American Revolutionary War

The aim of this project is to compile names and biographies of women attached to the military forces of the War for American Independence, 1775 to 1783; Whig (Continental), French, Spanish, British, German, and Loyalists. This includes females (and their offspring) who followed the troops on campaign, or served in a camp, garrison, or other settled military post (including artificers and other military support groups). Spouses and retainers of both enlisted men and officers are eligible. The project will begin with Continental army and Whig militia female followers. Eventually, my hope is to convince people with special knowledge of the other nations’ armies involved to participate.
    Material may be sent to the editor at [email protected] or via Facebook messaging (John U. Rees). Names must be accompanied by supporting source material and a transcription of the same. Please include available pension narratives and as much detail from other sources as is available. Contributors will be listed with their submissions.

L’édition du « Brouillon pour le journal de campagne du 16 juin - 6 octobre 1781 » de Guillaume Mathieu de Dumas (1753-1837), aide de camp de Rochambeau.

En juillet 1780, Louis XVI envoie en Amérique un corps expéditionnaire de six mille hommes au secours des insurgés américains, qui se battent contre les Britanniques depuis le mois d’avril 1775 et qui ont proclamé leur indépendance  le 4 juillet 1776. Cette armée débarque à Newport, dans le Rhode Island, sous les ordres du Marquis de Rochambeau, appuyée par l’escadre de l’Amiral de Grasse. L’envoi de cette « Expédition Particulière » constitue  un tournant décisif dans la  guerre d’Indépendance américaine. Le 19 octobre 1781, le général britannique  Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805), retranché dans la place forte de  Yorktown, sur les côtes de Virginie, se rend, avec son armée de huit mille hommes aux insurgents américains et aux troupes françaises qui l’assiègent depuis plusieurs semaines. Cette « Reddition de Yorktown » marque la fin des hostilités sur le sol américain. Elle permettra l’indépendance des États-Unis, qui sera actée par le Traité de Paris en 1783.

En 2012, à Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, en Dordogne, un petit livret manuscrit  de quatre-vingt-six  pages a été découvert par la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme dans la Vallée de la Dordogne (SHPVD), dans des archives privées et remis à la Société. Ce livret inédit est intitulé « Brouillon pour le journal de campagne du 16 juin - 6 octobre 1781 ». Son auteur  est l’aide de camp de Rochambeau, Guillaume Mathieu, comte de Dumas (1753-1837). Il fut l’un des responsables de la logistique de la « Marche sur Yorktown ». Cette « Marche », entre juin et septembre 1781, correspond au  déplacement de l’armée française de Newport à Yorktown, sur une distance de plus de mille kilomètres.

Dumas précéda l’armée pour installer les campements. Son journal raconte de façon  vivante et détaillée les  circonstances de ce déplacement, la communication avec l’armée, ses rencontres, puis les difficultés pratiques qu’il eut à résoudre. De plus, il émaille son récit de  descriptions sur  la nature qu’il traverse et sur  la politique américaine, ainsi que des réflexions sur les différences entre les États et les effets de la guerre sur l’économie américaine.

One of three panelists at Fairfield Museum's "Museum After Dark" program on the topic of Spies of the Revolution in Connecticut, with Jackson Kuhl (Author, "Samuel Smedley, Connecticut Privateer") and Rob Foley (Town historian, Bridgeport, CT).  Talk focused on the Culper Spy Ring, which operated in part out of Fairfield, with a focus on Caleb Brewster, who settled in Fairfield after the war. Heavy emphasis on known historical facts vs. dramatized and fictionalized portrayal of Culper Spy Ring (especially Brewster) in AMC's TV series "TURN: Washington's Spies," with plenty of interactive conversation surrounding the nature of writing historical fiction vs. nonfiction.

Location: Fairfield Museum, Fairfield, CT
Image: Promotional postcard for "Museum After Dark" event

Je tâche dans cette contribution de dresser le « bilan opérationnel » des deux principales marines de la guerre d'Indépendance américaine. Après avoir comparé leurs politiques de construction et d’entretien à la veille et au cours de la guerre, de même que l’évolution de leurs effectifs et la composition de leurs forces, j’expose les effets, sur le matériel naval dont elles disposaient, des opérations qui eurent lieu, sur différents théâtres, de 1778 à 1783. Puis, le cadre étant ainsi posé, j’examine la façon dont ces forces furent employées de part et d’autre pendant le conflit, et les résultats auxquels parvinrent l’une et l’autre marine. /  In this paper, I intend to draw up the « operational record » of the two main navies of the American War of Independence. Having compared their shipbuilding and maintenance policies before and during the war, as well as the evolution and composition of their forces, I study the material consequences of the operations which took place, in different theaters of war, from 1778 to 1783. Then, I examine the way in which naval forces were, in this context, employed on both sides during the conflict, and the results which the two navies achieved.

