The History Book Club discussion

EARLY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES AT TIME TIME OF THE REVOLUTION

*POTENTIAL SPOILERS*

This was originally the glossary for Blood of Tyrants. The History Book Club will be adding to this glossary for The British Are Coming. There are some instances where the link in some of the adds appears to be broken yet the information and source work are all extremely relevant, vital and critical to the current book. We will add to this glossary and I will attempt to get the links fixed and updated by the original creators.

This is not a non spoiler thread so any urls and/or expansive discussion can take place here regarding this book. Additionally, this is the spot to add that additional information that may contain spoilers or any helpful urls, links, etc.

This thread is not to be used for self promotion.

by Logan Beirne

by Rick Atkinson

George Washington



George Washington was born into a mildly prosperous Virginia farming family in 1732. After his father died when George was eleven, George's mother, Mary, a tough and driven woman, struggled to hold their home together with the help of her two sons from a previous marriage. Although he never received more than an elementary school education, young George displayed a gift for mathematics. This knack for numbers combined with his quiet confidence and ambition caught the attention of Lord Fairfax, head of one of the most powerful families in Virginia. While working for Lord Fairfax as a surveyor at the age of sixteen, the young Washington traveled deep into the American wilderness for weeks at a time.

British Army Service
Tragedy struck the young man with the death of his half brother Lawrence, who had guided and mentored George after his father's death. George inherited Mount Vernon from his brother, living there for the rest of his life. At the time, England and France were enemies in America, vying for control of the Ohio River Valley. Holding a commission in the British army, Washington led a poorly trained and equipped force of 150 men to build a fort on the banks of the Ohio River. On the way, he encountered and attacked a small French force, killing a French minister in the process. The incident touched off open fighting between the British and the French, and in one fateful engagement, the British were routed by the superior tactics of the French.

Although hailed as a hero in the colonies when word spread of his heroic valor and leadership against the French, the Royal government in England blamed the colonials for the defeat. Angry at the lack of respect and appreciation shown to him, Washington resigned from the army and returned to farming in Virginia. In 1759, he married Martha Custis, a wealthy widow, and thereafter devoted his time to running the family plantation. By 1770, Washington had emerged as an experienced leader—a justice of the peace in Fairfax County, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and a respected vestryman (a lay leader in his church). He also was among the first prominent Americans to openly support resistance to England's new policies of taxation and strict regulation of the colonial economy (the Navigation Acts) beginning in the early 1770s.

A Modest Military Leader
Washington was elected by the Virginia legislature to both the First and the Second Continental Congress, held in 1774 and 1775. In 1775, after local militia units from Massachusetts had engaged British troops near Lexington and Concord, the Second Continental Congress appointed Washington commander of all the colonial forces. Showing the modesty that was central to his character, and would later serve the young Republic so well, Washington proclaimed, "I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with."

After routing the British from Boston in the spring of 1776, Washington fought a series of humiliating battles in a losing effort to defend New York. But on Christmas Day that same year, he led his army through a ferocious blizzard, crossed the Delaware into New Jersey, and defeated the Hessian forces at Trenton. In May 1778, the French agreed to an alliance with the Americans, marking the turning point of the Revolution. Washington knew that one great victory by his army would collapse the British Parliament's support for its war against the colonies. In October 1781, Washington's troops, assisted by the French Navy, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown. By the following spring the British government was ready to end hostilities.
King Washington?

Following the war, Washington quelled a potentially disastrous bid by some of his officers to declare him king. He then returned to Mount Vernon and the genteel life of a tobacco planter, only to be called out of retirement to preside at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. His great stature gave credibility to the call for a new government and insured his election as the first President of the United States. Keenly aware that his conduct as President would set precedents for the future of the office, he carefully weighed every step he took. He appointed Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton to his cabinet. Almost immediately, these two men began to quarrel over a wide array of issues, but Washington valued them for the balance they lent his cabinet. Literally the "Father of the Nation," Washington almost single-handedly created a new government—shaping its institutions, offices, and political practices.

