Author: Patrick H. Hannum

Patrick H. (Pat) Hannum served for 45 years the Department of Defense, 29 years as a U.S. Marine (Assault Amphibious Vehicle Officer), including battalion command, and 16 years as a civilian professor at the Joint Forces Staff College, National Defense University, where he specialized in operational-level warfare and Phase II Joint Professional Military Education. He continues to study and promote the history and relevance of the American Revolution through membership in the Norfolk Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Great Bridge Battlefield & Waterways History Foundation, including staff rides, battlefield tours and other educational venues.

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Reviews Posted on

Revolutionary War Soldiers of the Southern States

BOOK REVIEW: Revolutionary War Soldiers of the Southern States, A Demographic View by Douglas R. Dorney Jr. (JAR Books Series/Westholme, 2026, $34.95 cloth) This text represents seven years of research, analysis and writing involving the examination and study of 8,579 Revolutionary War pension applications from four southern states, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Autobiography and Biography Posted on

William “Billy” Flora: Revolutionary Service Beyond Great Bridge

As a free African American Patriot, William “Billy” Flora represented a rather small percentage of Virginia’s population.[1] He served as a sentry at the south end of the Great Bridge, firing eight rounds on the morning of December 9, 1775, slowing the initial British assault.[2] Documents describing this action do not name Flora, but this […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

“It is Incredible How Much They Dread a Rifle”: Col. William Woodford’s 1775 James River Crossing

River crossings during the American Revolution were common events. Historians, patriotic organizations and living history enthusiasts focus on several of these crossings with commemorations and reenactments. The most celebrated of all crossings is Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware on December 25, 1776. State parks, in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, recognize the crossing and events of […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

Cricket Hill and Gwynn’s Island: Captain Arundel’s Only Fight

In researching the little-known Battle of Cricket Hill/Gwynn’s Island that took place on July 9-10, 1776, in what was then Gloucester County and today Matthews County, Virginia, available surviving records document only one Patriot casualty. While this is not unusual for many of the smaller, lesser known and infrequently studied engagements, the details of this […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Reviews Posted on

A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution by Andrew Lawler (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025) $30.00 Hardcover Andrew Lawler’s recent text artfully focuses on an important and understudied American Revolutionary period, Virginia in 1775 and 1776, and topic, slavery. The title, A […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Reviews Posted on

Backcountry War: The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton, and Thomas Sumter

BOOK REVIEW: Backcountry War, The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton and Thomas Sumter by Andrew Waters (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2024) $34.95 Cloth In his Epilogue to Backcountry War, The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton and Thomas Sumter, Andrew Waters states he wrote the book for himself to better understand his childhood exposure to […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Reviews Posted on

The Battle of Ridgefield

BOOK REVIEW: The Battle of Ridgefield by Keith Marshall Jones (Ridgefield, CT: Ridgefield Historical Society. $35.95 Paperback) The most recent text by Keith Marshall Jones titled, The Battle of Ridgefield, provides a great deal of detail in a well-researched narrative. The sources and documentation reflect wide reading and research by the author in assembling the […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Reviews Posted on

The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Motte

BOOK REVIEW: The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Mott 1781 (Small Battles Series) by Steven D. Smith (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2024. $28.00 hardcover.) Steven D. Smith provides an interesting perspective on a brief but important period of the Revolutionary War in the south. The author focuses on a four-week period, April 12 to May […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Reviews Posted on

George Washington’s Momentous Year: Volume 1, The Philadelphia Campaign

BOOK REVIEW: George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Volume 1, The Philadelphia Campaign by Gary Ecelbarger (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2004. $32.50, hardcover) Gary Ecelbarger is a skilled writer who weaves an interesting account of Gen. George Washington’s leadership and campaign management challenges in this, the first of a planned two-volume analysis. […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Loyalists Posted on

South Carolina Provincials: Loyalists in British Service During the American Revolution

BOOK REVIEW: South Carolina Provincials: Loyalists in British Service During the American Revolution by Jim Piecuch (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2023) In his recently published text, South Carolina Provincials, Jim Piecuch provides a well-researched and informative account of South Carolina’s Provincial Loyalists units and their actions in the southern theater during the American Revolution. These units are often […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Battles Posted on

The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782

BOOK REVIEW: The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782  by Eric Sterner. Small Battles Series. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2023) Eric Sterner’s recent release, The Battle of Upper Sandusky, 1782, provides a readable and interesting account of one of the lesser known and studied battles of the American Revolution. The battle, often referred to as Crawford’s Campaign […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Reviews Posted on

Victory Day—Winning American Independence: The Defeat of the British Southern Strategy

BOOK REVIEW: Victory Day—Winning American Independence: The Defeat of the British Southern Strategy by Kenneth Scarlett (North Charleston, SC: Palmetto Publishing, 2023) In his recent book, Victory Day, Winning American Independence, The Defeat of the British Southern Strategy, Kenneth Scarlett addresses the Southern theater of the American Revolution, highlighting several themes. It is important to point out […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Features Posted on

Revolutionary Roads

BOOK REVIEW: Revolutionary Roads: Searching for the War That Made America Independent . . . and All the Places It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong by Bob Thompson (Hachette Book Group/Twelve Books, 2023) Bob Thompson made a significant commitment of time and resources to visit the battlefields of the revolution he selected to include in […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Battles Posted on

