Tag: John Paul Jones

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Engaging the Glasgow

On April 18, 1776 Captain Tyringham Howe of His Majesty’s Ship Glasgow arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Two weeks prior, the twenty-gun sloop had engaged a task force from the Continental Navy and given better than she received. Vice Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, who briefly commanded Royal Navy in American waters, expected Glasgow to be carrying dispatches from […]

by Eric Sterner
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This Week on Dispatches: Joseph E. Wroblewski on John Paul Jones and Thaddeus Kosciuszko in Warsaw, 1789

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Joseph E. Wroblewski about the chance encounter of two legendary figures of American independence, John Paul Jones and Thaddeus Kosciuskzo, in postwar Warsaw. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and the JAR Dispatches web site. […]

by Editors
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Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning

Sailing Under John Paul Jones: The Memoir of Continental Navy Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning, 1778-1783, edited by Louis Arthur Norton. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2019) Contrary to popular narratives, the American Revolution was not restricted to fighting in the Americas. The war was fought on many fronts including India and Europe. Nathaniel Fanning reminds us […]

by George Kotlik
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Revolutionary Revenge on Hudson Bay, 1782

French naval officer La Pérouse (Jean Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Pérouse) was one of many who actively supported the American Patriots in their war for independence from Britain. La Pérouse’s assignments included patrolling the North Atlantic where he directed the capture of numerous British merchant vessels.[1] His early 1781 outbound voyage from France […]

by Merv O. Ahrens
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This Week on Dispatches: Louis Arthur Norton on the battle between the Bonhomme Richard and Serapis

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews maritime historian and long-time JAR contributor Louis Arthur Norton on the celebrated battle between the Bonhomme Richard and the Serapis off Flamborough Head, England, on September 23, 1779. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast […]

by Editors
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The Battle between Bonhomme Richard and Serapis

Author’s note: Continental Navy midshipman Nathaniel Fanning’s eyewitness account of the American Revolution’s most famous naval battle is among the most detailed available. This article presents his account, rewritten in the third person with some modifications for clarity. A six-knot breeze blew from the south southwest off Flamborough Head as the Continental Navy ship Bonhomme […]

by Louis Arthur Norton
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This Week on Dispatches: Richard Werther on Lambert Wickes, Continental Navy Captain

In this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer and JAR contributor Richard J. Werther discuss the life of Captain Lambert Wickes, the differences between “piracy” and “privateering,” and the origins of the Continental Navy. As your host says, “Sit back, relax, and enjoy the interview. . . .” New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every […]

by Editors
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The Revolutionary War’s Most Enigmatic Naval Captain: Pierre Landais

One American Revolutionary War naval captain, Pierre Landais, appeared paranoid and somewhat deranged. Landais was a French merchantman lieutenant who trafficked arms to America for entrepreneur Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.[1] Beaumarchais created a fictitious trading enterprise called Hortalez et Cie that channeled French arms to the Americans via colonial West Indian entrepôrts.[2] Once there, the arms […]

by Louis Arthur Norton
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Scotland and the American Revolution

Reading Thomas Fleming’s fascinating article on “Celts in the American Revolution,” one is struck by the extent to which Scotland and the Scots informed and supported American independence.  From the presence of Scots in congress, to the influence of common sense moral philosophy (Paine’s phrase was not coincidental), to the still-debated influence of the 1320 […]

by Matthew P. Dziennik
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Most Overrated Revolutionary?

John Paul Jones. A good ship captain and tenacious fighter but an abysmally bad squadron commander and a tireless self-promoter and schemer, who was deservedly disliked by subordinates and peers and who certainly does not warrant the title “Father of the United States Navy.” –Dennis M. Conrad   Tough question—most of the characters are forgotten, […]

by Editors
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Spring Break Road Trip – Day 1 (NH, MA, RI)

Journal of the American Revolution is closing its office this week and heading on a road trip, making stops at historic Revolution sites along our fictional drive from New Hampshire to Georgia. Our first stop will be where the first shots of the Revolution were fired – Portsmouth. In December 1774, the first armed exchange […]

by Editors