Month: April 2025

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Autobiography and Biography Posted on

America’s Forgotten Founder: Comte Charles Gravier de Vergennes

Historians generally agree on who were America’s principal Founders, but the roll call invariably omits the name of one individual without whose steadfast assistance the United States would have been unlikely to have gained independence. Comte Charles Gravier de Vergennes, France’s foreign minister throughout the long, desperate war, was a crucial player in America’s victory […]

by John Ferling
Interviews Posted on

On This Week’s Dispatches: Michael Cecere on Colonial Militia on the Eve of the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Michael Cecere about how each colony prepared its militia as war with Great Britain became more of a possibility in 1774 and 1775. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening  (Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]

by Editors
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

The Extraordinary Genesis of the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, 1776

In 1776, the Declaration of Independence charted a new autonomous path for thirteen of Britain’s North American colonies. One of the document’s many allegations was that British authorities had “excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”[1] While its context largely pointed towards Native Americans, another inspiration for this grievance may have been the embodying of Loyalist regiments […]

by Stuart Lyall Manson
2
Newspapers Posted on

“One Great People”: John Fenno’s Public Crusade for an American National Identity

In New York City, at nine o’clock in the morning on Thursday, April 30, 1789, Americans of diverse Christian denominations filed into their churches in and around Broad Street. Once settled, their respective clergymen led them in prayer, asking for “the blessing of Heaven upon the new government.” These well-wishers also pleaded for divine “protection […]

by Shawn David McGhee