This, That, and the Other – Day-By-Day America

Ship Names Common and Strange: from Betsey to the Doctors Box

Having come across some odd ship names during my studies of the Revolutionary War, I decided to go through the index of a volume of Naval Documents of the American Revolution and note all the names of vessels listed there (about 550 in all). I divided them up into categories and noted which ones were more commonly used. Here are some categories, the most common ones listed first, with typical examples of each:

Women’s names: Definitely the most popular, though generally not used for warships. Some of the more common ones were Betsey, Elizabeth, Molly, Mary, Peggy, and Sally. Sometimes “Charming” was added to the beginning.
Places: Also very common. Albion (a name for England), America, Baltimore, Halifax, Thames.
Concepts and adjectives: Hope, Resolution, Adventure, Friendship, Lively, Diligent, Favorite, Prudent.
Famous people, past or present: William & Mary, Black Prince, British Queen, Congress, Hancock, Richard Penn.
Nature (especially animals): Dolphin, Ocean, Swallow, Bull Dog, Greyhound.
Literary or mythological people and creatures: Phoenix, Argo, Juno, Mermaid, Homer, Unicorn.
Men’s names: James, John, William.
Relationships: Brothers, Two Brothers, Three Brothers, Two Sisters, Three Sisters, Friends, Three Friends.

Then there were some rather odd or amusing ones:

Carcass (rather than a dead body, this may refer to a type of combustible artillery shell — a fire bomb, so to speak)
Collector (of what?)
Escape (doesn’t sound very inspiring, but I guess it’s comforting in case you’re worried about getting caught)
Grampus (a member of the dolphin family)
Macaroni
Ninety-Two
Porgy
Prosperous Amelia
Quero (this ship was the first to bring the news of Lexington and Concord to England)
Sandwich Packet (this one sounds odd, but it wasn’t really; Sandwich is a town in England, and a packet was a vessel appointed by the government to carry mail, etc.)
Symmetry (aren’t all ships more or less symmetrical?)
Doctors Box (beats me)

And, last but not least — no, I’m not kidding — the Conclusion.

“The God of This World Has Blinded the Mind”

Though some American soldiers were devout and dedicated in attending church and so on, it’s not surprising that some were quite the opposite. Philip Vickers Fithian, a Connecticut chaplain who was serving in New York, wrote in his journal on August 11, 1776:

The Lords Day is come once more. But the Sabbath is scarcely known in the Army. Profaned is all religious Exercise. Dreadful is the thought that Man who expect an Engagement every Day with a obstinate, wise, & powerful Enemy, should dare be so ungodly. But the God of this World has blinded the Mind.

It’s worth noting that one reason Fithian considered religious observance important corresponded with what Washington had said to the troops about a month earlier — namely, that they needed the “blessing and protection of Heaven”, and in order to get it, they needed to “live, and act, as becomes a Christian soldier”.

Sources

The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, p. 171.
“General Orders, 9 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-05-02-0176. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 5, 16 June 1776 – 12 August 1776, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993, pp. 245–247.]

Sunday Adventures of Isaac Bangs

Among the notable features of the city of New York, this 1776 map lists 16 churches and a synagogue.

23-year-old American lieutenant Isaac Bangs kept an interesting and informative journal of his service in New York during the spring and summer of 1776, as he and the rest of the army waited and prepared for a British attack. Among other things, he described and critiqued the various church services he attended. Being from New England (specifically, Massachusetts), he was used to the Congregational church, but he wasn’t opposed to attending the meetings of other denominations. (One Saturday, out of curiosity, he even went to the synagogue in New York “to observe the Method of the Jewish Worship”, and wrote about the building and the worship service in detail.) Here are a few of his experiences.

The first time he attended church in New York, he got quite a surprise:

Passamaquaddy!?

I had only heard of Passamaquoddy in the old movie Pete’s Dragon (where, as you may remember, it is the name of the town, and the travelling quack doctor can never say it right), until I came across it the other day in the journals of the Continental Congress. I didn’t know it was a real place, so I looked it up, and sure enough, there’s a Passamaquoddy Bay on the border between the U.S. and Canada: specifically, between Maine and New Brunswick.

However, there’s not actually a town named Passamaquoddy, so I guess the screenwriters made that part up. On the other hand, the journals of the Continental Congress refer simply to “Passamaquaddy” (note the spelling difference), rather than “Passamaquaddy Bay,” so maybe there was a town called Passamaquaddy at the time, but I’m inclined to think that “Passamaquaddy” referred to the area around the bay, rather than a specific town.

*“Passamaquaddy” Bay is in the upper left corner of this 1775 map of the New England and Canadian coastline.*

At any rate, there were enough people in the area or town of Passamaquaddy (also spelled Passamaquady, or even Pesmocadie) to be politically active, and to send a petition to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Here’s the record from the journal of the Continental Congress on November 2, 1775:

The Inhabitants of Passamaquaddy in Nova Scotia, having chosen a com[mitt]ee of Safety, and having, by their petition, applied to the Congress to be admitted into the association of the North Americans, for the preservation of their rights and liberties,
On motion made, Resolved, That a com[mitt]ee of 5 be appointed to take this matter into consideration, and report what steps, in their opinion, it will be proper to take, in consequence of this application, for the preservation of the liberties of America.
The members chosen, Mr. [Silas] Deane, Mr. [John] Jay, Mr. [Stephen] Hopkins, Mr. [John] Langdon, and Mr. John Adams.

