A life-long Vermonter, Mike has spent forty years researching and interpreting the Revolution with a concentration on the northern theater. He has taught history at high school and college levels and has given innumerable presentations on the 18th century. In 1974, Mike helped form Whitcomb’s Rangers and subsequently based his master’s thesis on the original unit. He worked for a number of years at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and, now semi-retired, is quite active supporting the historic sites in the region, particularly Hubbardton and Mount Independence which are at the center of much of his research.
BOOK REVIEW: The Killing of Jane McCrea: An American Tragedy of the Revolutionary Frontier by Paul Staiti (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2025). My introduction to the Jane McCrea story came fifty years ago as part of a Revolutionary War reenactment weekend. The organizers chose my group to be part of the opening of the battle […]
BOOK REVIEW: Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon by Martin Klotz. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2024). $32.50 hardcover. In 1940, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies released “Northwest Passage,” a rather loose adaptation of Kenneth Roberts’ book by the same name.[1] In it, well-liked and respected hero-figure Robert Rogers leads a skilled and disciplined […]
With the end of the Seven Years’ War, Great Britain found itself in possession of vast new territories. The government looked on these holdings as a means to reduce the enormous debt built up during the war but, when it came to utilizing those resources, existing “salutary neglect” policies and practices simply did not suffice. […]
BOOK REVIEW: American Traitor: General James Wilkinson’s Betrayal of the Republic and Escape from Justice by Howard W. Cox (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2023) Beginning in his late teens, James Wilkinson developed the reputation of being an all-around abhorrent human being and history has continued to support that view. Howard Cox decided to investigate this […]
A lesser-known action during Gen. John Burgoyne’s 1777 campaign occurred at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in the days surrounding the first battle at Saratoga in mid-September. What became known as “Brown’s Raid” has commonly been interpreted as playing a key role in the defeat of Burgoyne’s invasion. Such is not necessarily the case and, as […]
BOOK REVIEW: From the Battlefield to the Stage: the Many Lives of General John Burgoyne by Norman S. Poser (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) It has been three decades since the last attempt at an in-depth biography of John Burgoyne. Max Mintz in his 1992 book,The Generals of Saratoga, looked at both Burgoyne and Horatio Gates […]
Those who study the Revolution in the northeast have some familiarity with the Crown Point Road that ran from the Fort at #4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire, to the forts at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. Built during the French and Indian War, the road provided a route across Vermont for troops and supplies moving from […]
In the summer and fall of 1776, the decrepit fortifications at Ticonderoga and the area surrounding it became one of the top five population centers in North America—ultimately numbering 12,000 or more. In early July, a brigade under the command of New Hampshire’s John Stark began building fortifications on the forested, 300-acre rocky peninsula across […]
This story begins five weeks after Gen. John Burgoyne’s army forced the Americans to abandon positions on Lake Champlain in July 1777. On August 12, Gen. Benjamin Lincoln wrote to Washington telling him, “I am to return with the militia . . . to the northward, with a design to fall into the rear of […]
Discussions about the American evacuation of Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga on the night of July 5, 1777 frequently address the question: could shot from artillery on Mount Defiance (commonly called Sugar Hill in the eighteenth century) reach Mount Independence and Ticonderoga? Those who believe it could use that potential as support for the decision […]
One of the greatest sources of information on the American Revolution is the collection of pension applications submitted by American veterans of the war or their families. Over 80,000 files are available to researchers as part of the National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M804. Intent on finding some desired morsel of information, however, […]
It’s an understatement to say that the spring of 1776 had not gone well for the American army in Canada. After a campaign that had stalled at the walls of Quebec City the previous winter, May brought British and German reinforcements who thoroughly routed the remnants of the army camped outside the city and drove […]
Down the Warpath to the Cedars: Indians’ First Battles in the Revolution by Mark R. Anderson (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). A couple of minor surprises greeted me when I first opened Mark Anderson’s new book on the Cedars, the May 1776 battle that took place a few miles west of Montreal during the […]
Book Review: A Tale of Three Gunboats: Lake Champlain’s Revolutionary War Heritage by Philip Lundeberg, Arthur Cohn, Jennifer Jones, et al. (Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, 2017) [BUY NOW] Sitting on the shore of Lake Champlain a few miles south of Burlington, Vermont, is the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM). Like […]
