The Race to the Dan is a famous part of the Southern War of the American Revolution, a strategic retreat by Gen Nathanael Greene, that once across the Dan River, allowed the Southern Army to regroup and resupply. Ten days later Greene recrossed the Dan, was reinforced and on March 15, 1781 fought the Battle […]
George Washington and various of his generals had their doubts about the effectiveness of volunteer militia units as the Revolutionary War intensified. The solution was to create a regular army of “Continental” units. These were to be made up of men willing to commit to serve for the long term, and led by experienced officers […]
BOOK REVIEW: Two Revolutions and the Constitution: How the English and American Revolutions Produced the American Constitution by James D. R. Philips (Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books, 2021) In his concise Two Revolutions and the Constitution, the Australian lawyer and law professor James D. R. Philips traces the roots of the American Founding back to England’s Glorious […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Jordan Baker on the Cherokee people’s response to encroaching settlers along the southern frontier during the first year of the Revolution, when the decades-old conflict became an all-out war. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, […]
One of the greatest sources of information on the American Revolution is the collection of pension applications submitted by American veterans of the war or their families. Over 80,000 files are available to researchers as part of the National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M804. Intent on finding some desired morsel of information, however, […]
Speaking on Independence Day, 1821, John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the Unites States and the son of John Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, stated that the Declaration was merely an occasional state-paper. It was a solemn exposition to the world, of the causes which have compelled the people of a small […]
The scribe of the Declaration of Independence—and perhaps the first man to read it in public—was born on March 28, 1736 in Haddonfield, New Jersey. His family moved to Philadelphia eight years later. At the age of thirteen, Timothy Matlack began an apprenticeship under a prosperous Quaker merchant named John Reynell. Looking forward to a […]
BOOK REVIEW: Crisis at the Chesapeake: The Royal Navy and the Struggle for America, 1755-1783 by Quintin Barry (Warwick, UK: Helion and Company, 2021) Although the main title of this book implies a focus on the 1781 naval operations in the Yorktown campaign, the subtitle is more accurate: a comprehensive look at the Revolutionary War and the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and historian James D. R. Philips on his research about the influence of the English Revolution on the ideals of the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]
On the morning of Saturday, July 14, 1804 the funeral cortège for Alexander Hamilton proceeded northward to Trinity Church where the former Revolutionary War officer and treasury secretary would be interred. Fittingly there was a substantial turnout; in addition to family, friends and the curious public were members of the Society of the Cincinnati, the […]
Many early histories of the War of Regulation, which culminated in the May 16, 1771 Battle of Alamance, paint a picture of a Regulator named James Few as a man of either a simple or unstable mind who was unjustly executed. Upon deeper examination, many of the claims made in these histories have inconsistencies and […]
Silas Talbot was a remarkable Revolutionary War notable who was astute and tactically flexible. He was at various times an artisan, entrepreneur, privateer, Rhode Island Militia officer, Continental Army officer, Continental Navy officer, United States Navy captain and United States Congressman. Talbot’s multifarious vocations, extraordinary exploits and changing fortunes reflect the intrepidity of one unusual […]
Vermont’s Ebenezer Allen: Patriot, Commando and Emancipator by Glenn Fay Jr. (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2021) Ethan Allen, the militia leader who shares credit for taking Fort Ticonderoga early in the Revolution, is the most recognizable historical figure from early Vermont history. His brother Ira is also famous for his association with the Green Mountain […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews writer, editor, researcher, and JAR contributor Edna Gabler on her recent study of images of enslaved persons in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century portraits and paintings of Revolutionary War subjects. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]
Late in his life, after retiring the presidency, James Monroe drafted his own history. He was still struck, five decades after the War for Independence, by the “high character of that epoch and of those in whose hands its destiny fell.” He looked back and saw that war as “a school of practical instruction . […]
We asked our contributors: Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era (other than Benedict Arnold) is remembered for the wrong reasons, and why? Jason Yonce Silas Deane, like his friend Benedict Arnold, contributed so much to the patriot cause only to fall from grace. His infamous letter to Robert Morris could have […]
Anyone who has ever tackled genealogical or historical research knows that the process is very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together or working on a cold case crime. Sometimes you are fortunate and all of the pieces or clues are available and easily come together to produce a definitive result. More often than not, […]
George Washington’s Long Island Spy Ring: A History and Tour Guide by Bill Bleyer (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2021) Whoever gets their hands on Bill Bleyer’s latest book on Long Island history, George Washington’s Long Island Spy Ring: A History and Tour Guide, will be in for a treat. Bleyer, a former writer for […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and historical interpreter Jack Campbell on the Marquis de Lafayette’s fascinating attempt to garner support for an invasion of Ireland in order to bring the American Revolution to European soil. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) […]
“It is Hoped that this People will Unitedly Exert Themselves:”[1] In August 1765, crowds gathered on the streets of Boston protesting Parliament’s Stamp Act, which they deemed a tyrannical effort to tax them against their consent. Eventually, protests turned destructive as rioters ransacked the home of Lt. Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. The violent outburst posed a […]