Charles Willson Peale was the first artist to have portrayed George Washington in uniform from life. Washington sat for Peale seven times — more than for any other artist. Beginning with his earliest works, Peale channeled his politics and those of his patrons through his brush. His portraits familiarized Americans and Europeans with Washington, presenting the man, the cause, and the republic as one and the same. Specifically, Peale’s commissions celebrating Washington’s earliest victories heralded American resilience. Peale portrayed Washington as the personification of the American struggle for independence while heralding his service and leadership as a republican general. As visual biographies of the first soldier of the republic, Peale’s wartime portraits of Washington, therefore, represent his most important contribution to the creation of American identity through art.

Greenberg Steinhauser Forum in American Portraiture, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institute

This article forms part of my larger effort to write about my family’s history. Consider Tiffany was a scion of the early Tiffany settlers in the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Tiffany’s particular fame lies in his manuscript, “The American Colonies and the Revolution [c. 1600-1795],” a history of the American colonies from their founding through the Revolution from a Tory’s point-of-view. He divided his manuscript into nine books. Here, I have transcribed and annotated Book V which covers the Revolution from 1774 to 1780.

In Occupied America, Donald F. Johnson chronicles the everyday experience of ordinary people living under military occupation during the American Revolution. Focusing on day-to-day life in port cities held by the British Army, Johnson recounts how men and women from a variety of backgrounds navigated harsh conditions, mitigated threats to their families and livelihoods, took advantage of new opportunities, and balanced precariously between revolutionary and royal attempts to secure their allegiance.

Alphabetical listing of American Revolution Patriot soldiers with their records of service and citation leading researchers to additional information.  Note that these Springfield soldiers were either Minutemen responding to the Lexington Alarm, the Siege of Boston, the garrisoning or reinforcement of Fort Ticonderoga, Support of the Saratoga campaign,  guarding the British prisoners from Burgoyne's surrendered army, guarding the Springfield arsenal,  defending the New London Patriot coastline, and at the end of the War, troops to put down civil unrest  at Springfield and Northampton (MA)caused by Samuel Ely and his supporters.

The socioeconomic composition of the officer corps of the Continental Army has not received as much attention as that of the enlisted soldiers; the officers are generally assumed to have been members of America's colonial elite. The need for large numbers of men to fill leadership positions in the nation's first regular army presented an opportunity greater than at any time previous in America for the attainment of rank and status through an officer's commission. Based upon research on the Maryland Line, this article argues that a larger segment of the Continental Army's officer corps originated in a " middling " socioeconomic range than presently thought. * I would like to thank J. Scott Price, Charles R. V. O'Quinn, and Charles Neimeyer for their insightful suggestions and encouragement. I am grateful to Terry Bouton for his guidance when this project was in the research and thesis stage. I am thankful as well to Bruce Vandervort and the anonymous reviewers at the Journal of Military History. The contributions and helpful criticisms offered by all the above made this a far better product. Any and all errors are entirely mine.. Authorization to photocopy items for internal and personal use is granted by the copyright holder for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC), 121 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA (www.copyright.com), provided the appropriate fee is paid to the CCC.

This article forms part of my larger effort to write about my family’s history. Consider Tiffany was a scion of the early Tiffany settlers in the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Consider’s particular fame lies in his manuscript, “The American Colonies and the Revolution [c. 1600-1795],” a history of the American colonies from their founding through the Revolution from a Tory’s point-of-view. He divided his manuscript into nine books. I have transcribed and annotated Book III which covers the imperial conflicts among Britain, France, and Spain which culminated in the French and Indian War of 1754-1763.

This article describes the provenance of Tiffany's manuscript and characterizes its point of view.

There are very few battles that resonate throughout a conflict and equally, there are few locations that seem to play such a pivotal role in that conflict. The December 9, 1775 battle at a crossing over a marshy area along the Elizabeth River called Great Bridge happens to be both one of those battles and locations.

Susan Haight married into the prominent Van Wyck family in Dutchess County, New York in 1797.  While the Van Wyck genealogy is well-documented, the family of Susan Haight has, until now, been lost to history.  Those few references concerning Susan Haight found in open source material only identified her father, Samuel Haight.  There were multiple Haight families living in Dutchess and Westchester Counties in the eighteenth century, however, without further information, the family of Susan Haight had been lost to history.

The family of Captain Samuel Haight of the Westchester Militia was identified in 2020.  Using this research, along with other information and analysis, Susan Haight's family can now be identified.

It is my hope that descendants of both the Van Wyck and Haight families can now state, with certainty, who Susan Haight's "Lost Family" were.