Although he badly wanted to retire after the first term, Washington was unanimously supported by the electoral college for a second term in 1792. Throughout both his terms, Washington struggled to prevent the emergence of political parties, viewing them as factions harmful to the public good. Nevertheless, in his first term, the ideological division between Jefferson and Hamilton deepened, forming the outlines of the nation's first party system. This system was composed of Federalists, who supported expansive federal power and Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans, followers of Thomas Jefferson's philosophy of states' rights and limited federal power. Washington generally backed Hamilton on key issues, such as the funding of the national debt, the assumption of state debts, and the establishment of a national bank.

Throughout his two terms, Washington insisted on his power to act independent of Congress in foreign conflicts, especially when war broke out between France and England in 1793 and he issued a Declaration of Neutrality on his own authority. He also acted decisively in putting down a rebellion by farmers in western Pennsylvania who protested a federal whiskey tax (the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794). After he left office, exhausted and discouraged over the rise of political factions, Washington returned to Mount Vernon, where he died almost three years later.

Historians agree that no one other than George Washington could have held the disparate colonies and, later, the struggling young Republic together. To the Revolution's last day, Washington's troops were ragged, starving, and their pay was months in arrears. In guiding this force during year after year of humiliating defeat to final victory, more than once paying his men out of his own pocket to keep them from going home, Washington earned the unlimited confidence of those early citizens of the United States. Perhaps most importantly, Washington's balanced and devoted service as President persuaded the American people that their prosperity and best hope for the future lay in a union under a strong but cautious central authority. His refusal to accept a proffered crown and his willingness to relinquish the office after two terms established the precedents for limits on the power of the presidency. Washington's profound achievements built the foundations of a powerful national government that has survived for more than two centuries.
(Source: http://millercenter.org/president/was...)

More:
http://www.mountvernon.org/meet-georg...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presi...
http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/
http://www.history.org/almanack/peopl...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://www.earlyamerica.com/lives/gwl...
by Logan Beirne
by Ron Chernow
by David Hackett Fischer
by James Thomas Flexner (no photo)
by Joseph J. Ellis
by Willard Sterne Randall (no photo)
by Richard Brookhiser (no photo)
by Edward G. Lengel
by Henry Wiencek

John Adams



Adams began his education in a common school in Braintree. He secured a scholarship to Harvard and graduated at the age of 20.

He apprenticed to a Mr. Putnam of Worcester, who provided access to the library of the Attorney General of Massachusetts, and was admitted to the Bar in 1761. He participated in an outcry against Writs of Assistance. Adams became a prominent public figure in his activities against the Stamp Act, in response to which he wrote and published a popular article, Essay on the Canon and Feudal Law. He was married on Oct. 25, 1764 and moved to Boston, assuming a prominent position in the patriot movement. He was elected to the Massachusetts Assembly in 1770, and was chosen one of five to represent the colony at the First Continental Congress in 1774.

Again in the Continental Congress, in 1775, he nominated Washington to be commander-in-chief on the colonial armies. Adams was a very active member of congress, he was engaged by as many as ninety committees and chaired twenty-five during the second Continental Congress. In May of 1776, he offered a resolution that amounted to a declaration of independence from Gr. Britain. He was shortly thereafter a fierce advocate for the Declaration drafted by Thos. Jefferson. Congress then appointed him ambassador to France, to replace Silas Dean at the French court. He returned from those duties in 1779 and participated in the framing of a state constitution for Massachusetts, where he was further appointed Minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a peace, and form a commercial treaty, with Gr. Britain. In 1781 he participated with Franklin, Jay and Laurens, in development of the Treaty of Peace with Gr. Britain and was a signer of that treaty, which ended the Revolutionary War, in 1783. He was elected Vice President of the United States under Geo. Washington in 1789, and was elected President in 1796. Adams was a Federalist and this made him an arch-rival of Thos. Jefferson and his Republican party. The discord between Adams and Jefferson surfaced many times during Adams' (and, later, Jefferson's) presidency. This was not a mere party contest. The struggle was over the nature of the office and on the limits of Federal power over the state governments and individual citizens. Adams retired from office at the end of his term in 1801. He was elected President of a convention to reform the constitution of Massachusetts in 1824, but declined the honor due to failing health.

He died on July 4, 1826 (incidentally, within hours of the death of Thos. Jefferson.) His final toast to the Fourth of July was "Independence Forever!" Late in the afternoon of the Fourth of July, just hours after Jefferson died at Monticello, Adams, unaware of that fact, is reported to have said, "Thomas Jefferson survives."
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...)

