Deserter advertisements and runaway notices, fascinating though they are, provide only single elements of what were certainly more complex stories. In rare cases, further research reveals much more about a person. Take this ad, for example: Twenty Dollars Reward. Deserted from Captain Jacob Mauser’s company, of the sixth Pennsylvania regiment, on Monday the 11th instant, […]
The soldiers from several German principalities who were contracted to supplement the British army in America are often called mercenaries, a misnomer propagated during the war itself to vilify these soldiers and enhance the impression of British oppression. Although the British government did pay for these soldiers, they paid the German princes who then sent […]
Desertion was as much a problem for the British army as it was for the American. Once the war began, however, British officers seldom placed ads for deserters in newspapers. This may be because the British army was largely confined to areas around major cities where information about deserters could be circulated in army orders, […]
The deserter advertisement presented today illustrates several important facets of the Continental Army. Looking at this list of thirteen deserters, we see: Men born on both sides of the Atlantic A variety of ages A soldier accompanied by his wife Some men with short hair Desertion was sometimes a very, very big problem Deserted from […]
Newspapers are among our favorite things at Journal of the American Revolution, providing endless information and insight about America’s Revolutionary era. In addition to news, notices, and opinion pieces, newspapers carried advertising that reveals important aspects of the people who placed ads and read them. Some of the ads were actually about people. When soldiers […]
Just as many schools are going on spring break now, so is Journal of the American Revolution. We will be taking a short hiatus to recover from all the exciting activity in our world and will return to our regular programming the week of April 11. Writers: Please continue to send your article submissions to ed****@al**************.com during […]
This month we gave a hearty hello to four new writers: Stephen Brumwell, Michelle Porter, Alec D. Rogers and David Turnquist. We also welcomed a new advertiser, which has planned one of the most impressive history conference itineraries we’ve ever seen. If the Fort Plain Museum’s Second Annual Conference on the American Revolution (June 9-12) isn’t already on […]
If one looked into Benjamin Franklin’s time on Craven Street, they might initially believe he lived at 36 Craven Street the entirety of his two stays in London based on the plethora of articles on the internet that say so. If they dug a little deeper they might read that he lived at No. 27 […]
Book review: The First Congress: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government by Fergus M. Bordewich (Simon & Schuster, 2016) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Upon ratification of the Constitution, many Americans likely breathed a sigh of relief or, in some cases, despair. The tumult that had accompanied ratification could […]
On March 22, 1765, the Stamp Act was passed in the House of Commons by a vote of 205 to 49. The Act caused both anger and resentment in the colonies – not so much because of its imposition of a tax, but rather because of its manner of enactment and means of enforcement. […]
Think of Revolutionary War lyrics. Does a ditty about a dandified bumpkin out on the town come to mind? “Yankee Doodle” was just one of many satires written during the American Revolution. A wealth of wit pervaded poetry that filled newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic. Most verses were satires set to the tunes […]
Book review: Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Youth and Military Service in the Revolutionary War by John A. Ruddiman (University of Virginia Press, 2014). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Distinct from the many works that focus on the political dynamics, notable figures and military campaigns associated with the American War for Independence, Professor John Ruddiman centers attention […]
Denouncing the reputation of Benedict Arnold began immediately after he fled West Point and returned his allegiance to the British empire on September 25, 1780. Without hesitation, contemporaries denounced him as a nefarious human being, a devious villain suddenly well-known to everyone for his “barbarity,” “avarice,” “ingratitude,” and “hypocrisy,” in sum nothing more than “a […]
If there was one tall hunk that nearly all the women of the colonies swooned over (and many in England and Europe, quite likely), it was Gen. George Washington. He was mobbed in the towns he passed through, he never sat out one dance, and even received groupie letters asking for a lock of his […]
Thanks to a critically-acclaimed and phenomenally popular Broadway musical, Alexander Hamilton has, quite literally, returned to the spotlight. The success of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton, a show inspired by Ron Chernow’s best-selling 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton, has helped to rekindle interest in a man who, even when judged by the exceptional standards of the Founding Fathers, […]
Book review: Rutgers v. Waddington: Alexander Hamilton, the End of the War for Independence, and the Origins of Judicial Review by Peter Charles Hoffer (Kansas University Press, 2016). [BUY ON AMAZON] During the Revolutionary War, a widow named Elizabeth Rutgers and her sons were forced to abandon their brewery when the British occupied New York City in […]
New London’s harbor was the center of Connecticut’s wartime naval activity for the duration of the eight-year American Revolution. Because of its recognized importance, its provincial government, as early as 1775, sought ways to protect it. Sending a military commission to the harbor area, they would eventually order the construction of three earthen fortifications on […]
Almost every day, I drive past a Revolutionary War roadside marker. It commemorates a house that served as the headquarters of patriot Gen. Israel Putnam in 1777. Putnam occupied the elegant brick building briefly while he mustered militia to oppose a British incursion up the Hudson River. The enemy raid was intended to relieve Burgoyne’s […]
The Fort Plain Museum, in the heart of upstate New York, is proud to announce its Second Annual Conference on the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley–the 2016 conference features more authors, more days and more events. Click here to download the flyer, the registration form or the schedule. The Mohawk played a key role in the struggle […]
“No taxation without representation” was not a notion born in the American colonies in 1765 with the passage of the Stamp Act, or with James Otis’s 1764 pamphlet The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved, or in his 1761 courtroom oration against Writs of Assistance. It was born with the “Pistole” fee in […]