Presentation given at “African Americans During the American Revolution: African American military and civilian participation in the Philadelphia Campaign and the Valley Forge Encampment in the winter of 1777-1778” (April 10 2021 Spring Research Symposium organized by National Park Service-Valley Forge National Park and The Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

In spring of 1781 Brig. Gen, Anthony Wayne was preparing his three Pennsylvania provisional battalions for a march southward, to join the small army under the Marquis de Lafayette, soon to be confronting British forces in Virginia. On April 6th, the War Office forwarded a return of the “First Detatchment of the Pennsylvania Line” that also listed the presence of one brigadier general, one aide–de–camp, and one brigade major, and numbers for the attached artillery.
These arrangements were later modified, General Wayne informing Washington on 26 May that his artillery, “consists of One Major three Captains & six  subalterns & Ninety NonCommissioned Officers & matrosses with six field pieces i.e four six & two three pounders.” 
    Before the artillery, then in Newtown, Pennsylvania, could move to the rendezvous at York, the battery needed to complete their store of ammunition and equipage. On 19 April 1781 Samuel Hodgdon, Deputy Commissary General of Military Stores, received a note from the War Office:

Sir  You will be pleased to deliver by the order of Lieutenant [John B.] Webster [Proctor’s 4th Continental Artillery Regiment] the different mentioned [equipment] for the use of the field pieces with Colonel Proctor’s Regiment at Newtown.

    Enclosed was this list of requisitions, set against a tally of gear already with the artillery,

Not a paper so much as an image this time. These drawings depict the quarter galleries of the frigate L'Indien, built by Arie Staats en Co. in Amsterdam in 1778-1780. Later renamed South Carolina, this was the largest warship to fly American colors in the revolutionary war. I came across this image when looking for late 18th C. drawings of Dutch Indiamen. There are good sources for the contracting and building of the ship in various Dutch archives, so this is something I am working out in a decent article. If you have any suggestions for places to submit an article on the building and export of warships in the late 18th C. Dutch Republic, do let me know!

This booklet describes life at the Old Stone House (Vechte-Cortelyou House) and on the surrounding farm, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, from 1636 to 1852. I begin with the transfer of the land from the Native Americans to the Dutch, and with the lives of the first Dutch farmers who cleared and settled the land. Next I discuss the Vechte family, who immigrated to Brooklyn in 1660, built the Old Stone House in 1699, and lived on the property for three generations until 1779. Then I look at life on the farm during the Revolution and the impact of the war on the Vechtes, their in-laws, and their neighbors. Finally, I discuss the last family who lived at the Old Stone House, the Cortelyou family, who farmed the property from 1790 until 1852, when the house and land were sold to developers.

The background of this research has emerged from an interesting point of the birth of democracy and the first republican system government in the world. Methods used for this research is historical methods, that consists of heuristics, critics, interpretation and historiography. The main problem of this research is, " What was the main role of George Washington in the American Revolutionary War in 1775 – 1783? " The American Revolution was generally caused by political and economy policy of British Government that has been felt unfair by the American Colony. Washington played an active role in the movement against British, through influencing the colony leaders and attending forums like the House of Burgesses, Virginia Convention and the Continental Congress. Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief to lead American forces and had implemented a defensive strategy against the British that he managed to win the Bunker Hill (1775) Princeton (1776) battles, crossing the Delaware (1776) until defeated by the British in Yorktown (1781). The American Revolution has made Washington a hero to the United States and the world.

200+ pages of text intelligently condensed into 17 pages – save your precious time!
For smart lazy students with love from Angel Versetti
Spark Notes style summary of the essentials for your preparation
The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood summary

Contents:
1. “Detached to assist in burying the dead …”: Battle’s Aftermath
2. “The March has proved salutory to the troops.”: Post-Battle: The Continental Army Moves North
3. “A very irregular & ill managed Embarkation.”: Post-Battle: British March to Sandy Hook

When the War of the Revolution began in April 1775 Connecticuter Judith Jeffords née Philips was nineteen years old, had been married for two years, and had at least one child. She was, in the descriptive jargon of the time, a mulatto, meaning of mixed Afro-European lineage. We would know little to nothing of Mrs. Jeffords but that her second husband, John Lines (Lynes), enlisted in the Continental Army and applied for a veteran’s pension in the early nineteenth century.

