5
As a young country lawyer, John Adams thought he seemed to lack focus. “Ballast is what I want, I totter, with every Breeze. My…
4
9
Book Review: Unlikely General: Mad Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America by Mary Stockwell (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2018). BUY THIS BOOK…
2
David Wooster’s part in the American Revolution began in a slightly embarrassing manner. Wooster commanded the militia at New Haven, Connecticut. On April 22,…
1
Maj. John Pitcairn of the British marines became notorious among New Englanders after the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. The…
1
In a quiet Baptist cemetery in Hilltown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, repose the remains of Isaac Lewis. Lewis served under Gen. George Washington during…
3
George Washington understood the importance of naval power. He recognized the futility of trying to defend New York City, surrounded as it was by…
1
9
Book Review: Crossroads of the Revolution: Trenton, 1774 – 1783 by Larry L. Kidder. (Lawrenceville, NJ: Knox Press, 2017) BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON Gene Procknow…
4
There was a slight chill in the Massachusetts air on the evening of February 13, 1818, which caused frost to gather around the windows…
Author Roxane Orgill’s new book is Siege: How General Washington Kicked the British Out of Boston and Launched a Revolution (Candlewick Press, 2018), which takes the…
2
For most of the American Revolution, a community of Lenape/Delaware, Munsey, Mahican, and Mingo Indians who had adopted the Christian faith lived along the…
Mary Robie, a Massachusetts refugee living in revolutionary Nova Scotia, did not mince words when she criticized her friends for simply “passing thro life”…
1
The British army that Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to the American army at Saratoga, New York on October 17, 1777, was first marched…
2
If you think that 1779 was a quiet year during which Gen. George Washington carefully kept his army out of reach of his British…
3
Today, May 29, 2018, Disney Hyperion is introducing young readers to the American Revolution with Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word, an eighty-page picture…
5
The booming roar of cannon shattered the stillness of the warm summer air around Boston. A thirty-two pound cannonball screamed through the sky toward…
6
In February 1781, Thomas Sumter emerged from his three-month convalescence to begin his next campaign in the South Carolina interior. Having been wounded seriously…
4
One of our oldest known stories is The Odyssey, in which Odysseus travels from the Siege of Troy on various adventures to reach his…
3
In 1775, within weeks of the violent clashes at Lexington and Concord, Patriots throughout the colonies established Committees of Observation to thwart Loyalists from…
9
9
8
7
2
During the three months that the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was on holiday from August to November 1773, the…
7
America’s early finances were, in a word, messy. The states took on enormous debt to fund the Revolutionary War while the national government chartered…
1
If one looked into Benjamin Franklin’s time on Craven Street, they might initially believe he lived at 36 Craven Street the entirety of his…
10
How do you define “Founding Fathers”? You can define it either broadly or narrowly. By consensus, most historians limit the narrow definition to six….
1
Which side do you think benefited the most from the Native American involvement in the war? Why? The British benefited the most, from one…
Review of the Broadway musical Hamilton, now playing at the Richard Rodgers Theater on 46th Street in New York City. Let me confess at…
6
Learning that one of the most acclaimed military writers of our time has turned his narrative expertise towards the American Revolution is exciting news…
3
Loyalists, those Americans who openly supported the British Government during the American Revolution, have been largely assumed to have had unchanging allegiance during the…
Our fourth annual volume of the Journal of the American Revolution is available for immediate purchase. Featuring some of the best historical research and…
2
Drums, fifes, and bands provided martial music ranging from battlefield signals to ceremonious pomp. The drummers, fifers, and musicians might also provide casual entertainment…
1
There were drummers, there were fifers, and then there were men who had general musical talent, capable of playing several instruments. Many British, American…
5
Fifes provided a melodic complement to the drums that provided cadence and conveyed signals to armies in the American Revolution. Like drummers, fifers were…
Primary sources are essential for the best historical scholarship and writing. This week we will be examining advertisements for deserters who played instruments in…
9
“Diplomacy is seduction in guise …”, whispered Benjamin Franklin to his fellow commissioner John Adams. “One improves with practice.” Although the quote isn’t real…
4
Early one morning in late June 1778, an unknown passerby tossed a package of documents that clanged against the gate at Benjamin Franklin’s home…
Introduction Few ideas were more widely accepted in early America than that of the danger of peacetime standing armies.[1] This anti-standing army sentiment motivated…
South Carolina, by several measures, was the most affluent and economically important pre-revolutionary British colony in North America. Largely agrarian and sparsely settled, it…
1
During the War for American Independence, displaced Loyalists from the southern colonies sought refuge in East Florida. Due to a large influx of refugees,…
5
I attended a new program at the Capitol in Colonial Williamsburg recently called Resolved. I have long missed the days when the reconstructed Capitol…
