Tag: George Washington

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George Washington’s 1758 Friendly Fire Incident at Loyalhanna Creek

In the midst of the French and Indian War, with dusk settling over the Loyalhanna Creek and volunteer soldiers firing at shadows in the dark, George Washington confronted an “inexcusable but understandable military blunder.”[1] Mistaking their fellow soldiers for enemy combatants in the midst of heavy fog and failed communication, two battalions of Virginians fired […]

by Nathan Crissman
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This Week on Dispatches: Richard Gardiner on George Washington’s First Teacher

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR Contributor Richard Gardiner. For the last two centuries historians have speculated as to the identity of George Washington’s first teacher. Richard Gardiner provides compelling new evidence. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening(Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]

by Editors
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Unraveling the Mystery of George Washington’s Earliest Teacher

George Washington’s childhood is a rather elusive historical research topic. It is not that there is a lack of stories, tales, and legends published about Washington’s early years, but the task of separating authentic information from widespread mythology has compelled judicious historians to exercise tremendous skepticism when offered an assertion about his youngest days. Much […]

by Richard Gardiner
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America’s Forgotten Founder: Comte Charles Gravier de Vergennes

Historians generally agree on who were America’s principal Founders, but the roll call invariably omits the name of one individual without whose steadfast assistance the United States would have been unlikely to have gained independence. Comte Charles Gravier de Vergennes, France’s foreign minister throughout the long, desperate war, was a crucial player in America’s victory […]

by John Ferling
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George Washington as Parent

George Washington was a colonel in the Virginia militia, master of Mount Vernon, founding father, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, first president of the United States, and Father of his Country. The nation’s capital, many other towns and thousands of streets carry the Washington name. Yet, George Washington “was far less powerful in the tiny […]

by Chaim M. Rosenberg
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Quotes About or By Native Americans, 1751 to 1793

Quotes about indigenous Native Americans are brimming with paradoxes. Benjamin Franklin praised their martial skills and the political structure of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy yet labeled them “ignorant savages.” John Adams chastised the French utilization of native warriors in the French and Indian Wars while Philip Schuyler wooed Oneida warriors with false promises of equality and […]

by Victor J. DiSanto
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A Very Special Dispatches: Brady Crytzer on the Life and Legacy of Guyasuta

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer presents a talk he gave on the great Indigenous leader Guyasuta, who witnessed the fall of Indian America—when Native Peoples lost their political influence to determine the course of North American expansion. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]

by Editors
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George Washington Confronts Charles Lee: Fresh Insights into the Mammoth Moment at Monmouth

George Washington’s confrontation with Maj. Gen. Charles Lee on a near hundred-degree afternoon, two miles west of Monmouth Courthouse on Sunday, June 28, 1778, ranks as one of the most iconic moments in battle during the Revolutionary War. It has been depicted in numerous paintings and sketches beginning in the 1800s, frequented Revolutionary War and […]

by Gary Ecelbarger
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George Washington’s Momentous Year: Volume 1, The Philadelphia Campaign

BOOK REVIEW: George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Volume 1, The Philadelphia Campaign by Gary Ecelbarger (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2004. $32.50, hardcover) Gary Ecelbarger is a skilled writer who weaves an interesting account of Gen. George Washington’s leadership and campaign management challenges in this, the first of a planned two-volume analysis. […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
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A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic

BOOK REVIEW: A Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson, and the American Republic by Francis D. Cogliano (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2024. $37.95 Cloth) Comparative founder profiles are a crowded book genre with numerous volumes depicting any combination of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin as rivals, friends, or brothers. Professor […]

by Gene Procknow
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This Week on Dispatches: Benjamin George on George Washington’s Information War

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Benjamin George on how George Washington used information tactically and strategically to manipulate the course of the war. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]

by Editors
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George Washington’s Information War

Information has been as powerful a weapon as any in the history of warfare. Modern militaries continue to grapple with the power of information by developing and incorporating specific information strategies into their warfighting arsenals. In 2017, the U.S. military established information as a warfighting function to define and harness “the military role of information […]

by Benjamin George
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This Week on Dispatches: Shawn David McGhee on George Washington’s “Rules of Civility”

