Smallpox Threatens an American Privateer at Sea
byTwo important books in the twenty-first century have focused on the impact of terrifying smallpox contagions on the American Revolutionary War.[1] Understandably, most of…
Privateers
Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s Slave Trade
byBOOK REVIEW: Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s African Slave Trade by Christian McBurney (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2022) In Dark Voyage: An American…
This Week on Dispatches: Eric Sterner on Britain, Russia, and the Armed Neutrality of 1780
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Eric Sterner about an important international repercussion of the British war in America:…
Britain, Russia, and the Armed Neutrality of 1780
byLike a rock dropped into a smooth pond, the American Revolution spread ripples across the European world. French and Spanish entry into the war…
3
Providence Merchant John Brown Gets Rich Privateering in 1776 and 1777
byThroughout the churning tides of 1776 and 1777, John Brown, a prominent a prominent merchant from Providence, Rhode Island, amassed a fortune by investing…
2
King Frederick the Great and the American Colonies—Mit Complimenten Aweissen
byMit Complimenten Aweissen (put him off with compliments) Arthur Lee, one of the American Commissioners stationed in Paris, was appointed minister to the Prussian Court…
2
Mismatch off Charleston: The Privateer Congress vs. HMS Savage
by“One of the most creditable actions of this war in which an American privateer was engaged took place on September 6, 1781.”—Edgar Stanton Maclay,…
1
John Greenwood: Adroit Multi-talented Patriot
byThis historical chronical is about an unusual multifaceted patriot: a musician, soldier, privateer, author, and dentist. On May 17, 1760, John Greenwood was born…
6
Virginia’s Swamp Fox: Captain Amos Weeks of Princess Anne County
byAnyone who has ever tackled genealogical or historical research knows that the process is very much like putting a jigsaw puzzle together or working…
2
Showdown Over a Schooner: The Battle of East Guilford, the Final Engagement in Connecticut
byAt dawn, on Sunday, May 19, 1782, “a large new schooner” moved steadily eastward across Long Island Sound. At the helm was Capt. James…
This Week on Dispatches: Louis Arthur Norton on the Plight of the Seamen
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Louis Arthur Norton on what happened to captured Continental Navy, states’ navies,…
“Dispatch’t Him for America”: the Journal of Dr. Edmund Hagen, Privateer and Prisoner of War, Part 1 of 2
byEdmund Hagen presumably never intended the publication of his daily journal of his 1776 stint as the surgeon on a successful, but ultimately ill-fated,…
This Week on Dispatches: Alexander R. Cain on Privateering During the Siege of Boston
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and maritime historian Alexander R. Cain about his recent article on how New England privateers supported…
10
Massachusetts Privateers During the Siege of Boston
byFollowing the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Massachusetts Grand Army surrounded Boston and began to lay siege to it. The Massachusetts Committee of…
8
Chesapeake Bay Privateers in the Revolution
byChesapeake Bay Privateers in the Revolution by Leonard Szaltis (The History Press, 2019) Leonard Szaltis does the reader the favor of stipulating the intent…
4
Henry Mowatt and the “Wretched” Ship HMS Albany
byIn 1782, when the sixteen-gun sloop-of-war HMS Albany was determined to be at the end of her usefulness, nobody seemed truly surprised or sad about…
This Week on Dispatches: Richard Werther on Lambert Wickes, Continental Navy Captain
byIn 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…
9
Captain Lambert Wickes and “Gunboat Diplomacy, American Revolution Style”
byThe Continental Navy. Words that didn’t exactly strike fear into the heart of the mighty British Royal Navy. For most Americans, knowledge of the…
2
The Constitutional Debate over a Standing National Navy
byThere is a gap in most histories of the United States Navy. The blank space lies between the end of the American Revolution and…
1
Joshua Huddy: The Scourge of New Jersey Loyalists
byNew Jersey is known as the “Crossroads of the Revolution” because its location between New York and Philadelphia, as well as its strategic importance…
6
The “P” is for Profit: Revolutionary War Privateers and the Slave Trade
byThe American Revolutionary War was fought largely by armies on the North American continent, however, like waves in a pond the conflict inevitably rippled…