A Game of Increments

This Week in 1776, Week 5

Atlantic Seaboard, Generally

As a Millennial who lived through the fever pitch-era of the early Iraq invasion days of 2003, it pains me to say this, but we did in fact need France’s help to win the naval side of the Revolution—if only because Britain relied on its strongest asset (its own Navy) to give us trouble in the early days.

Since you can’t fight an advanced war without an economy, and the Americans were getting their privateering on, the Brits returned the favor and interrupted American shipping. They ramped up their patrols, searched boats, seized cargo, and hassled businessmen for duty payments, like a bunch of thieving sniveling inbred funky-toothed hook-nosed dork who still—to this day—wear really gay wigs in court.

Anyway, I don’t have much in the way of fixed dates for this week, so broadly speaking, the Brits’ efforts were in this area.

Carolina, Specifically

That said, let’s talk about Carolina.

Next month we’re going to see some searches and seizures in the Cape Fear River area of the Carolinas. The British Navy was making its preparations for this in Cape Fear at the end of January. Josiah Martin, the Royal Governor, fled on a Navy vessel and hung out offshore to avoid capture.

He sent missives inland to Scottish Highlanders and Loyalist forces, telling them to be ready with weapons and gear so they could coordinate with naval movements that were to come.

Bit By Bit

I missed this one earlier in the month: New Hampshire (naturally) declared itself an independent state on January 5th and was encouraging other areas in New England to follow their example.

In the same spirit that led to Congress issuing letters of marque for privateering, local governments made arrangement for their official secession and soft confederation as American states. But that’ll require a lot of legal hashing that’ll play out in the summer—and really, over the next decade and a half.

Stay tuned for next week.