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The “Western Forts” of the 1783 Treaty of Paris
The Revolutionary War was formally ended by the Treaty of Paris in early 1783. Problems with compliance arose on both sides nearly immediately on…
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Marinus Willett: The Exploits of an Unheralded War Hero
Marinus Willett was born the son of a Quaker, Edward Willett, on July 31, 1740, in Jamaica, Long Island (now part of Queens). After…
Walter Butler—The Dastardly Loyalist
During the American Revolution, some of the hardest-fought and most bitter battles occurred in the land of the Six Nations, the Iroquois lands stretching…
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The Articles of Confederation and Western Expansion
The Articles of Confederation described the first government of the new United States. As one may imagine from understanding the later debates on the…
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The Last Royal Governors of the American Colonies
The last level of British authority at the colony level was the colonial governors. They came in various forms, military and civil, appointed and…
Charles Townshend: Architect of the Townshend Duties
The increasingly turbulent years preceding the American Revolution were fueled by an exchange of laws promulgated by Great Britain to maintain political and economic…
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George Washington and the First Mandatory Immunization
The debate over mandatory vaccination for Covid-19 has led to many articles referring to how George Washington handled a similar issue, this one involving…
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The Incredible Story of Hercules Mulligan
When you are a spy, you want to go unnoticed. With a colorful name like Hercules Mulligan, that can sometimes be difficult, especially if…
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King Gustav III of Sweden: Friendly Foe of the United States
New York City, November 16, 1783. It was finally here, Evacuation Day. The British, who had occupied Manhattan for seven long years, were finally…
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Volunteer Overload: Foreign Support of the American Cause Prior to the French Alliance
Aside from being outmanned by the best army in the world when the American Revolution started, it was clear that the American forces were…
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Opposing the Franco-American Alliance: The Case of Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot
The participation of the French on the side of the newly declared independent American colonies is widely acknowledged as the factor that tipped the…
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Scouting the American Revolution: The French Intelligence Community
We often hear about intelligence activities which take place during times of war. Having good intelligence is indeed critical to military and diplomatic success….
A French “King of America”?
In the chaos of war, there are, and have always been, schemers who will try to take advantage of disorder to enrich themselves, either…
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Jacob Duché: Mixing Religion and Politics During the Revolution
In a country in which one of the main constitutional principles is separation of church and state, it is counter-intuitive to find that there…
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Reconciliation between the Colonies and Great Britain—A Close Call
There were many attempts, before and during the American Revolution, to avoid armed conflict via negotiation, or to stop the war after it began….
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The “Hynson Business”—The Story of a Double Agent
Wars have a way of creating strange alliances, and the American Revolution was no exception. I encountered one such unusual relationship while researching my…
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Captain Lambert Wickes and “Gunboat Diplomacy, American Revolution Style”
The Continental Navy. Words that didn’t exactly strike fear into the heart of the mighty British Royal Navy. For most Americans, knowledge of the…
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The Canadian Patriot Experience
The American Revolution was in effect a civil war. It included all the heightened acrimony associated with one. In what became the United States,…
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The Strange Case of “Charles de Weissenstein”
Early one morning in late June 1778, an unknown passerby tossed a package of documents that clanged against the gate at Benjamin Franklin’s home…
Grace Galloway—Abandoned Loyalist Wife
Grace Galloway was living in a world of woe. The pressure had been building, and a little after 10 p.m. on August 20, 1778,…
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Patriots Turned Loyalist—The Experiences of Joseph Galloway and Isaac Low
In the American Revolution, as with most other wars, the winners write the history. As such, we have the term “loyalist” for those colonists…
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Analyzing the Founders: A Closer Look at the Signers of Four Founding Documents
Writing about Roger Sherman, the only man to sign our four most important founding documents – the Continental Association, the Declaration of Independence, the…
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Roger Sherman: The Only Man Who Signed All Four Founding Documents
Thomas Jefferson stood outside the halls of congress late one afternoon. And with the hand that penned the Declaration of Independence, he pointed across…
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William Bingham: Forgotten Supplier of the American Revolution
William Bingham. Does the name sound familiar to you? Some of the readers of this journal will recognize it. For many others, including myself,…