Todd Braisted is an author and researcher of Loyalist military studies. His primary focus is on Loyalist military personnel, infrastructure and campaigns throughout North America. Since 1979, Braisted has amassed and transcribed over 40,000 pages of Loyalist and related material from archives and private collections around the world. He has authored numerous journal articles and books, as well as appearing as a guest historian on episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? (CBC) and History Detectives (PBS). He is the creator of royalprovincial.com, the largest website dedicated to Loyalist military studies. Braisted is a Fellow in the Company of Military Historians and a past-president of the Bergen County Historical Society.
On the muster roll of a Continental Army regiment stationed at West Point in 1779, is a note that a soldier, Charles Turner, had deserted on June 5 of that year. In and of itself, it’s a routine entry, a common occurrence with every army of the period. The war saw thousands of such desertions […]
For the past two years I have had the good fortune to be heading up a project to gather, for eventual publication, the correspondence of one of the more colorful officers on the British side, Francis Lord Rawdon. Rawdon was an Irishman, one of a handful of young officers who catapulted to command ahead of […]
As the year 1777 drew to a close, the region around the city of New York had been under British control for a year. Although the British position was strong, the recent surrender of a British army at Saratoga dramatically changed the prospects of the war ending any time soon. Troops in the New York […]
War at Saber Point: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion by John Knight (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020) The American Revolution produced numerous well-known corps of light troops on both sides, some cavalry, some infantry, and some including both. While many are familiar with tales of Patriot riflemen under Daniel Morgan and dashing legion commanders […]
At the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, there is an exhibit in the core gallery examining the choices, opportunities and constraints of African Americans in Virginia in 1781. Titled “Sometimes, freedom wore a red coat” it seeks to educate people on the effect the British Army had on operating in areas where slavery […]
During the American Revolution, Bergen County, New Jersey, was flooded with combatants from all over America, many of whom had never been to the region before. Troops of the Continental Army hailing from New Hampshire to North Carolina were ordered to Bergen County to garrison the rich farmland and lend protection to the Whig inhabitants, […]
The period of the American Revolution does not afford many accounts of individual rank and file soldiers’ exploits, particularly on the side British side. The filing of some 80,000 pension applications in the United States makes it much easier to learn of a soldier’s activities during the war, whether it be the mundane task of […]
Many people involved in the American Revolution played but a short role in the long war. A John Babcock, for example, apparently served as an ensign in Capt. Peter Ruttan’s Company of the 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, but was taken prisoner previous to his actually being commissioned, and he never served again. All that […]
The United States pension and land bounty records furnish us with a multitude of fascinating stories. It is important, however, to weight them against other information, as there is often much more to the real story. Such is the case with Private Zacheus Holmes of Massachusetts; his pension application gives just a tease of his […]
One of the hallmarks of Journal of the American Revolution is its ability to bring lesser-known yet compelling events of the War for Independence to the public’s knowledge. Great battles and campaigns that altered the course of the war are always at the forefront of history, but smaller, more obscure actions often bore witness to […]
Untold thousands died during the American Revolution, some by bullets or bayonets, cannon balls or cutlasses, but the vast majority were carried away from life by the innumerable diseases present in both armies. Death came to privates as well as generals, but few accounts of their interment are as detailed as that of Brig. Gen. […]
Deciding the guilt or innocence of a defendant in a criminal case today is generally left in the hands of twelve citizens comprising a jury. Prosecutions are left to a member of the district attorney’s office, while the accused has the representation of counsel. The facts in the case are presented, argued, proved, refuted and […]
Loyalists, those Americans who openly supported the British Government during the American Revolution, have been largely assumed to have had unchanging allegiance during the conflict; once a Loyalist, always a Loyalist. Similarly, those supporters of Congress and the new United States are assumed to have been constant in their beliefs throughout the war, with one […]
On June 8th, 1783, Gen. George Washington issued the following orders to the Continental army from his headquarters in Newburgh, New York: Serjeant Bissel of the 2d Connecticut regt. having performed some important services, within the immediate knowledge of the Commander in chief, in which the fidelity, perseverence, and good sense of the said serjeant […]
In August 1780, Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk of the 4th Battalion, New Jersey Volunteers, received orders to form a light infantry company.[1] The commanding officers of five other Provincial battalions around New York City also were directed to form light infantry companies composed of men drawn from the rest of their battalions. It was typical […]
We sometimes use the phrase “at the right place at the right time” when describing the circumstances of someone’s good fortune. In war, the “right place” is often the place where the most important events were not happening. That sounds convoluted, but the case of George Shall will clarify the point. Shall, a native of […]
One of the finest sources for anecdotal, first-hand accounts of the Revolution is the U.S. Pension & Bounty Land Applications in the National Archives. They contain vivid snippets of military service, actions, genealogical information, social culture, and many other matters of 18th Century life. They can also be highly confusing and misleading when taken completely […]
Abraham Van Buskirk was Bergen County’s leading Loyalist at the onset of the American Revolution. A prominent “Practitioner of Physic” with an income of £ 200 per annum, Van Buskirk lived in Teaneck, across the New Bridge from John Zabriskie.[1] Both men were officers in the Bergen County Militia, Zabriskie a lieutenant colonel and Van […]
In November 1776, a British army under Lieutenant-General Sir William Howe was on the offensive, having successfully driven American forces off of Manhattan island and the surrounding regions east and north of New York City. The remnants of General George Washington’s defeated army had retreated across the Hudson River to the apparent safety of Bergen […]
When the Maryland Loyalists, a Provincial regiment, marched out of Philadelphia along with the rest of the British Army in June 1778, it mustered 370 officers and men, second in size only to the Queen’s Rangers amongst the Loyalist units leaving the city.[1] Five years later, after campaigns primarily against the Spanish forces invading West […]
In the early morning hours of September 28, 1778, British Troops under Major General Charles Grey surprised and decimated an entire regiment of Continental cavalry commanded by Colonel George Baylor. Over twenty were killed, more than forty captured, and many others wounded. Their major lay dead, and their colonel nearly so. And it could have […]
People characterize the American Revolution in terms of Patriots and Loyalists – those who supported the rebellion, and those who supported the British government. When assessing individuals, it is tempting to assume we know which side they were on based on specific things that they did. But it’s not always so cut and dry. Is […]
