Meeting of the Three Commanders
byOn March 6, 2019, a chilly late winter afternoon, the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission dedicated a Virginia Historical Highway Marker to commemorate a…
Rochambeau
This Week on Dispatches: Norman Desmarais on the Gazette Françoise
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor, writer, and historian Norman Desmarais on the Gazette Françoise, a French newspaper published for…
6
The Troubled Relationship Between Clinton and Cornwallis and their “War” after the War
byA search for scapegoats is certain to follow a lost war, and in the wake of the British disaster at Yorktown in October 1781…
“Gazette Françoise,” The French Gazette in Newport, Rhode Island
byWhen General Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur Comte de Rochambeau arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, on July 10, 1780 with over 5800 troops, most…
6
In the Footsteps of Captain Johann Ewald at Yorktown
byAs night slowly gives into morning the salty breeze brings a mist across the suffocating sulphury air filled with fireballs. The fireballs pass each…
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Sir Henry Clinton’s Generalship
by“My fate is hard,” Sir Henry Clinton remarked after learning that he had been named commander of the British army in May 1778, adding…
2
Reflections on the Siege and Capitulation of Yorktown and Gloucester
byLt. General Earl Cornwallis, the British general officer commanding in the south, occupied Yorktown and Gloucester on August 1 and 2, 1781, the evacuation…
4
Key to Victory: Foreign Assistance to America’s Revolutionary War
byHistorians have long appreciated that the colonies could not have won the American Revolutionary War against the most powerful nation in the world without…
2
Comte d’Estaing’s Georgia Land Grants
byOn the morning of October 9, 1779, one of the bloodiest and most forgotten battles of the American Revolution took place during the Siege…
2
The British Naval Signals Missions of 1781
byRichard Peters’ letter of October 19, 1781, to Gen. George Washington mentioned two missions to obtain copies of certain British naval signals and convey…
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L’Expédition Particuliere: Winter 1780 and the Battle of Cape Henry
byIn July 1780, after three and half months at sea, nearly 6,000 thousand men[1] and supplies crammed on four frigates, seven ships of the…
This Week on Dispatches: Kim Burdick on the Atlantic Crossing of the French l’Expédition Particulière
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Kim Burdick about l’Expédition Particulière, the codename for the French fleet that sailed from…
4
L’Expédition Particulière crosses the Atlantic: The French Rally to the American Cause
byFollowing American success at Saratoga in the autumn of 1777, French King Louis XVI signed the Treaty of Amity and Friendship, establishing open French…
4
Why Newport, Rhode Island, Scorned the French
byOne would expect that a country that had been at war for five years would welcome its first ally with open arms. We might…
13
Historic Structures and Sites Worth Preserving?
byA recent article mentioned Sidman’s Tavern in New Jersey, a building with strong connections to the American Revolution that is under threat of destruction….
2
George Washington’s 1781 Campaign Design Revealed
byGeorge Washington closed a July 31, 1788 letter to Noah Webster noting that Webster’s “desire of obtaining truth is very laudable, I wish I…
Rochambeau’s Arrest
byThe French army was returning from Yorktown, Virginia in 1782 on their way to Newport and Boston. Lt. Gen. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur…
1
Command and Control During the Yorktown Campaign
byThe definitions of joint command of land, maritime, air and other forces as practiced by the United States military today were unknown to those…
5
Planning the Final Action: George Washington and Rochambeau, May 1781
byAfter the Americans’ stunning victory at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, King Louis XVI ordered his ministers to negotiate a formal alliance between France…
5
Washington’s Deviation to Virginia
byGeneral Washington received the disappointing news on August 14, 1781. Comte De Grasse’s powerful French fleet of nearly thirty warships was not sailing for…