James Henry Craig, an officer in the British army, fought in the Revolutionary War from the beginning to the end. He was at Bunker Hill, battled the Americans in Canada, assisted in the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, and negotiated the British surrender at Saratoga. In 1779, Craig took part in the British occupation of Penobscot […]
Book Review: Jacob’s Land: Revolutionary War Soldiers, Schemers, Scoundrels and the Settling of New York’s Frontier by Charles Yaple (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, March 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Jacob’s Land by Charles Yaple is a fascinating, multigenerational narrative history of an immigrant family, their migration into the wilderness, and of the native tribes who populated […]
Luke Ryan was born in the County Dublin coastal village of Rush on February 14, 1750. His parents were Michael and Mary Ryan. As a twelve year old boy, Luke worked in John Grimes’ boatyard in Skerries and then at age sixteen began his shipwright apprenticeship under Edward King in Ringsend. It is unclear if […]
Writing about Roger Sherman, the only man to sign our four most important founding documents – the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution – got me wondering why there weren’t more who had done so, and in particular why our most famous Founding Fathers hadn’t. I decided it […]
Sgt. Benjamin Gilbert of the 5th Massachusetts Regiment awoke near Verplanck Point on May 31, 1779 with cause to celebrate: it was his birthday, and he was now “four and Twenty Years of Age.” He didn’t celebrate too long, for British “Shipping appeard in sight this Morning and came & [played] upon” Fort Lafayette, the […]
Historian and author John Maass goes beyond the archives in his study of history, which gives his work a refreshing originality. He brings an element of investigative journalism to the field that is compelling. In his new book George Washington’s Virginia, Maass takes the reader on a tour of George Washington’s life in Virginia, including […]
The American Revolution was fought from Maine to Illinois, hundreds of military encounters occurring in what eventually became the United States of America. Among those events were two skirmishes on Prudence Island, a large island in Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island, on January 12 and January 13, 1776. Although small events that did not alter […]
The Revolutionary War’s human landscape was populated by the famous, the infamous, and a vast number who have been forgotten. Some like Joseph Bettys were both infamous and largely forgotten. What little that has been remembered and written about him is often sprinkled with a liberal mixture of half truths and falsehood born from the […]
From the ministry’s point of view, affairs in America really were quite appalling. The unpardonable brashness of a cocksure young provincial had instantly escalated a minor diplomatic dispute in the wilderness fringe of North America into a war between the world’s two great powers – a war for which His Majesty’s government was woefully unprepared. […]
Book Review: What Remains: Searching for the Memory and Lost Grave of John Paul Jones by Robert Hornick (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] The title Robert Hornick selected for his recent analytic and meticulously researched and documented book on John Paul Jones says it all, “What Remains.” John Paul Jones’s journey into […]
By March of 1778 Maj. Gen. Israel Putnam, “Old Put” to his men, was exhausted.[1] He had been writing to General Washington for months begging for retirement. His wife had died recently in his encampment and the general was worn out from his impossible assignments. His two under-strength brigades had been working in the ice, […]
Every summer, millions of tourists flock to the beaches and resorts on the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia (Delmarva) peninsula sandwiched between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean. Those headed for Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, or the state parks that line the Atlantic shores of Delaware may well pass by Prince George’s Chapel in Dagsboro. Authorized in 1755 by […]
In late November 1775, just as the bone-chilling New England winter started to settle upon Massachusetts, British General Howe loaded three hundred poor, sick inhabitants of Boston onto transport ships with no provisions or firewood.[1] They were landed on windswept Point Shirley peninsula, a narrow, beachy finger of land situated in between the gentle waves […]
On the Topographic-Bathymetric Series Map, Eastern United States, 1:250,000, Wilmington: NJ 18-2 (1972) prepared by the United States Geological Survey located at grid WU5.5, 8.0 is a symbol for a landmark labeled, “Pulaski Monument.” This monument indicates the site of the “massacre” of the Pulaski Legion in the pre-dawn hours of October 15, 1778.[1] In […]
What if another Continental general had changed sides at the same point in the war as Benedict Arnold? During the Revolutionary War, and as late as 1991, there was speculation that Robert Howe, one of five generals from North Carolina in the Continental Army, was a traitor. Did the general attempt to change sides in […]
As a British colony located on the Atlantic Ocean, Rhode Island’s wealth grew by utilizing the ocean’s vast resources. Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay is roughly two hundred and fifty square miles, which includes small islands and bays. Hundreds of ships carrying both raw materials from the colonies and manufactured products from England traveled through Narragansett […]
