Tag: 1775

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Displaced: The Donation People of 1775

In late November 1775, just as the bone-chilling New England winter started to settle upon Massachusetts, British General Howe loaded three hundred poor, sick inhabitants of Boston onto transport ships with no provisions or firewood.[1] They were landed on windswept Point Shirley peninsula, a narrow, beachy finger of land situated in between the gentle waves […]

by Katie Turner Getty
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Fort Pownal, Colonial Maine, 1775

In early morning fog on April 15, 1775, just days before the momentous clash at Lexington and Concord, two innocent-looking vessels appeared off Cape Jellison in Penobscot Bay a few hundred yards from Fort Pownal (present-day Stockton Springs, Maine). The fort’s gunner, Jonathan Lowder, looked out upon the waters and saw two schooners. They turned out […]

by Charles H. Lagerbom
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March to Quebec and the Fog of War

On June 13, 1775, writing from Crown Point on Lake Champlain, Benedict Arnold reported to the Continental Congress that Britain had only 550 “effective men” guarding all of Canada. Further, according to his intelligence, “great numbers of the Canadians” were “determined to join us whenever we appear in the Country with any force to support […]

by Ray Raphael
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The Loyalist Guides of Lexington and Concord

When Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill in 1774, in an attempt to break the Massachusetts colonists of their resistance to crown policy, it also authorized Gen. Thomas Gage to undertake any military measures necessary to help bring the colony under control.  Gage quickly responded by requesting naval warships be sent to the New Hampshire […]

by Alexander Cain
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The Bermuda Powder Raids of 1775

In 1775, the tension between the American colonies and Great Britain escalated into armed conflict at then-little-known places such as Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. As a result, throughout the spring and into the summer American colonial legislatures and the military were scrambling to secure supplies of every kind. Until that time much of the […]

by Hugh T. Harrington
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Reconciliation No Longer An Option

On June 23, 1775, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to write a declaration that would explain the military conflict with England to the American people. The members of the committee were John Jay, Thomas Johnson, John Rutledge, Benjamin Franklin, and William Livingston. On June 26, after a draft was submitted to Congress and sent […]

by Bob Ruppert
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The Twice Captured Lusanna

We often see books which boast of an “unknown story” or “secret history” of an era, and the American Revolution remains ripe fodder for this claim. A quick look on Amazon shows dozens of recently published books, revealing the “untold” story of King’s Mountain, Saratoga, women, prisoners, African Americans, spies, George Washington’s marriage, and a […]

by Will Monk
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The First American Declaration of Independence? The Disputed History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775

Book Review: The First American Declaration of Independence? The Disputed History of the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775 By Scott Syfert. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. Paperback. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-7864-7559-9. Pp. x, 250. Index, bibliography, maps and illustrations. For more than two centuries, controversy has surrounded the issue of whether or not a group of […]

by Jim Piecuch
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The Fate of the Royal Savage

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 […]

by Michael Barbieri
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Did Paul Revere’s Ride Really Matter?

The biggest myth of Paul Revere’s ride may not be that Revere watched for the lantern signal from the North Church spire, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem described. Nor that he was a lone rider carrying Dr. Joseph Warren’s warning all the way from Boston to Concord. Nor even that Revere yelled, “The British are […]

by J. L. Bell
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Paul Revere’s Other Rides

Myth: “The fate of a nation was riding that night,” ­Longfellow wrote. Fortunately, a heroic rider from Boston woke up the sleepy-eyed farmers just in time. Thanks to Revere, the farmers grabbed their muskets and the American Revolution was underway: “And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, / Kindled the land […]

by Ray Raphael
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Who Shot First? The Americans!

