Author: Joseph Lee Boyle

Joseph Lee Boyle was educated at Towson State, University of South Carolina, and Saint Joseph’s University. He worked for the National Park Service for thirty-two years, retiring as Historian at Valley Forge. His first book was From Redcoat to Rebel: The Thomas Sullivan Journal, and he has published versions of the Ephraim Blaine papers, Elias Boudinot letterbook and the Samuel Hodgdon papers. He has also published a two volume compilation of deserters during the American Revolution, taken from newspaper accounts. His eighth volume of documents written from Valley Forge will be published by Heritage Books later this year.

Battles Posted on

The Journal of Thomas Anderson, Delaware Regiment, Part 1, May 1780–March 1781

In 1867, The Historical Magazine published “Extracts from the Journal of Lieutenant Thomas Anderson.” The original manuscript at that time belonged to the Maryland Historical Society. Unfortunately the original document cannot be found. Anderson’s journal has been quoted in numerous histories of the Revolutionary War in the South in 1780-1782, but the 1867 published version leaves […]

by Joseph Lee Boyle
Culture Posted on

Easy as Falling Off a Horse

Horses have been used for transportation for thousands of years, but have caused countless injuries and deaths. There is a saying that the only men who have never fallen off a horse, are the ones who never rode one. Wikipedia lists scores of famous and not-so-famous individuals who have died in or, more often, out […]

by Joseph Lee Boyle
Features Posted on

Dying to Celebrate

During the American Revolution, hundreds of civilians and military men on both sides were killed or injured by accidents. A number of these occurred during occasions which were supposed to be joyous. One of the earliest was Robert Jewell. Samuel Rowland Fisher heard of his death in 1781, and remembered he had been keeper of […]

by Joseph Lee Boyle