In 1865, at the close of the Civil War, 1,367 men were breveted as a major or a brigadier general by the United States Senate. These honorary promotions were in addition to 583 who were already serving as generals, many in a brevet rank. Confusion abounded. As an example, at the war’s close, Ranald S. […]
We asked our contributors for their favorite spooky stories from the 1765-1805 era. Here are the responses: Robert S. Davis Colonel John Dooly of Georgia was assassinated, killed, or murdered in his home while a prisoner of war on parole. That event has spurred numerous legends and stories. Was he killed in retaliation for Elijah […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Tim Abbott on the ordeal of Captain Bezaleel Beebe’s Company of Connecticut Levies who were captured after the battle of Fort Washington and imprisoned aboard a British prison hulk. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]
It is not often that one comes across inspiration for research from a trading card. But sure enough, when this author came across a card produced by Topps featuring John Adams, he was inspired. The card, part of a set commemorating Presidential connections to the game of baseball, mentioned how Adams had mentioned playing a […]
Sergeant Solomon Goodwin of Colonel Philip Burr Bradley’s Regiment of Connecticut Levies kept an orderly book for Capt. Bezaleel Beebe’s Company. On November 16, 1776, he added a poignant, personal note: “This Day was the Day that our friends & fellow Soldiers was either killd or taken who were on York Island. This fatal day […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Robert Guy on the service of western Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland Rangers, a volunteer rifle force, in Dunmore’s War and the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web […]
In the beginning, there was Congress. On May 29, 1787, a Tuesday, with delegates to the Federal Convention seated and rules settled, Virginia’s governor Edmund Randolph introduced his state’s vision for the new nation. Article 1 set the stage: “Resolved that the Articles of Confederation ought to be corrected & enlarged” to provide for “common […]
On December 22, 1773, the Hayley, a merchant ship owned by John Hancock, departed Boston Harbor; on January 19, 1774, the ship arrived at Dover, England. She was carrying news about the destruction of tea in Boston harbor on December 16. By nightfall the news had reached King George III in London. At first it […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews Morristown National Historical Park preservationist and JAR contributor Jude M. Pfister about the fascinating role played by President George Washington in shaping American law and interpreting the US Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]
George Washington’s confrontation with Maj. Gen. Charles Lee on a near hundred-degree afternoon, two miles west of Monmouth Courthouse on Sunday, June 28, 1778, ranks as one of the most iconic moments in battle during the Revolutionary War. It has been depicted in numerous paintings and sketches beginning in the 1800s, frequented Revolutionary War and […]
BOOK REVIEW:Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Faith & Liberty in Fredericksburg by Michael Aubrecht (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2024. $24.99 Paperback) While there are numerous scholarly assessments of Thomas Jefferson’s religious beliefs, few books have been devoted to his Virginia “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom,” and none describe the drafting […]
Most stories have a chief villain. The story of the American Revolution is no different. One man stands out amongst all the rest in the minds of Massachusetts revolutionary leaders. James Otis, Samuel Adams, and especially John Adams accused Thomas Hutchinson as being the architect of all the oppressive laws that were being passed by […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer tells the suspenseful tale of the “Wizard Clip” a famous ghost story of the colonial western frontier. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed […]
The summer meeting of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 was an event as momentous as the eight years it took for the colonies/states to achieve independence. The failure of the Articles of Confederation, and the dismal outcome (and attendance) of the Annapolis Convention in 1786, made it clear to all concerned that a […]
In 1763, the powers of Europe signed the Peace of Paris bringing an end to the French and Indian War. The Kingdom of Great Britain emerged victorious, seizing from France several new territories throughout Canada and east of the Mississippi. But victory came at tremendous cost. The war debt incurred over the last seven years […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews history student Colin J. Wood on a newly discovered letter that sheds light on Benedict Arnold’s performance at Saratoga. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]
In 1923, the State of Delaware erected a statue to one its most famous sons in Wilmington, Delaware. The statue to Caesar Rodney showed him on his now famous ride to break the tie between the members of Delaware’s delegation to the Second Continental Congress. Rodney’s eighty-mile ride from Dover to Philadelphia to cast a […]
Transitioning from a complicated war footing to an organized civil society at the close of the Revolution proved every bit as difficult as the nation’s early leaders feared. Thirteen proud colonies surrendering aspects of their hard-fought independence in exchange for a new form of federal government generated significant hesitancy after the guns silenced. The placeholder […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian Joseph Manca on the pre-Revolutionary advocacy of liberty by poet Phillis Wheatley and Rev. Joseph Sewall in Massachusetts. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]
