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At nine o’clock on the morning of May 6, 1778, Continental soldiers at Valley Forge emerged from their huts to hear their regimental chaplains…
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On July 2, 1778, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts hanged Bathsheba Ruggles Spooner and Continental soldier Ezra Ross, together with British soldiers Sgt. James Buchanan…
The Revolutionary War was fought on a global scale, with six nation states engaged in battles across three continents and two oceans. Volunteers from…
The Sugar Act of 1764 levied taxes on imports to British colonies in North America. In doing so, the act marked a change in…
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Through four months in the summer of 1787, passionate arguments over political principles filled the Pennsylvania State House while hard-nosed political horse-trading buzzed in…
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George Washington surrounded himself with the best and the brightest young men involved in the revolutionary cause. Alexander Hamilton, Tench Tilghman, Robert Harrison, the…
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Books are an important resource for any researcher. As approaches to the interpretation of history change and new primary source material comes to light,…
On my way to Boston’s Logan Airport a while ago a taxi driver pointed towards Boston Harbor and started telling me about a Revolutionary…
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Eric Sterner is a writer and historian living in Northern Virginia, who has worked primarily in the fields of national security and aerospace policy…
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During the American Revolution, hundreds of civilians and military men on both sides were killed or injured by accidents. A number of these occurred…
In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the court considered several factors: was the man…
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Desertion was a capital crime, but it was up to a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers, to determine the defendant’s guilt…
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If a British soldier was absent without leave, he might be charged with desertion; if caught, he could be tried by a general court…
In this second trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the officers of the general court martial…
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This week JAR Editor Don N. Hagist presents the testimony from five British desertion trials held during the American Revolution. For each trial, see…
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On January 1, 1775, Charles Stockbridge visited his neighbor’s house in Hanover, Massachusetts, twenty five miles south of Boston. He heard a rumor that…
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The charge was leveled often in his own time, as it has been ever since: James Madison is and was a hypocrite—a man inconstant…
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Book Review: Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution’s Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna (Crown Publishing: 2018)….
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During 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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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…
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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…
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How 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 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…
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Learning 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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Loyalists, those Americans who openly supported the British Government during the American Revolution, have been largely assumed to have had unchanging allegiance during the…
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The October 7, 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain is likely familiar to those even casually interested in the American Revolution. For those who look…
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Book Review: The American Farmer in the Eighteenth Century: A Social and Cultural History by Richard L. Bushman (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, May…
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John Andre’s body hung in silence for thirty minutes before being taken down. It was placed carefully in a simple open coffin crudely painted…
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Managing Editor Don N. Hagist is pleased to announce two new additions to the Journal of the American Revolution’s editorial team. Adrian Rutt, who most…
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A motorist travelling northbound through New Jersey along Interstate 295, which tracks the east bank of the Delaware River from the Delaware Memorial Bridge,…
Thomas Jefferson, that American Sphinx,[1] is perhaps Alexander Hamilton’s only rival within the high pantheon of the founding generation for enigma. Hamilton’s character recalls…
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Documents that contain the original signatures of more than one Continental Army general are rare. During the eight years of the Revolutionary War, generals…
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Book review: Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father by Peter Stark (HarperCollins, 2018). BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON Peter Stark’s…
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The American Revolution’s armies got their horsepower from horses. These animals carried cavalrymen into battle, pulled cannons, carts and wagons of all description, hauled…
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Book Review: Justifying Revolution: Law, Virtue, and Violence in the American War for Independence, Glenn A. Moots and Phillip Hamilton, eds. (University of Oklahoma…
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The American Revolution was in effect a civil war. It included all the heightened acrimony associated with one. In what became the United States,…
