This Week on Dispatches: Don N. Hagist on the British Soldiers who Marched to Concord
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR managing editor Don N. Hagist on the demographics of the British soldiers who marched to…
British Army
Biographical Sketches of Royal Militia Commanders in the South Carolina Mid- and Lowcountry, North Carolina, and Georgia, 1780–82
byIntroduction This article supplements one relating to royal militia commanders in the South Carolina Backcountry that appeared in the Journal of the American Revolution…
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Biographical Sketches of Royal Militia Commanders in the South Carolina Backcountry, 1780–82
byIntroduction After the British capture of Charlestown in mid May 1780 the Crown hoped to raise substantial numbers of militia not only to maintain…
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Starting from Scratch: Combating “the Itch”
byAlthough it may not have been fatal, scabies brought more patients to British Army hospitals during the Seven Years’ War than any other condition,…
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Top Ten Quotes of Major General Charles Lee
byCharles Lee served as second-in-command of the Continental Army, subordinate only to George Washington. Born in England, Lee was the best-educated and most widely-read…
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This Week on Dispatches: Jim Piecuch on Women and Revolutionary-Era Armies
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR associate editor, Jim Piecuch who elaborates on his article about the suggestion for a British “Female Corp”…
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A Reprieve for John Sutherland, a Poor Silly Creature
byJohn Sutherland had intended only to visit his brother, and now he sat in confinement, awaiting a death sentence. It was not a likely…
This Week on Dispatches: John G. McCurdy on the Quartering Act
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and author John G. McCurdy, professor of history at Eastern Michigan University, about the quartering act,…
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The Court Martial of Major Henry Lee
byAside from Gen. Anthony Wayne’s successful assault upon a British garrison at Stony Point in July, military activity in the first eight months of…
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A Plan for a British “Female Corps”
byThe thought of allowing women to serve in combat was considered ridiculous only a few decades ago in most western nations; it was an…
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This Week on Dispatches: Rick Atkinson on The British Are Coming
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Pulitzer-prize winning author Rick Atkinson about his latest book, the best-selling The British are Coming: The War…
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Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution
byQuarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution by John Gilbert McCurdy (Cornell University Press, 2019) Question: “Why did…
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This Week on Dispatches: Todd Braisted on Discovering Barnard E. Griffiths, Queen’s Ranger, Emancipated Slave
byDispatches can now be easily accessed on the JAR main menu. Host Brady Crytzer discusses historian Todd Braisted’s remarkable discovery of a slave who…
This Week on Dispatches: Matthew Moss on the Ferguson Breech-Loading Rifle
byIn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews British historian Matthew Moss and the story of Major Patrick Ferguson and the first breech-loading rifle adopted…
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“To Huts”: British Winter Cantonments around New York City
byThe British Occupation of the New York City region during the Revolutionary War was the longest continuous occupation of any area of the entire…
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Patrick Ferguson and His Rifle
byMaj. Patrick Ferguson’s rifle is one of the most interesting and significant early attempts at a breech-loading service rifle. Coupling a screw breech plug…
Guilty of Desertion? James White, 7th (Royal Fusiliers) Regiment
byIn today’s trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the court considered several factors: was the man…
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Guilty of Desertion? Daniel Holliwell, 33rd Regiment of Foot
byDesertion was a capital crime, but it was up to a general court martial, a board of thirteen officers, to determine the defendant’s guilt…
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Guilty of Desertion? Hubert Römer, 22nd Regiment of Foot
byIf a British soldier was absent without leave, he might be charged with desertion; if caught, he could be tried by a general court…
Guilty of Desertion? John Sullivan, 5th Regiment of Foot
byIn this second trial, see if you agree with the court’s verdict and sentence. In determining guilt, the officers of the general court martial…
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Guilty of Desertion? Charles Hanley, 4th (King’s Own) Regiment
byThis week JAR Editor Don N. Hagist presents the testimony from five British desertion trials held during the American Revolution. For each trial, see…
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Untangling British Army Ranks
byAfter a few years of editing articles for this journal, it’s become apparent that the ranks of British officers sometimes confuse people. By “sometimes”…
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10 Disabled British Pensioners
byWars were fought by soldiers, but it is the campaigns and commanders that are remembered and studied. This is a shame because the soldiers…
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Top 10 Reasons to Join the British Army
byThe army that attempted to subdue rebellion in America in the 1770s and 1780s consisted primarily of soldiers from the British regular army. Although…
Blood and Bandages: British Army Wives as Nurses
byAs a young woman in Somerset in 1773 you married that handsome weaver from a neighboring parish, but now it’s two years later and…
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The Aim of British Soldiers
byMyth: British soldiers were taught not to aim, but merely to point the piece towards the target[1] …the British soldier was a poor marksman….
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Dogs of War Gone Astray
byThe article “Unleashing the Dogs of War” gave just a few examples of the canine presence that was quite widespread in the armies of…
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The Fate of British Regulars
byI read with interest Thomas Fleming’s article, “The Fate of Regulars.” Readers may be interested to know that British soldiers had much better prospects…