Recently there was tremendous interest in the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024, especially for those living in or traveling to the 110 mile swath of totality. Television news, newspapers, and other media outlets had countless stories about where to find the best viewing places, how to get there and back, and how to safely watch the eclipse, as well as plenty of post event comments and impressions. Eclipse mania prevailed!
But was there similar interest in the 18th century, particularly during the years of the American Revolution? Between 1701 and 1800, there were 251 solar eclipses worldwide, of which 62 were total. More specifically, there were 54 between 1763 and 1783, of which 13 were total. Most were not easily seen in eastern North America other than two: June 24, 1778 and October 27, 1780.
The Eclipse of June 24, 1778
The total solar eclipse of June 24, 1778 drew the attention of several prominent Americans. One was the scientist-astronomer David Rittenhouse, a friend of Benjamin Franklin and the maker of a famous orrery, a model of the universe. Rittenhouse sent his “Observations” of the phenomenon to Thomas Jefferson and, in turn, Jefferson responded with his experience as viewed from Virginia.
Jefferson wrote, in his letter of July 19, 1778, that it had been cloudy in Williamsburg so only the beginning of the eclipse could be seen whereas at his home at Monticello further west, “it was not seen at all till the moon had advanced nearly one third over the sun’s disc. Afterwards it was seen at intervals through the whole. The egress particularly was visible.”
Bishop James Madison, President of William and Mary College and the second cousin of the 4th President of the United States of the same name, confirmed the situation in Virginia’s capital in his letter to Jefferson of July 26th:
“The same Misfortune of a cloudy Morning prevented us from seeing the Beginning, but we had a very good View of the End…the Return of Light was almost instantaneous,” he wrote. “There was really something awful in the Appearance which all Nature assumed. You could not determine your most intimate Acquaintance at 20 yards distance. Lightening Buggs [then still common in America] were seen as at Night.”
Samuel Williams, Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy at Harvard University, also observed the solar eclipse of June 24, 1778 at Bradford, Massachusetts, about 36 miles north of Boston. In his “Astronomical Observations,” published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1783, he wrote that his view was initially obscured by clouds but at 10:08 am “they broke away” albeit intermittently. But he was too far north to see totality.
By 11:38 am it was all over with clear skies returning. He said he could feel a damp chill during the eclipse and that the sky had darkened at totality. “This eclipse was total in some of the southern states,” he noted.
In May 1806, a pamphlet titled Darkness At Noon was published by an unknown Bostonian, possibly instrument maker Andrew Newell, according to the Hagley Library. In it, the author recorded that the June 24 eclipse had been visible in Boston but that the sun was never completely covered by the moon. He claimed it was a total eclipse in parts of Connecticut, especially in New London.
Another account came from Cotton Tufts, a physician and cousin of Abigail Adams, living in Weymouth, some 17 miles south of Boston, and writing on August 5, 1778 to John Adams, who was on a diplomatic mission in Paris: “Our Season was very fine until the 24th June…. The Eclipse of that Day brought on a Change of Air to extreme Heat which increased for 12 or 15 Days to a Degree greater than ever was known amongst us so early in the Year…. On the 28th June the Heat was violent at the Southward.”
In Philadelphia, the Quaker diarist Elizabeth Drinker observed that on June 24 “The Sun was eclypts’d this Morning… almost total, it was not so obscure as I expected.”
June 24, 1778 found General George Washington at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania ready to end the winter encampment there and shadow the British army under General Sir Henry Clinton returning to the city of New York after ending their nine-month occupation of Philadelphia.
The British plan was to march the 100 miles, giving up their initial idea to travel by water in order to accommodate a large body of Loyalists and African Americans fleeing the area. Clinton’s forces filled 1,500 wagons and stretched more than 12 miles in length.
Washington sensed an opportunity to test his Continentals, newly molded by General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben over the winter. He called a Council of War to discuss the merits of engaging the British in a rear guard action. Present were Nathanael Greene, Charles Lee, Henry Knox, Lafayette, and Alexander Hamilton.
Despite the voluminous correspondence of these men, they were engrossed in the matter at hand and not a word about an eclipse can be found in their writings. Four days later, the Battle of Monmouth took place.
Similarly, Hessian Captain Johann Ewald made no mention of an eclipse in his diary entries at that time nor did Sir Henry Clinton during his defense of his actions while commander of the British Army in America.
In addition to the reports leading up to the actual battle at Monmouth Courthouse that occurred on June 28, 1778, four days after the eclipse, it was the extreme heat that got the most attention.
Cotton Tufts wrote that “On the 28th June the Heat was violent at the Southward.” Captain Ewald indicated some 20 of his men “dropped dead from the great heat and fatigue” during the fighting, calling the heat “intolerable.” Clinton wrote that the temperature reached 96 degrees that day with unofficial reports of 103. It was still scorching on July 1, according to Drinker, who recorded 91 on that day with a neighbor citing 96.5.
The Eclipse of October 27, 1780
The fullest account of the eclipse of October 27, 1780 can be found in the report written by James Winthrop, the Harvard University Librarian, who was part of an expedition to Penobscot Bay, along the south-central coast of Maine, sent by the government of Massachusetts in conjunction with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, led by Hollis Professor Samuel Williams.
A total of 10 comprised the group which included 6 Harvard students. They had concluded, based upon their mathematical calculations, that the 1780 eclipse would be better captured farther north and east of Cambridge. A sloop, Lincoln, was provided along with other passengers and Marines since they would be encroaching on territory occupied by British forces during the Revolutionary War.
