Most of the stories told of George Washington are tales of complete fiction. He never chopped down a cherry tree, at least not in the boyhood fashion we have been taught as school children. He was capable of lying, and tactically perfected it on occasion. His elder white hair tied back had not been born […]
Editor’s Note: This is part three of a five-part series. Part one. Part two. The portion of James McMichael’s journal covering June 11 through September 11, 1777,[1] finds our hero with his bride Susanna whom he had left to see on May 31. McMichael did not return to duty until June 13. While the army […]
In late May 1777 the new recruits in Col. Samuel Blachley Webb’s 9th Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army mustered in a rough formation on the village green in Wethersfield, Connecticut. General Washington had ordered his recruiters to forward all available men immediately, “even in groups of 20,” to join his Army at Morristown, New […]
Samuel MacKay The American invasion of Canada of 1775 failed during the following winter when the siege of Quebec City was raised by the arrival of British reinforcements from overseas. The rebels were pushed out of the province and driven south on Lake Champlain to take refuge in the fortress of Ticonderoga. For the 1777 […]
On the 1st of December 1777 Colonel Samuel B. Webb noted in his journal,[1] … At Horseneck [Greenwich, CT]. This day my Regiment marched in to this place. An expedition is intended on Long Island…. We expect to cross tomorrow evening. Sgt. Simon Giffin of Webb’s Regiment was a busy man that day. At North […]
Burgoyne’s campaign of 1777 has been termed a turning point in the American Revolution.[1] Marked by the Continental Army’s victories at the battles of Bennington and Saratoga, the campaign came to show the limits of the British army and gave credence to and international recognition of the American cause. Hidden in these histories of Burgoyne’s […]
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 […]
Before a single British soldier set foot on New Jersey soil, Deputy Adjutant-General of the British Army in North America Stephen Kemble was concerned for his native colony. “Shudder for Jersey,” he confided in his journal on November 7, 1776, “the Army being thought to move there Shortly.”[1] Once the invasion and occupation of the […]
Jamaican-born Scotsman Colonel Ann Hawkes Hay of the 2nd Regiment of Orange County Militia looked over his property in Haverstraw, New York towards the wide expanse of Haverstraw Bay in the Hudson River on the morning of March 23, 1777. What he saw shocked him: British sails in the river. Col. Hay wrote to General […]
By the time he arrived in Boston with the 44th Regiment of Foot, Martin Hurley was an experienced soldier. He’d joined the army in 1767, and learned the military trade well enough to be put into the regiment’s grenadier company, men distinguished by their martial competence as well as their tall stature.[1] The 44th was […]
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 […]
In late October of 1777, America celebrated its first capture of a British Army; General Horatio Gates had defeated General Sir John Burgoyne near the village of Saratoga in upstate New York. The prisoners, known as the Convention Army after the semi-treaty that effected their surrender, were moved to a camp outside of Boston. By […]
From the intelligence provided by his New York and New Jersey spies, General Washington believed, early in 1777, that General Howe would eventually strike at Philadelphia though he knew not when or whether he would travel by land or sea. In a letter dated July 24, 1777, from Col. Matthias Ogden, he was informed that […]
On August 25, 1777 General William Howe with 17,000 men landed at Head of Elk, Maryland; he was 57 miles south of the city of Philadelphia. Over the next month, he battled the Continental Army at Brandywine Creek and the South Valley Hills before marching into Philadelphia on September 26. Because he planned to spend […]
The Battle of Millstone in central New Jersey on 20 January 1777,[1] is a “local interest” battle, the kind that is often known only to locals and specialists, but on closer examination permits greater insight into other facets of the American Revolution. By one account, there were 1,331 military engagements in the war throughout the […]
“We are hellishly frightened,” Gouverneur Morris wrote to a friend on October 8, 1777.[1] Morris was attending to the business of the New York State legislature in Kingston, a town one hundred miles north of New York City. The old Dutch village had that year, by default, become the state’s capital. Morris and his colleagues […]
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 […]
After a British fleet of seventy-one warships and transports entered Narragansett Bay on December 7, 1776, and the next day landed soldiers that occupied Newport, Rhode Island, as well as the rest of Aquidneck Island, the Royal Navy had an excellent port for its ships to spend the winter. In addition, the fleet’s commander, Commodore […]
Peter Livius, chief justice of the province of Quebec and former justice of New Hampshire, wrote a letter on June 2, 1777 to American Major General John Sullivan in an effort to get Sullivan to turn to the British cause.[1] Livius thought Sullivan was the commander at Fort Ticonderoga.[2] Livius believed Sullivan had lost his […]
In September of 1777 the Patriots won big by stopping Major General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne dead in his tracks at the battle of Freeman’s Farm (1st Saratoga) which climaxed the Saratoga Campaign and ultimately led to the surrender of his entire army. Brigadier General Benedict Arnold deeply resented being denied credit for the victory and, […]
The strategy approved by King George and his government for the defeat of the American rebellion in 1777 was to invade upstate New York from Canada supported by a thrust up the Hudson River from British-occupied New York City. The Canadian attack was to have two prongs. The first would have Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne lead […]
The crevices and stony outcroppings of Devil’s Den, a 1,756-acre nature preserve in Weston and Redding, Connecticut, can provide shelter for hikers during an unexpected rainstorm. Or, as was the case for some women and children 236 years ago, the perfect place to hide during a British invasion. It was shortly before sunset on April […]
“The day will be most memorable in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever […]
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 […]
Every historical researcher, and readers of history books and magazines, must constantly keep in mind the power of the written word. Whether reading for pleasure or serious study one constantly weighs the evidence to determine whether it is accurate and credible or not. Regrettably, the written word itself attaches credibility to a statement by the […]
