A Painter Abroad: John Singleton Copley Writes to His Wife
byIt may have been Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s patriotic paean that belatedly canonized a heroic horseman as a key figure of the American Revolution, but…
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General Peter Muhlenberg: A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line
byGeneral Peter Muhlenberg: A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa: Westholme, 2020) “The General, mounted upon a white horse, tall…
This Week on Dispatches: Kim Burdick on the Atlantic Crossing of the French l’Expédition Particulière
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Kim Burdick about l’Expédition Particulière, the codename for the French fleet that sailed from…
This Week on Dispatches: Christopher Warren on Documents of the American Revolution
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Christopher Warren, historian and Curator of American History in the Rare Book & Special Collections Division of the…
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A Visit to Fort Mifflin on the Delaware
byThe walls grew weak; and fast and hot Against them pour’d the ceaseless shot With unabating fury sent, From battery to battlement; And thunder-like…
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William Dickens, John Rose, and William Turnbull: Soldiers of the 1st New York Regiment
byIt is often believed or reported that the 2nd New York Regiment of 1775, commanded by Col. Goose Van Schaick, morphed into the 1st…
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A “Truly Noble” Resistance: The Sons of Liberty in Connecticut
byThe role of Connecticut’s Sons of Liberty is one that exemplifies the state’s rich history of self-governance and fiercely independent spirit. Their swift reaction…
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The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution
byThe Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution by Lindsay M. Chervinsky (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2020) In his…
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Longhouse Lost: The Battle of Oriskany and the Iroquois Civil War
byThe coming of the American Revolution traumatized the North American frontier, and many old orders were left shattered in its wake. While historians often…
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The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington
byThe Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington by Martha Saxton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) Historians who have studied Mary Ball Washington…
Coronavirus 2020? Nope. The Speckled Monster of 1764
byIn January 1764, a “speckled monster” struck Boston, forcing businesses to shutter and residents to isolate themselves in their homes or flee the city…
Thomas Pownall: Formative Years of an Anti-Taxation Member of Parliament
byThomas Pownall, the eldest son of William and Sarah Pownall, was born on September 4, 1722 in Lincoln, England. His father, a country gentleman,…
This Week on Dispatches: Jeff Dacus on the “Tower of Victory” at the Siege of Fort Watson
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Jeff Dacus on how Light Horse Harry Lee and Francis Marion were able to successfully capture…
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Patrick Henry’s March on Williamsburg, May 1775
byIt had been a very hectic week in Williamsburg for Peyton Randolph, the Speaker of Virginia’s House of Burgesses and the President of the…
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Certain British and British American Actors in the Southern Theater of the War
byThis article supplements one of mine that appeared in the Journal of the American Revolutionin November 2016.[1] Based partly on The Cornwallis Papers,[2] it…
“Very Cold & Nothing Remarkable”: the Journal of Dr. Edmund Hagen, Privateer and Prisoner of War, Part 2 of 2
byThis article continues an examination of the journal kept by Dr. Edmund Hagen of Scarborough, Maine, begun in “Dispatch’t to America’: the Journal of…
“Dispatch’t Him for America”: the Journal of Dr. Edmund Hagen, Privateer and Prisoner of War, Part 1 of 2
byEdmund Hagen presumably never intended the publication of his daily journal of his 1776 stint as the surgeon on a successful, but ultimately ill-fated,…
This Week on Dispatches: Greg Aaron on the American Revolution’s Influence on Superheroes
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews cybersecurity expert and former trade book editor Greg Aaron on the influence of the American Revolution on the…
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The Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, Second Year: November 1773 – August 1774
byDuring the three months that the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was on holiday from August to November 1773, the…
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What Do Bond Prices Tell Us about the Early Republic?
byAmerica’s early finances were, in a word, messy. The states took on enormous debt to fund the Revolutionary War while the national government chartered…
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A Brief History of Benjamin Franklin’s Residences on Craven Street, London: 1757 – 1775
byIf one looked into Benjamin Franklin’s time on Craven Street, they might initially believe he lived at 36 Craven Street the entirety of his…
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How do you define “Founding Fathers”?
byHow do you define “Founding Fathers”? You can define it either broadly or narrowly. By consensus, most historians limit the narrow definition to six….
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Which side benefited the most from the Native Americans?
byWhich side do you think benefited the most from the Native American involvement in the war? Why? The British benefited the most, from one…
Hamilton: An American Musical
byReview of the Broadway musical Hamilton, now playing at the Richard Rodgers Theater on 46th Street in New York City. Let me confess at…
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9 Questions with Rick Atkinson
byLearning that one of the most acclaimed military writers of our time has turned his narrative expertise towards the American Revolution is exciting news…
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The American Vicars of Bray
byLoyalists, those Americans who openly supported the British Government during the American Revolution, have been largely assumed to have had unchanging allegiance during the…
America's Most Important History!
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Creating Order: Rufus King and the Nascent American Republic
byOn the afternoon of April 30, 1789, George Washington stepped onto the balcony of the freshly-renovated and renamed Federal Hall on Wall Street in…
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The Battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield 1780
byThe Battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield 1780 by Edward G. Lengel. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, LLC, 2020) Famed Washington historian Edward G. Lengel (editor-in-chief…
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An American Bolingbroke: John Taylor of Caroline’s Republican Opposition, 1792–1794, Part 2 of 2
byHenry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, in the first half of the eighteenth century, and John Taylor of Caroline in the 1790s, both feared that…
An American Bolingbroke: John Taylor of Caroline’s Republican Opposition, 1792–1794, Part 1 of 2
byFrom 1792 to 1794, John Taylor of Caroline, a senator from Virginia, was engaged in a heated party struggle between Jeffersonian Republicans and Hamiltonian…