More:
http://millercenter.org/president/ada...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Adams
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presi...
http://www.nps.gov/adam/john-adams-bi...
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/j...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://www.masshist.org/adams/biograp...
by David McCullough
by Richard Alan Ryerson (no photo)
by Joseph J. Ellis
by John Ferling
by Page Smith (no photo)

James Madison



Born on March 16, 1751 at his grandmother’s home in Port Conway, Virginia, James Madison was the eldest of the twelve children of James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. His early years were spent at Mount Pleasant, the first house built on the Montpelier plantation. At age 12, Madison’s father sent him to Donald Robertson’s school in King and Queen County. There Madison studied arithmetic and geography, learned Latin and Greek, acquired a reading knowledge of French, and began to study algebra and geometry. Madison never forgot his teacher, later acknowledging “all that I have been in life I owe largely to that man.”

After further study with a private tutor at Montpelier, Madison enrolled in college at the College of New Jersey (today known as Princeton University), earning a bachelor’s degree in 1771. He continued his education at Princeton through the next winter, studying Hebrew and ethics . Madison overworked himself in order to complete two years of coursework in one. In poor health, he returned to Montpelier, where he continued to read on a variety of topics, particularly law.

Early Political Career
As tensions increased between Great Britain and the colonies, Madison “entered with the prevailing zeal into the American Cause,” as he later wrote in an autobiographical sketch. Madison gained his first experiences in politics when he was appointed to the Orange Country Committee of Safety in 1774 and was elected to represent Orange in the 1776 Virginia Convention. Madison joined the local militia, but after participating in their exercises, he realized that “the unsettled state of his health and the discourageing feebleness of his constitution” would prevent him from serving in the military.

Madison continued to pursue a political career. After losing the 1777 election for the Virginia Assembly, he was appointed to the Council of State (1777-79). He served as Virginia’s representative to the Continental Congress from 1780 to 1783, and as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1784 to 1787. He returned to Congress in 1787.

Constitutional Convention
In 1787, the Continental Congress called for a Federal Convention to consider revisions to the Articles of Confederation. Madison gave serious thought to the problems facing the nation and made specific proposals for devising a new constitution which, when presented by his state’s delegation, became known as the Virginia Plan. This was the first plan considered by the Convention, and many of its elements were incorporated into the Constitution in its final form. Madison worked tirelessly to encourage the states to ratify the new Constitution, writing 29 of the 85 anonymous essays comprising The Federalist.

Madison was elected to Congress under the new Constitution, where he served from 1789 until 1797. During this period, Madison met and married the widowed Dolley Payne Todd and, by 1797, described himself as “wearied with public life” and eager to “indulge his relish for the intellectual pleasures ... and the pursuits of rural life.” He looked forward to enjoying life at Montpelier with “a partner who favoured these views, and added every happiness to his life which female merit could impart.”

In 1799, Madison returned to politics when he was elected to the Virginia Assembly. In the 1798-99 session of the Virginia legislature, Madison’s anonymous Virginia Resolutions, a response to the federal Alien and Sedition Acts, were adopted. In the 1799-1800 session, Madison served in the House of Delegates where he wrote his Report of 1800, a defense of the Virginia Resolutions. He was appointed to the Electoral College for the election of 1800, an election famously thrown to the House of Representatives when the Electoral College vote was tied between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. The House selected Jefferson, Madison’s longtime friend and neighbor.

Secretary of State & Presidency
Early in his term, Jefferson appointed Madison as his secretary of state (1801-09). Responsible for foreign affairs and some domestic duties, Madison oversaw significant changes to the young nation, including the Barbary Wars, a major embargo, the Lewis and Clark expeditions, and the Louisiana Purchase, which enlarged the nation by 828,000 square miles.

At the conclusion of Jefferson’s second term, Madison was inaugurated as the fourth president of the United States (1809-17), inheriting the unresolved issues stemming from the war between France and Great Britain. Each nation attempted to prevent its rival from trading with the United States. Madison called on Congress to declare war against Great Britain in 1812. Opponents mocked the war as “Mr. Madison’s War” and found fault with his leadership. By war’s end, however, a new spirit of nationalism had emerged, and Madison left office in high regard.

