*** All JAR Articles ***

1
Interviews Posted on

Contributor Close-up: Joshua Shepherd

About Joshua Shepherd Joshua Shepherd, a sculptor and freelance writer, has created over 20 public monuments. His articles, with a special focus on Revolutionary and frontier America, have appeared in publications including MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Military Heritage, Muzzle Blasts, and The Artilleryman. He lives in rural Indiana with his wife and children. What […]

by Editors
News Posted on

Top 10 Articles of June 2017

Before we break for Independence Day, we want to extend a hearty welcome to several new writers who joined the JAR squad in June—Katie Turner Getty, Richard J. Werther, Joseph F. Stoltz III, Robert N. Fanelli and Darren R. Reid. That makes an impressive crew of 164 journal writers total!  We will be taking the week of July […]

by Editors
7
People Posted on

Five Walkers of Sandy River

The conflict in the south is often referred to as a civil war, pitting family members against each other. I haven’t really found too many instances of close family against each other; maybe Edward Lacey or James Habersham are good examples. But it is common to find entire families serving together in the district regiments. […]

by Wayne Lynch
2
Reviews Posted on

Theaters of the American Revolution: Northern, Middle, Southern, Western, Naval

Book review: Theaters of the American Revolution: Northern, Middle, Southern, Western, Naval by James Kirby Martin, Mark Edward Lender, Edward G. Lengel, Charles Neimeyer, Jim Piecuch and David Preston (Westholme Publishing, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] The concept of a global war divided into distinct geographic theaters, each with its own unique characteristics is well established […]

by Gene Procknow
6
Politics During the War (1775-1783) Posted on

The Scandalous Divorce Case that Influenced the Declaration of Independence

During the hot, humid Philadelphia summer of 1776, the writing of the Declaration of Independence was just another Congressional housekeeping chore which the delegates decided would have to be done to explain to people everywhere why the vote for American independence had just happened. As Thomas Jefferson later described it: “an appeal to the tribunal […]

by John L. Smith, Jr.
7
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Le Plus Détaillée: The July 1781 Reconnaissance of New York

Continental Army general George Washington sat atop his horse ignoring the “smart skirmish” raging around him.[1] He could have joined his soldiers in attacking the Hessian troops “very much allarm’d” by the Americans’ “sudent appeerence before their works.” [2] Instead, Washington focused on the fortifications just beyond the Germans. The skirmish that occurred on July […]

by Joseph F. Stoltz III
News Posted on

Top Articles of May 2017

Last call for Fort Plain Museum’s 2017 American Revolution Conference! The sign-up deadline has been extended to Tuesday, June 6. It was a busy month so here is a quick recap. In May, we welcomed more than 75,000 unique readers and two new writers: Aaron J. Palmer and Kyle Dalton. Our 2017 collectible hardcover and our newest JAR […]

by Editors
2
Interviews Posted on

Contributor Close-up: Jeff Dacus

About Jeff Dacus Jeff Dacus is a retired U.S. Marine. He presently lives in Vancouver, Washington where he teaches middle school U.S. History. He’s earned three master’s degrees, including one in American history from University of Portland and one in military history from American Military University. What inspired you to start researching and writing about […]

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

The 3rd New Jersey Regiment’s Plundering of Johnson Hall

The newly formed 3rd New Jersey Regiment, commanded by Col. Elias Dayton, was mustered into the Continental Army on May 2, 1776.  It was reviewed in New York City by Generals Washington, Putnam, Sullivan, and Greene.  The regiment’s Capt. Joseph Bloomfield noted in his personal journal that the generals claimed they were the “compleatest and […]

by Philip D. Weaver
1
People Posted on

“The Man Unmasked”:  Henry Laurens, Egerton Leigh, and the Making of a Revolutionary

Henry Laurens, one of colonial South Carolina’s wealthiest and most politically powerful planter-merchants, was a conservative by nature.[1]  When the imperial crisis began to drive Britain and its colonies apart, Laurens moved cautiously even when he disliked British policy.  When Laurens refused to join the Sons of Liberty in protest of the Stamp Act, a […]

by Aaron J. Palmer
5
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Unappreciated Allies: Choctaws, Creeks, and the Defense of British West Florida, 1781

Two months after Spain entered the American Revolutionary War on June 21, 1779, the governor of Spanish Louisiana, Don Bernardo de Galvez, launched an invasion of the British province of West Florida on August 27. The defenders, consisting of two British infantry regiments, a detachment of the Royal Artillery, two understrength provincial battalions, a regiment […]

by Jim Piecuch
Reviews Posted on

Thomas Jefferson — Revolutionary: A Radical’s Struggle to Remake America

Book review: Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary: A Radical’s Struggle to Remake America by Kevin R. C. Gutzman (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Few of the nation’s founding figures are as debated and controversial as Thomas Jefferson, the early American political figure chiefly remembered for penning the Declaration of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase.  In Thomas […]

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

The “Battle at McIntire’s Farm”: Joseph Graham as Historian of the Revolution

On September 25, 1780 as Lord Cornwallis entered North Carolina he was harassed by “a few light troops” commanded by Col. William R. Davie[1] and supported by Capt. Joseph Graham. Twenty-one if he lived until October 13, Graham had been assigned by the newly-created Brig. Gen. William L. Davidson because he was from Charlotte.[2] Rushing […]

by Hershel Parker
3
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

How many troops did Cornwallis actually bring to the Battle of Guilford?

  A re-evaluation in the light of The Cornwallis Papers Works about the Revolutionary War are littered with references to troop numbers, whether to rank and file or not, and betray some confusion between the two.  On analysing British and British American regimental returns I discovered that the proportion of officers, staff, non-commissioned officers and […]

by Ian Saberton
8
Interviews Posted on

Contributor Close-up: Gary G. Shattuck

About Gary G. Shattuck Gary Shattuck served over three decades in the Vermont law enforcement community as a supervising officer with the Vermont State Police, an Assistant Attorney General and as an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice. He has also served as a legal advisor to governments in Kosovo and […]

by Editors
8
Features Posted on

The Complex Character of John Paul Jones and his Polite Home Invasion

To British aristocracy, John Paul Jones was a thieving rebel and a Scotch-borne traitor to the Empire. To seacoast citizens of the British Isles, Jones was portrayed as Blackbeard the pirate, a renegade rogue cutthroat. “Chap-books depicted Paul Jones as a buccaneer, armed to the teeth, in highly colored pictures, bloody and terrifying. Mothers frightened […]

by John L. Smith, Jr.