Gene Procknow’s passion for the American War of Independence emanates from living among Revolutionary War sites in Boston, New Jersey, and Vermont. His research includes interpreting “the politics of command” among the Continental Army major generals, and in Ethan Allen and the creation of Vermont. He is the author of two books—William Hunter, Finding Free Speech: The Son of a British Soldier Who Became an Early American and the Mad River Gazetteer, which traces the naming of prominent Vermont place names after Revolutionary War patriots. Procknow’s website, Researching the American Revolution, aids students and researchers. Gene holds a Masters in American History from Norwich University. He is married with two historian sons and lives in Washington, DC.
Arlington National Cemetery’s founding story is well known. During the American Civil War, Union forces occupied Robert E. Lee’s 1000-acre estate on the Potomac River directly across from Washington, DC and, as a form of retribution for Lee joining the Rebel cause, turned it into a cemetery. What is lesser known is the link between […]
Book Review: After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence by Don Glickstein (Westholme Publishing, November 2015). Key tenets of America’s founding ethos are that rugged, independent minded farmers and tradesmen rose up in righteous rebellion to throw off the shackles of British tyranny and they succeeded by winning the last battle of the Revolution […]
Book Review: Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution by Kathleen DuVal (New York: Random House, 2015). Increasingly, historians are interpreting the American Revolution from two wider perspectives. First, it was a global war fought on five continents with major battles outside of the thirteen colonies critical to the war’s outcome. Second, […]
No, I have not lost my mind. Of course, the Americans won their freedom from British rule. However, what started in 1775, as an American rebellion against British rule in the thirteen colonies evolved into a far-reaching global war among world’s most powerful nations. Fighting between Britain and American allies including France, Spain and The […]
The American public’s interest in Ethan Allen as a “larger than life” folk hero during and since the American Revolution is well documented.[1] After leading the capture of Ft. Ticonderoga in May 1775, Allen’s notoriety as the leader of the Green Mountain Boys in the northern frontier, which subsequently became Vermont, spread throughout the thirteen […]
Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War diplomatic successes have been well chronicled. He was instrumental in persuading King Louis XVI to enter into a military alliance with the fledgling United States and for negotiating the Treaty of Paris with the British ending the Revolutionary War. Less remembered is Franklin’s first diplomatic mission after the onset of hostilities. […]
At the war’s outset, there was a dearth of proven military leadership within the thirteen colonies severely limiting the Continental Army’s ability to engage the British on equal terms. This paucity of military leadership was especially pronounced in the technical aspects of war including engineering, artillery and cavalry. To fill the void, the Continental Congress […]
Book Review: Inventing Ethan Allen by John J. Duffy and H. Nicholas Muller III. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 2014. Hardcover: $85.00, ISBN 978-61168-553-4. Pp. XII, 285. Index, bibliography, maps and illustrations. “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” From The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence “Where I’m from, we believe […]
The legendary stories of Ethan Allen and Vermont’s Green Mountain Boys have long been part of American folklore. Their heroically described exploits are fabled in many fictional accounts and children’s books.[1] Allen’s name is synonymously linked with the Green Mountain Boys as if he was their sole leader. However, while Allen receives the fame, there […]
Many historical accounts over look the impact of American loyalist military leaders and their revolutionary war contributions to the British cause. 50,000 or more soldiers in loyalist combat units actively participated in most major revolutionary battles throughout North America[1]. In addition to much needed combat power, they provided valuable scouting, battlefield intelligence and geographic knowledge. […]
The Controversy In the region we call Vermont today land claims were vociferously contested between settlers from New York and from New Hampshire during the American Revolution. Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys who aggressively protected their perceived property rights were ringleaders of the New Hampshire claimants. The New Yorkers were equally forceful in […]