*** All JAR Articles ***

 Interviews Posted on

On This Week’s Dispatches: Emelia Lehmann on David Steele’s Macabre “Medal”

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Emelia Lehmann about Virginia militiaman David Steele who carried a piece of his broken skull as a “medal” for his role in the battle of Guilford Courhouse. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, […]

by Editors
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Reviews Posted on

Georgia’s First Elected Governor: John Adam Treutlen and the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: Georgia’s First Elected Governor: John Adam Treutlen and the American Revolution by W. Wright Mitchell (Independently Published, 2026) $25.00 paperback. The colonial and Revolutionary War histories of Georgia have received comparatively little historical attention. This is also true for many of Georgia’s Patriot and Loyalist political and military leaders. W. Wright Mitchell’s biography […]

by Douglas R. Dorney, Jr.
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War at Sea and Waterways (1775–1783) Posted on

The Rise and Fall of Captain John Manley

At the start of the American Revolution, Captain John Manley was a hero. George Washington praised him. Newspapers trumpeted his naval victories, and even his British enemies acknowledged his abilities. When Congress created the Continental Navy, it commissioned him as the second-ranking officer. Today John Manley is largely forgotten, and even his burial place is […]

by Kenneth M. Sheldon
Reviews Posted on

Remembering the Revolution: Little Compton, Rhode Island

BOOK REVIEW: Remembering the Revolution: Little Compton, Rhode Island by Steven Lubar. (Little Compton, RI: Little Compton Historical Society, 2026). $25.00 hardcover. Marjory O’Toole, the Executive Director of the Little Compton Historical Society, explains the value of the Society’s recent publication Remembering the Revolution: Little Compton, Rhode Island in the book’s Foreword: Imagine the thrill […]

by Editors
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Historical Spotlight Posted on

James Bass & William Taburn, Nansemond Indian Nation Patriot Warriors: A Call for Research

It should not be surprising to find Native American Patriots and men who intermarried into Native American families among the thousands of men who served during the American Revolution. Two of these men were James Bass and William Taburn, and today we can trace their relationship to the Nansemond Indian Nation. Linking these men with […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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People Posted on

David Steele’s Macabre Medal

Introduction When most people think of medals, they think of portable discs often suspended from a ribbon and made of metal (frequently gold, silver, or bronze) that commemorate a deed, an event, or an achievement. Revolutionary War veteran David Steele’s medal was neither circular nor metal, embossed nor engraved. He received it not from the […]

by Emelia Lehmann
Reviews Posted on

The Loyalist Experience and Aftermath in Revolutionary Philadelphia

BOOK REVIEW: The Loyalist Experience and Aftermath in Revolutionary Philadelphia by Kimberly Nath (Brookline, 2026) $32.95 hardcover. In an 1813 letter to his former congressional colleague Thomas McKean, John Adams provided his own conjecture as to what percentage of the American population actively supported the American Revolution. Clarifying McKean’s own inexact claim that “the great […]

by Kevin Diestelow
Economics Posted on

America’s Original Stimulus Package: A Catalytic, Consequential Fishing Policy

The heady days of the Declaration of Independence, struggle, victory, and a new Constitution were all behind him. Now, within weeks of taking office as President of the United States, George Washington presided over a toxic political atmosphere. Despite initial hopes for national unity, a vicious partisan press had emerged. Mobs on the frontier flirted […]

by James Workman
Reviews Posted on

Closing the Ring: George Washington’s War in the North, 1778–1781

BOOK REVIEW: Closing the Ring: George Washington’s War in the North 1778–1781 by Jeffrey A Denman (Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2026) $34.95 hardcover. When historians and the general public consider the more prominent moments of the American Revolution, they surely think of Lexington and Concord, the battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and the Siege of […]

by Sam Short
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War at Sea and Waterways (1775–1783) Posted on

The Long, Sad Life of the Continental Frigate Delaware

On October 13, 1775, Congress resolved to buy four merchant ships and convert them to warships. Three more ships were soon acquired. A naval committee was established. The Continental Navy was created. On December 11 Congress authorized a new committee to devise ways and means of developing the navy. A member of the congress from […]

by William H. J. Manthorpe, Jr.
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Political Philosophy Posted on

James Wilson and Popular Sovereignty: Recovering the Democratic Foundations of the American Constitution