What steps did the congress decide to take regarding the inhabitants of Passamaquaddy? I haven’t found out yet, but if I do, I’ll let you know.

In case you’re wondering why the congress said that Passamaquaddy was in Nova Scotia, when I said that the bay was on the border of Maine and New Brunswick, it’s because the province of New Brunswick hadn’t been created yet, and that territory was considered part of Nova Scotia.

And in case you’re wondering why the Passamaquaddians (I just had to use that word) wanted to be allowed to join “the association of the North Americans,” it was surely at least partly a matter of business. The “association” was an agreement by the First Continental Congress in 1774, and it involved boycotting certain British goods and not shipping certain things to other British territories. Since the Passamaquaddians were out of Maine (which was actually part of Massachusetts at the time), they weren’t included in the association, which meant that they couldn’t do as much business with their New England neighbors as they used to. If the congress would allow them to join the association, then they would be able to go back to doing business as before.

Sources

A Plan of the coast from Cape Anne in north latitude 42⁰42ʹ & 70⁰33ʹ west longitude from Greenwich: … to Isle Scattery in long. 50⁰40ʹ & latitude 46⁰ 0ʹ north, … including the isle of Sable. [?, 1775] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/74694110/.

Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 3, p. 316.

What’s for Dinner?

What did Revolutionary War soldiers eat? One of the questions that a group of American leaders debated was what and how much should food should be given to the soldiers. They decided on:

One Pound of Beef or ¾ lb. Pork or one Pound of Salt Fish.
One Pound of Bread or Flour per Diem.
Three Pints of Pease or Beans per Week or Vegetables equivalent at 6/ [i.e., 6 shillings] per Bushel for Pease & Beans.
One Pint of Milk per Man per Day or at the Rate of 1d [i.e., 1 penny] per Pint.
One half Pint of Rice or one Pint of Indian Meal per Man per Week.
One Quart of Spruce Beer or Cyder per Man per Day or 9 Gallons of Molasses per Compy [company] of 100 Men per Week.
Three Pounds of Candles to 100 Men per Week for Guards &c.
Twenty four lb. of soft Soap or 8 lb. hard Soap for 100 Men per Week.

Whether they always got all of those things was a different question, but the American soldiers besieging Boston generally seemed to have enough to eat.

Notes

This was one of many things decided on during a conference of New England political leaders and George Washington at Cambridge (the Continental Army headquarters) on October 18-24, 1775.

Note that they didn’t actually write the word “per.” Instead, they used a symbol that looked like a fancy “P”.

I think that “Indian Meal” was cornmeal. As for spruce beer, I hadn’t heard of it except in Revolutionary War writings, so I was a little surprised when I found out that people still drink it today.

Source

“II. Minutes of the Conference, 18–24 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0175-0003. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 190–205.]

“Tarred and Feathered” at a Quilting Bee

Here’s a rather amusing account of something that happened in New York in September 1775. A young man was “tarred and feathered” (but not with tar and feathers) by some young women for badmouthing the Continental Congress at a quilting bee:

The following droll affair lately happened at Kinderhook, New York. A young fellow, an enemy to the liberties of America, going to a quilting frolic, where a number of young women were collected, and he the only man in company, began his aspersions on Congress, as usual, and held forth some time on the subject, till the girls, exasperated at his impudence, laid hold of him, stripped him naked to the waist, and instead of tar, covered him with molasses, and for feathers took the downy tops of flags, which grow in the meadows, and coated him well and then let him go. He has prosecuted every one of them, and the matter has been tried before Justice S—–. We have not as yet heard his worship’s judgment. It is said Parson Buel’s daughter is concerned [i.e., involved] in the affair.

Source

Diary of the American Revolution, vol. 1, p. 141.

Food on Arnold’s March to Quebec

Lots of things didn’t work out as planned with Benedict Arnold’s expedition to Quebec, and food was one of them. The army took a lot of food with them, but perhaps not enough, and a lot of what they took got spoiled; for example, they had some barrels of dry bread, but water leaked into them, “swelled the bread, burst the casks, as well as soured the whole bread. The same fate attended a number of fine casks of peas.”

By early October, wrote surgeon Isaac Senter, the army had little more to eat than salt pork and flour. By late October, they hardly even had any of that. Senter recorded some memorable things that they ate.

October 25th: “I found them [a few soldiers who were giving up and turning back for fear of starving to death] almost destitute of any eatable whatever, except a few candles, which were used for supper, and breakfast the next morning, by boiling them in water gruel, &c.”

