Year: 2026

 War at Sea and Waterways (1775–1783) Posted on

The Final Cruise of the Continental Navy frigate Hague

Recently returned from imprisonment in England, respected Capt. John Manley succeeded Samuel Nicholson in command of the Continental Navy frigate formerly known as Deane and recently renamed Hague on September 16, 1782. All of the vessel’s principal officers returned to service under Captain Manley including: 1st Lt. Benjamin Page, 2nd Lt. Arthur Dillaway, Sailing Master […]

by Joseph Ross
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Brooke Barbier on Drinking and the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and author Brooke Barbier on her new book about the role of social drinking and toasts during the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web […]

by Editors
1
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

William “Billy” Flora: Revolutionary Service Beyond Great Bridge

As a free African American Patriot, William “Billy” Flora represented a rather small percentage of Virginia’s population.[1] He served as a sentry at the south end of the Great Bridge, firing eight rounds on the morning of December 9, 1775, slowing the initial British assault.[2] Documents describing this action do not name Flora, but this […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
1
Historic Sites Posted on

The Nation’s First Acre: Fort Billingsport and the Birth of Federal Land Acquisition

On June 25, 1776, nine days before the Continental Congress would adopt the Declaration of Independence, the Pennsylvania Council of Safety passed a resolution authorizing a committee to “purchase the whole or part of a Plantation at Billingsport on which said Fortifications are to be erected at the Expense of Congress.”[1] Ten days later, on […]

by David Salvatore
3
Food & Lifestyle Posted on

Ten Quotations Highlighting Alcohol’s Intoxicating Influence on the American Revolution

The founding generation of the United States, both its leaders and ordinary folks, drank far more alcohol than we do today, tippling diverse offerings including wine, cider, beer, rum, and mixed drinks. This consumption had a profound influence on the American Revolution.[1] These ten quotations highlight the many ways that alcohol impacted the revolutionaries’ society, […]

by Brooke Barbier
Interviews Posted on

This Week of Dispatches: Gary Ecelbarger on Nathaniel Ramsay at the Battle of Monmouth

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor and historian Gary Ecelbarger on Maryland Continental officer Nathaniel Ramsay and his experience at “Point of Woods,” a turning point in the Battle of Monmouth. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]

by Editors
Reviews Posted on

Cocked and Boozy: An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: Cocked and Boozy: An Intoxicating History of the American Revolution by Brook Barbier (Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 2026) “Muddled.” “Buzzey.” “Jolly.” “Cherry Merry.” “Swallow’d a Tavern Token.” “Cat.” These terms are all euphemisms that describe someone who is inebriated. All of these words come to us courtesy of the great Dr. Benjamin […]

by Timothy Symington
Reviews Posted on

The Stamp Act and the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: The Stamp Act and the American Revolution by Ken Shumate. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2025) $29.95 hardcover. The American Revolution as a process of separation from Great Britain started long before April 1775 as once-proud English colonists in North America struggled with their place in the early empire. The story of that struggle […]

by Kyler Burd
Music Posted on

The Sound of Independence

If one were to create a soundtrack for the day the Declaration of Independence was read in Philadelphia, what music would accompany the event? While “Yankee Doodle” might immediately come to mind, only two tunes, the “Liberty Song” sung to the British tune “Heart of Oak” printed in 1768, and the 1770 hymn “Chester” by […]

by Lois Bliss Herbine
5
Frontier Posted on

Captain James Wood, Diplomat

On August 17, 1775 Capt. James Wood returned to his home in Winchester, Virginia from a month-long diplomatic mission to the Native American nations west of the Appalachian Mountains and north of the Ohio River.[1] Wood’s mission was vital. In one of its last official acts, the Virginia House of Burgesses appointed George Washington, Thomas […]

by Eric Sterner
2
Espionage and Cryptography Posted on

Why Haldimand and Washington Fought Different Intelligence Wars

Gen. George Washington has long stood at the center of the American Revolution’s intelligence story, but every commander, British and American, in North America understood the importance of intelligence gathering and the impact of information. His use of spies and long-established techniques such as coded messages and invisible ink is well documented, and for many, […]

by Ryan L. Wagner
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Gene Procknow on Apollos Morris and His Attempt at Diplomacy

