First and foremost, thank you for making October 2014 our best traffic month ever. More than 94,000 visits by 54,000 unique visitors! Another major milestone was reached in October: Our one-millionth pageview since launch in January 2013. ONE MILLION PAGEVIEWS! Second, a hearty welcome to our newest authors: Steven M. Richman, Kim Burdick, and Will […]
In 1662, Charles II, the restored monarch of Great Britain, issued a charter for the founding of Connecticut. The colony’s borders were delineated as spreading from Narragansett Bay in the east to the “South Sea on the West.” Later the colony of New York took exception to this clause, and the two colonies battled over […]
Some time ago we saw the story of Mrs. Middleton, the wife of a British soldier, who took several Americans prisoner at the battle of Trois Rivieres in 1776.[1] Mrs. Middleton was one of several thousand wives who accompanied their British soldier husbands to America, or married them in America, and experienced the hardships and […]
When British Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton began operations against Charleston in March 1780, he decided not to call upon the Loyalists in the South Carolina backcountry to assist him. Although employing Loyalists to aid the regular army was a key element of British strategy in the South, Clinton believed that they would be endangered […]
A frequent discovery when reading 18th Century newspapers is the runaway ads. In an era when people could be owned by or contractually bound to others, individuals who absconded were often advertised by their masters. These ads give us amazing descriptions of individuals and show the society’s remarkable diversity of physical attributes, demographics, personalities, situations […]
Some twelve years ago, as I was walking along Boston’s Freedom Trail with my family, I noticed an obelisk and monument in the front yard of King’s Chapel. As I peered closer at it, I read the title to the inscription: In Memory of THE CHEVALIER DE SAINT SAUVEUR first Chamberlin of his Royal Highness, […]
The Battle of Millstone in central New Jersey on 20 January 1777,[1] is a “local interest” battle, the kind that is often known only to locals and specialists, but on closer examination permits greater insight into other facets of the American Revolution. By one account, there were 1,331 military engagements in the war throughout the […]
On June 4, 1766, the New York Sons of Liberty gathered in a field, later known as the Commons, to celebrate the birthday of the King and the repeal of the Stamp Act. They erected a large mast with twelve tar barrels at its top and twenty-five cords of wood at its base.[1] The crowd […]
Book Review: The New Nation: The Creation of the United States in Paintings and Eyewitness Accounts The art of Mort Künstler, text by Edward G. Lengel. Sterling Publishing, 2014, ISBN: 1-4549-0773-8, ISBN13: 9781454907732, 9×10 hardcover, 208 color pages. We learn history through documents, but pictures make it come alive. It is unfortunate that relatively few […]
On November 6, 1779, Virginia major Henry Lee, commander of the Continental Army’s 2nd Partisan Corps, addressed a letter to British lieutenant colonel John Graves Simcoe, who eleven days before he had been trying to defeat in battle. “I am happy to hear by your polite reply to an offer dictated by the feelings of […]
The best portraits are perhaps those in which there is a slight mixture of caricature; and we are not certain that the best histories are not those in which a little of the exaggeration of fictitious narrative is judiciously employed. Something is lost in accuracy; but much is gained in effect. The fainter lines are […]
Billy Flora was cold. That was not surprising. He was crouched in the lee of a pile of shingles next to a burnt out building in the early hours of December 9, 1775, with a musket in his hands and a rime of ice forming in the marshes of the Great Dismal Swamp that lay […]
In the spring of 1775, Arthur Lee, the American agent in London, attended a dinner party at the home of John Wilkes, an outspoken supporter of the rebellious American colonies. There Lee met Monsieur de Beaumarchais, the famous French playwright, satirist, and financier who had the ear of King Louis XV and now had the […]
In the minds of many people the surrender at Yorktown in the fall of 1781 brought the Revolutionary War to a close. However, the war in the South was not over. Charleston and Savannah were occupied by the enemy. Physical possession and control of territory would be important in any peace negotiations. In consequence, Major […]
When news of Lord Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781 arrived in southeastern North Carolina well into November, the war there did not end. It did not end even after the British evacuated Wilmington on November 18, leaving local Tories without reliable supplies of ammunition. Instead, as William Ryan, a cavalry man under […]
One of the finest sources for anecdotal, first-hand accounts of the Revolution is the U.S. Pension & Bounty Land Applications in the National Archives. They contain vivid snippets of military service, actions, genealogical information, social culture, and many other matters of 18th Century life. They can also be highly confusing and misleading when taken completely […]
Book Review: The Return of George Washington 1783-1789 by Edward J. Larson. New York: William Morrow, 2014. Hardcover $29.99. ISBN 978-0-06-224867-1. Pp 384. Index, bibliography, illustrations. While mountains of books have been written about George Washington most have covered his wartime or presidential careers. Few have discussed in any depth the period between his remarkable […]
Earlier this year the AMC network aired a new series, Turn, about the Continental Army’s Culper Spy Ring, based on Alexander Rose’s book, Washington’s Spies. In one episode, the character of Benedict Arnold refers derisively to General Horatio Gates as “Granny Gates.” One might think it was a bit of literary license on behalf of […]
Washington and the Continental Army spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, twenty-five miles northwest of Philadelphia. On November 27, the Continental Congress decided to restructure the Board of War. Up to this point the Board was made up of delegates from the Continental Congress. With only seven members who elected Washington still sitting […]
