In 1781, British forces operating in Canada set their eyes on kidnapping prominent Americans in Vermont and upstate New York. These patriot leaders had stirred up opposition to efforts to draw Vermont into British Canada. At the time, General Frederick Haldimand, the Governor of the Province of Quebec (which at that time included what is […]
Between his voyages to England and France, Benjamin Franklin logged more transatlantic cruises than any other founder. In fact, in his lifetime, he took a total of eight cruises[i]. On his final 1785 cruise sailing from France to Philadelphia, Ben continued a letter he had started in 1784 in Paris to his friend Julien-David LeRoy. […]
Dear Mr. History: What happened with the famous mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line that occurred January, 1781? Did the soldiers have legitimate grievances? What does such a mutiny say about the professionalism of the Continental Army? Sincerely, Miffed About Mutinies Dear Miffed: When the soldiers of the Pennsylvania Line mutinied most of them had not […]
Myth: “Alerted by signal lanterns, express riders Paul Revere and William Dawes eluded British patrols and spurred their horses toward Lexington along separate routes to warn Hancock and Adams.” – Created Equal: A History of the United States, a 2009 college textbook[1] “When Revere and fellow patriot William Dawes saw two lights shine, they set […]
Have you ever tried to imagine what it would have been like to witness an important historical event? If so, the Boston Tea Party Annual Reenactment is a must-attend event. On Monday December 16, 2013, I attended the 240th Anniversary Boston Tea Party Annual Reenactment presented by the Old South Meeting House and the Boston […]
In my recent book, Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott (Westholme Publishing, 2013), I focus on two of the outstanding kidnappings of the Revolutionary War. The first was the stunning capture of Major General Charles Lee, second-in-command of the Continental army, by Lieutenant Colonel William Harcourt and […]
Although half the population was female, writings by women make up only a small portion of the available literature on the American Revolution. There are, nonetheless, quite a number of published tracts to inform and entertain the researcher seeking a woman’s perspective on the events of the era. This list presents only a few, in […]
It was January 1776. In a bold plan hatched in London to end this rebellion, General Sir Henry Clinton was to sail from New York with 2,000 British regulars to the Cape Fear coastline of North Carolina. Meeting him in Brunswick, North Carolina with more troops would be naval commander Commodore Sir Peter Parker and […]
You may think that newspapers are only good for news, but advertising is a critical part of their content. Not only does advertising bring in substantial revenue for the publisher, it’s the reason why many people purchase the paper – think about those coupons, classifieds and supplements. For historians, advertising is also an essential part […]
Until the early decades of the 20th century saw wide-spread construction of roads in North America, water provided ready-made highways. Lake Champlain formed 125 miles of one such 350-mile-long artery through the wilderness that lay between the Atlantic Ocean at New York City and the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. In the spring of 1776, […]
By 1773, Creek Indians in Georgia had run up debts with traders far larger than any amount they could pay. The colony pressed the issue on behalf of its traders and worked out a land deal whereby the Creeks made a large tract of land west of Augusta available for settlement. In return, the colony […]
History is best served through teamwork and collaboration, so thanks to the team of 48 writers who all made Journal of the American Revolution‘s first year a huge success. Special thanks to Hugh Harrington, Don Hagist and J. L. Bell for their extraordinary editing and writing contributions. And as a thank you to our loyal […]
For contemporary Americans the difference between militia and regular, or “Continental,” soldiers is hard to grasp. Both fought in the war. Both suffered casualties. Both have supporters who claim they won the war. For decades after the Revolution, politicians spouted clouds of hot air on the subject, mostly aimed at denigrating the regular army in […]
If you could time travel and visit any American city/colony/state for one year between 1763 and 1783, which city/colony/state and year would you choose? Why? Blessed by 30 years of genealogical research performed by my mother, I actually lay claim to personal connections in all sorts of places in the colonies. However, the one […]
What aspects of or questions regarding the American Revolution need to be further explored by historians? All of them. I think a return to primary sources and close comparison to modern secondary sources yields some extremely interesting results in the evolution of modern history. Should much of what is now considered history be consigned […]
What books do you consider essential to any American Revolution buff’s library? Why? About 12 years ago I ran across John Buchanan’s The Road to Guilford Courthouse and fell in love with the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. Been stuck there ever since. To this day, many of the opinions or views I […]
Do you think there was a greater strategy behind most of the pre-war violence, or was it primarily raw emotion and vengeance? There was a greater strategy but, unfortunately, that strategy routinely used raw emotion and vengeance against its opponents. As early as the Stamp Act Crisis, the Sons of Liberty learned to target […]
In your opinion, what was George Washington’s biggest blunder of the war? Its impact, if any? Washington’s whole approach to the defense of New York was one of history’s great debacles: lack of imagination about the British landing, failure to supervise subordinates in preparing the Brooklyn defenses, boxing himself into Brooklyn Heights with no […]
Richard C. Wiggin is the author of Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783. This book is a very detailed study of all the Revolutionary War soldiers from one American town, designed to preserve their names and biographical information. In the late nineteenth century, many town histories contained a chapter […]
Edward Snowden and the NSA documents. Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables. Daniel Elsberg and the Pentagon papers. Benjamin Franklin and the Hutchinson letters? Snowden, Assange, and Elsberg all considered themselves to be self-appointed whistleblowers. Individuals who wanted to open governments by disclosing sensitive government documents. Without a doubt, all three started huge controversies […]
