Hickeys Are Just Bad
This Week in 1776, #25
“This Week in 1776” is an ongoing almanac of events from the American Revolution, mostly political and military in nature. I drew on these very loosely for my Engines of Liberty series of YA novels.
You should also check out The History List—they have an excellent merch store and occasionally they get valuable historical pieces that are very much worth their prices. I’m not sponsored by them, they just make great stuff.
I’ve got a juicy one for you this week, and we won’t even get to the end of it. First, let’s check in on the regular stuff:
Arnold in Canada
Reading up on Benedict Arnold over the last few weeks, I’ve decided to grab a book about him and Washington in the Revolution. It contrasts the conditions under which they served in the Army, how one had more support and success than the other, and how their endies were incredibly different. This week he continues to manage a rough retreat out of Canada, and the military made preparations for a naval defense on Lake Champlain to cover their rear.
Washington in New York
If you guessed that he continues to prepare New York for a British attack by fortifying its defenses, you just won a cash prize of zero dollars, which is roughly on par with the amount of money he had in his war chest to keep paying his troops. He wrote to Congress about it but Congress was pretty much flat broke themselves, at least as regards additional funds for the troops.
In an amusing twist of fate—and one of several pieces of evidence that God played cheat cards to favor Washington—the lack of funds among soldiers revealed a traitor in his inner circle. More on that in a second.
Congress in Philadelphia
The Iroquois are still hanging out, I think I mentioned last week that they left after giving John Hancock a cool nickname, but they haven’t left yet. Overall they stayed for a few weeks. The main work of Congress focused on debates around the Lee Resolution, and drafting the Declaration of Independence, which will be signed in two weeks.
Other reports centered on the bad news out of Canada and the poverty in New York, as well as…
The Hickey Plot
And here we get to the real meat of the week. Thomas Hickey was an Irishman who was formerly a British soldier, and now served in George Washington’s “Life Guard,” a sort of Secret Service that protected him wherever he went, since he was a priority target for the Redcoats. He and a fellow Life Guard named Michael Lynch were arrested for passing counterfeit money in New York, because the troops were broke and still liked to eat food (good) and get drunk (weak).
Hickey was locked up in City Hall, and the allegation is that while he was there, he bragged about being part of a larger plot to recruit Loyalists, stymie the Army, and kidnap Washington to hand him over to the British. William Tryon, the Royal Governor of New York, was hanging out on a ship in the harbor and coordinated the efforts on land to take out General G-Dub. Means, motive, and opportunity were clearly there.
Hickey was put on trial by none other than future Federalist and SCOTUS Justice John Jay. On June 19th, Jay turned Scott’s Tavern on Wall Street into a makeshift courtroom and, using America’s first counterintelligence apparatus, heard the evidence against Hickey and three others (including the aforementioned Lynch.) The charges were “mutiny, sedition, and treacherous correspondence with the enemy.”
It’s a fascinating story. HOWEVER. It didn’t reach its end this week. In fact, Hickey was only held in custody through June 21st. He wouldn’t be court-martialed until the 26th. To find out what happens to him, check back in a week! No, don’t Google it, that’s cheating.
Visit Nauvoo Supply to order HEARTLANDERS, the most American novel I’ve ever written. It’s like if National Treasure happened during Fallout with G.I. Joes.
My Amazon page has my other books, including FOSSIL FORCE for young boys and Engines of Liberty for all ages.
I post several times per week on YouTube.
Subscribe here for more book reviews and for articles on what I continue to learn as I read.