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The Royal Navy ships also sink the Continental sloop that happens to be carrying the Turtle, the Americans’ highly experimental submarine. Though the Turtle will later be recovered, she’ll be irreparably damaged, and so ends the world’s first attempt to wage war via submarine.

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Continental warships, all smaller than the British warships coming toward them, flee upriver as the enemy ships approach. Two row galleys, two sloops and a schooner run aground as the ships approach Dobbs Ferry. The British will refloat all five ships and claim them as prizes.

“But to our surprize and mortification, they ran thro without the least difficulty and without receiving any apparent damage from our Forts tho they kept up a heavy Fire from both sides of the River.”

“towards our Chevaux de Frise, which we hoped would have interrupted their passage while our Batteries played upon them,

“About 8 OClock this Morning, Two Ships of 44 Guns each, supposed to be the Roebuck & Phenix and a Frigate of 20 Guns with Three or four Tenders got under way from about Bloomingdale where they had been laying some time and stood with an easy southerly breeze

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

9 OCTOBER 1776, NEW YORK: For the second time, a squadron of Royal Navy warships sails up the Hudson River from New York Harbor, taking intense fire from the Continental artillery on both sides of the river and receiving no damage on their passage.

Forcing a Passage up the Hudson River, after Dominic Serres

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“The grand point in view is certainly to beat and disperse this their principal Army, which if once effected, little more will remain to be done; as they never will be able to assemble another Army fit to oppose The King’s troops.”

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“yet it would by no means be prudent to divide our Army so much, and run the risque of having any considerable part of it defeated.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“I am pretty well convinced that the intended attack will be directed against that part of the Rebel Army posted on this Island [Manhattan] and at Kingsbridge; for however terrifying an attack on the Jersies, or towards Philadelphia would be to them,

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“From the orders which were afterwards given … it is supposed the General’s plan of the intended operation was laid before them, and determined on. …

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 OCTOBER 1776, UPPER EAST SIDE, NEW YORK: William Howe holds a council of war to settle on the British army’s next move: “A Council of War was held at Headquarters this day, at which all The General officers, and Lord Howe attended. They did not break up till near 4 o’Clock.

A 1777 representation of Sir William Howe

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

A 1772 graduate of what’s now Princeton University, Fithian was a classmate of James Madison, Aaron Burr and Philip Freneau. old.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/b...

old.lva.virginia.gov

Dictionary of Virginia Biography - Philip Vickers Fithian (29 December 1747-8 October 1776) Biography

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 OCTOBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Philip Vickers Fithian, twenty-eight-year-old chaplain of a New Jersey battalion, dies of camp fever. Fithian’s diary, especially of his year as a tutor at a Virginia plantation in 1773-74, is an important primary source of America on the eve of Revolution.

An anonymous sketch of Philip Vickers Fithian, autumn 1776

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Adopting Vergennes’s strategy would mean putting aside Spain’s current conflict with Portugal over their border in South America, and neither Grimaldi nor King Charles III are willing to do that. Main source: Orville T. Murphy, CHARLES GRAVIER, COMTE DE VERGENNES

Cover of Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes: French Diplomacy in the Age of Revolution, 1719-1787

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

While “appearances indicate the war in the colonies ought to endure, Spain wants more than just a prolonged war to exhaust England.”

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 OCTOBER 1776, MADRID: Grimaldi, the Spanish prime minister, writes to the French minister Vergennes his disapproval of Vergennes’s proposal that Spain and France attempt to prolong Britain’s war with its American colonies as long as possible:

Grimaldi painted by Francisco Javier Ramos

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

“—but we choose not to see till we feel, though they who have done the mischief, do not disguise their apprehensions. The Colonies have an agent openly at Versailles, and their ships are as openly received into their ports.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Contrary winds have delayed any ships crossing the Atlantic. “Success there is more necessary to keep up credit than likely to do more. Should it fail, there is an end of America for England; and if it succeeds, it is at most ground for another campaign—

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8 OCTOBER 1776, LONDON: Britons are becoming anxious at the lack of news of any major battles from America, Horace Walpole tells us: “Impatience is open-mouthed and open-eared for accounts from New York, on which the attack was to be made on the 26th of August.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“as you are not fond of it but I coud not help mentioning Genl Lee’s arrival as I wished so ardently for it myself & I am Confident he will be better than 10,000 men to our Army.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“He has long been wished for at the Camp,” James Smith writes to his wife, Eleanor. “I hope his arrival there will give our Army such new Spirits as may enable them to give Genl How’s Army a drubbing but I ask pardon for troubling you with News,

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

“His Appearance at Head Quarters on the Heights of Ha’arlem, would give a flow of Spirits to our Army, there. Some Officer of his Spirit and Experience, seems to be wanted,” writes John Adams. founders.archives.gov/documents/Ad...

