Author: Eric Sterner

Eric Sterner is a national security and aerospace consultant in the Washington, DC area. He held senior staff positions for the Committees on Armed Services and Science in the House of Representatives and served in the Department of Defense and as NASA’s Associate Deputy Administrator for Policy and Planning. He earned a Bachelor’s at American University and two Master’s Degrees from George Washington University. He has written for a variety of publications, ranging from academic journals to the trade and popular media. His idea of a good time is traipsing through historical sites with his family.

4
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Congress and the Commodore: Esek Hopkins and the Raid on Nassau

On April 7, 1776 American ships began dropping anchors off New London, Connecticut. Esek Hopkins, commander in chief of the new Continental navy, was returning from a successful raid on the town of New Providence on Nassau island in the Bahamas. While there, the Americans had seized eighty-eight desperately needed cannon and fifteen mortars, thousands […]

by Eric Sterner
3
Battles Posted on

Engaging the Glasgow

On April 18, 1776 Captain Tyringham Howe of His Majesty’s Ship Glasgow arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Two weeks prior, the twenty-gun sloop had engaged a task force from the Continental Navy and given better than she received. Vice Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, who briefly commanded Royal Navy in American waters, expected Glasgow to be carrying dispatches from […]

by Eric Sterner
3
Frontier Posted on

The Connolly Plot

During the Revolutionary War, Pittsburgh was a place of constant political and economic intrigue, double-dealing, subversion, back-stabbing, disloyalty, and treachery. One of the earliest and most jaw-droppingly ambitious plans to secure the city for the British came from the mind of Dr. John Connolly.[1] Word of his “plot” spread widely across the colonies in 1775 […]

by Eric Sterner
4
Conflict & War Posted on

The Siege of Fort Laurens, 1778–1779

During the American Revolution, British-allied Native Americans raided American homesteads and settlements all along the Ohio Valley. As the war progressed, the increased frequency and ever-widening circle of Indian raids forced the Continental Congress and Army to respond. In 1778, a Congressional committee studied the matter and concluded that a defensive war “would not only […]

by Eric Sterner
2
Reviews Posted on

The Indian World of George Washington

Book Review: The Indian World of George Washington by Colin G. Calloway (Oxford University Press, 2018) BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON In writing The Indian World of George Washington Colin Calloway set off to rectify a shortcoming in American history. According to him, “American history has largely forgotten what Washington knew. Narratives of national expansion and Indian […]

by Eric Sterner
3
Conflict & War Posted on

A Curious “Trial” on the Frontier: Zeisberger, Heckewelder, et. al. vs. Great Britain

For most of the American Revolution, a community of Lenape/Delaware, Munsey, Mahican, and Mingo Indians who had adopted the Christian faith lived along the Tuscarawas River in present-day Ohio with their missionaries from the Moravian Church.[1]  The most famous of these were David Zeisberger (1721-1808) and John Heckewelder (1743-1823), who documented their experiences and studies […]

by Eric Sterner
6
Religion Posted on

Moravians in the Middle: The Gnadenhutten Massacre

In 1782, six months after Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, Patriot militiamen committed one of the most heinous war crimes of the Revolutionary War. On March 8, between 100 and 200 militia and frontiersmen from western Pennsylvania slaughtered nearly 100 peaceful Indians at the small village of Gnadenhutten, on the Tuscarawas River in present day Ohio.[1] […]

by Eric Sterner
2
People Posted on

General John Dagworthy: George Washington’s Forgotten American Rival

Every summer, millions of tourists flock to the beaches and resorts on the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia (Delmarva) peninsula sandwiched between the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.  Those headed for Bethany Beach, Fenwick Island, or the state parks that line the Atlantic shores of Delaware may well pass by Prince George’s Chapel in Dagsboro.  Authorized in 1755 by […]

by Eric Sterner
1
Reviews Posted on

Manufacturing Independence: Industrial Innovation in the American Revolution

Book review: Manufacturing Independence: Industrial Innovation in the American Revolution by Robert F. Smith (Westholme Publishing, August 2016) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] In his 1961 Farewell Address, President Eisenhower famously warned his fellow citizens to “guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.”  While his warning endured, he […]

by Eric Sterner
3
Food & Lifestyle Posted on

The Revolutionary War Generation and Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation established Thanksgiving as the national holiday we celebrate today, making him the father of modern Thanksgiving.[1] The Revolutionary generation, however, created the first national Thanksgiving holidays 157 years after the Pilgrims and 85 years before Lincoln’s historic proclamation. In this season of football games and parades ending with Santa Claus, it […]

by Eric Sterner