Month: February 2025

 The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Cricket Hill and Gwynn’s Island: Captain Arundel’s Only Fight

In researching the little-known Battle of Cricket Hill/Gwynn’s Island that took place on July 9-10, 1776, in what was then Gloucester County and today Matthews County, Virginia, available surviving records document only one Patriot casualty. While this is not unusual for many of the smaller, lesser known and infrequently studied engagements, the details of this […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Crime and Justice Posted on

Samuel Mason: Revolutionary Turncoat or Opportunistic Pirate?

In the chaotic aftermath of the American Revolution, the boundaries between heroism and villainy were often obscured by economic hardship, social instability, and territorial disputes. One figure who epitomizes this ambiguity is Samuel Mason, a Revolutionary War captain who later became infamous as a river pirate preying on trade along the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. […]

by Carter F. Smith
2
Reviews Posted on

Washington’s Marines: The Origin of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775–1777

BOOK REVIEW: Washington’s Marines: The Origin of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777 by Jason Q. Bohm. (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2023) $34.95 hardcover “In December [1776] he [Major Samuel Nicholas] was ordered to march with three companies of Marines to the Jerseys to be under his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and continue […]

by William Edmund Fahey
Reviews Posted on

The Disease of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, History, and Liberty

BOOK REVIEW: The Disease of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, History, & Liberty: A Philosophical Analysis by M. Andrew Holowchak (Vernon Press, 2024). In The Disease of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, History, & Liberty: A Philosophical Analysis, author M. Andrew Holowchak situates Thomas Jefferson’s political ideology within a philosophical framework and positions Jefferson as a great philosopher of […]

by Kelly Mielke
2
Engineering and Technology Posted on

Patrick Ferguson’s Fortification Proposals In South Carolina

In May 1780, British Maj. Patrick Ferguson outlined a plan for constructing fortifications and securing the province of South Carolina. His proposals hinged on fortifying the junctions of major land and water routes from Charlestown (today Charleston) to prominent villages across the interior. Although known primarily for his design of a breech-loading rifle, Ferguson had […]

by Brian Mabelitini
Reviews Posted on

A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution by Andrew Lawler (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025) $30.00 Hardcover Andrew Lawler’s recent text artfully focuses on an important and understudied American Revolutionary period, Virginia in 1775 and 1776, and topic, slavery. The title, A […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
4
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Scott’s Levies: The Virginia Detachments, 1779-1780

The Virginia Continental Line had suffered with recruitment since the spring of 1777. Desertion, battlefield casualties, and competition with other state units prevented enough men being recruited to replenish the ranks of Virginia’s fifteen regiments. A new recruiting act, including a limited military draft, had produced fewer than 800 recruits for the Virginia Continental Line […]

by John Settle