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-02-02-0095

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Despite any unseemliness this creates, members of Congress are eager that Lee’s arrival in Philadelphia from Charleston means he will soon reach Continental Army headquarters in New York, where he will surely arrest Washington’s string of defeats:

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Shortly before the war started, Lee purchased a plantation in Virginia. He has drawn on his financial agent in England for the funds to pay for it, but the agent has refused. Congress therefore advances him thirty thousand dollars for payment.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Neither of his superior officers—Washington and Artemas Ward—received such a guarantee, nor did any other Continental officer, and members of Congress who agreed to it insisted it must be kept strictly secret.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Lee, appointed third-in-command of the Continental Army the day after Washington was appointed commander-in-chief, refused to accept the appointment until Congress had agreed to indemnify him against any loss, as his fortune is both very large and mostly in England.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

7 OCTOBER 1776, PHILADELPHIA: Charles Lee calls on Congress to fulfill the pledge they made to him when he accepted a general’s commission in the Continental Army, to guarantee him no loss of his fortune in the American service, and Congress advances him thirty thousand dollars.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Lincoln is to gather the boats and hold them at “any place you shall concieve to be most convenient.” founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0385

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

7 OCTOBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Having heard that inhabitants of Connecticut are crossing Long Island Sound to trade with British-held Long Island, Washington orders General Benjamin Lincoln “to collect all the boats, & other small craft on the sound, from Horse Neck downwards.”

George Washington, painted in 1776 by Charles Willson Peale

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Carleton’s ultimate aim is to take the two Continental fortresses on Champlain—Crown Point and Ticonderoga—which will then leave his army essentially unopposed in proceeding south down the Hudson River to British-held New York, splitting the United States in two.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

7 OCTOBER 1776, FORT ST. JEAN, CANADA: A combined land and water force led by Sir Guy Carleton, royal governor of Quebec, sets out south up the Richelieu River to attack the Continental Army’s Northern Army on Lake Champlain.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

7 OCTOBER 1776, SOMERSET: Massachusetts Loyalist Samuel Curwen visits both Wookie Hole and the village of Cheddar, “well known through England and America too for it’s excellent cheese.”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Though he was commonly believed in fact to be the son of one of Catherine’s lovers, Paul has surprised all observers as he has grown to adulthood by manifesting an intense physical resemblance to Peter III, to the point of uncanniness. Main source: Robert K. Massie, CATHERINE THE GREAT

Cover of Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Paul, twenty-two years old, despises his mother and idolizes his legal father, Tsar Peter III, whom Catherine deposed and had murdered when Paul was eight years old. He believes, not without legal foundation, that he should have replaced her on the throne when he turned eighteen.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Sophia Dorothea had, in fact, been one of two finalists when Paul married his first wife three years ago. Her prospective (and future) mother-in-law rejected her then because of her age; Catherine was eager for Paul to father a legitimate heir as soon as possible after his marriage.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

7 OCTOBER 1776, ST. PETERSBURG: Paul, Tsarevich (crown prince) of Russia and only child of Catherine the Great, marries sixteen-year-old Sophia Dorothea of the royal house of Württemberg six months after his first wife died bearing a stillborn son. The bride takes the Russian name Maria Fedorovna.

Tsar Paul, painted by Andrey Filippovich Mitrokhin

Maria Federovna, painted in 1777 by Alexander Roslin

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“Providence—or some good honest Fellow, has done more for us than we were disposed to do for ourselves, as near One fourth of the City is supposed to be consumed. however enough of it remains to answer their purposes.”

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“—and their principal force left at large to act against us, or to remove to any other place for the purpose of harrassing us. this in my judgment may be set down amg one of the capitol errors of Congress. …

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“besides this, by leaving it standing, the Enemy are furnished with warm & comfortable Barracks, in which their whole Force may be concentred—the place secured by a small garrison (if they chuse it) having their Ships round it, & only a narrow Neck of Land to defend—

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“as it was obvious to me (covered as it may be by their Ships) that it will be next to impossible for us to dispossess them of it again as all their Supplies come by Water, whilst ours were derived by Land;

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“Had I been left to the dictates of my own judgment, New York should have been laid in Ashes before I quitted it—to this end I applied to Congress, but was absolutely forbid—that they will have cause to repent the Order, I have not a moments doubt of, nor never had,

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

6 OCTOBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: George Washington writes a letter to his cousin Lund that is universally quoted in the debate over whether the Great Fire of New York was begun on his orders: founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0379

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The Continental Army will construct two small redoubts at Laurel Hill, but the Pennsylvania militia manning them will be overrun by the Black Watch on November 16. The British will later build a larger fortification, named Fort George.

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

6 OCTOBER 1776, HARLEM, NEW YORK: Washington’s chief of artillery and chief engineer recommend the fortification of “the hill, East of Mount Washington, & the camp in general” at presentday 192nd Street and Audubon Avenue. founders.archives.gov/documents/Wa...

https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-06-02-0374

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“Some persons imagine the movement of the two brigades is in consequence of this information. I am rather of opinion that they are intended to co-operate with the rest of Army in the attack which is projected against the Rebels [at Newport].”

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Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“Tis said a letter was found yesterday on Long Island, directed to the officer Commanding the Rebel troops there, from Mr Washington, acquainting him with an intention of making an attack on that Island as soon as other arrangements have taken place.

Revolutionary War 250 @revwar250.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

“It is uncertain how much farther [east, along Long Island] these brigades are going, but it is conjectured toward the East end of the Island, to which part the Rebels have lately sent over some parties, who have carried off the Cattle and plundered the Inhabitants.