In 1923, the State of Delaware erected a statue to one its most famous sons in Wilmington, Delaware. The statue to Caesar Rodney showed him on his now famous ride to break the tie between the members of Delaware’s delegation to the Second Continental Congress. Rodney’s eighty-mile ride from Dover to Philadelphia to cast a […]
Transitioning from a complicated war footing to an organized civil society at the close of the Revolution proved every bit as difficult as the nation’s early leaders feared. Thirteen proud colonies surrendering aspects of their hard-fought independence in exchange for a new form of federal government generated significant hesitancy after the guns silenced. The placeholder […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian Joseph Manca on the pre-Revolutionary advocacy of liberty by poet Phillis Wheatley and Rev. Joseph Sewall in Massachusetts. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]
Popular narratives of the American Revolution rank Christopher Ludwick, at best, among the extras in the imperial dramatis personae, a bit player who performed as honest gingerbread baker or amusingly spoke of himself in the third person.[1] Fortunately, his limited historiographical presence more seriously depicts him as superintendent of bakers for the Continental Army and […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Mott 1781 (Small Battles Series) by Steven D. Smith (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2024. $28.00 hardcover.) Steven D. Smith provides an interesting perspective on a brief but important period of the Revolutionary War in the south. The author focuses on a four-week period, April 12 to May […]
The common viewpoint on Benedict Arnold’s role in the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777 is based almost exclusively on the early nineteenth century testimony of James Wilkinson. That view holds that Arnold, after clashing with Gates over matters involving the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on September 19, was without a command on […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Jason R. Wickersty on the news in Great Britain about the Battle of Long Island. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily […]
Americans made repeated unsuccessful attempts during the Revolution to capture Canada and incorporate it into the nascent United States. The British, meanwhile, attempted to incorporate additional territory into Canada. This territory, though not yet part of the United States, would eventually become so. As such, this effort also failed. If that weren’t enough, as with […]
BOOK REVIEW: Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era by Nathaniel Parry (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2024. Paperback, $49.95) In Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era, Nathaniel Parry highlights the criminal undertones of society during the Revolution and early national […]
On January 4, 1881, historian James Watts de Peyster delivered an address to the New-York Historical Society in New York City. The lengthy oration dealt with the Battle of Kings Mountain, fought on October 7, 1780, in South Carolina, where the Revolutionaries achieved a decisive victory over a force composed of Loyalists. Although de Peyster […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott Syfert on the significance of the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, June 20, 1780. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed […]
It was well into the first week of October 1776, and all of Britain was anxious for news. By the last official dispatch printed in the October 1 edition of the London Gazette, as of the 15th of August, the British army in America under the command of Gen. William Howe was fully assembled and […]
BOOK REVIEW: From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia by Greg Brooking (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback) Greg Brooking’s From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia is a biography of colonial and revolutionary Georgia’s royal governor set […]
James Craik was born in Scotland, circa 1727, on the 1,400-acre estate of his father William Craik, member of the British parliament. He attended Edinburgh medical school; the first medical school in the English-speaking world. After graduation Dr. Craik served in the British army in the West Indies. Leaving the army, he set up medical […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Geoff Smock on how in 1798, with tensions rising with France, John Adams advised young citizens that, “science and morals are the great pillars on which this country has been raised to its present population, opulence, and prosperity, and that these alone can advance, support, […]
Poet Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) was a consistent and passionate advocate for liberty in every form: she called for an end to slavery, championed political and religious freedoms, and considered a sinful life to be a kind of servitude. She consistently opposed British infringements on American rights and saw political oppression as a form of […]
BOOK REVIEW: Ira Allen: A Biography by J. Kevin Graffagnino (Barre, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2024. $24.95 cloth) While Ethan Allen’s exploits as the ringleader of the Green Mountain Boys and his 1775 conquest of Fort Ticonderoga are legendary, his youngest brother’s contributions and quixotic schemes are relatively unknown. Kevin J. Graffagnino asserts, in his […]
