Myth: “In 1776, when Maryland instructed its delegates to the Continental Congress to vote against independence, Chase launched a successful campaign to persuade the Maryland assembly to reverse its position. In the next two days he rode one hundred miles and arrived in Philadelphia just in time to sign the Declaration of Independence.” –American National […]
Most of us learned the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy” as schoolchildren, and many of us puzzled over the reference to macaroni in its lyrics. How could one confuse a feather for pasta, and did they even have macaroni back then? The short answer is, “yes,” but short answers are rarely as interesting as long ones. […]
I recently asked our readers via Facebook who they’d most like to see interviewed next and T.H. Breen was among the handful of historians named (hat tip to Matthew Kroelinger). Breen is the William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University and a specialist on the American revolution. He is the author of […]
I started with an innocent question about the British Parliament’s Quartering Act of 1774: Did American Patriots list that law as one of the “Intolerable Acts” that led them to outright rebellion against Great Britain? Some of the Revolutionary histories I’d read said that was one of the five Intolerable Acts, along with the Boston […]
A Frontier Crossroads Today a remote and quiet corner of South Carolina, Ninety Six was once a bustling center of activity, and one of the most important sites in the state at the start of the Revolution. It began as a trading post that saw service in both the Cherokee War of the 1750s and […]
In January I made a list of the 10 best, in my opinion, Revolutionary War films. I neglected to include a film that deserves to be in the top half of that list; Mary Silliman’s War. This 1994 film is based on the true story of Mary Silliman and her husband, General Gold Selleck Silliman […]
On Sunday, September 28, 1975, six hundred Revolutionary War reenactors appeared in Winslow, Maine. Some paddled the eighteen miles up the Kennebec River from Augusta in four flat-bottomed boats called bateaux. Others walked part of the journey by land, or took wheeled transportation and emerged from their gas guzzling muscle cars. Their destination was Fort […]
On February 25, 1781, the Continental cavalry of Lieutenant Colonel Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee’s Legion and Brigadier Andrew Pickens’s militia encountered several hundred loyalists commanded by Colonel John Pyle at Holt’s Race Paths in North Carolina. Pretending that he was British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, and his Continentals the similarly clad troops of Tarleton’s […]
Yesterday marked the 170th anniversary of the commemoration of the Bunker Hill Monument. It took the Bunker Hill Monument Association, thousands of individual donors, a craft and bake sale organized by Sarah Josepha Hale, a large donation from philanthropist Judah Touro, and seventeen years to complete construction of the 221-foot tall obelisk, the first major […]
Myth: During the so-called Battle of Bunker Hill, Israel Putnam (some say William Prescott) issued a command: “Do not fire till you see the whites of their eyes!” Displaying great courage and discipline in the face of advancing Redcoats, the untested patriots stood their ground and withheld their fire until they could gaze into the […]
This time, we’re going to visit the farm country of Pennsylvania, settled by German-speaking immigrants who formed a fairly cohesive community starting in the 1680s, as war convulsed their homeland. They comprised almost half of Pennsylvania’s population, and were supportive of the American Revolution, volunteering to serve in numbers even greater than the Congress asked […]
While curating the collection of American Revolution newspapers featured in Reporting the Revolutionary War, I stumbled upon a rare 18th century American newspaper loaded with mystery and intrigue. Most newspapers of the era are well documented and catalogued by academic research institutions, but this one seemed to have slipped through the cracks for more than […]
Sometime around midnight on May 1, 1779, British soldiers smashed through the wooden door of General Gold Selleck Silliman’s Fairfield, Connecticut home. They snatched him and his eldest son, William, from their beds. The soldiers, accompanied by eight armed Tories, confiscated the general’s fusee, a pair of his pistols, his sword, and three hats (one […]
A bit of time in the summer of 1777 nearly turned the conception of a United States into a stillborn notion. It is commonly accepted that the alliances with other European powers gave the American colonies the impetus to see their struggle through and those alliances resulted, in large part, from the surrender of General […]
When studying the American Revolution, there are several books that provide an overview of the events and people of that epic period in American history. A reader can choose from a popular history such as Bruce Lancaster’s “From Lexington to Liberty” or a deep study that provides an abundance of facts and background information such […]
Google Gordon S. Wood and you’ll find dozens of well-earned introductions: One of the foremost scholars on the American Revolution… One of the most esteemed historians… One of the most important authors… One of the most distinguished, celebrated, prominent… “Gordon S. Wood is more than an American historian. He is almost an American institution,” wrote […]
Questions about the validity of the Molly Pitcher legend bring up a broader gap in our understanding of military affairs during the era of the American Revolution: we have anecdotal evidence that soldiers’ wives were sometimes on the battlefield, but we don’t really know if this was common or rare, accepted or anomalous, sanctioned or […]
Dear Mr. History: Everyone knows Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury, and let’s be honest, this nation is more of his vision than any other Founder’s. But beyond the financial stuff– wasn’t he a pretty brave soldier, too? Didn’t he figure at White Plains and Yorktown? Sincerely, a reader from Warren, Pennsylvania. […]
September 8, 1781 Francis Marion is best known for his leadership in the partisan war of 1780-1781, during which he and his volunteer militia harassed British troops and the Loyalist militia in South Carolina, first disrupting the British occupation of the state and later helping to clear royal forces from a considerable area. Once this […]