Retirement to Montpelier
Following his retirement from the presidency, Madison took part in one final political event: the 1829 Virginia Convention that revised the state constitution. Madison’s retirement years were occupied with organizing and editing his papers from the 1787 Constitutional Convention, keeping up correspondence, and receiving the many visitors who journeyed to meet the Father of the Constitution.

James Madison died at Montpelier on June 28, 1836. In his eulogy, friend and neighbor Governor James Barbour expressed “hope that the life of Madison ... may become a pillar of light by which some future patriot may reconduct his countrymen to their lost inheritance.”
(Source: http://www.montpelier.org/james-and-d...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Ma...
http://millercenter.org/president/mad...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presi...
http://www.montpelier.org/
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://www.thejamesmadisonmuseum.org/
http://www.americanpresidents.org/pre...
by Ralph Louis Ketcham (no photo)
by Richard Brookhiser (no photo)
by Garry Wills
by Richard Labunski (no photo)
by Kevin R.C. Gutzman
by Robert Allen Rutland (no photo)
by James Madison

Chief Tanacharison



Tanacharison or Tanaghrisson (c. 1700 – 4 October 1754) was an American Indian leader who played a pivotal role in the beginning of the French and Indian War. He was known to European-Americans as the Half King, a title also used to describe several other historically important American Indian leaders. His name has been spelled in a variety of ways.

Early life
Little is known of Tanacharison's early life. He may have been born into the Catawba tribe about 1700 near what is now Buffalo, New York. As a child, he was taken captive by the French and later adopted into the Seneca tribe, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. He would later claim that the French boiled and ate his father. His early years were spent on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie in what is now western New York state.

Becoming a leader
Tanacharison first appears in historical records in 1747, living in Logstown (near present Ambridge, Pennsylvania), a multi-ethnic village about 20 miles (30 kilometers) downstream from the forks of the Ohio River. Those Iroquois who had migrated to the Ohio Country were generally known as "Mingos", and Tanacharison emerged as a Mingo leader at this time. He also represented the Six Nations at the 1752 Treaty of Logstown, where he was referred to as "Thonariss, called by the English the half King". At this treaty, he speaks on behalf of the Six Nations' Grand Council, but also makes clear that the Council's ratification was required, in accordance with the Iroquois system of government.

According to the traditional interpretation, the Grand Council had named Tanacharison as leader or "half-king" (as a sort of viceroy) to conduct diplomacy with other tribes, and to act as spokesman to the British on their behalf. However, some modern historians have doubted this interpretation, asserting that Tanacharison was merely a village leader, whose actual authority extended no further than his village. In this view, the title "half king" was likely a British invention, and his "subsequent lofty historical role as a Six Nations 'regent' or 'viceroy' in the Ohio Country was the product of later generations of scholars."

French and Indian War
In 1753, the French began the military occupation of the Ohio Country, driving out British traders and constructing a series of forts. British colonies, however, also claimed the Ohio Country. Robert Dinwiddie, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, sent a young George Washington to travel to the French outposts and demand that the French vacate the Ohio Country. On his journey, Washington's party stopped at Logstown to ask Tanacharison to accompany them as a guide and as a "spokesman" for the Ohio Indians. Tanacharison agreed to return the symbolic wampum he had received from French captain Philippe de Joincaire. Joincaire's first reaction, on learning of this double cross, was to mutter of Tanacharison, "He is more English than the English." But Joincaire masked his anger and insisted that Tanacharison join him in a series of toasts. By the time the keg was empty, Tanacharison was too drunk to hand back the wampum.Tanacharison traveled with Washington to meet with the French commander of Fort Le Boeuf in what is now Waterford, Pennsylvania. The French refused to vacate, however, and to Washington's great consternation, they tried to court Tanacharison as an ally. Although fond of their brandy, he remained a strong francophobe.

