This Week on Dispatches: Mike Matheny on Remembering Horatio Gates
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Mike Matheny on the highs and lows of General Horatio Gates’s career and reputation. New…
Horatio Gates
Victory at Saratoga: Getting the Word Out
byIt is axiomatic that the American victory at Saratoga was, aside from events at Yorktown, the pivotal military event of the American Revolution. The…
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Colonel Abraham Buford’s Virginia Battalion, 1780-1781
byCol. Abraham Buford is most famous for his defeat at Waxhaws, South Carolina, on May 29, 1780. His defiant message to Lt. Col. Banastre…
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Hero to Zero? Remembering Horatio Gates
byBetween heroes like George Washington and villains like Benedict Arnold, the Revolutionary War was full of historical actors of all stripes. But one man…
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Charles Lee—The Continental Army’s Most Prolific Essayist General
byMaj. Gen. Charles Lee’s substantial literary contributions to the American independence movement have been overshadowed by his challenging Gen. George Washington for Continental Army…
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John Cadwalader, Twice Refuses to be a General
byDuring the Revolutionary War, several men refused commissions as generals in the Continental Army. Seth Pomeroy and John Whitcomb were unable to accept the…
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The Use of the Declaration of Independence as a Military Recruitment Tool
byThe 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 Resignation Revolution
byThe 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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Brown’s Raid on Ticonderoga and Mount Independence
byThis story begins five weeks after Gen. John Burgoyne’s army forced the Americans to abandon positions on Lake Champlain in July 1777. On August…
Thaddeus Kosciuszko: “Patron Saint of West Point”
byIn 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…
Continental and Militia Cavalry Compared: A Case Study from Saratoga, 1777
byGeorge 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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Contributor Question: Remembered for the Wrong Reason?
byWe 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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North Carolina and Public Spirit in the American Revolution, 1775–1783
byIn 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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“The Predicament We Are In”: How Paperwork Saved the Continental Army
by“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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Nathanael Greene and the Challenge of Supplying the Southern Army
byA New England Quaker in his late thirties was not the ideal candidate for the job, according to the Continental Congress. Instead, Congress chose…
A Moonlighting British Army Surgeon
byDuring 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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The Battle of Shallow Ford, October 14, 1780
byIn 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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The Mysterious March of Horatio Gates
byFollowing 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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The Fall of Fort Washington: The “Bunker Hill Effect”?
byIt 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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Washington’s Councils of War: A Selective Assessment
byA.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
byA 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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Picking Up the Pieces: Virginia’s “Eighteen-Months Men” of 1780–81
byThe first half of 1780 had gone disastrously for Virginia. The surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s army at Charleston and the destruction of Col….
This Week on Dispatches: Mark Edward Lender on the “Cabal” Against George Washington
byOn 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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Officers Who Never Saw Combat
byWe asked our contributors, “Who is your favorite military officer that never saw any combat?” The intent was to showcase officers who saw no…
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The Beeline March: The Birth of the American Army
byOn 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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Midsummer 1780 in the Carolinas and Georgia—Events predating the Battle of Camden
byBesides 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
byCabal! 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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Cornwallis’s Refitment at Winnsborough and the Start of the Winter Campaign, November–January 1780–81
byAs 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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Continental Congress vs. Continental Army: Strategy and Personnel Decisions
byWhen 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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Continental Congress vs. Continental Army: The Officer Corps
byWhen 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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General Thomas Conway: Cabal Conspirator or Career Climber?
by“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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Finding Edward Wigglesworth’s Lost Diary
byCol. Edward Wigglesworth took part in some of the most consequential actions of the American Revolution, but, like so many such men, we know…
Struggle for a Lighthouse: The Raids to Destroy the Boston Light
byIn 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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The Myth of “Granny Gates”
byEarlier 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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Unlucky or Inept? Gates at Camden
byAt 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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Winner or Runner? Gates at Camden
byLord 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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The 10 Worst Continental Army Generals
byRecently, 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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Top 10 Continental Army Generals
byIn 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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Repercussions of the Battle of Camden
byOne of the most striking aspects of the Battle of Camden is the vast amount of material that was written about it. Officers and…