me. The Americans fought like demons. The fighting ended when Cornwallis decided to fire two cannons straight into the fighting, even though it would mean taking down some of his own men. The Americans withdrew, leaving the field to the British. The British had technically won. But Greene had inflicted a great deal of damage. As he told the North Carolina Governor: The Enemy loss is very great, much more than ours. . . . Their operating force is diminished in such a manner, that I am not without hope of turning their victory into defeat. Which is exactly what happened several months later when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. --------------------------- If you enjoy these history posts, please see my note below. :) Gentle reminder: History posts are copyright 2013-2021 by Tara Ross. I appreciate it when you use the shar e feature instead of cutting/pasting. #TDIH #OTD #History #USHistory #liberty #freedom #ShareTheHistory

This week in Fort Montgomery History... The 5th NY Garrisons Fort Montgomery Records indicate that the 5th NY Regiment first garrisoned Fort Montgomery on or ...near March 7th, 1777. On that date the Regiment only had 110 out of 179 men fit for duty. The 5th NY was a relatively recently formed Regiment having been established in November of 1776. The unit mainly consisted of men from Orange and Ulster Counties. On Oct. 6, 1777, it is believed the 5th had around 300 men present for duty when the British stormed Forts Montgomery and Clinton. The unit suffered heavy casualties - returns from after the battle suggest that over one third of the Regiment was killed, captured, or wounded. On October 9th, Major General Israel Putnam wrote: Col. Duboys [5th NY commander Colonel Lewis Dubois], who had a wound with a bayonet in his neck, has mustered near 200 of his men who were with him in the action, many of whom have slight wounds with bayonets and swords, but are in high spirits and I hope will effect something... The surviving members of the 5th that successfully escaped from the Fort regrouped in New Windsor. Some of them spent the winter of 1777-78 in Fishkill, while others healed at home on furlough. The regiment spent the summer of 1778 in the vicinity of White Plains, and in 1779 participated in the Clinton-Sullivan Campaign in Western, NY. In 1780 the unit garrisoned West Point. In January of 1781 the 5th was consolidated into the 2nd NY Regiment. The 5th NY avenged its Twin Forts loss at the Battle of Yorktown where some of the unit’s original members helped take part in the attack of Redoubt 10 under the command of Alexander Hamilton. (Sources: Rich McGuinness - Historian, 5th NY; The War Man by Bob Mayers) A big thank you to Rich McGuinness, 5th NY Regimental Historian for his extensive research on the 5th NY.

Another Hudson Valley Heroine from the American Revolution...

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Happy Veteran's Day to our fellow Veteran's

"I have not yet begun to fight..."

An example of the signal fire that would have alerted troops at the Fishkill Supply Depot that the British were coming up the Hudson River from New York City...