Dressed in defiance, Col. George Washington arrived at each session of the Second Continental Congress donning a new buff and blue uniform he helped design with fellow Virginian George Mason.[1] Washington, a staunch but cautious Whig, fully embraced the American cause and, incredibly, his military exploits from the French and Indian War roughly two decades […]
“I desire you would remember the ladies”—March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams to her husband, John Adams After reading the “Most Overrated Revolutionary” and the “Most Underrated Revolutionary,” and the amazing contributions by each and every person, it started me thinking about “the ladies” that I feel, in their own ways, helped achieve independence. The impact that […]
Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother by Craig Shirley (Harper, 2019) Rare indeed is the historian of early American history who is unfamiliar with George Washington. Lesser known, however, is the story of Mary Ball Washington, his mother. In Craig Shirley’s book, Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother, Shirley […]