In traveling upriver on his raid to Richmond in early January 1781, General Benedict Arnold disembarked his army at Westover on the James River where they confiscated enough horses for the advance party and set up camp. Westover was actually a large plantation owned by Mary Willing Byrd. She was the widow of William Byrd […]
Over the course of time, many fashions change. The hem lines on women’s skirts rise and fall, folks give up hula-hooping for jogging, and emus replace llamas as the trendy exotic livestock to raise. So it is with food fashions, as well. Reading “receipt books” – cookbooks – of the Revolutionary era, one is struck […]
Myth: The Federalist Nos. 10 and 51, written by James Madison, provided the closing case in the ratification debates. Opponents of the proposed federal Constitution argued that republican governments invariably failed if attempted over too large an area, but Madison contended a republic would work better in a large country than in a small one […]
Fought on June 28, 1778, the Battle of Monmouth is correctly remembered as one of the largest battles of the American Revolution, and the last major engagement fought in the North. But almost no one remembers that a smaller clash took place on roughly the same ground eighteen months earlier. Although a much smaller and […]
Dear Mr. History: Does General von Steuben deserve the fantastic amount of fame he gets for training the Continental Army at Valley Forge? The Continentals had been fighting for over two years by the time he showed up, so why did they need training? What was Steuben’s true impact? Sincerely, Stumped About Steuben Dear Stumped: […]
In 1765 Parliament instituted a Stamp Act for the North American colonies, which proved wildly unpopular from Savannah to Halifax, and ultimately unworkable. The following year, there was a change of government in London. The new ministers repealed the Stamp Act, and across the ocean there was great rejoicing. However, those ministers also proposed a […]
The primary dispute between Britain and her North American mainland colonies in the 1760s and early 1770s has often been summed up in four words: “no taxation without representation.” American Whigs declared they were loyal to the British king and constitution, but that part of that unwritten constitution was that subjects (or at least wealthy […]
One of the most striking aspects of the Battle of Camden is the vast amount of material that was written about it. Officers and soldiers who fought in Revolutionary War battles always wrote something about their experiences, but in regard to the Battle of Camden, they wrote much more than they did about other battles: […]
One of the best ways to get a visceral sense of what life in the Revolutionary Era was like is to eat the foods that they ate. Of course, there are challenges in this endeavor, not the least of which are changes in ingredient availability, cooking technology, labor availability and the overall culture of food. […]
Often in western films there is a scene where an arrow is yanked from the body of a fallen comrade. As dramatic as that may be it is definitely not the recommended method for removing an arrow. Battle wounds in the American Revolutionary War were of a wide variety, none of which were easy to […]
MYTH: “American women also won fame for their bravery during the war. Mary Ludwig Hays McCauley earned the name Molly Pitcher by carrying fresh water to American troops during the Battle of Monmouth in New Jersey in 1778. When her husband was wounded, she took his place in battle, loading cannons.” — United States: Making […]
When one thinks of injuries received in battle during the Revolutionary War wounds from gunshots, bayonets and swords come to mind. A far less common wound was that of a scalping victim. In most cases the scalping victim was already dead or soon would be dead when the scalping took place. There were however instances […]
To be a Tory in the northern colonies was to understand and fear the consequences of confinement at the infamous copper mine of Simsbury, Connecticut. Although already in use as a Loyalist prison, the mine gained official approval for use by the Assembly early in 1776. It quickly gained a reputation as a dismal environment […]
Today we pick up where we left off yesterday with our J. L. Bell interview. 8 // As someone who knows the start of the Revolution better than most, what books do you recommend most to fellow history buffs who are eager to learn more about the 1763-1776 period? If you ask me again tomorrow, […]
When we think of prolific writers of American Revolution history, the names Bailyn, Ellis, Fleming, Morgan, Raphael, Wood and Young may come to mind. Another name that easily rivals those in quantity of words authored about the subject is Bell. John L. (J. L.) Bell is the author of one of, if not the, most […]
Myth: “While Captain Molly was serving some water for the refreshment of the men, her husband received a shot in the head, and fell lifeless under the wheels of the piece. The heroine threw down the pail of water, and crying to her dead consort, ‘lie there my darling while I avenge ye,’ grasped the […]
Throughout time men have cringed at the notion of being thought a coward. A reputation for lack of courage can be and always has been devastating to a young man. This was never more true than on the American frontier in the 18th century when a man’s ability to defend his family and his value […]
Dear Mr. History: How did General “Mad” Anthony Wayne get his nickname? Was he some kind of lunatic in battle? I’ve also heard that Wayne’s ghost haunts Pennsylvania because the general died sort of a gruesome death. What’s the story? Sincerely, Mad Man. Dear Mad Man: Glad you asked about Anthony Wayne! He was born […]
The article “Unleashing the Dogs of War” gave just a few examples of the canine presence that was quite widespread in the armies of the American Revolution. Newspaper advertisements reveal that dogs were common companions of British officers while also making it clear that these pets often found themselves unleashed. The ads tell us much […]
Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, a compelling, dramatic and extraordinarily well written narrative of Boston 1773-1775. The book caused a major media stir recently with news that Ben Affleck and Warner Bros. purchased the film rights. We asked the New York Times bestselling author a few […]