October 27th: “Our bill of fare for last night and this morning consisted of the jawbone of a swine destitute of any covering. This we boiled in a quantity of water, that with a little thickening constituted our sumptuous eating.”

November 1st: “Our greatest luxuries now consisted in a little water, stiffened with flour, in imitation of shoemakers’ paste, which was christened with the name of Lillipu. Instead of the diarrhea, which tried our men most shockingly in the former part of our march, the reverse was now the complaint, which continued for many days. We had now arrived as we thought to almost the zenith of distress. Several had been entirely destitute of either meat or bread for many days. … The voracious disposition many of us had now arrived at, rendered almost any thing admissible. In company was a poor dog, [who had] hitherto lived through all the tribulations, became a prey for the sustenance of the assassinators. This poor animal was instantly devoured, without leaving any vestige of the sacrifice. Nor did the shaving soap, pomatum [a salve or ointment that was used kind of like hair gel], and even the lip salve, leather of their shoes, cartridge boxes, &c., share any better fate…”

A soldier named Richard Vining wrote about eating an owl.

Fortunately, on November 2nd, some men who had gone ahead sent back some food from a Canadian settlement, and the soldiers “sat down, eat our rations, blessed our stars, and thought it luxury.”

Sources

The Journal of Isaac Senter on a Secret Expedition against Quebec.

The Revolution Remembered: Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence. Edited by John C. Dann.

“I Am Heartily Sorry”

To recant: “To retract; to recall; to contradict what one has once said or done.” -Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language

I’ve been thinking about recantations — that is, public statements, often in writing, that people made during the Revolution to convince other people that they had changed their ways. Here are some examples:

Whereas, I the subscriber, have, for a long series of time, both done and said many things that I am sensible has proved of great disadvantage to this Town and the Continent in general; and am now determined by my future conduct to convince the publick that I will risk my life and interest in defence of the constitutional privileges of this Continent, and humbly ask the forgiveness of my friends and the Country in general for my past conduct.
James McMaster.
Portsmouth, N.H., May 11, 1775.

Whereas my past conduct hath made an ill impression upon the minds of many of the inhabitants of this Town and Province; and as many view me unfriendly to the rights and liberties of British America, I hereby declare that I am heartily sorry that any part of my conduct should have given uneasiness to any of the friends of America; and hereby engage to aid and assist in supporting the common cause of America to the utmost of my power; and I hope my future conduct will render me worthy of the friendship and protection of this Country.
Thos. Achincloss.
Portsmouth, N.H., May 22, 1775.

Kensington, New-Hampshire, May 27, 1775.
Whereas I have offended the community in times past, by refusing to equip myself with arms and ammunition, and by my opposition to military orders, for which I am sorry: I hereby engage to equip myself according to orders, and be ready to take up arms in defence of my Country, in the present contest between Great Britain and the Colonies.
Ebenezer Loverin.

Why did people write things like this? Sometimes it was because somebody had spread rumors about them, and they were anxious to protect their reputation. Sometimes it was because they had been shunned or boycotted for not complying with things that the Continental Congress said, or for doing things that were politically unpopular. Either way, they did it because they wanted to be safe, respected, and prosperous.

The Twelve Colonies

The Olive Branch Petition was signed by representatives from twelve colonies, and the Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain was from “The Twelve United Colonies”. Why only twelve?

Georgia was late. Not only was it founded later than the other twelve colonies (it was only 43 years old when the Revolutionary War started), but it took longer for Georgia to pull together and send delegates to the Continental Congress. Some reasons for this, in my opinion, are that it was relatively “young” and therefore more sparsely settled and less established than the other colonies, and that it was off by itself, being the farthest south of any of them (except East and West Florida, which are a different story). But perhaps there were other, more compelling, reasons.

Georgia didn’t send any delegates at all to the First Continental Congress in 1774. And while the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775, it wasn’t until July 7 that Georgia’s Provincial Congress chose delegates to send to Philadelphia.

*Archibald Bulloch, president of the Georgia Provincial Congress in 1775*

No doubt many of the members of the Continental Congress were glad to have all thirteen colonies represented, and no doubt the president of Georgia’s congress (Archibald Bulloch, who also happened to be one of the delegates chosen to go to Philadelphia) was glad to report to the Continental Congress that Georgia was ready to fully join in. He wrote to the president of the Continental Congress:

As we appear so late in the American Cause, We must introduce ourselves with Expressions of Regret, that our Province has been so long divided, A Number of Incidents have Contributed thereto, which we think the less necessary to particularize as we hope they are pretty well got over…
We have already Resolved strictly to adhere to the Continental Association, and are heartily disposed Zealously to Enter into every measure that your Congress may deem necessary for the Saving of America…
Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, pp. 192-3

The delegates chosen were John Houstoun, Archibald Bulloch (sometimes spelled Bullock; president of the Georgia Provincial Congress), John Joachim Zubly (a clergyman who had preached a sermon entitled “The Law of Liberty” when the Provincial Congress convened on July 4th), Lyman Hall (who later signed the Declaration of Independence), and Noble Wimberly Jones.