BOOK REVIEW: The Battle of Gloucester 1777 by Garry Wheeler Stone and Paul W. Schopp (Yardley, PA: Westhome Publishing, 2022) Garry Wheeler Stone’s and Paul W. Schopp’s The Battle of Gloucester 1777 comes to us as a part of Westholme Publishing’s new Small Battles series. The 152-page book highlights the small action that took place outside […]
The surrender of the British Army at Yorktown in 1781 was implemented by the three-party Articles of Capitulation (“the Articles”), one of the most important documents of the Revolutionary War, since the surrender eventually led to the Peace of Paris (1783) and American independence. Curiosity as to the current location of the original Articles, i.e., […]
David Williams, John Paulding, and Isaac Van Wart were celebrated as heroes during their lifetime, vaulted to fame by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, and lionized in popular ballads and the play The Glory of Columbia: Her Yeomanry.[1] Historian Mercy Otis Warren adored John André’s Captors, writing in 1805 that their names “ought never to […]
Following the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, the House of Commons began to debate whether or not the war should continue. There were three separate attempts over a period of two and a half months to end the war. This article presents the first attempt, that is, the first motion, […]
Students of history will no doubt have John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin at the top of their mind when recalling the great leaders of early America and the story of American independence. The thoughtful and considered utility of the words contained within the Declaration of Independence and Constitution cannot be understated. […]
BOOK REVIEW: American Revolutionary War in the South: Further Reflections from a British Perspective in the Light of the Cornwallis Papers. Vol. 2 by Ian Tolworth Saberton (Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing Co., 2022) Building upon expertise gained by editing Lt. Gen. Charles, Earl Cornwallis’s 1780 and 1781 official papers from the southern theater of the Revolutionary […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews emeritus professor of history and JAR contributor Louis Arthur Norton on the use of capital punishment and revenge killings as a penalty or deterrent for desertion, espionage, atrocities, or loyalty to one side or the other during the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free […]
During the American Revolution, some of the hardest-fought and most bitter battles occurred in the land of the Six Nations, the Iroquois lands stretching from the Hudson River on the east to Lake Erie in the west of what is now upstate, central and western New York State. Both the Americans and British were campaigning […]
If you ask an outsider about the State of Delaware, they are likely to respond, “Dela-where?” “Do you mean Delaware County???” A few may reply, “Yeah. I think I passed through there once on my way to D.C.” If asked about the French history of the state, others may shrug, saying, “Sure. That’s the DuPont […]
BOOK REVIEW: Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War by Friederike Baer (New York: Oxford University Press, 2022) Writing a detailed, authoritative account of the British Army’s German troops has always been a tough climb requiring a combination of several advanced skills. Much of the source material has remained untranslated into English either in whole or […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Damien Cregeau on the contributions of Daniel Hitchcock, a Rhode Island officer who led New England troops in key early battles of the Revolution, including Second Trenton and Princeton, but had his career cut short by disease. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every […]
“War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”[1] The application of justice during the Revolutionary War deserves scrutiny. Historic records related to people condemned to death during this period reflect society’s norm for justice, deterrence, and often vengeance. Countless men on both sides of the conflict were executed for treachery, betrayal, or perfidy. Several examples […]
One of the most insightful monologues in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton musical comes from King George, who raps to the following effect: Well, now that you have your freedom, do you have any idea what to do next? To most Americans at the time of the War for Independence, of course, the King’s question was the […]
BOOK REVIEW: Robert Morris: Inside the Revolution by Robert M. Morris (Waterville, OR: Trine Day LLC, 2022) Entrepreneur and inventor Robert M. Morris (no relation to the book’s subject) is the perfect channel to present the story of the American Revolution’s “forgotten” hero, Robert Morris. George Washington is Father of the Nation, James Madison is […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews museum curator and JAR contributor Colin Zimmerman about the Battle of Crosswicks, New Jersey, a small but critical battle before the clash at Monmouth. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web […]
As a collateral descendant of Daniel Hitchcock (first cousin, nine times removed), I have always been fascinated by the short but important life of this colonel from Providence, Rhode Island, who was taken by illness following the Battle of Princeton at the young age of thirty-seven. Likely because there is neither an existing house nor […]
On April 1, 2015, Queen Elizabeth II announced the creation of the Georgian Papers Programme. It is a ten-year project to transcribe, digitize, conserve, catalogue, and disseminate close to 425,000 pages related to England’s Hanoverian monarchs located in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle. Most of the papers are personal and official correspondence—the remaining are […]
BOOK REVIEW: Leading Like the Swamp Fox: The Leadership Lessons of Francis Marion by Kevin Dougherty and Steven D. Smith (Philadelphia: Casemate Publishers, 2022) The past decade has seen a resurgence of interest in Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, the Continental officer turned partisan commander who, along with Thomas Sumter, Andrew Pickens, and several lesser-known officers, […]
Sir Henry Clinton inherited an unmitigated strategic disaster when he assumed command of the Crown Forces in North America during the spring of 1778. Previous campaigns had taught the newly-minted command-in-chief that if there was to be a complete victory for the British, it needed to be in a thoroughly decisive action on the battlefield […]