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Gene Procknow on wealthy Irish landowner Apollos Morris’s little-known attempt to broker peace between the American colonies and England before hostilities escalated. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]

by Editors
1
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

The Death of Colonel Christopher Greene at Pine’s Bridge, May 1781

The death of Col. Christopher Greene of the Rhode Island Regiment during the Loyalist raid at Pine’s Bridge on the Croton River in May 1781 represents one of the most brutal and dramatic episodes of irregular warfare in the American Revolution. Drawing upon contemporary correspondence, eyewitness testimony, military reports, and later historical compilations, this surprise […]

by Bjorn Bruckshaw
6
Critical Thinking Posted on

The Odyssey and Irrelevance of John Adams

John Adams is a singular figure in the history of the American Revolution. No founder contributed more to the Revolution while drawing less attention from future generations, both historians and the public, searching for meaning in the American Revolution. Throughout his life Adams was aware of his reputation—“obnoxious, suspected and unpopular”—and the impact it would […]

by Kevin Diestelow
Interviews Posted on

A Dispatches Special: Andrew Scott Wills on Music of the Revolutionary Frontier

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews musician Andrew Scott Wills of the band Hawken Horse. Through his love of history and music, Nashville’s Wills has brought the Revolutionary frontier back to the 21st century. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]

by Editors
2
Prewar Conflict (<1775) Posted on

George Washington’s 1758 Friendly Fire Incident at Loyalhanna Creek

In the midst of the French and Indian War, with dusk settling over the Loyalhanna Creek and volunteer soldiers firing at shadows in the dark, George Washington confronted an “inexcusable but understandable military blunder.”[1] Mistaking their fellow soldiers for enemy combatants in the midst of heavy fog and failed communication, two battalions of Virginians fired […]

by Nathan Crissman
3
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

A British Major’s Quixotic American Mission and True Loyalties

In late 1775, Lord George Germain, the recently appointed Secretary of State for the Colonies, opened a letter from a newly retired British Army major, a large landholder in Ireland. The obsequious writer offered that a “Great Man, conscious of his own superiority,” heeded advice from those with valuable experience. The correspondent counselled that when […]

by Gene Procknow
Reviews Posted on

Money and the Making of the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: Money and the Making of the American Revolution by Andrew David Edwards (Princeton University Press, 2025). $35.00 hardcover In 1953, Edmund and Helen Morgan published The Stamp Act Crisis: Prologue to Revolution, a pathbreaking study of the earliest days of the imperial crisis which preceded the American Revolution.[1] Their contention, that the conflict […]

by Kevin Diestelow
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Augustin Lacroix and the Insurgency of Saint-Féréol, 1775–1776

Sedition in the Côte-de-Beaupré Historical accounts of the American invasion of Quebec in 1775 often reduce the campaign to movements on a map: Benedict Arnold’s march through the Maine wilderness, Richard Montgomery’s death in the snow of the Lower Town, and the British fleet’s arrival that forced an American retreat.[1] Beneath that high drama lay […]

by Carter F. Smith
Reviews Posted on

New Hampshire and Independence

BOOK REVIEW: New Hampshire and Independence: Rediscovered Writings from the Sons of the American Revolution edited by William Edmund Fahey (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2026). $34.99 Cloth, $24.99 Paperback The guidelines set for submissions to the Journal of the American Revolution ensure the articles exhibit the best practices of today’s historiography. They mandate that the […]

by Michael Barbieri
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Drew Palmer on Francis Marion’s Ambush at the Great Savannah

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Drew Palmer on how Francis Marion’s daring raid on the Great Savannah in 1780, began the legend of the “Swamp Fox.” New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the […]

by Editors
1
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

An Obscure Fort and Battle at Brandon’s Bay, Long Island, 1782

Although the Revolutionary War was winding down by the year 1782, there was still raiding across Long Island Sound between the British-Loyalists forces on Long Island and the Patriot forces in Connecticut. The raids which engaged both soldiers and citizens alike were often revenge seeking, creating a somewhat civil war between factions in the region. […]

by David M. Griffin
Reviews Posted on

The American Revolution at 250

BOOK REVIEW: The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding edited by Francis D. Cogliano (University of Virginia Press, 2026) $32.95 hardcover The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution has engendered a crowded commemorative landscape. This volume, The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding is University of Virginia […]

by Kevin Diestelow
Postwar Politics (>1783) Posted on

Disunion And The Right To Recede In The Founding Era

On July 19, 1788, as Federalist and Anti-Federalist delegates at the sharply divided New York ratifying convention debated the relative merits of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton wrote to James Madison. The New York convention sought to include a series of conditions and amendments before ratifying, and Hamilton solicited Madison’s opinion as to whether New York […]

by David Otersen
2
Slavery and Indentured Servitude Posted on

A Brief Introduction to the Slaving Empire of Henry Laurens

Henry Laurens is recognized by scholars of revolutionary history as the president of the Second Continental Congress during the Valley Forge winter and as a peace commissioner at the close of the American Revolution. He is also known to a broader audience, thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, as the father of John Laurens, the fiercely […]

by Greg Brooking and George Burkes