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The French Depart Newport
byLt. Gen. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur Comte de Rochambeau did not wake up on the morning of June 18, 1781 and order his…
Siege of Yorktown
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This Week on Dispatches: Michael Cecere on the French Army in Williamsburg
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author, historian, and JAR contributor Michael Cecere on the French occupation of Williamsburg, Virginia, after the British…
This Week on Dispatches: Chip Langston on Captain James Morris
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Chip Langston on the life of Captain James Morris of the Connecticut Light Infantry who…
Captain James Morris of the Connecticut Light Infantry
byIn 1812 when the British attacked the United States for the second time, Captain James Morris of the South Farms District of Litchfield, Connecticut,…
Should the War Continue? The Motion in the House of Commons, December 12, 1781
byFollowing the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, the House of Commons began to debate whether or not the war…
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Top Ten Weather Interventions
by“In war, as in medicine, natural causes not under our control, do much.” Gen. Horatio Gates wrote this about the terrain that so heavily…
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Jemima Howe, Frontier Pioneer to Wealthy Widow
byJemima Howe (1724–1805) reflects the strength it took to endure the harsh realities of the Vermont frontier during the American colonial and Revolutionary War…
This Week on Dispatches: Gregory J. W. Urwin on the American Slave Roundup after the British Surrender at Yorktown
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews distinguished historian and writer Gregory J. W. Urwin about his recent JAR article, “The Yorktown Tragedy,” examining…
This Week on Dispatches: Patrick Hannum on the Meeting of the Three Commanders
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian, decorated Marine veteran, and JAR contributor Patrick Hannum on the historic meeting between George Washington,…
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The Yorktown Tragedy: Washington’s Slave Roundup
byOn October 19, 1781, Gen. George Washington attained his apex as a soldier. Straddling a spirited charger at the head of a formidable Franco-American…
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…
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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…
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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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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…
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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…
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Why Yorktown? Yorktown in Human and Geological Time
byWritten human history only dates back a few thousand years while geologic time is often measured in tens or hundreds of millions of years….
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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…
Contributor Close-up: Kim Burdick
byWhat inspired you to start researching and writing about the Revolution? As a little kid growing up in very rural Chenango County, New York,…
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William Dickens, John Rose, and William Turnbull: Soldiers of the 2nd New York Regiment
byIt is often believed or reported that the 2nd New York Regiment of 1775, commanded by Col. Goose Van Schaick, morphed into the 1st…
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What They Saw and Did at Yorktown’s Redoubts 9 and 10
byReceiving orders from Sir Henry Clinton, British commander in chief in North America, Lt. Gen. Charles Cornwallis led his troops to a position between…
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Picking Up the Pieces: Virginia’s “Eighteen-Months Men” of 1780–81
byThe first half of 1780 had gone disastrously for Virginia. The surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s army at Charleston and the destruction of Col….
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Southern Gambit: Cornwallis and the British March to Yorktown
bySouthern Gambit: Cornwallis and the British March to Yorktown by Stanley D.M. Carpenter (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019) In his recent book, Stanley Carpenter produced…
Revisiting B. E. Griffiths: Former Slave, Queen’s Ranger, and “Son of Africa”
byIn a recent article, Todd Braisted reconstructed the remarkable story of a black Loyalist soldier, “Trumpeter Barney” of the Queen’s Rangers.[1] Through meticulous archival…
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How Robert Morris’s “Magick” Money Saved the American Revolution
byThe year 1780 ended badly, and the new year boded worse for America’s War of Independence. Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold’s treason and defection to…
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Bernard E. Griffiths: Trumpeter Barney of the Queen’s Rangers, Chelsea Pensioner—and Freed Slave
byThe period of the American Revolution does not afford many accounts of individual rank and file soldiers’ exploits, particularly on the side British side….
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Contributor Question: What Scene Do You Wish Had been Depicted Accurately by an Artist?
byWe asked our contributors what seemed like a simple question: What scene from the American Revolution or the Founding Era (1765–1805, approximately) do you…
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An Iconic Artifact Re-examined
bySometimes taking a closer look at an iconic and widely accepted primary source artifact can lead to unanticipated insights. And sometimes those unanticipated insights…
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Alexander Hamilton, Dangerous Man
byDear Mr. History: Everyone knows Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury, and let’s be honest, this nation is more of his…
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Unleashing the Dogs of War
byNearly everyone loves a dog. This is especially true of soldiers to whom a dog is a friendly reminder of home, a companion and…