- On This Day In 1776, Adams Saw The Cost Of Independence
- On This Day In 1776, Jefferson Had A Draft And Washington Had A Crisis
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Sent A Life Guard Member To The Gallows For Betrayal
- On This Day In 1776, Jefferson’s Draft Reached Congress As War Erupted
- On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Appeared Off New York
- On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Swelled Off New York As Washington Warned ‘Delays Are Dangerous’
- On This Day In 1776, Independence Had A Majority But Not Unity
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Held The Actual Vote For Independence
- On This Day In 1776, The Vote Was Done But The Declaration Was Not
- On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Went To Print
- On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Hit The Newspapers
- On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Kept Moving As Washington Braced For Attack
- On This Day In 1776, Washington’s Army Heard The Declaration And New York Tore Down The King
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned His Army Independence Was Not A License For Riot
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned The British Could Strike At Any Moment
- On This Day In 1776, British Warships Fired Their Way Past Washington’s Guns
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Refused A British Letter That Would Not Call Him General
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Rushed Supplies As British Warships Threatened The Hudson
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Approved The Declaration. Now Read It.
- On This Day In 1776, Washington And Franklin Rejected Britain’s Pardon Offer
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Ordered The Declaration Onto Parchment As Washington Built Defenses
- On This Day In 1776, Boston Burned The King’s Arms As America Looked Beyond Britain
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Called Britain’s Peace Commission A Deception
- On This Day In 1776, Congress Told Washington To Deploy Troops As He Saw Fit
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Said British Troops Fought ‘To Enslave Us’
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned ‘The Sick Must Perish’ If The Market Failed
- On This Day In 1776, British Ships Closed In As Washington Waited For Nearly 7,000 Troops
- On This Day In 1776, A Jewish Merchant Sent The Declaration To Europe
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Soldiers Not To Drink New York’s Water
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Tightened Password Security As British Ships Arrived
- On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Troops Their Divisions Helped The Enemy
- On This Day In 1776, America’s Founders Signed Their Names Beneath The Declaration
It was Saturday, June 29, 1776.
Congress had already read Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence and ordered it to lie on the table. Delegates would not return to the independence question until Monday.
New York did not get the same pause.
George Washington received word that 45 British ships had arrived at the Hook, near the entrance to New York Harbor. More were expected. The fleet Washington had been waiting for was finally showing itself.
At the same time, Virginia adopted a new constitution and chose Patrick Henry as its first elected governor. Off the New Jersey coast, Americans fought to save a powder ship from British capture.
The Declaration waited in Philadelphia.
The war kept moving.
The DX Brief
- Congress had read the Declaration draft on June 28 and adjourned until Monday, July 1.
- Washington wrote John Hancock on June 29 that 45 British ships had arrived at the Hook, with more expected.
- Virginia adopted its first constitution on June 29 and chose Patrick Henry as its first elected governor.
- Off the New Jersey coast, Americans fought to save the brigantine Nancy and its cargo from British warships.
- The day showed independence moving on several fronts: Congress, New York, Virginia, and the water routes feeding the war.
British Ships Arrive At The Hook
Washington knew the British were coming.
On June 29, the warning became more specific.
In a June 29 letter to John Hancock, Washington said earlier reports from the previous day were “partly confirmed” and likely would prove true.
“For two or three days past three or four Ships have been drop[p]ing in,” Washington wrote.
Then came the bigger news.
Washington said he had “just now received an Express” from an officer watching Staten Island that “forty five arrived at the Hook to day, some say more.”
He expected the rest soon.
“I suppose the whole fleet will be in within a day or two,” Washington wrote.
That changed the mood around New York.
The question was no longer whether the British would come. The question was when they would strike and whether Washington could hold the city.
Washington Prepares A Reception
Washington did not pretend the army had every advantage.
He told Hancock he hoped reinforcements would arrive before the British attacked.
But he also made clear he would work with what he had.
“I shall attempt to make the best disposition I can for our Troops, in order to give them a proper reception,” Washington wrote.
He also said he wanted to prevent “the ruin and destruction they are meditating against us.”
That is the June 29 story in New York.
Washington had just approved the execution of Thomas Hickey the day before. Loyalist activity already had the city on edge. Now British ships were appearing in force at the harbor entrance.
The threat was no longer distant.
It had arrived.
Virginia Builds A Government
While Washington watched New York, Virginia acted like independence had already happened.
The Virginia Constitution was adopted on June 29, 1776. Colonial Williamsburg describes it as one of the earliest written constitutions in the western world.
The document announced a clean break with royal government.
“By which several acts of misrule, the government of this country, as formerly exercised under the crown of Great Britain, is Totally Dissolved,” the constitution stated.
That same day, the Williamsburg convention chose Patrick Henry as Virginia’s first elected governor, according to the Library of Virginia.
That matters for this series.
Congress had not yet voted on independence. The Declaration had not been adopted. But Virginia was already building a state government outside the old British structure.
Independence was no longer just an argument in Philadelphia.
Virginia had put it into operation.
A Powder Ship At Turtle Gut
June 29 also brought fighting off the New Jersey coast.
The brigantine Nancy was trying to bring badly needed supplies toward Philadelphia when British warships pursued her near Cape May. The cargo included gunpowder and other military supplies.
According to a Cape May County account, the Nancy fled toward Turtle Gut Inlet under pressure from HMS Orpheus and HMS Kingfisher. Captain John Barry helped coordinate the American response.
American sailors and local men worked to move part of the cargo ashore while the British fired on the ship.
When capture looked likely, the Americans set a long fuse and abandoned the Nancy.
The ship exploded as British boarders moved in.
That fight did not decide the Revolution. But it showed how the war depended on more than speeches and votes. Powder had to move. Supplies had to get through. British ships tried to choke off the routes feeding the American cause.
On June 29, even the coast of New Jersey became part of the road to independence.
Why It Mattered
June 29, 1776, shows how fast events were moving outside Congress.
The Declaration draft sat in Philadelphia until Monday.
But New York saw the British fleet appear at the Hook. Virginia adopted a constitution and chose a governor. Off New Jersey, Americans fought to save powder from British capture.
That is the frame for the day.
Independence was not waiting for Congress to finish editing. The colonies were already acting, fighting, organizing, and preparing for the consequences.
On June 29, the words waited on the table.
The war did not.
Tomorrow On Road To Independence
June 30, 1776: Washington learned the British fleet was even larger than first reported. By nightfall, he had heard that 110 sail had entered near the Hook, with more still offshore.
Read yesterday’s installment: Jefferson’s Draft Reached Congress As War Erupted.