Recovering James Wilson’s Constitutional Vision Few figures of the American founding exhibit a greater disparity between historical significance and public recognition than James Wilson. A signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, one of the Constitutional Convention’s most influential delegates, and an original Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Wilson […]

by Kelly Coats
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Music Posted on

From Roxbury to Exeter: The Evolution of a Revolutionary Song

Revolutionary patriotic songs did not always remain fixed after entering circulation. Soldiers, civilians, and families copied and performed them in manuscripts and other informal settings, allowing their wording and content to change over time.[1] A small manuscript ledger kept in rural Exeter, Rhode Island, between approximately 1793 and 1798 preserves evidence of this process. Amid […]

by Marc Lee
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Davis Richardson on Lafayette, Jefferson, and Revolutionary Ideas

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and historian Davis Richardson about the correspondence between the Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in the wake of the American Revolution and the coming French Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, […]

by Editors
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The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Washington’s Invalid Corps: Wounded Warriors Still Served the Revolutionary Cause

Although some readers may be familiar with the Civil War’s Invalid Corps, which wrought value and service from even grievously wounded men during that conflict, few probably know that America’s first such organization appeared during the Revolutionary War. Like its later counterpart, Washington’s Corps of Invalids provided the nation valuable service and roles for men […]

by David A. Welker
Reviews Posted on

One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence

BOOK REVIEW: One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence by Carlton F.W. Larson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026. $33.00 paperback) Carlton F.W. Larson’s monograph One Nation Under Law: The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence published by Cambridge University Press, discusses the origins of the Declaration of Independence. Through looking at […]

by Bridget Donahue Farrell
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Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

A Tale of Two Revolutions: Jefferson, Lafayette, and the Empire of Liberty

When Thomas Jefferson arrived in Paris in 1784, he carried with him the ideals of the American Revolution. Buoyed by the success of a revolution against the British empire, the soon-to-be appointed Minister to France found himself attempting to reconcile Republican principles with the complex political realities of Paris. It marked an intriguing reversal for […]

by Davis Richardson
Critical Thinking Posted on

The Swap Not Heard ’Round the World: Ordering the Declaration’s Grievances

After two hundred and fifty years, there couldn’t possibly be any more stories hiding away in the Declaration of Independence, right? The shelves groan with the collective weight of all the books written about it, not to mention the untold gallons of ink expended by social commentators, historians, political scientists, cultural critics, activists, radicals, and […]

by Robert G. Parkinson
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Reviews Posted on

Revolutionary War Soldiers of the Southern States

BOOK REVIEW: Revolutionary War Soldiers of the Southern States, A Demographic View by Douglas R. Dorney Jr. (JAR Books Series/Westholme, 2026, $34.95 cloth) This text represents seven years of research, analysis and writing involving the examination and study of 8,579 Revolutionary War pension applications from four southern states, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

Philip Mazzei and the American Revolution—An Italian in Virginia

Beyond the most familiar Founding Fathers, the Revolutionary era included a wider circle of contributors whose ideas, actions, and relationships shaped the American cause. Among them was Filippo (Philip) Mazzei, an Italian-born writer, entrepreneur, and political thinker whose engagement with American leaders and Enlightenment ideals influenced the revolutionary generation. Born in the Grand Duchy of […]

by Matteo Giuliani
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Robert Swanson on Canadian Whigs and the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Robert Swanson on Canadians who wanted to join the other colonies in their break from English rule. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Each episode […]

by Editors
Travel Posted on

The 21-Mile Circle: American Revolution Heritage Sites in the English Midlands

For the American Revolution enthusiast visiting England, the English Midlands offers a remarkable concentration of sites directly connected to the founding era. Within a twenty-one mile radius centred on the village of Ecton, Northamptonshire, stand the ancestral home of George Washington, the church where Benjamin Franklin’s family worshipped for five generations, the hall from which […]

by Steve Willis
Reviews Posted on

Our Story: The Revolutionary War of Colonel Robert and Mary Ouldfield Heriot

BOOK REVIEW: Our Story: The Revolutionary War of Colonel Robert and Mary Ouldfield Heriot by Hugh T. Harrington, (South Carolina American Revolution Trust, 2026, $16.95, paperback) Through letters and deep research, the “Story” in this book is the recounting of a colonial Patriot husband and wife whose lives were completely disrupted by the American Revolution. […]

by John L. Smith, Jr.