On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin boarded the USS Reprisal to sail to France to seek diplomatic recognition for the United States. Franklin was accompanied by his grandsons William Temple Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache. The brig Reprisal was commanded by Capt. Lambert Wickes and carried a crew of 130 and 18 six-pounder guns. Besides ferrying Franklin to France, the Reprisal was commencing an illustrious cruise that would capture or sink 25 British vessels over the next 11 months in the Atlantic and off the British Isles, but the Reprisal would sink in a storm with the loss of all but one of the members of its crew upon its return to America.
Sources: “The Fight for New York”, George Washington’s Mount Vernon (Fall 2026) at 21; https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/october-26/benjamin-franklin-sets-sail-for-france; https://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=7170; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Reprisal_(1776)
On this day 250 years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, Richard Bland died while serving in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was 66 years old and had been serving in public office for 27 years including as a Member of the Continental Congress. He was an early critic of slavery, although a slaveholder, and in 1766 had written An Inquiry into the Rights of the British Colonies, one of the earliest pamphlets making the case for colonial rights and laying the foundation for the colonial argument for no taxation without representation. His cousin and ally Thomas Jefferson would later describe Bland as “one of the oldest, ablest, and most respected members” of the Virginia legislature. On this day in 2026 we should remember this oft-forgotten Founding Father of our Nation.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bland
And on this day 250 years ago at Mile Square in Westchester County, New York, a detachment of Hessian soldiers attacked “a guard of about 30 men… under the command of Lieutenant [Abraham] Turtelow” who were guarding 80 to 90 barrels of provisions and a field hospital that the Continental Army had been unable to transport to White Plains. Lt. Turtelow escaped but later reported that the Hessians “took the stores… and killed the doctor and some of the men belonging to the hospital,” and Continental Army records indicate at least 8 men were captured by the Hessians. The British reported that the Hessians “killed the officer and 2 others and took 16 or 18 prisoners.” On this day 250 years later we should remember the unnamed doctor and two soldiers who gave their lives for American Liberty that day, as well as the 8 to 18 men who were captured by the Hessians. Most of the captured Americans would end up dying on British prison ships.
Sources: https://miniawi.blogspot.com/2011/10/october-26-1776.html; https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=136864; https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/mile-square-new-york