Eleven Patriot Company Commanders at Great Bridge, December 9, 1775

During August 1775, the Third Virginia Convention replaced the Volunteer Militia Companies, authorized in March 1775 by the Second Virginia Convention, with a new more robust defensive military structure. This new structure included two regular regiments recruited for one year of service, the 1st and 2nd Virginia Regiments, made up of fifteen, sixty-eight-man companies, one […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Primary Sources Posted on

Virginia’s 1775 Regular Company-level Military Force Structure

The graphic below outlines the force structure created by the Third Virginia Convention in August 1775 and identifies the district and county or counties where companies formed, unit commanders, and where and when the companies assembled, served or operated in 1775. The initial intent of this research was to identify the regular companies that served […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Historic Sites Posted on

Fort Ticonderoga, The Last Campaigns

BOOK REVIEW: Fort Ticonderoga, The Last Campaigns, War in the North 1777-1783 by Mark Edward Lender (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2022) Mark Edward Lender’s recent book on Fort Ticonderoga provides a well-written and well-researched narrative that addresses the final campaigns and operations involving the fort and its surrounding environs. During the initial phases of the American Revolution, […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Features Posted on

Review: Valley Forge to Monmouth

Valley Forge to Monmouth: Six Transformational Months of the American Revolution by Jim Stempel (McFarland, 2021) Captivated by the short preface, it was evident this was just not another history addressing a brief period of conflict during the American Revolution, but an effort by the author to place the events of a formative six-month period (December […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Conflict & War Posted on

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation: Information and Slavery

Lord Dunmore, John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730-1809) and Royal Governor of Virginia (1771-1776),[1] was an important political and military figure during the early stages of the American Revolution. One of Dunmore’s most controversial actions involved issuing a proclamation to free all slaves and indentured servants of rebels who would rally to the […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Features Posted on

‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775–1783

They Were Good Soldiers: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783 by John U. Rees (Solihull, England: Helion & Company, 2019) John U. Rees addresses an interesting yet difficult subject in his recent work, ‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783. Rees and others interested in the lives and experiences of the common […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Features Posted on

Contest for Liberty: Military Leadership in the Continental Army, 1775–1783

Contest for Liberty: Military Leadership in the Continental Army, 1775-1783 by Seanegan P. Sculley (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2019) Seanegan P. Sculley’s recent book, Contest for Liberty: Military Leadership in the Continental Army, 1775-1783, is organized into five chapters with a substantive introduction and a short conclusion. Each chapter addresses one of the five elements selected […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Features Posted on

The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution

The Road to Charleston, Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution by John Buchanan (University Press of Virginia, 2019) John Buchanan’s latest account of the southern theater in the American Revolution is appropriately titled, The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution (2019). This work is a companion to his first work on the southern campaign, The Road […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Features Posted on

Southern Gambit: Cornwallis and the British March to Yorktown

Southern Gambit: Cornwallis and the British March to Yorktown by Stanley D.M. Carpenter (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019) In his recent book, Stanley Carpenter produced a thoughtful analysis of the British southern strategy during the American Revolution. A professor at the Naval War College, he evaluates enduring concepts and elements of warfare framed in contemporary language […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Culture Posted on

The Second Battle of Cowpens: South Carolina vs. Winchester, Virginia

On January 17, 1781, at Cowpens, South Carolina, Gen. Daniel Morgan solidified his position as an iconic Revolutionary War figure with his decisive victory over Lt. Col. Banister Tarleton. This victory over the aggressive and capable Tarleton had significant consequences for the war in the southern colonies and contributed to Gen. Charles Cornwallis’s risky decision […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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Places Posted on

The Battle of Great Bridge: Preserving the Site, Honoring the Soldiers

An interview with Lin Olsen, Executive Director, Great Bridge Battlefield and Waterways History Foundation Question: Why is preserving the Great Bridge Battlefield important? We have been blessed with one of the most important pieces of our American heritage and the beginning of our great nation. It is our responsibility to share the legacy of this […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Features Posted on

Norfolk, Virginia, Sacked by North Carolina and Virginia Troops

If the headline of a January or February 1776 edition of any North American Tory newspaper read, “Norfolk, Virginia, Sacked by North Carolina and Virginia Troops,” it would not have constituted propaganda. Loyalists in Tidewater Virginia, under the leadership of Lord Dunmore, Virginia’s Royal Governor, were under siege by rebel Whig or Patriot troops from […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Reviews Posted on

What Remains: Searching for the Memory and Lost Grave of John Paul Jones

Book Review: What Remains: Searching for the Memory and Lost Grave of John Paul Jones by Robert Hornick (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] The title Robert Hornick selected for his recent analytic and meticulously researched and documented book on John Paul Jones says it all, “What Remains.” John Paul Jones’s journey into […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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People Posted on

America’s First Continental Army Combat Casualty

Reflecting on the service of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines this past Veteran’s Day prompted an interesting question: Who was the first Continental soldier to die in combat during the American Revolution?  The death of the first general officer, Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, during the failed American assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775, […]

by Patrick H. Hannum