Happy Father’s Day!
250 Years Ago … Continental Army
The colonies are abuzz following the adjournment of the First Continental Congress. As colonists deliberated and implemented Congress’s mandates, they also pondered the future of their relationship with Great Britain. How will the King respond to Congress’s petition? Will the proposed Association (a comprehensive non-importation and non-exportation scheme) force Parliament to repeal the Coercive Acts? Colonists wait only a few short months for an answer.
On February 3, 1775 Abigail Adams wrote to Mercy Otis Warren, reporting among other things, “The die is cast … but it seems to me the Sword is now our only, yet dreadful alternative”.
Forming the Continental Army and Naming Its Commander in Chief
America’s Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775 with exchanges of musketry between British regulars and Massachusetts militiamen at Lexington and Concord, as many delegates were already enroute to Philadelphia, where Congress was scheduled to convene on May 10, 1775.
When the delegates to the Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on May 10, they soon learned that armed men commanded by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold had captured the British forts at Ticonderoga and Crown Point on Lake Champlain in New York.
The New England colonists reacted to this news by raising four separate armies. With remarkable speed, committees of correspondence spread the traumatic news of Lexington and Concord beyond the borders of Massachusetts.
On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress adopted “the American continental army” after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole. This procedure and the desire for secrecy account for the sparseness of the official journal entries for the day.
On June 15, Congress unanimously chose George Washington. Washington had been active in the military planning committees of Congress and by late May had taken to wearing his old uniform.
Preparing the Continental Army to Go to War
Washington was also to prepare and to send to Congress an accurate strength return of that army. On the other hand, instructions to keep the army obedient, diligent, and disciplined were rather vague. The Commander in Chief’s right to make strategic and tactical decisions on purely military grounds was limited only by a requirement to listen to the advice of a council of war.
Within a set troop maximum, including volunteers, Washington had the right to determine how many men to retain, and he had the power to fill temporarily any vacancies below the rank of colonel. Permanent promotions and appointments were reserved for the colonial governments to make.
The record indicates only that Congress undertook to raise ten companies of riflemen, approved an enlistment form for them, and appointed a committee (including Washington and Schuyler) to draft rules and regulations “for the government of the army.”
The delegates’ correspondence, diaries, and subsequent actions make it clear that they really did much more. They also accepted responsibility for the existing New England troops and the forces requested for the defense of the various points in New York. The former were believed to total 10,000 men; the latter, both New Yorkers and Connecticut men, another 5,000.
By the third week in June delegates were referring to 15,000 at Boston. Meanwhile, the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 forced many delegates to rethink their position on reconciliation. As accounts of the battle reach Philadelphia, Thomas Jefferson and John Dickinson are drafting the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking up Arms. John Adams calls the document a spirited Manifesto.
When on June 19 Congress requested the governments of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire to forward to Boston “such of the forces as are already embodied, towards their quotas of the troops agreed to be raised by the New England Colonies,” it gave a clear indication of its intent to adopt the regional army. Discussions the next day indicated that Congress was prepared to support a force at Boston twice the size of the British garrison, and that it was unwilling to order any existing units to be disbanded.
Congress then took steps for issuing paper money to finance the army, and on June 30 it adopted the Articles of War.
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (1775 – 1783) was an insurrection by which 13 of Great Britain’s North American colonies that won political independence and went on to form the United States of America.
The war followed more than a decade of growing estrangement between the British crown and a large and influential segment of its North American colonies that was caused by British attempts to assert greater control over colonial affairs after having long adhered to a policy of salutary neglect.
By the time the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the Thirteen Colonies (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) and Great Britain had been at war for more than a year.
At any given time, however, the American forces seldom numbered over 20,000; in 1781 there were only about 29,000 revolutionaries under arms throughout the country.
By contrast, the British army was a reliable steady force of professionals. Since it numbered only about 42,000, heavy recruiting programs were introduced.
Because troops were few and conscription unknown, the British government, following a traditional policy, purchased about 30,000 troops from various German princes.
An estimated 6,800 Americans were killed in action, 6,100 wounded, and upwards of 20,000 were taken prisoner. Historians believe that at least an additional 17,000 deaths were the result of disease, including about 8,000–12,000 who died while prisoners of war.
