David Williams, John Paulding, and Isaac Van Wart were celebrated as heroes during their lifetime, vaulted to fame by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, and lionized in popular ballads and the play The Glory of Columbia: Her Yeomanry.[1] Historian Mercy Otis Warren adored John André’s Captors, writing in 1805 that their names “ought never to […]
Given movies and television are the great American art form, the American Revolution has been poorly served by filmmakers. Though it was one of the most significant political upheavals in history, both mediums have largely ignored the nation’s founding. Those productions that have appeared have been, well, let’s be polite and say inconsistent. Yet in […]
In a recent article, Todd Braisted reconstructed the remarkable story of a black Loyalist soldier, “Trumpeter Barney” of the Queen’s Rangers.[1] Through meticulous archival work, Braisted established that Barney, a runaway slave who joined the British at the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1780, was the same man as Barnard E. Griffiths, who was […]
The fourth and final season of the TV series TURN: Washington’s Spies premiers Saturday, June 17. We had the pleasure of interviewing Alexander Rose, whose book about the Culper spy ring inspired the series. Your book Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring is the best known of several recent works on spycraft […]
TURИ, the AMC cable network series that recently finished the 10th episode of its initial season, has been renewed for a second season of ten more episodes. Before the season aired, Michael Schellhammer, who screened the first three episodes, wrote a generally positive review of the series that referred to it as “a fascinating look […]
Benjamin Tallmadge is currently enjoying a burst of posthumous fame. Most of the attention given him in recent publications and the AMC series Turn centers around his intelligence activities, a logical choice considering his organization of the Culper Ring and pivotal role in exploding the Arnold plot. But the attention paid to the espionage part […]
Danger, secrets, intrigue and revenge were all part of the Culper spy ring, and the new AMC series “Turn,” premiering April 6 (Sundays 9/8 central), offers a fascinating look into how these intrepid American spies helped win the Revolutionary War. AMC provided Journal of the American Revolution an early screening of the first three episodes. […]