Tanacharison had requested that the British construct a "strong house" at the Forks of the Ohio and early in 1754 he placed the first log of an Ohio Company stockade there, railing against the French when they captured it. He was camped at Half King's Rock on May 27, 1754 when he learned of a nearby French encampment and sent word urging an attack to Washington at the Great Meadows, about five miles (8 km) east of Chestnut Ridge in what is now Fayette County, Pennsylvania (near Uniontown). Washington immediately ordered 40 men to join Tanacharison and at sunset followed with a second group, seven of whom got lost in heavy rain that night. It was dawn before Washington reached the Half King's Rock.

After a hurried war council, the English and Tanacharison's eight or nine warriors set off to surround and attack the French, who quickly surrendered. The French commander, Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, was among the wounded. With the French words, "Tu n'es pas encore mort, mon père!" (Thou are not yet dead, my father), Tancharison sank his tomahawk in Jumonville's skull, washed his hands with the brains, "and scalped him". Only one of the wounded French soldiers was not killed and scalped among a total of ten dead, 21 captured, and one missing, a man named Monceau who had wandered off to relieve himself that morning.

Monceau witnessed the French surrender before walking barefoot to the Monongahela River and paddling down it to report to Contrecoeur, commanding at Fort Duquesne. Tanacharison sent a messenger to Contrecoeur the following day with news that the British had shot Jumonville and but for the Indians would have killed all the French. A third and accurate account of the Jumonville Glen encounter was told to Jumonville's half-brother, Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers, by a deserter at the mouth of Redstone Creek during his expedition to avenge his brother's murder.

Washington was without Indian allies at the battle of Fort Necessity, his hastily erected stockade at the Great Meadows. Tanacharison scornfully called it "that little thing upon the meadow" and complained that Washington would not listen to advice and treated the Indians like slaves. He and another Seneca leader, Queen Aliquippa, had taken their people to Wills Creek. Outnumbered and with supplies running low, Washington surrendered the fort, later blaming Captains George Croghan and Andrew Montour for "involving the country in great calamity".

Tanacharison was "one of the sachems who had confirmed Croghan in his land grant of 1749" (Wainwright, 49), 200,000 acres minus about two square miles at the Forks of the Ohio for a British Fort. Thomas Penn and Pennsylvania planned to build a stone fort, but Croghan realized that his deeds would be invalid if in Pennsylvania and had Andrew Montour testify before the Assembly in 1751 that the Indians did not want the fort, that it was all Croghan's idea, scuttling the project.

In 1752 Croghan was on the Indian council that granted Virginia's Ohio Company permission to build the fort. Tanacharison's introduction of Croghan to the Virginia commissioners is further evidence that Croghan organized and led the 1748 Ohio Indian Confederation that Pennsylvania recognized as independent of the Six Nations and appointed Croghan as the colony's representative in negotiations.

Brethren, it is a great while since our brother, the Buck (meaning Mr. George Croghan)has been doing business between us, & our brother of Pennsylvania, but we understand he does not intend to do any more, so I now inform you that he is approv'd of by our Council at Onondago, for we sent to them to let them know how he has helped us in our councils here and to let you & him know that he is one of our people and shall help us still & be one of our council, I deliver him this string of wampum.

The Ohio Company fort was surrendered to the French by Croghan's half-brother, Edward Ward, and commanded by his business partner, William Trent, but Croghan's central role in these events remains suppressed, as he himself was in 1777, when Pittsburgh's president judge, Committee of Safety chairman, and person keeping the Ohio Indians pacificed since Pontiac's Rebellion was declared a traitor by General Edward Hand and exiled from the frontier.

It was to Croghan's Aughwick plantation that Tanacharison and Queen Aliquippa took their people in 1754 where the old queen died and Tanacharison became seriously ill and was taken to John Harris.

Tanacharison moved his people east to the Aughwick Valley near present Shirleysburg, Pennsylvania. He would take no active part in the remainder of the war. He died of pneumonia on October 4, 1754 on the farm of John Harris at Paxtang, Pennsylvania (near present-day Harrisburg, Pennsylvania).
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanachar... )

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o...
http://www.shmoop.com/french-indian-w...
http://www.helium.com/items/1130288-c...
http://burnpit.legion.org/2010/05/bat...
http://www.offthebeatenpath.ws/Battle...
http://suite101.com/article/the-battl...
by Walter R. Borneman (no photo)
by Fred Anderson (no photo)
by William M. Fowler Jr. (no photo)
by Ruth Sheppard (no photo)
by Jesse Russell (no photo)
by Neville B. Craig (no photo)

William Makepeace Thackeray



William Makepeace Thackeray was born in Calcutta, India, in 1811, to parents both of Anglo-Indian descent. Upon his father's death Thackeray went to England to live at age five. He attended several boarding schools, which experiences (including exceedingly dry lessons and canings) later provided material for Thackeray's writing. They also led him to find escape by reading the popular fiction of the day, including Sir Walter Scott and Pierce Egan. He entered Cambridge University in 1819. Not an outstanding student, he survived only two years of an inaccessible mentor and a preference for wine parties and gambling before he left.