Unreliable data places the total casualties for British regulars fighting in the Revolutionary War around 24,000 men. This total number includes battlefield deaths and injuries, deaths from disease, men taken prisoner, and those who remained missing. Approximately 1,200 Hessian soldiers were killed, 6,354 died of disease and another 5,500 deserted and settled in America afterward. (Battlefield)
Click the following links to general summaries about the Continental Army:
About 250 Years Ago … Stars and Stripes, the US Flag
As we approach the semiquincentennial (250th) anniversary of the forming of the United States (July 4, 2026), here is a brief summary of issues and actions that led to the Revolution and the Revolutionary War … this is about the US Flag.
“[N]ational symbols and ceremonies express deeper aspects and meanings of the nation, and function as integrative and/or divisive forces. Moreover, national symbols and ceremonies form a central part of a ‘secular’ religion which provides anchorage in a dynamic world.”
“National symbols and ceremonies also have an effect upon the community they represent; that is, they raise collective consciousness of ‘who we are’ and ‘where we are from.’” (Elgenius)
“The earliest depiction of a fabric flag is vaguely claimed to date back to 400 BC. It is painted on a wall in a Samnite colony in Paestum in Southern Italy. This depiction lacks a distinct design although the shape of the flag itself bears a close resemblance to a modem one.”
“The Chinese also used flags, as lateral cloth attachments to staffs, following the invention of silk farming. The development of sericulture around 3000 BC brought new possibilities of producing light, large, enduring and colourful (painted or dyed) flags that could be used outdoors.”
“These flags were mainly known for their military use, but also appeared in temples and religious processions. One of the earliest cloth flags was also flown during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom around 2000 BC.”
“It is not necessary to date the first flag, in this context, but it is interesting to see that flags were used by early civilisations and that the present pattern of flag symbolism has ancient roots.” (Elgenius)
“The end of the 18th century marks the official beginning of the ‘national’ flag. This was a gradual process where official recognition came after the flag and its colours had gained some sort of symbolic value.”
“It is noteworthy that one of the first manifestations of American ‘resistance’ was a Red Ensign with the motto ‘Liberty and Union’, which was hoisted a year before the Revolution in Taunton, Massachusetts.”
“Even earlier, in 1769, Boston had flown a flag of red and white stripes. The ‘rattlesnake’ with the motto ‘Don’t Tread on Me’, was another famous flag, which later developed into a depiction of the rattlesnake with 13 segments.”
“The Pine Tree emblem, which originated from New England and was later identified with the Liberty Tree, figured on many early American flags (and also in very early Native American symbolism).”
“The use of the Red Ensign with the motto in the fly, or with the Pine Tree in the canton and that of the plain Pine Tree Flag, were the first prime sources for the American flag tradition. These constituted together with the Boston striped flag the main starting points for the colonial flag evolving during 1775.”
“The emblem of the rattlesnake was seen in the canton of the Red Ensign, which was hoisted by a Pennsylvanian regiment in 1775, and in the flag of stripes used by the South Carolina Navy. In 1776 the flag hoisted in Massachusetts was described as ‘English Colours but more Striped’, i. e. a British Red Ensign but with white stripes across the field.”
National Flag
“[T]he concept of the ‘national flag’ is the direct consequence of political developments after the American and the French Revolution, where the idea of the flag representing the country and its people emerged.”
“The American flag was adopted to represent a multi-ethnic people; it symbolised first and foremost the attempt to break free from colonial domination. At the same time the ‘Stars and Stripes’ flag made a significant contribution to the modern flag tradition as an idea of a flag representing a ‘whole population’ as well as its government, and it also reflected the more egalitarian ideas of the time.”
“The ‘Stars and Stripes’ was created on the 14 July 1777 – by whom and where remains unclear – and it was used in different forms during the remainder of the War of Independence. It is worth noting that America did not have a flag representing it (or the colonies) prior to the conflicts with England.” (Elgenius)
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the design of a national flag: “Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The resolution didn’t prescribe a certain arrangement, so the earliest flags display quite a variety of designs. (DAR) The number of stars on the American Flag has changed with time from 13 to 50 in order to correspond with the increasing number of states. (Elgenius)
Betsy Ross Flag
The origin of the first American flag is unknown. Some historians believe it was designed by New Jersey Congressman Francis Hopkinson and sewn by Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross.
Elizabeth “Betsy” Griscom Ross was born a fourth-generation American to a Quaker family on New Year’s Day of 1752 in the colonial city of Philadelphia.
Ross learned to sew from a great-aunt, and, after finishing school, apprenticed with a talented upholsterer in Philadelphia, where she met and married fellow apprentice John Ross, with whom she formed an upholstery business.
Among their customers was George Washington, for whom they sewed bed hangings in 1774 while he was in Philadelphia for the First Continental Congress. After the death of her husband at the start of the American Revolution, Ross continued to sew uniforms, tents, and flags for the Continental Army.
