In 1865, at the close of the Civil War, 1,367 men were breveted as a major or a brigadier general by the United States Senate. These honorary promotions were in addition to 583 who were already serving as generals, many in a brevet rank. Confusion abounded. As an example, at the war’s close, Ranald S. […]
The American Revolution provides heroes like almost no other event in American history. In a society where most of us live in comfort, with good medical care and remedies for what ails us, we recognize the sacrifices the people of the eighteenth century made for the cause of American liberty and, eventually, to build a […]
The senate chamber of the Maryland State House was more crowded than usual. It was December 23, 1783. Congress had recently relocated to Annapolis, and now George Washington was in town to fulfill a promise he made eight years earlier. “I went with several others to see Gen. Washington resign his Commission,” Annapolis socialite Mary […]
Nathanael Greene is rightly remembered as one of the great combat leaders of the American Revolution. But he was also a deep political thinker, a Rhode Island politician before the war who did not hesitate to discuss the broader ramifications of the American Revolution with a wide range of Patriot notables, some of whom never […]
Thomas Anderson’s journal, covering May 1780 through April 1782, has been lost, but a nineteenth century transcription resides in the Peter Force Collection of the Library of Congress, as Series 7E, Mss. 19,061, Item 4, Reel 1. Here is the portion of the journal from April 1781 through its conclusion on April 7, 1782. Anderson […]
The Battle of Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, on September 8, 1781 was the last major open-field battle of the Revolutionary War and perhaps its most savage. The close-quarter fighting that occurred there ranks among the bloodiest and most intensely contested military encounters in young America’s quest for independence.[1] It has, however, been eclipsed in historical […]
On the second day of 1780, Capt. Silas Burbank of the 12th Massachusetts Regiment sat down to record a deposition from William Walker, a private soldier in the 2nd Massachusetts Regiment. Walker wasn’t sure if he was in trouble, but after losing £2,561 worth of clothing destined for the Continental Army wintering in Morristown, he […]
Col. Abraham Buford is most famous for his defeat at Waxhaws, South Carolina, on May 29, 1780. His defiant message to Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, his order for his men to hold their fire until it was too late, and the subsequent chaos and bloodshed that was later called the Waxhaws Massacre is well-known. What is […]
Fabulous: adj. 1) wonderful; 2) existing only in fable. Emily Geiger is celebrated in numerous books and articles, memorialized on monuments, and portrayed in videos.[1] Her fame rests on the story that as a teenager she volunteered to carry a message from Gen. Nathanael Greene to Gen. Thomas Sumter in South Carolina when no man would […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author, US Army civilian historian, and JAR contributor H. Allen Skinner on how Nathanael Greene developed a grand strategy for his campaign against the British and Loyalists in the South. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]
Major General Nathanael Greene’s military career presents a paradox to historians: how could a Quaker, unlearned in the art of war, become one of America’s foremost Revolutionary War generals? While historians have extensively studied Greene’s exercise of tactics and operations, Greene’s formulation and execution of grand strategy—the linking of economic, governance and security objectives with […]
A recent home improvement project led to the Home Depot located at 2324 Elson Green Avenue, Virginia Beach, Virginia. The area is in the middle of the expansion of the old narrow two-lane country Princess Anne Road, into a modern six lane highway with access lanes needed to support the growing private and commercial vehicle […]
The Race to the Dan is a famous part of the Southern War of the American Revolution, a strategic retreat by Gen Nathanael Greene, that once across the Dan River, allowed the Southern Army to regroup and resupply. Ten days later Greene recrossed the Dan, was reinforced and on March 15, 1781 fought the Battle […]
When the vote came on Tuesday, July 26, 1781, before the House’s evening adjournment, it was Thomas Burke’s turn to hold the Executive office of North Carolina, beating out Samuel Johnson.[1] With the votes tallied, the legislature proclaimed to the Wake Court House in Raleigh that the, “the Honbl. Thomas Burke, Esquire” is requested in “attendance […]
In the South, the American Revolution was largely a civil war, one between Whig supporters of American liberties and Loyalists or Tories, who remained attached to the crown. Both sides strove to encourage and maintain the support they had among the people, and to attract to their side the neutrals or uncommitted inhabitants. Historian John […]
Horses have been used for transportation for thousands of years, but have caused countless injuries and deaths. There is a saying that the only men who have never fallen off a horse, are the ones who never rode one. Wikipedia lists scores of famous and not-so-famous individuals who have died in or, more often, out […]
A New England Quaker in his late thirties was not the ideal candidate for the job, according to the Continental Congress. Instead, Congress chose Gen. Horatio Gates. Gen. George Washington dithered and dissented in his gentlemanly way with Congress, but to no avail. General Gates was appointed commander of the southern theatre of the War […]
“They are remarkably stout and hardy men,” thought army surgeon James Thacher, “Dressed in white frocks, or rifle shirts, and round hats.” The robust constitutions and rugged appearance of the reinforcements that arrived at Boston in the summer of 1775 occasioned no small stir in the army camps ringing Boston. Dressed in a curious amalgam […]
To the End of the World: Nathanael Greene, Charles Cornwallis, and the Race to the Dan by Andrew Waters (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020) “In a place like Salisbury,” writes Andrew Waters of the North Carolina town that witnessed the 1781 Race to the Dan, “you can live among its ghosts and still not know […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews espionage expert, former CIA operations officer, and JAR contributor Ken Daigler on General Nathanael Greene and his use of spies to provide intelligence on British intentions in the South. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]