The expedition sailed from Boston on October 9, 1780 and immediately encountered bad weather. As a result, they did not arrive at Camden, on the western side of Penobscot Bay, some 250 miles northeast of Boston, until the 14th.
There they consulted with General Peleg Wadsworth, commander of Massachusetts forces, who arranged for a flag of truce to send letters from Williams to the British at Castine, on the eastern side, seeking permission to immediately enter territory under their control, to observe the eclipse in the harbor “solely to
promote the interest of Science, which is the common interest of all mankind.”
Instructions were received on the 16th from Lt. Colonel John Campbell and British Navy Captain Henry Mowatt to come up the Bay and anchor in Williams’ Cove which was near Fort George. Upon arrival, the Americans were directed to HMS Albany, to meet the British commanders.
Campbell proved cold and basically unsupportive, not surprising since the previous year American forces led by Wadsworth as second in command, had attacked the 74th Regiment of Foot, commanded by Campbell. He prohibited the expedition from having any contact with locals which “put it out of our power to procure the smallest articles of refreshment, or any building to secure our Apparatus.”
Moreover, he restricted their presence to October 25 to 28 which meant they had to leave the area the day after the eclipse with no chance of taking additional observations.
Mowatt, however, was more receptive to their mission, even more unexpectedly since he had been the leader of British naval forces that shelled Falmouth (later renamed Portland, Maine) in October 1775.
On the 18th, the expedition took up position in the harbor but were stymied by both “almost perpetual fogs” and an unsuitable location to conduct their astronomical observations. They spent October 19 and 20 setting up their equipment but were unable to make any scientific progress for the next four days due to “thick” weather.
Mowatt, however, allowed them to go onto land on a nearby island where they found a suitable house and barn to use, both facing south. October 24 to 26 “were spent in regulating the clock, & determining the latitude,” not an easy task using 18th century instruments under less than ideal conditions.
The morning of October 27 found “perfectly clear” skies, according to Winthrop. The scientists began their work at 8:20 am and by 11 am all were in their places along with their instruments.
Williams reported that the eclipse began at 11:11 am with totality reached at 12:30 am. One of his student assistants “was looking at the sun with his naked eye” but no injury was acknowledged. There was little wind with hazy skies.
As the phenomenon progressed, it became dark and gloomy, “greater than expected” by the Harvard professor. The darkness was so great that candles and a lantern were needed to watch the clock and to record their observations.
Some stars and Venus and Jupiter could be seen. A 10 degree temperature drop gradually occurred, going from 58 to 48 at totality. Animals were also bothered. Finally, the eclipse was over at 1:50 pm. Williams concluded that Penobscot was “very near the southern extremity.” In actuality, totality was farther north.
On October 28, Samuel Deane, another Harvard grad, wrote to Professor Williams informing him of his experience with the eclipse as seen from Gorham, 108 miles from Boston and about 146 miles from Castine. He reported that the eclipse there began at 11:04 am, or 7 minutes earlier than at Penobscot with the greatest obscuration at 12:20 pm and the end coming at 1:40 pm, again a different time than those of the Williams Expedition.
Deane admitted however that “The time of greatest obscuration and the quantity of the eclipse are matters of judgment; as we had no instruments for taking them” other than a clock. He wrote that he and his “ingenious Friend, the Hon. S Freeman Esq” took other observations of moons but that they “know not whether this can be of any advantage” given their lack of proper apparatus.
Deane’s diary entry for October 27, 1780 was simply “Observed the eclipse; dined at Mr. Freeman’s.” Clearly those two gentlemen were more casual in their efforts than Williams and Winthrop.
Andrew Newell, writing in Darkness At Noon, observed that the view in Boston was slightly better than what he saw in 1778 “but in some of the more northern towns it was much greater, and almost total.” And Bishop Madison, in his November 1780 letter to David Rittenhouse, indicated that it was again cloudy in Williamsburg on October 27 and thus no observations were possible, estimating that 75% of the sun had been obscured. Elizabeth Drinker’s diary entry for October 27, 1780 was “very fine weather” but didn’t refer to an eclipse.
Hessian Captain Ewald, stationed on Long Island awaiting movement to British army headquarters in New York, made no mention of an eclipse either. The correspondence of Washington, Jefferson, James Madison (the future president), and George Mason, were filled with lengthy comments about the British forces’s alarming movements in Virginia that led to Governor Jefferson’s hasty evacuation from the capital at Richmond to Monticello and ultimately to his retreat at Poplar Forest.
None offered any remarks about the eclipse. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia was preoccupied in reestablishing his medical practice and apparently had no time for other scientific activities.
It appears that life went on as usual in late June of 1778 and on October 27, 1780 during the Revolutionary War, despite the two solar eclipses that took place then.
Abigail Adams’s letters to her husband John, of June 30, 1778 and November 13, 1780 are both devoid of such matters, dwelling instead on her lack of mail from him and her longing to be reunited after such long absences.
And Roger Lamb, a soldier in the British army, also was preoccupied with military affairs at both times and made no mention of them in his diaries. Nor was there extensive newspaper coverage of either event.
Back then, there was nothing like the Eclipse Mania of April 8, 2024 in the Northeast.
Illustrations, from above: Solar eclipse of June 24, 1778 drawn by Spanish naval officer, scientist, and administrator Antonio de Ulloa; Letter from Thomas Jefferson to David Rittenhouse discussing solar eclipse, July 19, 1778 (Library of Congress, see a larger version here); June 24, 1778 and October 27, 1780 total eclipse paths (NASA); and Andrew Newell’s Darkness at Noon: or, the Great Solar Eclipse of the 16th of June, 1806 (Boston, 1806).