Historians have not been able to verify Ross’s legendary role as the creator of the Stars and Stripes. But the likely legendary story that in June 1776 General Washington consulted with Ross on the creation of a new flag, and she persuaded him to alter its stars from six-pointed to the easier-to-sew five-pointed took hold in the national patriotic imagination.
For generations Betsy Ross has stood as the symbol of feminine ingenuity and resourcefulness in service to the country. Her contributions to the founding of the United States are commonly represented, as in a 1952 stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of her birth, with the Stars and Stripes on her lap. (DOI)
Old Glory
The name Old Glory was given to a large, 10-by-17-foot flag by its owner, William Driver, a sea captain from Massachusetts.
Inspiring the common nickname for all American flags, Driver’s flag is said to have survived multiple attempts to deface it during the Civil War. Driver was able to fly the flag over the Tennessee Statehouse once the war ended. (PBS)
Star-Spangled Banner
In June 1813, Major George Armistead arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, to take command of Fort McHenry, built to guard the water entrance to the city.
Armistead commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker, to sew two flags for the fort: a smaller storm flag (17 by 25 ft) and a larger garrison flag (30 by 42 ft). She was hired under a government contract and was assisted by her daughter, two nieces, and an indentured African-American girl.
The larger of these two flags would become known as the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Pickersgill stitched it from a combination of dyed English wool bunting (red and white stripes and blue union) and white cotton (stars). Each star is about two feet in diameter, each stripe about 24 inches wide.
The Star-Spangled Banner’s impressive scale (about one-fourth the size of a modern basketball court) reflects its purpose as a garrison flag. It was intended to fly from a flagpole about ninety feet high and be visible from great distances.
At its original dimensions of 30 by 42 feet, it was larger than the modern garrison flags used today by the United States Army, which have a standard size of 20 by 38 feet.
Between 1777 and 1960 Congress passed several acts that changed the shape, design and arrangement of the flag and allowed stars and stripes to be added to reflect the admission of each new state. On August 3, 1949, President Harry S. Truman officially declared June 14 as Flag Day.
The first Flag Act, adopted on June 14, 1777, created the original United States flag of thirteen stars and thirteen stripes.
The Star-Spangled Banner has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes as provided for in the second Flag Act approved by Congress on January 13, 1794. The additional stars and stripes represent Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) joining the Union.
The third Flag Act, passed on April 4, 1818, reduced the number of stripes back to thirteen to honor the original thirteen colonies and provided for one star for each state – a new star to be added to the flag on the Fourth of July following the admission of each new state. (Smithsonian)
Today the flag consists of 13 horizontal stripes, seven red alternating with six white. The stripes represent the original 13 Colonies and the stars represent the 50 states of the Union. The colors of the flag are symbolic as well; red symbolizes hardiness and valor, white symbolizes purity and innocence and blue represents vigilance, perseverance and justice.
Click the following links to general summaries about the Stars and Stripes:
Papaʻi Bay
At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.
Kalaniʻōpuʻu died shortly thereafter (1782.) Before his death, Kalaniʻōpuʻu gave an command to Kiwalaʻo and Kamehameha, and to all the chiefs, thus: “Boys, listen, both of you. The heir to the kingdom of Hawaii nei, comprising the three divisions of land, Kaʻū̄, Kona and Kohala, shall be the chief Kiwalaʻo. He is the heir to the lands.” (Fornander)
“As regarding you, Kamehameha, there is no land or property for you; but your land and your endowment shall be the god Kaili (Kūkaʻilimoku.) If, during life, your lord should molest you, take possession of the kingdom; but if the molestation be on your part, you will be deprived of the god.” These words of Kalaniʻōpuʻu were fulfilled in the days of their youth, and his injunction was realized. (Fornander)
Following Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death in 1782, and following his wishes, the kingship was inherited by his son Kīwalaʻō; Kamehameha (Kīwalaʻō’s cousin) was given guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.)
A number of chiefs (both under Kiwalaʻo and Kamehameha were dissatisfied with subsequent redistricting of the lands; civil war ensued between Kīwalaʻō’s forces and the various chiefs under the leadership of Kamehameha.
In the first major skirmish, in the battle of Mokuʻōhai (a fight between Kamehameha and Kiwalaʻo in July, 1782 at Keʻei, south of Kealakekua Bay on the Island of Hawaiʻi,) Kiwalaʻo was killed.
Then, in 1783, following an unsuccessful battle against Keawemauhili and Keōua; Kamehameha sailed to Puna for a surprise attack on some of the warriors against whom the recent battle had been fought.