It is well known that George Washington was Nathanael Greene’s mentor in many ways, but luckily for many of us he did not completely share Washington’s personal discipline regarding intelligence activities in his official papers. With the exception of the Culper Ring, where the case officer for the network, Benjamin Tallmadge, often kept copies of […]
This month we asked our contributors: If George Washington had not run for President in 1789, who would you like to have had as a candidate (regardless of whether they were eligible based on the rules of time)? Michael J. F. Sheehan Dr. Benjamin Franklin, aside from Washington, was the only person in America […]
This list presents the graves of ten soldiers who made remarkable contributions to the founding of the United States and who have a headstone or memorial that is unique in its design. Each of the tombs or graves on the list are in the eastern United States. After George Washington, this list is not in […]
It was the one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans during the War for Independence, certainly the worst over which George Washington had direct command. Historian David McCullough perhaps characterized the debacle best, writing that after experiencing “one humiliating, costly reverse after another,” during the New York campaign of 1776, “the surrender of […]
A.H. Ritchie’s 1856 engraving entitled “Washington and His Generals” is a creative, imaginary scene, as the dozens of generals shown assembled never congregated in such numbers in one place. For some odd reason, Ritchie depicted Maj. Gen. Charles Lee standing closest at the table with Washington, rather than the loyal and important Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene. […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author, land conservationist, and JAR contributor Andrew Waters on how Nathanael Greene and Thomas Sumter fought against British control of South Carolina. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts a voice to […]
The Quaker and the Gamecock: Nathanael Greene, Thomas Sumter, and the Revolutionary War for the Soul of the South by Andrew Waters (Casemate, 2019) Among America’s great historical sites is the fort that still sits in the Charleston harbor where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. But while Fort Sumter is known to […]
On the 170th anniversary of Washington’s Birthday in 1902, the Delaware Society of the Cincinnati formed a procession of dignitaries and marched up Quaker Hill, the southwestern residential area of Wilmington. The ceremony continued to West Street, a north-south avenue named after an early settler. They stopped in the middle of a row of houses […]
Leaving Colonel Francis Lord Rawdon to command in the field from Georgetown to Augusta, Lt. Gen. Charles Earl Cornwallis, the British General Officer Commanding in the South, marched from Winnsborough, South Carolina on January 8, 1781 at the start of his second campaign to conquer North Carolina.[1] With him were 1,147 rank and file present […]
The Philadelphia Campaign of 1777 took definitive shape when Gen. William Howe successfully landed his 16,000 officers and men near Head of Elk (now Elkton), Maryland, on August 25, 1777, the very day that Washington set up his headquarters at a house atop Quaker Hill in the southwestern portion of Wilmington, Delaware, while his advanced […]
The Revolutionary War in the Carolinas after the fall of Charleston was a great arena of war with hundreds of small battlefields. Some were battles involving a few dozen men, Tory or Whig Americans fighting each other or Whigs fighting British regulars. Other engagements involved hundreds of men, with dozens of casualties. Today, most of […]
In the early hours of October 4, 1777, the Maryland militia trudged southward along the Old York Road in eastern Pennsylvania. In the distance off to their right, the rumble of cannon fire punctuated just how behind schedule they were. The battle in which the militiamen were to participate had begun, yet they were still […]
Washington’s Revolutionary War Generals by Stephen R. Taaffe. Campaigns and Commanders Series, Volume 68. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019). Selection, promotion and performance of Revolutionary War generals is a critically under-researched aspect of the rebellion. In his second book on the Revolutionary War, Stephen R. Taaffe closes this gap in scholarship with his evaluation of […]
In late June 1780 a messenger arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, with intelligence for Lt. Gen. Charles, Earl Cornwallis. The messenger, Capt. John La Boularderie De Treville, was a South Carolina Continental artillery officer and prisoner of war on parole. He was also a British spy. On at least four occasions, from June 1780 to January […]
The first half of 1780 had gone disastrously for Virginia. The surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s army at Charleston and the destruction of Col. Abraham Buford’s detachment of Virginia continentals at the Waxhaws virtually eliminated Virginia’s continental line. A force that once boasted sixteen regiments and thousands of men was now reduced to a handful of […]
Along with the Civil War, the American Revolution is one of the two most iconic events in American history. The Revolution has inspired countless myths, been used as a political weapon, and is at the heart of American civic religion. Generations of Americans have honored and commemorated the Revolution by erecting monuments to various peoples, […]
Aside from Gen. Anthony Wayne’s successful assault upon a British garrison at Stony Point in July, military activity in the first eight months of 1779 had been rather limited. Major Henry Lee, known as Light Horse Harry Lee to future generations, sought to change this in mid-August with a raid upon a British post less […]
On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Andrew Waters on the course of the campaign through the Carolinas, including Cowpens and other key engagements. His experience as a land conservator has provided him a knowledge of the Carolina backcountry that enhances his interpretation of the campaign. As your host Brady Crytzer says, “Sit back, […]
Besides dealing with events elsewhere, this article relates in particular the plight of the Carolina loyalists and the way in which British ascendancy in South Carolina—achieved only by June 1780—began so soon to unravel in the face of internal uprisings and an external threat. By mid July Major Gen. Johann Kalb had advanced from the […]