Popular narratives of the American Revolution rank Christopher Ludwick, at best, among the extras in the imperial dramatis personae, a bit player who performed as honest gingerbread baker or amusingly spoke of himself in the third person.[1] Fortunately, his limited historiographical presence more seriously depicts him as superintendent of bakers for the Continental Army and […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Mott 1781 (Small Battles Series) by Steven D. Smith (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2024. $28.00 hardcover.) Steven D. Smith provides an interesting perspective on a brief but important period of the Revolutionary War in the south. The author focuses on a four-week period, April 12 to May […]
The common viewpoint on Benedict Arnold’s role in the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777 is based almost exclusively on the early nineteenth century testimony of James Wilkinson. That view holds that Arnold, after clashing with Gates over matters involving the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on September 19, was without a command on […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Jason R. Wickersty on the news in Great Britain about the Battle of Long Island. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily […]
Americans made repeated unsuccessful attempts during the Revolution to capture Canada and incorporate it into the nascent United States. The British, meanwhile, attempted to incorporate additional territory into Canada. This territory, though not yet part of the United States, would eventually become so. As such, this effort also failed. If that weren’t enough, as with […]
BOOK REVIEW: Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era by Nathaniel Parry (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2024. Paperback, $49.95) In Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era, Nathaniel Parry highlights the criminal undertones of society during the Revolution and early national […]
On January 4, 1881, historian James Watts de Peyster delivered an address to the New-York Historical Society in New York City. The lengthy oration dealt with the Battle of Kings Mountain, fought on October 7, 1780, in South Carolina, where the Revolutionaries achieved a decisive victory over a force composed of Loyalists. Although de Peyster […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott Syfert on the significance of the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, June 20, 1780. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed […]
It was well into the first week of October 1776, and all of Britain was anxious for news. By the last official dispatch printed in the October 1 edition of the London Gazette, as of the 15th of August, the British army in America under the command of Gen. William Howe was fully assembled and […]
BOOK REVIEW: From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia by Greg Brooking (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback) Greg Brooking’s From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia is a biography of colonial and revolutionary Georgia’s royal governor set […]
James Craik was born in Scotland, circa 1727, on the 1,400-acre estate of his father William Craik, member of the British parliament. He attended Edinburgh medical school; the first medical school in the English-speaking world. After graduation Dr. Craik served in the British army in the West Indies. Leaving the army, he set up medical […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Geoff Smock on how in 1798, with tensions rising with France, John Adams advised young citizens that, “science and morals are the great pillars on which this country has been raised to its present population, opulence, and prosperity, and that these alone can advance, support, […]
Poet Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) was a consistent and passionate advocate for liberty in every form: she called for an end to slavery, championed political and religious freedoms, and considered a sinful life to be a kind of servitude. She consistently opposed British infringements on American rights and saw political oppression as a form of […]
BOOK REVIEW: Ira Allen: A Biography by J. Kevin Graffagnino (Barre, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2024. $24.95 cloth) While Ethan Allen’s exploits as the ringleader of the Green Mountain Boys and his 1775 conquest of Fort Ticonderoga are legendary, his youngest brother’s contributions and quixotic schemes are relatively unknown. Kevin J. Graffagnino asserts, in his […]
Warfare during the American Revolution could be brutal; this brutality took on entirely new dimensions in the frontier, and could be devastating, unrelenting, and all-pervading. Threats came in many forms—isolation, starvation, exposure; labor took countless forms as well, demanding never-ending toil and dogged perseverance. Like many whose charge was to defend America’s back door, the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Shawn David McGhee on his new book that describes how American colonists shifted from loyalty to the king to embracing independence in the year leading up to armed rebellion. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States […]
By an accident of birth Thomas Jefferson (1742-1826) entered Virginia planter society and politics in 1769 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. By an application of his fortuitous talents, he became a political philosopher when America most needed one. Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America (July 1774, […]
BOOK REVIEW: Colonial Taverns of New Jersey: Libations, Liberty & Revolution by Michael C. Gabriele (Mount Pleasant, SC: The History Press, 2023. Paperback $23.99) The two most famous taverns of the Revolutionary period are probably the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston and the City Tavern of Philadelphia. The Green Dragon was the unofficial headquarters of […]
In 1688, King James II of England, a Catholic, was deposed by Mary II, an Anglican, and William III of Orange, a Protestant. The invasion, the battles and the deposition have become known as the Glorious Revolution. In December 1688, James fled to France. The Convention Parliament declared that James’s action was an abdication of […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Eric Sterner on his new book about George Rogers Clark and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can […]
