The Unimportance of John Brown’s Raid on Ticonderoga
byA lesser-known action during Gen. John Burgoyne’s 1777 campaign occurred at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in the days surrounding the first battle at Saratoga…
A lesser-known action during Gen. John Burgoyne’s 1777 campaign occurred at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in the days surrounding the first battle at Saratoga…
BOOK REVIEW: From the Battlefield to the Stage: the Many Lives of General John Burgoyne by Norman S. Poser (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) It…
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author Norman S. Poser on his new book, From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives…
Following the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, the House of Commons began to debate whether or not the war…
We expect writers for the Journal of the American Revolution to use primary sources—things written as close as possible to the time of the events…
Constant Avery of Eaton, in New York’s Madison County, travelled sixteen miles to the county seat in Wampsville in the first week of October…
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…
George Washington and various of his generals had their doubts about the effectiveness of volunteer militia units as the Revolutionary War intensified. The solution…
Most people think of wartime propaganda as atrocity stories about the enemy. But commanders also disseminate false and true information in hopes of boosting…
It’s an understatement to say that the spring of 1776 had not gone well for the American army in Canada. After a campaign that…
“My fate is hard,” Sir Henry Clinton remarked after learning that he had been named commander of the British army in May 1778, adding…
When twenty-three-year-old Capt. Ebenezer Sullivan nobly volunteered himself as a prisoner-exchange hostage in the last weeks of the Canadian invasion, he had no way…
During the American Revolution, many players were removed from the chess board of war as a result of capture. From individual soldiers and sailors…
With no actionable intelligence, General Washington had to guess where British Maj. Gen. William Howe was taking his army. So in July 1777, he…
“The Radeau was magnificently decked out today; from her two masts were flying the English flag and in honor of the nation of Braunschweig,…
The radeau (French, singular for “raft”) was co-opted for eighteenth century warfare on and along Lake George and Lake Champlain, to deal with the challenges…
John Row was a British officer in the 9th Regiment of Foot, and he was in love with Jane Innes. For six years their…
Performing as a general atop an independent command is the most difficult military assignment and for which prior experience critically fosters improved strategic and…
Maps are vital to understanding campaigns and battles. During the American Revolution, military planners often lamented the lack of good maps and went to…
The American Revolutionary War was a war Britain seemingly should have won. Its failure is popularly blamed upon the incompetence of the political and…
Peter Livius, chief justice of the province of Quebec and former justice of New Hampshire, wrote a letter on June 2, 1777 to American…
A bit of time in the summer of 1777 nearly turned the conception of a United States into a stillborn notion. It is commonly…
One of the most striking aspects of the Battle of Camden is the vast amount of material that was written about it. Officers and…