At dawn on April 19, 1775, the British detachment of light infantry under Maj. Pitcairn reached Lexington, about two-thirds the way to Concord. There they found the local Lexington Militia Company under Capt. John Parker waiting for them, all armed and formed on the central Lexington Green. Considering it a challenge, the first and second […]

by Derek W. Beck
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Dissecting the Timeline of Paul Revere’s Ride

I’m a scientist by training. I received my master’s degree from MIT, which is incidentally where I fell in love with Boston’s revolutionary history. So, when I first began researching my forthcoming book on Revolutionary Boston, I approached the research very scientifically, considering things like moonlight phases, sunsets,[1] horse gaits and their associated speeds,[2] and […]

by Derek W. Beck
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Dr. Joseph Warren’s Informant

With April 19 nearing, marking the anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War (the official regional holiday of Patriot’s Day in New England), it seems only fitting to delve into the popular tale of the secret informant of Dr. Joseph Warren. As the story often goes, Dr. Joseph Warren, the de facto revolutionary […]

by Derek W. Beck
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The Memory of Revolution and the War of 1812

On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain. American political and military leaders planned to attack the British provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in order to force Britain to redress grievances concerning free trade and maritime rights. Thirty-seven years earlier, in September 1775, the Continental Congress had authorized General Richard […]

by Matt Barrett
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The Siege that Saved Quebec

The failure of the rebellious colonists to capture the fortress of Quebec during their invasion of Canada in 1775 had many causes; ironically, a major cause was the colonial force’s victory at St. John’s (the original French, and present, name is Fort Saint Jean). Guy Carleton, the British governor of Canada, had been watching the […]

by Jeff Dacus
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Paul Revere’s Other Riders

Myth: “Alerted by signal lanterns, express riders Paul Revere and William Dawes eluded British patrols and spurred their horses toward Lexington along separate routes to warn Hancock and Adams.” – Created Equal: A History of the United States, a 2009 college textbook[1] “When Revere and fellow patriot William Dawes saw two lights shine, they set […]

by Ray Raphael
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Thanksgiving in 1775, 1777 and 1779

While the modern, formalized definition of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November was not set as a national observance until the time of the Civil War, and wasn’t codified into law until 1941, governors of the various states (and before the Revolution, colonies) proclaimed harvest Thanksgivings each year, so our food traditions around this […]

by Lars D. H. Hedbor
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Before Washington: The Revolution’s First Commander-in-Chief

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress officially announced the creation of the Continental Army, a military force representing all of the colonies resisting British authority in North America. The following day the Congress named the army’s commander. George Washington, a planter and Congressional delegate from Virginia, would become the commander-in-chief, taking command of […]

by Editors
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The Armchair General’s Proposals

For as long as there have been dispatches from the front, there have been armchair generals attempting to call the shots from afar. Some months after the battle of Bunker Hill, Britons received news of another British defeat at Great Bridge, Virginia on 9 December 1775. Although much smaller than the action outside Boston, Great […]

by Don N. Hagist
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When were they Patriots and Loyalists?

At what point during the American Revolution is it most acceptable to classify colonists as either Patriots or Loyalists?   1776.  Before this, many people who were indisputably Patriots (John Dickinson, James Wilson) were also loyal; in fact, most still professed loyalty.  They were being forced to make choices in 1773, 1774, 1775—but after July […]

by Editors
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The Gunpowder Shortage

As we know from our history books, the War for Independence began with the shots fired at Lexington and Concord. Those shots required gunpowder, a substance that was in short supply throughout the colonies. In 1775 there was only one American gunpowder mill, the Frankford Mill in Pennsylvania, and it was turning out a miniscule […]

by Jimmy Dick
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The Committee of Secret Correspondence

As the struggle between Great Britain and her colonists in the thirteen North American colonies entered a state of armed resistance against British military power, the delegates to the Second Continental Congress began to ponder the need for foreign assistance. With blood on both sides having been shed at Lexington and Concord, a siege in […]

by Jimmy Dick
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Reverend Seabury’s Pamphlet War

In the fall of 1774, just before adjourning, the First Continental Congress outlined the Articles of Association, an aggressive plan of economic resistance to Great Britain that included nonconsumption, nonimportation and nonexportation. These boycotts were to be enforced by local committees and supplant Colonial governments. Westchester, New York Reverend Samuel Seabury responded with a series […]

by Wayne Lynch
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Fort Halifax: One Stop on the Way to Quebec

On Sunday, September 28, 1975, six hundred Revolutionary War reenactors appeared in Winslow, Maine.  Some paddled the eighteen miles up the Kennebec River from Augusta in four flat-bottomed boats called bateaux.  Others walked part of the journey by land, or took wheeled transportation and emerged from their gas guzzling muscle cars.  Their destination was Fort […]

by Daniel J. Tortora