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The Declaration of Independence, viewed by thousands each year, is one of the most revered documents in American history. Housed in a hermetically sealed glass…
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The threat of resigning one’s military commission under protest is almost a matter of tradition. If your leaders made a decision you did not…
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This story begins five weeks after Gen. John Burgoyne’s army forced the Americans to abandon positions on Lake Champlain in July 1777. On August…
In Douglas S. Freeman’s biography of Robert E. Lee, he noted: Corps activities took a certain amount of Lee’s time that winter. Kosciuszko was…
George Washington and various of his generals had their doubts about the effectiveness of volunteer militia units as the Revolutionary War intensified. The solution…
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We asked our contributors: Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era (other than Benedict Arnold) is remembered for the wrong reasons,…
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In the South, the American Revolution was largely a civil war, one between Whig supporters of American liberties and Loyalists or Tories, who remained…
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“Few people know the predicament we are in,” wrote George Washington, while he expressed the Continental army’s dire circumstances.[1] By January 1776, just six months…
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A New England Quaker in his late thirties was not the ideal candidate for the job, according to the Continental Congress. Instead, Congress chose…
During the American War of Independence, the British Army officer corps routinely relegated its surgeons and physicians to a secondary status among its ranks….
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In September 1780, writing from Hillsborough, North Carolina, just one month after the disastrous defeat at Camden, Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates penned a disconcerted…
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Following the American surrender at Charleston on May 12, 1780, the Continental Army’s “Southern Department” was in disarray. Taken prisoner that day were 245…
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It was the one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans during the War for Independence, certainly the worst over which George Washington…
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A.H. Ritchie’s 1856 engraving entitled “Washington and His Generals” is a creative, imaginary scene, as the dozens of generals shown assembled never congregated in…
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A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David Head (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019)…
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The first half of 1780 had gone disastrously for Virginia. The surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s army at Charleston and the destruction of Col….
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews distinguished historian, Mark Edward Lender, about his new book, Cabal! The Plot Against General Washington, the first…
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We asked our contributors, “Who is your favorite military officer that never saw any combat?” The intent was to showcase officers who saw no…
On a late spring afternoon in 1825, the two Bedinger brothers—Henry and Michael, old men now, seventy-four and sixty-nine respectively, proud immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine—commanded…
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Besides dealing with events elsewhere, this article relates in particular the plight of the Carolina loyalists and the way in which British ascendancy in…
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Cabal! The Plot Against General Washington by Mark Edward Lender (Westholme, 2019) While the winter at Valley Forge is ingrained in American lore, less…
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As November 1780 begins, we find Cornwallis continuing to wait at Winnsborough, South Carolina, in the hope of being joined by Major Gen. Alexander…
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When the American Revolution became a shooting war, it was left to the Continental Congress to become the body of state for the thirteen…
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When the Continental Congress first met it was intended to bring the American colonies together to find a solution to the growing disputes with…
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“French Officers hate him” and “none of the English Officers . . . love him.”[1] The American Revolution produced the names of great individuals who…
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Col. Edward Wigglesworth took part in some of the most consequential actions of the American Revolution, but, like so many such men, we know…
In the days following the British pyrrhic victory of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, Gen. George Washington, in his new role as commander-in-chief,…
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Earlier this year the AMC network aired a new series, Turn, about the Continental Army’s Culper Spy Ring, based on Alexander Rose’s book, Washington’s…
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At the battle of Camden in August of 1780, Lord Cornwallis dealt the Americans under General Horatio Gates a shocking defeat. Also known as…
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Lord Cornwallis dealt General Horatio Gates a terrible defeat at Camden in South Carolina. The battle represented a rather rude jolt to the reputation…
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Recently, I offered my choices for the ten most important Continental Army generals. Not the best or the worst, but the most important. But…
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In addition to George Washington, during the course of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress commissioned seventy-seven other men as general officers, with four…
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One of the most striking aspects of the Battle of Camden is the vast amount of material that was written about it. Officers and…