Abstrak Artikel ini mendiskusikan mengenai wacana tentang Romantisisme pada waktu Inggris menjajah America dalam cerita Washington Irving yang berjudul "Rip Van Winkle". Karakter utama yang mempunyai konflik dengan istrinya yang dimana karakter utama memilih mengisi waktunya untuk membantu tetangga dan menghibur anak-anak didesa daripada mengurusi urusan keluarganya. Fenomena tersebut dikaitkan dengan Romantisisme di Amerika yang dianalisis melalui karakter utama menggunakan teori representasi dari Stuart Hall untuk merepresentasikan Romantisisme di Amerika. Melalui teori representasi fenomena ini direlasikan dengan kejadian yang terjadi pada abad sembilan belas dimana Amerika berjuang untuk memerdekakan negaranya dan sejarah perjalanan Washington Irving yang berhubungan dengan kontribusinya pada Romantisisme Amerika pada abad itu. Kata Kunci : Romantisisme, Karakter utama, Konflik, Representasi, Abad sembilan belas. Abstract This article discusses the discourse on Romanticism when Britain colonized America on Washington Irving story entitled "Rip Van Winkle". The main character who has a conflict with his wife in which the main character chooses to spend his time to help the neighbors and entertain the children in the village rather than taking care of family affairs. This phenomenon is associated with Romanticism in America which is analyzed through the main character by using the

This is an historic preservation study conducted by Southern Research, PHC, Inc., of 30 battlefields or associated sites from the American Revolutionary War or War of 1812 and located in Alabama (plus one in Tennessee). The work was conducted for the National Park Service.

This research project focuses on the complexities of the illicit tea trade as it relates to the American Revolution. I examine the role of tea smugglers in the Boston Tea Party and and how smugglers were behind much of the tensions that ultimately led to the Boston Tea Party. This research will bring to light the influence of this extensive illicit trade and how a common, everyday beverage fueled a revolution. 

Andrew Frazier was a person of color born at the Manor of Morrisania (now the Bronx) c. 1743, most likely enslaved. The Graham family he would have served there, and especially the Graham family member he served as " waiter " in the Revolutionary War, would fall into some obscurity. By contrast, Frazier' s profile would rise: As a patriarch of a large family who lived the Jeffersonian dream, owning and cultivating farmland in Milan, NY. As the progenitor of a woman who would reference her great-grandfather' s patriotism, attracting national attention as a late 19th century trailblazer of women' s and women of color' s " capacity " and rights. And as a veteran whose grave is marked annually to this day. Inaccurately and posthumously portrayed as a body servant to George Washington just in time for the 1932 Washington bicentennial, we explore Frazier' s story: a reversal of fortune, and how the bifurcation of a factual and fictional legacy came to be. History Speaks www.historyspeaks.us Feb 2017, Milan NY

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, loudly and strongly renounced the evils of warfare, yet never committed himself to a pacifist position.  In this paper, I argue that interpreting Wesley's stance regarding war is best understood through his doctrine of divine providence.  Since God controls the fate of nations, war must be seen as God's will on the one hand, yet also as the result of original sin on the other.  This tension informs Wesley's vision of history as well as the ethics of war and peace.

African Americans Serving in the Armies of the Revolution

Book: “They Were Good Soldiers”,
Additional post-publication updates and information:
List of soldiers and women featured in the book.
African American soldier-servants.
African American women with the army.
Author interviews pertaining to the book.

Entries for blog: “More ‘Good Soldiers’”:
Revised percentages for 1778 army “Return of Negroes.”
Officers’ observations of black Continental soldiers.
Ranney’s painting “Cowpens” and black cavalry soldiers.
List of soldiers and women featured in the book.
Black Continental soldiers at the Battle of Monmouth.

Articles:
Articles the book was based on including African Americans in Southern Continental regiments plus transcribed pension files used for that study.
Jeffrey Brace, African slave and Continental soldier
Other authors:
Loyalist Ethiopian Regiment (Copeland)
Black soldiers at New Windsor cantonment (Thorenz)
Hannah Till, wartime servant to Washington (Cole)
Thomas Carney, Maryland Continental (Calder)

Le prix Mémoires 2018 a couronné la 1e des trois parties de cet article qui se conclut ici par l'examen des liens conservés par Pierre V. Mailloux et sa famille avec leur parenté canadienne. La cadette du rebelle s'établit à Berthier vers 1810, puis Mailloux lui-même de 1815 à 1818. L'extinction de ces liens survient peu après 1825 avec la 3e génération.

This article forms part of my larger effort to write about my family’s history. Consider Tiffany was a scion of the early Tiffany settlers in the colonies of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Consider’s particular fame lies in his manuscript, “The American Colonies and the Revolution [c. 1600-1795],” a history of the American colonies from their founding through the Revolution from a Tory’s point-of-view. He divided his manuscript into nine books, and I have transcribed and annotated several of them. His manuscript is best known for his take on the capture and execution of Nathan Hale. This article focuses on Consider Tiffany, the man, and his ideas.