“In war, as in medicine, natural causes not under our control, do much.” Gen. Horatio Gates wrote this about the terrain that so heavily influenced his victory at Saratoga in 1777. Another natural cause that heavily influenced events of the American Revolution was weather. Here are ten instances where unexpectedly uncooperative weather had a major […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Aaron J. Palmer on the social and political significance of the 1775 duel between the elite Henry Laurens and the up-start John Faucheraud Grimké. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon […]
“Permit me to thank you, in the most affectionate manner, for the kind wishes you have so happily expressed for me and the partner of all my domestic enjoyments. Be assured, we can never forget our friend at Morven.” George Washington[1] To whom was George Washington writing and why did he offer, “in the most […]
It is widely acknowledged that the military alliance between the United States and France, established in 1778, was responsible not only for a number of American victories over the British, but also for the end of the Revolutionary War. While much has been written about this topic as well as the events that occurred between […]
BOOK REVIEW: Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York by David N. Gellman (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2022) America’s Founders are routinely criticized for creating a republic that tolerated, and often defended, African slavery, but at least one of the Founders, New York’s John Jay, inaugurated a family tradition of anti-slavery […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews museum professional and JAR contributor Victor J. DiSanto on his research into the men who captured British spy John André after his rendezvous with Benedict Arnold. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]
The most common storm that the British navy and army encountered at sea and on land during the American War of Independence was the nor’easter. Nor’easters usually develop in the latitudes between Georgia and New Jersey within 100 miles east or west of the East Coast. These storms Progress generally northeastward and typically attain maximum […]
Charles Town, the metropolis of the South (today Charleston, South Carolina), was a leading location for duels in the late eighteenth century. One detailed example reveals much about the practice and about honor in general. In this case, an elite gentleman used every means available to him to defend his honor and police the bounds […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews best-selling author and historian Nancy Rubin Stuart on what made Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read’s marriage one of the more unusual among prominent Americans of the Revolutionary era. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon […]
The January 6, 2021 assault on the Capital rocked America, but it was by no means the largest, or even the most threatening, armed rebellion in the post-Revolutionary War era. In 1786 and 1787, Daniel Shays, a middle-class farmer and decorated Continental Army captain, was one of several leaders of as many as four thousand […]
For more than 200 years, people have debated the character and motives of the three men who captured Major John André on September 23, 1780, frequently misidentifying them as Skinners. The military service of David Williams, John Paulding, and Isaac Van Wart as well as the records of five of their comrades during the American […]
BOOK REVIEW: Feeding Washington’s Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 byRicardo A. Herrera (Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2022) The myth of the Valley Forge winter encampment is that the Continental Army went through terrible conditions and heroically came out as a much more disciplined force in the end. […]
We expect writers for the Journal of the American Revolution to use primary sources—things written as close as possible to the time of the events that they describe. Sometimes even primary sources contain inaccuracies that can be spotted and resolved only by cross-referencing other primary sources. One example lies in the records of a criminal trial […]
Every ten years the United States engages in the process of re-apportionment, wherein each state with more than one House seat redraws their Congressional districts. Simultaneously, every re-districting cycle partisans, activists, and pundits alike all bewail the harmful effects of gerrymandering on the process. Far from a modern phenomenon, partisan politics has always had a […]
Today, July 4, Americans celebrate independence from Great Britain, independence that was proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence. This is an important thing to commemorate, and July 4 is a good day to do it – even though many of the things that are celebrated did not occur on that date. Over the years JAR […]
For the past two years I have had the good fortune to be heading up a project to gather, for eventual publication, the correspondence of one of the more colorful officers on the British side, Francis Lord Rawdon. Rawdon was an Irishman, one of a handful of young officers who catapulted to command ahead of […]
She was neither beautiful nor wealthy. Nor was Benjamin Franklin’s wife educated or intellectual. Nevertheless in 1724 he proposed to Deborah Read while renting a room from her father, the carpenter John Read of Philadelphia. Was it simply youthful passion that attracted him or did the eighteen-year-old printer ask for Deborah’s hand because she had […]
BOOK REVIEW: Our Dear Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America by Michael D. Breidenbach (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2021) Most Americans in pre-revolutionary times had a strong dislike of Catholicism. They believed it to be a religion of ignorance, a religion of tyranny, and the religion of the enemy. The ever-opinionated John […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Todd W. Braisted on Israel Putnam and William Tryon trying to influence Hessian forces around Kingsbridge, New York, with dueling proclamations. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the […]
“The great End and Business therefore of Philosophy, is to make us truly happy; and this is the End ultimately pursued through all the Arts and Sciences, they are only so many Means of our Happiness.”—Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy, 1731. “ETHICS, which explains & directs the Temper & […]
