Benjamin Franklin's Plan for Defending Philadelphia

Mihai Negrean

Sep 15, 2021 — 1 min read

Benjamin Franklin heard about the war that France and Spain had going on with England, and he decided to draw up a plan to defend Philadelphia.

He succeeded in convincing the government to marshal a militia, and soon, the men were trained and ready. Ben had just started patting himself on the back, when suddenly, a horrible idea hit him.

The Spanish and French both had huge armies, and if they really wanted to invade the place, they would just send a few ships full of those troops over to Philadelphia and invade by sea. And those ships would probably be bristling with cannons.

What can a bunch of half-trained soldiers with muskets do to a few hundred professionals with huge boats and cannons? Well, surely you needed cannons to fight other cannons, right?

Before long, Ben was at New York trying to convince the governor to lend some cannons to Philadelphia. At first, the governor absolutely refused. A few glasses of wine later, he agreed to give them five cannons. A few more, and the New York governor gave the people of Philadelphia ten huge cannons, and Ben got away before the governor became sober.

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