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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…
Israel Putnam
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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…
4
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…
2
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…
17
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…
4
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…