Margaret (Moncrieffe) Coghlan: The Descent from Riches to Rags (Part One of Two)
byIn 1805, Margaret (Moncrieffe) Coghlan’s options were running out. For more than a decade, she had been back and forth to the King’s Bench…
Israel Putnam
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…
This Week on Dispatches: Todd W. Braisted on Point/Counterpoint between Israel Putnam and William Tryon
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Todd W. Braisted on Israel Putnam and William Tryon trying to influence Hessian…
Point/Counterpoint, 1777 Style: Dueling Proclamations from Israel Putnam and William Tryon
byAs the year 1777 drew to a close, the region around the city of New York had been under British control for a year….
Jemima Howe: Two Competing Captivity Narratives
byJemima Howe (1724–1805), a pioneer woman of the early Vermont frontier wilderness, survived a 1755 abduction along with her seven children ranging from six…
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…
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Jemima Howe, Frontier Pioneer to Wealthy Widow
byJemima Howe (1724–1805) reflects the strength it took to endure the harsh realities of the Vermont frontier during the American colonial and Revolutionary War…
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Terrain and Tactics: Detailed Perspectives From William Howe’s War Plan of 1776
byThe objective of the 1776 British campaign was straightforward: capture New York and crush the American rebellion. The plan was the brainchild of British…
Thomas Knowlton’s Revolution
byThe story of Thomas Knowlton in the American Revolution is brief but meaningful. He was only thirty-five at his death, arguably a full-fledged hero…
The 2nd Connecticut Regiment at Edge Hill
byA fire fight erupted on the densely wooded Pennsylvania ridge. Caught in a crossfire from three sides, men of the 2nd Connecticut Regiment began…
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Ten Graves of Patriot Spies
bySpies. They lived in the shadows playing a very dangerous, life-or-death game while they served in various roles of espionage for the patriot cause…
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Ten Revolutionary War Patriot Graves
byThis list presents the graves of ten soldiers who made remarkable contributions to the founding of the United States and who have a headstone…
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A “Truly Noble” Resistance: The Sons of Liberty in Connecticut
byThe role of Connecticut’s Sons of Liberty is one that exemplifies the state’s rich history of self-governance and fiercely independent spirit. Their swift reaction…
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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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Who Said, “Don’t Fire Till You See the Whites of Their Eyes”?
by“Don’t fire till you see the whites of their eyes!” is one of the most famous quotations to come out of the Revolutionary War. According…
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The Engagement at Woodlane: Precursor to the Battle of Iron Works Hill, a Key to the American Victory at Trenton
byTheir feet were leaving noticeable imprints in the grassy field. It was another two hundred yards to the hedgerow, and then a steep climb…
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“Monsr Dubuq,” the First French Officer to Serve the American Cause?
byTo historians of the American Revolution, the date of 1775 for French participation in the Patriot cause may seem incredible. The enigmatic “Monsr Dubuq,”…
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Revolutionary Rookies
byPerforming as a general atop an independent command is the most difficult military assignment and for which prior experience critically fosters improved strategic and…
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The General, the Corporal, and the Anecdote: Jacob Francis and Israel Putnam
byOn August 18, 1832, a seventy-eight-year-old New Jersey man named Jacob Francis went before Hunterdon County officials and described his military service in the…
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From Watchung to the Hudson: Sergeant Simon Giffin’s Summer of 1777
byOn June 28, 1777 elements of the 9th Connecticut Regiment that had been fighting with General Washington’s army in New Jersey departed Lincoln Gap…
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Personal Honor and Promotion Among Revolutionary Generals and Congress
byIn the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the United States Congress ordered the Department of Defense to conduct a study aimed at wholesale overhaul…
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General Israel Putnam: Reputation Revisited
byEntering the American Revolution, Israel Putnam enjoyed an esteemed reputation as a courageous warrior and an accomplished military officer. Putnam earned this repute through…
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Revolutionary Tourist: Chastellux in America
byAlmost every day, I drive past a Revolutionary War roadside marker. It commemorates a house that served as the headquarters of patriot Gen. Israel…
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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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Most Overrated Revolutionary?
byJohn Paul Jones. A good ship captain and tenacious fighter but an abysmally bad squadron commander and a tireless self-promoter and schemer, who was…
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Bunker Hill Monument and Memory
byYesterday marked the 170th anniversary of the commemoration of the Bunker Hill Monument. It took the Bunker Hill Monument Association, thousands of individual donors,…
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The Whites of their Eyes
byMyth: During the so-called Battle of Bunker Hill, Israel Putnam (some say William Prescott) issued a command: “Do not fire till you see the…