Book Review: First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call for American Independence by Harlow Giles Unger, (New York: De Capo Press, 2017) BUY THE BOOK FROM AMAZON When people think of the Founding Fathers, a few names likely come to mind. But how many minds jump to Richard Henry Lee? Moreover, how many […]
With but few exceptions,[1] it has usually been surmised by historians that the 1772 attack on the Royal Navy schooner Gaspee was a spontaneous response to the accidental grounding of the King’s vessel, allowing its opportunistic destruction by angry Rhode Island colonists. But was this really such a serendipitous event? What is presented here is […]
In the Spring of 1775, Benjamin Franklin, still stationed in England, made what he thought was a last attempt to secure a plan of reconciliation between Great Britain and her American colonies. One of the men he worked with was Adm. Lord Richard Howe. Though their efforts proved unsuccessful, at their final meeting on March […]
When Jacob Francis[1] began life on January 15, 1754 in western New Jersey’s Amwell Township in Hunterdon County, free black people in a state supporting slavery could find life unpleasant unless they “knew their place.” During his long life, Jacob not only fought for the concept of freedom and independence from Great Britain in the […]
The small village of Newtown played a noteworthy role during the American Revolution from the time when General Washington’s army retreated in 1776 across New Jersey into Pennsylvania through the British occupation of American capital of Philadelphia until mid-1778. This was due to its geographical location in Bucks County, having been since 1726 the seat […]
In the fall of 1777, the Continental Congress had reached one of its most desperate points of the American Revolution. In September of that year George Washington had been defeated by the forces of Sir William Howe at Brandywine, the Battle of the Clouds, Paoli, and Germantown. Because of this failure the British captured the […]
Wives of British soldiers were allowed to accompany their husbands overseas, much like spouses of military personnel often do today. Unlike modern militaries, however, wives of soldiers often lived in the barracks and encampments, and accompanied their husbands on campaigns. Although not under the contractual obligations of an enlistment, wives were fed by the army […]
Editor’s Note: This is part three of a five-part series. Part one. Part two. The portion of James McMichael’s journal covering June 11 through September 11, 1777,[1] finds our hero with his bride Susanna whom he had left to see on May 31. McMichael did not return to duty until June 13. While the army […]
When war came to down east Maine in the spring of 1775, a rough frontiersman named Andrew Gilman joined the patriot cause. He served with distinction as an Indian interpreter, a courier, and as a lieutenant in command of a group of Penobscot Indians and local settlers in an American ranger force that protected the […]
“Solid obedience is always the fruit of the confidence, respect, and affection, which a corps has for its chief.”[1] For the armies of the Revolution, few men were as vital to maintaining unit cohesion than company-grade officers—ensigns, lieutenants, and captains—who played a key role in transferring orders from higher up the chain of command. Junior […]
Today, February 22, 2018, is George Washington’s 286th birthday. We asked some of our editors and contributors to reflect on George Washington, his role in American history, and the importance of celebrating this day. Enjoy their remarks and please feel free to post your own thoughts about George Washington on his birthday (Old or New, […]
In the American Revolution, as with most other wars, the winners write the history. As such, we have the term “loyalist” for those colonists who remained loyal to the crown, while the winners claimed the term “patriots.” To give an idea how loyalists were regarded during the era, one definition I found said a loyalist […]
On July 4, 1777, as Lt. Gen. John Burgoyne’s expedition on Lake Champlain prepared for a siege of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, camp follower Anna Anderson gave birth to a boy, James or affectionately Jamie. He grew up to have two fathers, enlisted man William Anderson and Gen. James Inglis Hamilton, who adopted him in […]
Even by Victorian standards Great Massingham, Norfolk was a sleepy hamlet. Though it had been a settled community since Norman times, in 1880 it comprised little more than a few farms, an inn and a handsome medieval church. Local humour had it that there were more ducks in the village pond than there were people. […]
Book Review: The Expanding Blaze: How the American Revolution Ignited the World, 1775-1848 by Jonathan Israel (Princeton University Press, 2017) BUY THE BOOK FROM AMAZON For Jonathan Israel, the American Revolution “was the crucible of democratic modernity” (24). But it played its role unwittingly, at times even unwillingly. While “moderation” dominated in America, writes Israel, […]
At the height of his wealth and power in the 1780s, Elias Hasket Derby may have been seen around Salem, Massachusetts or nearby Boston dressed in nothing less than absolute finery and opulence; sometimes donning a Sir Roger de Coverley coat, sometimes leaning on a gold-headed cane[1]. Indeed, Derby was among the wealthiest men of […]
On June 28, 1777 elements of the 9th Connecticut Regiment that had been fighting with General Washington’s army in New Jersey departed Lincoln Gap in the Watchung Mountains for the return to Morristown and Peekskill. In his journal, Sgt. Simon Giffin of Capt. Caleb Bull’s Company recorded the events of their march[1] “June 28, 1777 […]
In October 2016 my wife and I went to visit the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York. We went because of Susan’s interest in Alexander Hamilton who, as many know, married Gen. Philip Schuyler’s daughter Elizabeth, and then went on to help change the world only to perish in a duel with Aaron Burr. As […]
Editor’s Note: This is part two of a five-part series. Part one. Part three. The portion of James McMichael’s journal covering November 1, 1776 through June 3, 1777 begins after his participation in the Battles of Brooklyn and White Plains.[1] McMichael participated in the “Long Retreat” from New York, across New Jersey, and into Pennsylvania. […]
Book Review: American Sanctuary: Mutiny, Martyrdom, and National Identity in the Age of Revolution by A. Roger Ekirch (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017) BUY FROM AMAZON This is a quirky and fascinating three-part story, set not during the Revolution proper, but somewhat later, focusing on the years 1797 to 1800. The three parts, each occupying […]
