Don N. Hagist is managing editor of Journal of the American Revolution (allthingsliberty.com). His historical studies focus on presenting an accurate picture of individual soldiers and their families, especially those of the British army who served in America. This research is done using exclusively primary sources, mostly from archives in North America and Europe. He is a consultant for the PBS documentary The American Revolution produced by Ken Burns, and has written several recent books including Noble Volunteers: the British Soldiers who fought the American Revolution (Westholme, 2020), The Revolution’s Last Men: The Soldiers behind the Photographs (Westholme, 2015) and These Distinguished Corps: British Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions in the American Revolution (Helion, 2022). Don is an engineer for a major medical device manufacturer, and also writes for several well-known syndicated cartoonists.
BOOK REVIEW: A Dear-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston, 1775-1776 by Daniel T. Davis and Phillip S. Greenwalt (Savas Beatie, 2026) $16.95 Paperback Studies of Revolutionary War battles tend to focus disproportionately on only a few of the clashes that occurred during the eight-year-long war. The Battle of Bunker […]
When the request came, I was surprised, excited and flattered in equal parts. Would I be an advisor for the upcoming PBS series The American Revolution, produced by Ken Burns? Of course I said yes, despite not knowing what the project would actually entail. I had heard it was in the works, but did not […]
If you’ve travelled on US Interstate 90 in New York between Albany and Rome, New York, you may have noticed the words FORT PLAIN emblazoned on a hillside rising up on one side of the highway. It would be easy to assume that this just announces the town of Fort Plain, but for the Revolutionary […]
The British army did a lot of recruiting in 1775 and 1776. After the government committed to using force to quell the rebellion in America, the War Office increased the authorized size of each regiment deployed overseas by 50 percent—from 360 private soldiers to 540. Part of this increase was accomplished by transferring soldiers from […]
When Bryan McSweeny stepped ashore on Staten Island in August 1776, it must have looked like a paradise. He had spent the previous three years in Jamaica, in a tropical climate that was often fatal to Europeans; now, he saw a verdant landscape and felt temperatures similar to his native town of Macroom in County […]
After the Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina on September 8, 1781, the commander of the British forces reported, among other casualties 313 rank and file (that is, corporals and private soldiers) wounded and another 224 missing.[1] While surviving muster rolls can be used to determine which men were killed in a battle, it is […]
BOOK REVIEW: Revolutionary War Defenses in Rhode Island by John K. Robertson (Providence: Rhode Island Publications Society, 2022) Mention Rhode Island during the American Revolution, and two things come to mind: the 1772 burning of the Gaspee, and the famous 1st Rhode Island Regiment initially composed largely of African-Americans and Native Americans. Those with more […]
BOOK REVIEW: Misinformation Nation: Foreign News and the Politics of Truth in Revolutionary America by Jordan E. Taylor (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) Almost every book that discusses the rise of revolutionary fervor in colonial America includes the role of newspapers. The impact of the press on the way that events unfolded in North America […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Sewing Girl’s Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America by John Wood Sweet (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2022) It is one of the great ironies of historical studies that the people who were most numerous are the ones about whom, as individuals, the least information survives. The ordinary […]
“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 […]
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 […]
“Dear Brother,” wrote Thomas Plumb from Newport, Rhode Island, on February 22, 1777, “this comes with my kind Love to you and hope these lines will find you, my Wife, Child & all Enquiring Friends in as good Health as they do Leave me at this Present time.”[1] Plumb has been in Rhode Island for […]
During the night of April 18-19, 1775, a force of roughly 700 British soldiers left Boston on a mission to find and destroy rebel military stores in Concord, Massachusetts. What happened on that day is the topic of innumerable books and articles, most of which treat the soldiers as an amorphous mass of men. But […]
Three pounds was a lot money for a working man in Scotland in the mid-1770s. More than two months’ pay for a laborer, it was. What better enticement for men from the highlands of Scotland to flock to recruiting officers raising a new corps, the 71st Regiment of Foot, in late 1775 and early 1776? […]
When British soldiers arrived in Boston in 1768 as part of the British government’s efforts to maintain peace in the colony of Massachusetts, local citizens resented the military presence for several reasons. First and foremost was the implication that the army, in spite of their mission to maintain order, were in fact oppressors sent by […]
The pandemic of 2020 caused disruption and delays in the publishing industry just as it did to so many other facets of the global economy. There were nonetheless many noteworthy new titles released concerning the American Revolution and Founding era. During 2020, our dedicated contributors reviewed thirty-two titles. From these distinguished books, the Journal of […]
John Marshall Deane was a soldier in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, among the oldest established regiments of the British army, in March 1708 when his regiment, serving in Belgium, was ordered to Scotland. They marched from Ghent to the port of Ostend where they boarded transports on March 15. They spent five weeks […]
From 1952 until 1967, a popular American television show featured a panel of celebrities trying to guess a secret about a non-celebrity guest. The guest’s secret might be a remarkable or unusual talent, achievement or other attribute. On April 26, 1961, the show hosted Delia and Bertie Harris, sisters from Knoxville, Tennessee.[1] They were both […]
“The number of sick increasing every day, in all the different Camps of the army,” wrote Capt. John Peebles in his diary on September 5, 1779.[1] Encamped on Manhattan Island eight miles north of the city of New York, at the time rural farmland, the army was beginning to suffer from the consequences of an […]