Book review: 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga by Dean Snow (Oxford University Press, October, 2016) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] I can hear it now—“Another book about the Saratoga campaign … yawn.” That’s pretty much what I thought when I first heard of this volume. Every few years someone comes out with a new publication on the […]
“Pennies make dollars” is a phrase that has been around a long time and we all know what it means. But, how many pennies does it take to make a dollar? Silly question you may say—it’s one-hundred, of course. That’s the right answer for today’s America, but that would not necessarily be the right answer […]
Everybody has heard of Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. On the other hand, mention Mount Independence and one usually encounters the puzzled lowering of eyebrows and cocking of the head to the side. Most will be quite surprised to learn how that rocky thumb of land on the Vermont shore opposite Ticonderoga actually played a […]
From the beginning, the American army knew south-facing Fort Ticonderoga did little to protect against an attack coming up Lake Champlain from British-controlled Canada.[1] To address the problem, they decided to fortify the north-facing peninsula, called East Point or Rattlesnake Hill, that poked out into the lake across from Ticonderoga. During the summer of 1776, […]
A soldier writes his wife: Mount Independence, June 8, 1777 I heartily embrace the opportunity to write to you, hoping that these will find you and yours in good health as I am now. I have been vary hearty since I left home. I herd last week that you were all well. Mr. Church said […]
By the fall of 1777, the15th Virginia Regiment had been involved in some of the toughest fighting of the American Revolution—the engagements in northern New Jersey and the defense of Philadelphia that included major battles at Germantown and Brandywine in Pennsylvania. As part of the army with Washington, they spent weeks during the fall playing […]
Book Review: American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution by Walter R. Borneman (ISBN 978-0-316-22102-3; 470 pages) concentrates on the months from late 1774 to Washington taking command in July, 1775. It is printed in an easily readable font with a few illustrations inserted in the middle and ten maps spread throughout. The […]
The evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga in July, 1777, is a well-known incident of the American Revolution. Directly related to it is the Battle of Hubbardton, the only Revolutionary War battle fought in Vermont.[1] Often, sources of information found on one incident will add to the knowledge of the other and such is the case with […]
In the summer of 1775, the British built two warships at St. John, Quebec, on the outlet of Lake Champlain. That fall, the American forces invading Canada captured the ships and added them to their little fleet on the lake. The largest, a 50-foot topsail schooner named the Royal Savage mounting six 6-pounder cannons, four […]
Lying between Vermont and New York, astride the border between the United States and Canada, accessible via canals from the St. Lawrence and Hudson Rivers, and 125 miles long, Lake Champlain is a major boating attraction. On any summer’s day, hundreds of watercraft displaying registrations from numerous states and Canadian provinces will pause for a […]
The American army during the Revolution consisted of three basic varieties of units—militia, state troops, and the Continental Army. Beginning with the earliest communities, militia served as a short-term local defense force raised by towns. The men who responded to the call on April 19, 1775, and laid siege to the British in Boston came […]
Until the early decades of the 20th century saw wide-spread construction of roads in North America, water provided ready-made highways. Lake Champlain formed 125 miles of one such 350-mile-long artery through the wilderness that lay between the Atlantic Ocean at New York City and the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. In the spring of 1776, […]
Most have heard of Timothy Murphy and the shooting of Brigadier General Simon Fraser. However, how many have heard of Benjamin Whitcomb and the shooting of Brigadier General Patrick Gordon? Hugh Harrington in a March 25 submission to this magazine has shown the former to be mythical. The following will show the latter to be […]
I first heard the term “musket-shot” many years ago in a video about the Battle of Valcour Island. Having participated in Revolutionary War living history for years, I knew well the modern talk of the inaccuracies and poor range of the musket so I assumed the term meant something like 50 to 100 yards. The […]
July 4th may be a time of festivities in the United States but on Prince Edward Island (PEI) it’s just another day with Canada Day celebrations falling on the 1st. Wanting to do something related to Independence Day, my wife donned her red, white, and blue (I didn’t have anything so colored) and we visited […]
A bit of time in the summer of 1777 nearly turned the conception of a United States into a stillborn notion. It is commonly accepted that the alliances with other European powers gave the American colonies the impetus to see their struggle through and those alliances resulted, in large part, from the surrender of General […]
