As Dr. Jonathan Potts settled into his role as director of the military hospital at Fort George, he had several problems to cope with. Perhaps the most pressing was the hospital’s lack of medicines and other medical supplies. To get his hands on the supplies he needed to treat the army’s sick soldiers, Potts needed to get creative.  On July 25, 1776—250 […]

Benjamin Edes promised in the masthead of his newspaper, the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, to provide “the freshest Advices, Foreign and Domestic.” On July 22, 1776—250 years ago today—his front-page news, while not entirely fresh, was seismic: the full text of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration was adopted by Congress on July 4, but it […]

In July 1776, Lieutenant Colonel Philip Van Cortlandt was feeling aggrieved. Despite his faithful service for more than a year in the Continental Army, he was still only a lieutenant colonel, while others around him were promoted. Even today, it can be frustrating watching colleagues being promoted over your head, but in the 18th century it […]

On July 13, 1776—250 years ago today—streams of supplies and troops were flowing towards Fort Ticonderoga. The troops were coming from the north, as soldiers fresh from the invasion of Canada evacuated Fort Crown Point to dig in at Ticonderoga. Supplies traveled in the opposite direction, with goods being shipped north from Albany and points south. […]

250 years ago today, Dr. Jonathan Potts was beginning his time in the army medical department. Potts had a medical degree and several years of experience as a local physician, but no experience in military medicine. The newly appointed physician and surgeon for the Canadian Department was about to get an early lesson in the realities of caring for soldiers in […]

250 years ago this week, thousands of American troops were encamping at Fort Ticonderoga. Most of the soldiers arriving here had served in Canada and were sent to Ticonderoga after retreating from Crown Point, but not all of them. This spring we’ve followed the movements of Colonel Anthony Wayne’s 4th Pennsylvania Battalion. Three companies of the battalion, led by Wayne, were sent north to Canada; the other […]

General James Wilkinson lived a life full of power and scandal, serving as the senior officer of the US Army, governor of Louisiana Territory, and envoy to Mexico. He was also a paid spy for the Spanish Crown, although proof of his double dealings was not discovered until decades after his death. In 1776, though, […]

250 years ago today—July 5, 1776—as the Continental Congress made plans for the future of an independent United States, the Northern Army was licking its wounds at Crown Point. Among them was a Massachusetts soldier named John Shepard, who had served in the reinforcements that had marched north that spring and arrived in Canada just in time to join the […]