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Shawn David McGhee on the mystery of George Washington’s “Rules of Civility.” New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed on […]

by Editors
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George Washington’s “Rules of Civility”: An Early American Literary Mystery

Tucked away in George Washington’s papers rests a thirty-five-page handwritten folio labeled “Forms of Writing.”[1] In Washington’s neat and ornate cursive, the first roughly two-thirds of this artifact are comprised of carefully copied examples of legal mechanisms such as promissory notes, bills of exchange, short- and long-form wills, and, ominously, a “Form of a Servants […]

by Shawn David McGhee
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Hero to Zero? Remembering Horatio Gates

Between heroes like George Washington and villains like Benedict Arnold, the Revolutionary War was full of historical actors of all stripes. But one man in particular defies an easy sorting between hero and villain. Washington’s first adjutant general, Horatio Gates, does not have a secure place in historical memory as either hero or villain. In […]

by Mike Matheny
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Patriots and Politics, Redcoats and Reconstruction: General Nathanael Greene’s Grand Southern Strategy

Major General Nathanael Greene’s military career presents a paradox to historians: how could a Quaker, unlearned in the art of war, become one of America’s foremost Revolutionary War generals? While historians have extensively studied Greene’s exercise of tactics and operations, Greene’s formulation and execution of grand strategy—the linking of economic, governance and security objectives with […]

by H. Allen Skinner
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The First Four Days at Valley Forge

The following timeline narrative attempts to unite previously disjointed events and occurrences regarding the first four days of the Continental army’s six-month stay at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. For clarification purposes, all references to “Valley Forge” are for the winter cantonment and not the iron forge on Valley Creek for which the encampment was named. Temperatures […]

by Gary Ecelbarger
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Charles Lee—The Continental Army’s Most Prolific Essayist General

Maj. Gen. Charles Lee’s substantial literary contributions to the American independence movement have been overshadowed by his challenging Gen. George Washington for Continental Army leadership and the 1860 discovery of a potentially treasonous document.[1] Initially, Revolutionary Era Americans viewed Charles Lee as a highly accomplished military officer and a learned scholar and admired his ardently-argued […]

by Gene Procknow
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The Significance of John Cadwalader

In 1776, John Cadwalader was a thirty-four-year-old merchant and prominent member of the Philadelphia gentry who had risen to command the volunteer militia known as the Philadelphia Associators. In his capacity as a militia colonel, he would play a distinctive—and today largely unappreciated—role in what historians have termed the “Ten Crucial Days” of the Revolutionary […]

by David Price
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Partisan Politics and the Laws Which Shaped the First Congress

Every ten years the United States engages in the process of re-apportionment, wherein each state with more than one House seat redraws their Congressional districts. Simultaneously, every re-districting cycle partisans, activists, and pundits alike all bewail the harmful effects of gerrymandering on the process. Far from a modern phenomenon, partisan politics has always had a […]

by Samuel T. Lair
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This Week on Dispatches: Brian Koyn on George Washington’s Emotional Intelligence and the Newburgh Conspiracy

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews US Army chaplain Brian Koyn on how modern emotional intelligence research can provide insight on how George Washington successfully handled the Newburgh Conspiracy. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. […]

by Editors
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This Week on Dispatches: Patrick H. Hannum and Frederick R. Kienle on George Washington’s Leadership Advice

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews  long-time JAR contributor Patrick H. Hannum and his co-author Frederick R. Keinle on George Washington’s leadership advice to  Col. William Woodford—and whether Woodford took heed. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]

by Editors
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George Washington’s 1775 Leadership Advice to William Woodford: Did He Listen?

Gen. George Washington’s well-crafted November 10, 1775 letter to Col. William Woodford contains some timeless pearls of military wisdom, guidance, and advice.[1] Washington’s instructive response to an earlier letter from Woodford reveals a set of basic leadership principles that remain in official United States Army doctrine to this day. This enduring leadership lesson leads one […]

by Patrick H. Hannum and Frederick R. Kienle