He went to Papaʻi Bay (Lit. Crab fishermen’s shed; an old village site coastal point of Keaʻau – now called Kings Landing.) Nearby is a māwae (crack, fissure, crevice,) the boundary between Waiakea, Hilo and Keaʻau, Puna.
People there saw that the newcomers were strangers. When asked who they were, someone called out, “It is Kamehameha!” Then the people were filled with fear, for the prowess of the chief was well known and greatly feared.
Kamehameha, commanding the others not to follow, leaped from the canoe to attack two stalwart natives who had been aiding the weak to escape.
A fisherman turned and threw his fishnet over the pursuing chief, causing him to fall down upon the sharp lava. Then he tore the nets which entangled him and again rushed heedlessly on. While straining himself to see where the men were running, his foot broke through a thin shell of lava into a crevice (some suggest it was in the māwae.) To pull it up was impossible.
The men turned back and struck at him with their paddles, but after a few blows the paddles were destroyed. The men ran away. (Westervelt)
Years passed; the memory of that trip made in 1783 to Puna for the sake of robbery and possible murder. The king wondered what had become of the men who had attacked him. He had gone to Hilo (sometime between 1796 and 1802,) determined to find the men of the splintered paddle.
They were captured and when they saw Kamehameha they bowed their heads, hoping to escape recognition. But this revealed them at once to Kamehameha, and he approached them with the command to raise their heads. It was an interesting scene when these common men were brought before the chiefs for final judgment. It is said the chief asked them if they were not at the sea of Papaʻi.
They assented. Then came the question to two of them: “You two perhaps are the men who broke the paddle on my head?” They acknowledged the deed.
Then Kamehameha he said: “Listen! I attacked the innocent and the defenseless. This was not right.
In the future no man in my kingdom shall have the right to make excursions for robbery without punishment, he be chief or priest. I make the law, the new law, for the safety of all men under my government.
If any man plunders or murders the defenseless or the innocent he shall be punished. This law is given in memory of my steersman and shall be known as ‘Ke Kana-wai Ma-mala-hoa,’ or the law of the friend and the broken oars. The old man or the old woman or the child may lie down to sleep by the roadside and none shall injure them.”
The original 1797 law:
Kānāwai Māmalahoe (in Hawaiian:):
E nā kānaka,
E mālama ʻoukou i ke akua
A e mālama hoʻi ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki;
E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama
A moe i ke ala
‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia.
Hewa nō, make.
Law of the Splintered Paddle (English translation:)
Oh people,
Honor thy gods;
Respect alike [the rights of]
People both great and humble;
See to it that our aged,
Our women and our children
Lie down to sleep by the roadside
Without fear of harm.
Disobey, and die.
Kamehameha’s Law of the Splintered Paddle of 1797 is enshrined in the State constitution, Article 9, Section 10: The law of the splintered paddle, Māmalahoe Kānāwai, decreed by Kamehameha I – Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety – shall be a unique and living symbol of the State’s concern for public safety. The State shall have the power to provide for the safety of the people from crimes against persons and property.
Kānāwai Māmalahoe appears as a symbol of crossed paddles in the center of the badge of the Honolulu Police Department. A plaque, facing mauka on the Kamehameha Statue outside Aliʻiōlani Hale in Honolulu, notes the Law of the Splintered Paddle.
Kamehameha-Splintered Paddle
Posing for a Statue
John Tamatao Baker “was born at [Wailupe], Oahu, in 1852, and was educated at Lahainaluna school on Maui. He began life by entering plantation work on that island, later coming to Honolulu.” (Jean Charlot)
“Baker was of Hawaiian, haole, and Tahitian descent, his grandfather having come to Hawaiʻi from Tahiti with the missionary William Ellis.” (Kanaeokana)
“He became attached to the household of King Kalakaua and married [Chiefess Ululani Lewai Peleioholani]. On Feb 12, 1878, he was made a captain in the household guard and in 1884 was made adjutant of the military police. During the same year he became a member of the privy council.”
“King Kalakaua appointed Baker high sheriff of Hawaii in 1887, his wife having been made governess of that island the preceding year. After the office of governess was abolished, he was named governor, retiring from that post in 1893.”
“In later years of his life, Baker traveled a great deal, visiting Europe and the South Seas islands. He always took an interest in politics and was notes as a scholar in both the English and Hawaiian languages.”