The phrase “fourteenth colony” describes a province in British North America that did not revolt alongside the original thirteen colonies. Such a province usually had one or more connections to the American Revolution. The phrase is misleading and has been thrown around freely in literature on the Revolutionary era. There have been at least eight […]
Most people think of wartime propaganda as atrocity stories about the enemy. But commanders also disseminate false and true information in hopes of boosting their own soldiers’ morale and sapping the enemy’s. Even more persuasive than words are actions, and manipulating morale often dictates how commanders deploy their troops. Witness the American War of Independence. […]
Political Thought and the Origins of the American Presidency edited by Ben Lowe (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2021) In Political Thought and the Origins of the American Presidency, historian Ben Lowe of Florida Atlantic University has assembled an attractive collection of scholarly essays that began as presentations to the university’s 2019 Alan B. and […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor, writer, and historian Norman Desmarais on the Gazette Françoise, a French newspaper published for French soldiers, begun soon after their arrival in Newport, Rhode Island. This is the first known service newspaper published by an expeditionary force. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every […]
In the early years of the American Revolution, war in the northern theater raged in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey. The southern theater looked far different. From Virginia to Georgia, newly elected Revolutionary governments and self-styled Patriots looked west at the trans-Appalachian region, hoping to finally traverse the stern border the British had set. […]
Colonel Samuel Bryan is thought to be the highest-ranking Loyalist officer to remain in the United States after the Revolutionary War. Despite being a high-ranking British officer in command of hundreds of men, little is known about him and the militia unit he commanded. With the arrival of British regulars in the Carolinas in 1780, […]
It’s an understatement to say that the spring of 1776 had not gone well for the American army in Canada. After a campaign that had stalled at the walls of Quebec City the previous winter, May brought British and German reinforcements who thoroughly routed the remnants of the army camped outside the city and drove […]
Winning Independence: The Decisive Years of the Revolutionary War, 1778-1781 by John Ferling. (New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) The latest work by Professor John Ferling (author of The Ascent of George Washington, A Leap In the Dark, and Whirlwind) is a scholarly explanation as to why the United States ended up winning the American Revolution, […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews writer and historian Bill Bleyer on sifting fact from fiction about the legendary Culper Spy Ring. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed on the […]
After the events at Lexington and Concord on April 19, it appeared that military force of some sort might be warranted in dealing with Great Britain. There was a mass of militiamen and volunteers outside of Boston but there were many questions about their purpose, organization, and leadership. When George Washington set off for the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews political scientist and JAR contributor Haimo Li on how the Maryland declaration of rights outlawed ex post facto laws—and how that state’s delegation got this important clause into the US Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]
Clemson University Professor C. Bradley Thompson is a nationally recognized historian and Revolutionary Era scholar whose most recent book, America’s Revolutionary Mind, has earned copious praise and widespread acclaim. It is well-deserved. Nevertheless, Professor Thompson’s work is not without flaws as it renews, unnecessarily, the erroneous and ahistorical argument that God, as referenced in the […]
The bronze Charging Bull sculpture is not the only iconic statue to have stood at the southern tip of Manhattan. In 1770, a large gilded equestrian statue of King George III was erected just a few feet away in New York’s oldest park, Bowling Green. But what had begun as an exhibit of appreciation and esteem […]
Down the Warpath to the Cedars: Indians’ First Battles in the Revolution by Mark R. Anderson (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). A couple of minor surprises greeted me when I first opened Mark Anderson’s new book on the Cedars, the May 1776 battle that took place a few miles west of Montreal during the […]
A search for scapegoats is certain to follow a lost war, and in the wake of the British disaster at Yorktown in October 1781 a long list of potential targets existed. Both Sir Henry Clinton, who had commanded Britain’s army in America during the four years leading to Yorktown, and General Charles, Earl Cornwallis, who […]
If the gunfire at Lexington and Concord was the “shot heard round the world,” the phrases in the Declaration of Independence were the words read around the world. In the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson declared America an independent nation, rooting his ideas in political theory and justifying them with a list of grievances.[1] After the Declaration was […]
“His Britannic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing any Destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other Property of the American inhabitants, withdraw . . . from said United States.” These words from the 1783 Treaty of Paris that officially brought the seven-year American Revolution to a close guaranteed America’s independence from […]
As part of the debate over the constitutionality of the Stamp Act, John Adams wrote a series of letter to the Boston Gazette discussing the nature and duties of the British government. He signed these letters “Clarendon” rather than using his own name.[1] In his January 27, 1766 “Clarendon” letter Adams penned this line: Were I to […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews USMA graduate and JAR contributor John DeLee on how the policy toward Indigenous Americans changed during the Articles of Confederation period. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]