Congratulations! You’ve been commissioned as an officer in the Continental Army, and General Washington has given you command of an important position near the front lines. You’ve assessed information gathered from patrols, deserters, prisoners, and local inhabitants, and you realize that something very important is about to happen. You must send a message to Washington […]
A Redcoat in America: The Diaries of Lieutenant William Bamford, 1757-1765 and 1776 edited by John B. Hattendorf (Helion & Company, 2019) Writings of participants in the American Revolution are always welcome when they become widely available. John B. Hattendorf’s new contribution to this literature is especially interesting because it offers one individual’s perspectives on […]
Martha Bradley lived in an age when a prosperous household often brewed its own beer, culturing and storing it in large wooden vessels in basements. Much could go wrong, so the section titled “Of Liquors” in the November chapter of her 1756 publication The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion consisted entirely of […]
In her recipes for November, Martha Bradley included only three for “Confectionary,” all of them jellies or custards. Her pies were savory, and her section on baking discussed only pigeons and larks. No cakes, biscuits, tarts or candies for this month. The desert table, if based strictly on the 1756 The British Housewife: or, the […]
To accompany our roast, Martha Bradley in her 1756 work The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion included recipes for stews, savory pies, dinner puddings, soups, sauces, and savory jellies called cullisses. She did not neglect side dishes of vegetables, one of which was the Savoy cabbage: Forced Savoys Chuse a Couple of […]
Yesterday, Martha Bradley, in her 1756 publication The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion, explained to us the various poultry available in the month of November. Rather than presenting separate recipes for each bird, her November section on “Cookery” offered this one: To roast Fowls in the Italian Way. Chuse for this Dish […]
Autumn is when many North Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, a tradition that dates back to the Reformation in England in the sixteenth century. Journal of the American Revolution has a tradition of presenting articles about food during the week of Thanksgiving in the United States. In 1756, Martha Bradley published a weekly series of pamphlets titled […]
John Sutherland had intended only to visit his brother, and now he sat in confinement, awaiting a death sentence. It was not a likely fate for the forty-one-year-old private soldier who had always borne “a very good Character” during his eighteen years in the army, except for an occasional bout of intoxication, a common vice […]
During the era of the American Revolution, cannons did not fire exploding projectiles, so the image of explosions on the battlefield doesn’t apply. Mortars and howitzers did loft exploding shells in high arcs, but these were used almost exclusively against fixed positions like forts and towns. Sieges and a few other actions included a fair […]
“About five weeks after he made his escape from Prospect hill,” Augustine Barrett told the board of inquiry, “he was confined in the Prison Ship at Boston where he continued between 5 & six Months.” Barrett was stating his case to a board of officers convened to settle claims of British soldiers owed paid and […]
Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution by John Gilbert McCurdy (Cornell University Press, 2019) Question: “Why did the colonists fight the British?” Answer: “Because the British Army stayed in their houses.” This question and answer comes from a United States government practice test for the U. S. citizenship […]
In March and April of 1780, there was a string of home invasions and robberies around the villages of Jamaica and Flushing on Long Island, New York. The farming region had been a British army garrison since the autumn of 1776, and was teeming with residents, soldiers, sailors, prisoners of war, refugees, and an assortment […]
John Row was a British officer in the 9th Regiment of Foot, and he was in love with Jane Innes. For six years their courtship was maintained largely by correspondence due to separations caused by his military obligations. Dozens of their letters survive in the National Archives of Scotland, revealing a touching love story conflicting […]
In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the court considered several factors: was the man enlisted properly as a soldier in the first place? Had he been paid and provided clothing in accordance with his enlistment contract? Did he have a good reason for his absence? […]
Desertion was a capital crime, but it was up to a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers, to determine the defendant’s guilt and assign a punishment. In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s decision. The court considered several factors to determine guilt: was the man enlisted properly as a soldier […]
If a British soldier was absent without leave, he might be charged with desertion; if caught, he could be tried by a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers. The court looked at many factors in deciding guilt and sentencing punishment. In today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. The […]
In this second trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the officers of the general court martial considered whether the man enlisted properly as a soldier in the first place, whether he been paid and provided clothing in accordance with his enlistment contract, and whether he had a […]
This week JAR Editor Don N. Hagist presents the testimony from five British desertion trials held during the American Revolution. For each trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. British soldiers charged with desertion were tried by a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers tasked with determining whether the […]
The American Revolution’s armies got their horsepower from horses. These animals carried cavalrymen into battle, pulled cannons, carts and wagons of all description, hauled baggage on their backs, moved messengers swiftly over countless miles, and brought officers and gentlemen to wherever they needed to be. And they ran off sometimes. Advertising in the era’s newspapers […]
The 38th Regiment of Foot disembarked in Boston in the summer of 1774, and spent the next nine years in America involved in some of the war’s most storied campaigns. There was considerable turnover of personnel during those years; the regiment had, nominally, thirty-five officers at any given time, but a total of eighty-eight men […]