Winston Churchill: “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.” Almost without exception present day military commanders have heeded Winston Churchill’s advice.[1] Starting with Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf’s book on the First Gulf War, successive American commanders in the Middle East have written books describing their war strategies and emphasizing positive […]
February felt like National New JAR Contributor Month with four new writers: Ennis Duling, Anthony J. Minna, Thomas Thorleifur Sobol and Tyler Rudd Putman. Welcome aboard! That makes seven new JAR authors in the first two months of 2016 and 120 total JAR contributors since we launched! Together we have now published more than 725 articles with many more fascinating pieces on […]
We are pleased to introduce our newest collectible hardback, which is now available for pre-order via Amazon and will deliver in April. The Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume 2016, presents the journal’s best historical research and writing over the past calendar year. Articles are carefully selected by the editorial board and authors are given […]
Book review: George Washington’s Journey: The President Forges a New Nation by T. H. Breen (Simon & Schuster, 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] George Washington’s standing as the Revolutionary Era’s “indispensable man” is virtually unchallenged. Veteran historian T.H. Breen’s new study of Washington’s tours during his first term of office can only add to that assessment. […]
In July 1776, Brig. Gen. Benedict Arnold brought charges against Col. Moses Hazen for disobeying orders and neglecting merchandise seized in Montréal. Hazen was a Massachusetts-born Québec landowner and merchant who commanded a small regiment of Canadians in the Continental army. In April when Arnold took command in Montréal, he called Hazen “a sensible judicious […]
No country venerates its “Founding Fathers” like the United States. Academics, legislators, judges, and ordinary citizens all frequently seek to validate their opinions and policy prescriptions by identifying them with the statesmen who led America to nationhood. It is not surprising, therefore, that debates about the role of religion in the United States are infused […]
An internet search for Conrad Heyer will reveal that he was a Revolutionary War soldier who crossed the Delaware with George Washington. In fact, you’ll find a variation of this sentence repeated on page after page almost word for word: “He served in the Continental Army under George Washington during the Revolutionary War, crossing the […]
Taxation without representation has been the traditionally accepted cause of the American Revolution. Such an understanding of the Revolution, while valid, does not give credit to its complexity. An often-neglected aspect of Virginia’s American Revolution experience is the importance of the frontier. Soil exhaustion, a recurrent problem of Virginia’s tobacco economy, turned planters into land […]
Book review: Washington’s Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution by Patrick K. O’Donnell (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] The author uses the words of the actual participants to craft a powerful narrative of the American Revolution focusing on the contributions and sacrifices of […]
“The most unhappy man in the world,” wrote the Commissary General of Purchases at Valley Forge about Gen. George Washington.[1] On every portrait we examine, on every image we see, the commander in chief does appear burdened and preoccupied. Occasionally, though, hidden among the millions of words written by, and about, General Washington, we catch […]
When Gen. Henry Clinton was preparing the British army to leave Philadelphia, he received instructions from Lord George Germain, the British Secretary at War, to send 5,800 troops to the West Indies. When he learned that the navy was in no position to send ships to protect the transports, Clinton refused to dispatch the troops. […]
Book Review: First Entrepreneur: How George Washington Built His — and the Nation’s — Prosperity by Edward G. Lengel (Da Capo Press, 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] When one thinks of George Washington, perhaps the first image is that of the military commander of the Revolutionary War. Next might be Washington as president. Few are likely to […]
In an army where men died as a matter of course, there was nonetheless something peculiarly unsettling about the business scheduled for the morning of September 23, 1776. The grim verdict of a court-martial four days before had, at least in the opinion of Connecticut’s Joseph Plumb Martin, left the troops “greatly exasperated.”[1] For his […]
In the spring of 1775, the fur trading post at the junction of Lakes Michigan and Huron looked much as it had for years. Fort Michilimackinac, significantly larger than when the French founded the site in 1715, comprised a tall stockade wall surrounding streets of privately owned row houses, a church, a soldiers’ barracks, officers’ […]
On July 4, 1776, the authors of American independence declared to the world “that all men are created equal, [and] that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” However, one of the Declaration’s grievances against the English Crown was that it employed “the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose […]
On April 24, 1775, Samuel Adams and John Hancock arrived in Worcester, Massachusetts, forty miles west of Boston. They hoped to find three more men – John Adams, Thomas Cushing and Robert Treat Paine – who were the other three delegates from the colony to the upcoming second Continental Congress, but they had not been […]
The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island is the only Jewish house of worship that survives from the American colonial period. Built at the threshold of America’s Revolutionary period, it survived the war and the damaging occupation of Newport by British troops. After the war, the congregation returned and the synagogue formed the focal point […]
January 2016 was triple-A rated for featuring plenty of new announcements, authors and articles. We crowned Independence Lost by Kathleen DuVal as our 2015 book award winner and shared our top 30 articles of the previous 12 months. The first two books of our new series—The Road to Concord by J. L. Bell and Grand […]
In the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House hangs a painting commissioned by the Maryland Legislature often called the “Annapolis Portrait” of George Washington by Charles Willson Peale. The moment portrayed in the work is after the surrender of the British Army at Yorktown in 1781. Two of the figures are easily recognized, […]