“He is best known, perhaps, as the original of the statute of King Kamehameha, for which he was asked to pose, due to the striking likeness to the ancient ruler.” (Advertiser, Sep 8, 1921) “Likeness refers to a likeness of features rather than of body.” (Charlot)
“Gibson refers to Robert Hoapili Baker in different terms: ‘The artist has copied closely the fine physique of Hoapili of whom photos were sent by the committee and it presents a noble illustration of superior Hawaiian manhood.’” (Charlot)
Actually, Baker, his brother Robert Hoapili Baker and an unnamed fisherman served as models for the Kamehameha Statue. The imagery used by the sculptor was a composite of the three.
(John and Robert were raised as brothers but they were ‘step’ brothers – their mothers were sisters and had both married Captain Adam Baker, yet John is the only biological son of Captain Baker, so they were cousins. (House of Kamakahelei))
A layman, looking at the photo “posed by John T. Baker, is struck by its obvious resemblance to the finished statue and considers this to be a clinching argument.”
“A practicing artist, however, knowing the many successive steps that go into the making of a statue on a heroic scale, knows that this cannot be the whole story.”
“[T]he sculptor, Thomas R. Gould, required much more than the surface data offered by [the single photograph]. To take a famous example of a sculptor’s point of view, in the 1890s Auguste Rodin started working on his statue of Balzac by doing a number of studies after the nude model.”
“Only as a final step did he wrap around the body a loose dressing gown that hides all his hardwon anatomical knowledge, only the head of his Balzac left visible.”
“Gould, an older man, nurtured on classical art, similarly required at the start factual data concerning the Polynesian body, as distinct from the Greco-Roman body he knew so well from statues.”
The initial “photos arrived in April 1879. Gould acknowledges receipt to Brewer, who acted as an agent for [Walter Murray] Gibson: ‘(Received) five photos, three of them being a nude native Hawaiian, and the other two a Hawaiian in the royal feather cloak and baldric, with helmet and spear, countersigned by the King.’” (Jean Charlot)
“Bronze casts by sculptor Thomas R. Gould from the original 1881 mold are now located in Kapaʻau, Hawaiʻi Island, Honolulu, Hilo and in the Hall of Statues in the United States Congress building in Washington, D.C.”
“As was the convention of the time, John [Baker] posed in full Hawaiian attire, but wearing dyed-brown long-johns covering his skin. The photographer minimized this fact, though the covering on the right wrist is quite distinct.”
“Gould worked from a pastiche of the brothers’ photographs and probably another photograph of a muscular man modeling for the legs.”
“The photograph shows the composite model image as Kamehameha in aliʻi (chiefly class) feather robe, helmet, and breechcloth and a holding a lance.” (BOH, Honokaa, NPS)
At the request of the monument committee, statue designer Thomas R Gould modified the features to make the king seem about 45-years old. The intent was a bronze statue of ‘heroic size’ (about eight-and-a-half-feet tall.)
‘Boston Evening Transcript’ of September 28, 1878, noted “It has been thought fitting that Boston, which first sent Christian teachers and ships of commerce to the Islands, should have the honor of furnishing this commemorative monument.”
While Gould was a Bostonian, he was studying in Italy, where he designed the statue; ultimately, the statue was cast in bronze in Paris.
It was shipped on August 21, 1880, by the bark ‘GF Haendel,’ and was expected about mid-December. On February 22, 1881, came word that the Haendel had gone down November 15, 1880, off the Falkland Islands. All the cargo had been lost.
However, the original statue had been recovered and was in fair condition. The right hand was broken off near the wrist, the spear was broken and the feather cape had a hole in it. It was taken to a shed at Aliʻiolani Hale to be repaired.
As for the original statue (which had been repaired,) it was dedicated on May 8, 1883 (the anniversary of Kamehameha’s death) and is in Kapaʻau, North Kohala outside Kohala’s community/senior center.
Meanwhile, on January 31, 1883, the replica ordered by Kohala arrived. On February 14, 1883, the replica statue was unveiled at Aliʻiolani Hale during the coronation ceremonies for King Kalākaua.
The resemblance of the statute to Baker followed him; “John Baker has come to San Francisco to be a human being for a change, instead of a statue. Baker made his home in Honolulu for many years.
“In the islands he is a most famous character. For it was Baker who posed for the celebrated statue of King Kamehameha, because of the strong resemblance he bore to the ancient ruler of the tropic isles.”
“But when tourists saw the statue and then saw him, it often became uncomfortable, for he was frequently taken for the real article by those who did not know that the Kamehamehas have long since ceased to walk the earth.”(San Francisco Daily News, Nov 1915; SB Sept 07, 1921)
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