Sir We Require More Beef
This Week in 1776, Week 8
The waiting game continues on both sides as the Patriots and the Redcoats look ahead to March, and the accompanying spring thaw. Now is the time to stock up on powder and ball, fortify positions, and strategize for when the armies are finally able to move again.
As for specifics, here’s what we’ve got:
February 15 (Thursday in 1776): Congress puts together a resolution to send more military resources to Colonel Maxwell up north, after the Continentals failed to take Quebec. In New York and New Jersey, Ben Franklin teams up with Charles Carroll and Samuel Chase to handle requests for weapons, money, and fortifications amid a supply shortage.
The next day (Friday the 16th), George Washington meets up with his brain-trust for a war council so they can see where they stand: they have fewer than nine thousand men fit for duty, and they need to keep beefing up Boston. They do relocate some cannons from Fort Ticonderoga to The Town but they were careful and calculating when it came to their powder supply. They couldn’t overdo it at any one place.
Over the next few days, more militia men would arrive, and Washington did what he could to integrate them into the ranks and standardize their practices. And finally, Congress starts to make just a little bit of noise about the idea of independence…they’ll have to put in a pin that for now and circle back to it.
But it’s coming.