Journal of the American Revolution today announced its winner and runner-up for the 2017 Journal of the American Revolution Book of the Year Award. The annual award goes to the non-fiction volume that best mirrors the journal’s mission: to deliver engaging, creative, and intelligent content that makes American Revolution history accessible to a broad audience. […]
In January 1775, James Dole of Troy, New York, joined a company of minutemen commanded by James Wells. It was armed and equipped in order to be ready in a moments warning. Nothing particularly happened until that May, when the company received orders from the Committee of Safety, Correspondence, and Protection in Albany to march […]
In 1782, six months after Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, Patriot militiamen committed one of the most heinous war crimes of the Revolutionary War. On March 8, between 100 and 200 militia and frontiersmen from western Pennsylvania slaughtered nearly 100 peaceful Indians at the small village of Gnadenhutten, on the Tuscarawas River in present day Ohio.[1] […]
Editor’s Note: This is part one of a five-part series. Part two. Part three. The “Diary” of Lieutenant James McMichael first appeared in 1890 in the Pennsylvania Archives series 2, volume 15. It reappeared in volume 16 of The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in 1892. Both versions are available online at Hathitrust and […]
Book Review: Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom by Russell Shorto (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] That the Revolution produced winners and losers is hardly news. Factors such as geography, ethnicity, race, religion, and political inclination were central to any individual’s response to the upheaval. Studies examining […]
It was August 1775 and Belcher Noyes, worried about his son Nathaniel, was writing to him from Boston for a third time. “My dear son: Have received no letter from you since May 27, which I duly answered 3d June … I wrote you May 25, both of which I hope came safe to your […]
After the fall of New York in 1776 Long Island became occupied territory for combined British and Loyalist forces during the remaining years of the Revolutionary War. The island became an important supply resource for the British army in New York City and a defensive front line to the American forces in New England. The […]
George Washington closed a July 31, 1788 letter to Noah Webster noting that Webster’s “desire of obtaining truth is very laudable, I wish I had more leizure to gratify it . . . the knowledge of innumerable things, of a more delicate and secret nature, is confined to the perishable remembrance of some few of […]
During the Revolutionary War, there were numerous attempts to entice leaders of the American rebels to return to their British heritage. Members of Congress were the objects of British efforts to entice America’s leaders to join the British side.[1] Benedict Arnold and Col. Rudolphus Ritzema turned traitor, Robert Howe was accused of treason,[2] Philip Schuyler […]
Book review: The Strategy of Victory: How George Washington Won the American Revolution by Thomas Fleming (Da Capo Press, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Thomas Fleming’s recent and likely last book, The Strategy of Victory: How George Washington Won the American Revolution, is a more of a narrative history of the revolution than a true […]
Long before he became the father of his country, a young George Washington copied out 110 maxims governing appropriate conduct for young gentlemen. Handwritten in the back of his notebook, the proverbs originally appeared in French in 1595; a standard English version was published in 1640.[1] By the time Washington was a young teenager, the […]
In the years prior to the American Revolution, plenty of opportunities awaited young Massachusetts men on the down east frontier, especially for those who needed to get out of Boston. This may have been the case for twenty-year-old Francis Archibald III. In 1770, he decided to leave Boston and take up service as a soldier […]
In the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the United States Congress ordered the Department of Defense to conduct a study aimed at wholesale overhaul of its military officer promotion policies.[1] Issues to be considered include reordering promotion lists so that officers “of particular merit” will be placed at the front of the line and modifying […]
The name Valley Forge evokes strong emotions and memories that are indelibly embedded on the collective American psyche with legendary stories of immense misery, starvation and suffering amidst great heroic patriotism and dedication. The hilly site outside of British-held Philadelphia served as the winter cantonment—one of seven such large-scale military facilities during the American Revolution—for […]
Book review: George Washington: A Life in Books by Kevin J. Hayes (Oxford University Press, May 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] In the introduction to George Washington: A Life in Books, historian Kevin Hayes discusses an encounter during a vacation to Australia before he began graduate school. Hayes met an Australian couple, and they asked […]
Benjamin Franklin made two missions to London prior to the Revolution; the first from 1757 to 1762, the second from 1764 to 1775. In the final four months of his second mission he became involved in three efforts to secure a peaceful solution to the constitutional divergence that was growing between England and her American […]
As the battered Continental Army encamped in Valley Forge for the winter of 1777-1778 after a year of setbacks and defeats, Gen. James Varnum, the commander of the Rhode Island troops, proposed to George Washington that his state’s two depleted regiments be combined into a single formation, and that the extra officers be sent home […]
Hidden in the Nineteenth Century histories of Georgia is a likely answer to a question that has puzzled students of the American Revolution in the South for decades; why was General Andrew Williamson, acting in the same manner as so many around him, singled out as a traitor, loathed by so many as the “Arnold […]
The pension and land bounty claim system in place for Revolutionary War veterans was wrought with problems; the tributes bestowed upon thousands of veterans simply stolen from them. Countless early records had been lost to fire and abuse of the system was inherent. As early as 1809 Congress heard testimony on the issue in the […]
