Eric Wiser grew up in Chicago and resides in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He earned his B.A. in History from Loyola University-Chicago and is currently a graduate student in History at Indiana University-Bloomington. Eric is also a certified secondary teacher and CPA, having also studied Accounting at DePaul University. Eric's interests in the American Revolution spans the unique experiences and travails of lessor known important figures. In the summer and fall he is a Revolutionary War reenactor in the 4th Massachusetts Infantry of the Northwest Territory Alliance.
John Adams said of his Whig contemporaries that they had views as “various as the Colors of their Cloths.”[1] Such was the paradigm in the civil yet often contentious political relationship of Abraham Clark and William Livingston. Both men were, as the saying goes, cursed with being born in interesting times. They were the top […]
On October 18, 1777, New York provincial assemblyman, and tory, Crean Brush, penned his final will and testament from prison in Boston. After nineteen months of incarceration which included being held in irons, and “in a state of body and mind so debilitated by misfortune,” Brush made provisions for his wife Margaret, stepdaughter Frances, and […]
The war for all practical purposes was over when hostilities ended with a cease fire negotiated by the Americans, British, French, and Spanish in January 1783.[1] In New York, on June 19, British Brig. Gen. Samuel Birch wrote Commander-in-Chief Sir Guy Carleton that he had failed in his mission to locate and apprehend Capt. Cornelius […]
“A Most Dreadful Voyage” was how the captain of British supply ship Blue Mountain Valley described his mission to North America in the fall and winter of 1775–1776. The ship’s young Scottish captain, James Dempster, was an experienced merchant sailor with voyages to China, India, and the West Indies.[1] The mission Dempster embarked on when Blue […]