On 10 November 1775, slightly more than four months after he had taken command of the American troops besieging Boston, Gen. George Washington sent a list of books to an old military colleague in Virginia. William Woodford (1734–1780) had just been reappointed an officer for their home colony. Woodford complained about the “inexperience” of his […]
In early February 1780, General George Washington’s main army was encamped at Jockey Hollow, New Jersey. But the general maintained his headquarters about three miles away in Morristown, at the house of the widow Theodosia Ford. That separation enticed the British high command into undertaking an operation that, if successful, would cripple the Continental Army […]
On 6 December 1773, Lt. Col. Alexander Leslie of the 64th Regiment of Foot wrote a letter to the highest ranking official in the British army, Lord Viscount Barrington, the Secretary at War. It may seem unusual for an officer of Leslie’s rank to write directly to an officer subordinate only to the King, but […]
1. Myth: Tarring and feathering could be fatal. Busted: The notion that hot tar caused severe, sometimes fatal burns is based on the assumption that “tar” meant the asphalt we use on roads, which is typically stored in liquid state at about 300°F (150°C). But in the eighteenth century “tar” meant pine tar, used for […]
As a near-life-long New York resident and “struggling actor,” it is always a pleasure to see the ever-present throngs of theatre-goers throughout the City. Theatre has for well over a century been recognized as an American art form, especially the musicals that so dominate Broadway. Yet while common today, the theatre had a far different, […]
Thanks to the porous state of the British lines around Philadelphia and the industry of General Washington’s secret agents, there is little doubt that American officers at Valley Forge were aware of the dramas that a British Army theater company known as Howe’s Strolling Players presented at the Southwark Theater during 1777-78. The Americans considered […]
Parliament’s passage of the 1765 Stamp Act is rightly viewed by many as a key moment in the American Revolution. This new “internal” tax, which the British parliament adopted so that the American colonists would pay their “fair share” of Great Britain’s massive French and Indian War debt, (and also contribute to ongoing military expenses), […]
At the time of the revolution, John Houstoun was one of four brothers from a prominent plantation owning family in Georgia. Unlike Patrick and George, younger brothers John and James were both patriots from the late 1760s when they were educated in Charleston, South Carolina’s highly charged political atmosphere. On his return to Georgia, John […]
The first version of “Yankee Doodle” seems to have been written by a British army physician, Dr. Richard Schuckberg, during the French and Indian War. It was a satiric look at New England’s Yankees. Brother Ephraim sold his cow And bought him a commission And then he went to Canada To fight for the nation; […]
THE TRIAL THAT GRIPPED THE NEW NATION The Grand Jury in Richmond determined that there was ample evidence of George Wythe Sweeney’s guilt. Virginia attorney general Philip Norborne Nicholas would be prosecuting the murder trial against Sweeney. The talented 31-year old prosecutor was the product of a highly influential family in Virginia who helped to […]
George Wythe was about the last person anybody would ever want to murder. At age 80, Wythe was an exceedingly kind and generous man who could be seen ambling down the streets of Richmond, Virginia in that year of 1806. The townspeople loved him, “His countenance was exceedingly benevolent and cheerful …”[1] and “He moved […]
In the autumn of 1776 loyalists from East Florida under Thomas “Burntfoot” Brown and Daniel McGirth frequently raided the southern parishes of Georgia keeping its citizens in constant disarray and disrupting rice and cattle production. The very thin population in the area made defense a difficult proposition. Trying to stop the raids and protect the […]
Until the capture of Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright in World War II, the highest-ranking American generals taken prisoner were Major Generals Benjamin Lincoln and Charles Lee. Lincoln was taken when his army was forced to surrender at Charleston in 1780 but the enigmatic, eccentric Lee was ignominiously kidnapped when he failed to billet himself within […]
We had a lot to be thankful for in November. Aside from several great articles and new contributors, we celebrated the launch of our collector’s hardcover edition. If you’ve enjoyed the the full year of free content we’ve been providing, please pick up a couple copies as gifts for those special RevWar buffs in your […]
All of that great eating on Thanksgiving Day sometimes has natural consequences that lead us to seek entirely different recipes for Friday. If we’ve time-traveled to the mid 18th century and are relying on published cookbooks for information, we’re in luck: most books containing recipes were not strictly cookbooks in the sense that we know […]
While the modern, formalized definition of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November was not set as a national observance until the time of the Civil War, and wasn’t codified into law until 1941, governors of the various states (and before the Revolution, colonies) proclaimed harvest Thanksgivings each year, so our food traditions around this […]
What to serve for desert after a Thanksgiving meal? Pumpkin pie, obviously. Unfortunately for the revolutionary-era aspiring chef in America, pumpkins are plentiful but pie-making recipes using them have yet to be published. Indeed, one of the most widely-printed British cookbooks said that “The Pumpkin is a very ordinary Fruit, and is principally the Food […]
Yesterday we saw how to roast a turkey according to a popular 18th century cookbook. It wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving dinner without turkey, but it also wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving dinner without an assortment of tasty dishes to go with that luscious bird. This is where preparing the meal in accordance with published period recipes […]
It’s the time of year when Americans are musing over favorite recipes for Thanksgiving meals. Everyone has a favorite dish and there are countless family traditions, but the undisputed king of the holiday table is the turkey. This tasty fowl is also a cook’s challenge, because whole turkeys are seldom served in the home at […]
