What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“Col. Pickering’s PLAN of DISCIPLINE, which … all the Militia of this Colony are directed and enjoined to practise.”
When he transferred the New-England Chronicle to Edward E. Powars and Nathaniel Willis in June 1776, Samuel Hall informed the public that “PRINTING in general will be continued at the Subscriber’s Office in School-street [in Boston], and performed with accuracy and dispatch.” Although he would no longer publish a newspaper, Hall continued to earn his livelihood through job printing and other projects. One of those projects was a second edition of Timothy Pickering’s Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia. Hall and his brother, Ebenezer, published and advertised the first edition nearly a year earlier. As the war continued, the American army needed more copies military manuals, including Pickering’s manual.
On June 20, Hall inserted advertisements in both the Continental Journal and the New-England Chronicle, the only newspapers published in Boston at the time. “The second Edition of Col. Pickering’s PLAN of DISCIPLINE, which by Order of the General Assembly, all the Militia of this Colony are directed and enjoined to practise,” Hall announced, “is not in the Press, and will be published, in about three Weeks.” The advance notice gave interested parties an opportunity to reserve copies. That, in turn, helped Hall determine how many copies to print. After all, he did not publish the manual solely as a service. He aimed to generate revenue with the venture. He did not want an excessive number of surplus copies to eat into profits.
That an “Order of the General Assembly” directed the colony’s militia to consult Pickering’s military manual no doubt helped sales. Yet Pickering received yet another important endorsement for his Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia. He sent a copy to George Washington following his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress. In turn, according to the American Revolution Institute, “Washington promoted the use of several published works, including Timothy Pickering’s An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia and Thomas Hanson’s The Prussian Evolutions” in the years before the Baron von Stueben’s Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States became the first official manual of the Continental Army in 1779. With such support, Hall could feel confident that a second edition of Pickering’s military manual would meet with success.