Deciding his best route to an education was through extensive reading and educational travel, Thackeray set out for continental Europe. He led the dissipated lifestyle of a young gentleman even after losing much of his inheritance. But he began to supplement his income by contributing to newspapers, often about his travels. Then in Paris he met and married Isabella Shawe in 1836. Determined to support his family, Thackeray began writing in earnest. He published literary and art criticism, general articles, essays, travel books, and fiction, usually under a comic pseudonym.

Thackeray's travel writing frequently took him away from home, and when at home he often went to the quiet of men's clubs to work. Thus he missed the early signs of his wife's growing illness and depression. But after the birth of their third child, Isabella became almost completely withdrawn. Thackeray began searching for a cure, taking his wife to various doctors and health spas, all to no avail. She eventually went insane.

In the meantime, Thackeray still needed to write to support his wife and two surviving daughters. It is believed that his wife's illness began Thackeray's lifelong study of the situation of women in Victorian England, and his creating the memorable and believable female characters that appear in his masterpieces, Vanity Fair (1847), The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. (1852), and others. With his growing success, critics began to compare him to authors such as Charles Dickens. Thackeray enjoyed literary relationships with several authors and editors, including Dickens. The two men often had minor literary disagreements and still remained friends, until a breach that lasted years caused by Thackeray's publicly letting slip information about Dickens' mistress. This was healed only a few months prior to Thackeray's death, when Dickens and Thackeray met by chance in the street and shook hands.

Thackeray also produced numerous magazine publications, for a five-year period publishing an average of 59 articles per year in addition to working on his novels. Part of Thackeray's creative process included interaction with people: talk was a "necessary ingredient" of his research. He continued to travel and to visit and work with friends. He contributed numerous critiques on the writings of his contemporaries, including Dickens and Edward Bulwer Lytton. An artist as well as an author, Thackeray's lifetime output was so great that to this day no comprehensive bibliography of his publications has been compiled. Toward the end of his life he noted that his writing had earned him back his wealth, and he was proud that he could leave his daughters an inheritance. He died of a stroke in 1863, and an estimated 2000 people attended his funeral.
(Source: http://lib.byu.edu/exhibits/literaryw...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/w...
http://www.online-literature.com/thac...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.wmthackeray.com/chronology...
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature...
http://www.biography.com/people/willi...
http://www.gradesaver.com/author/will...
(no image) William Makepeace Thackeray: A Literary Life by Peter L. Shillingsburg (no photo)
by Catherine Peters (no photo)
by D.J. Taylor
by Lewis Melville (no photo)
by Herman Merivale (no photo)
by John Camden Hotten (no photo)
by William Makepeace Thackeray

Continental Army

 



The Continental Army was formed after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War by the colonies that became the United States of America. Established by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1775, it was created to coordinate the military efforts of the Thirteen Colonies in their revolt against the rule of Great Britain. The Continental Army was supplemented by local militias and other troops that remained under control of the individual states. General George Washington was the commander-in-chief of the army throughout the war.

Most of the Continental Army was disbanded in 1783 after the Treaty of Paris ended the war. The 1st and 2nd Regiments went on to form the nucleus of the Legion of the United States in 1792 under General Anthony Wayne. This became the foundation of the United States Army in 1796.

The Continental Army consisted of troops from all 13 colonies, and after 1776, from all 13 states. When the American Revolutionary War began at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, the colonial revolutionaries did not have an army. Previously, each colony had relied upon the militia, made up of part-time citizen-soldiers, for local defense, or the raising of temporary "provincial regiments" during specific crises such as the French and Indian War. As tensions with Great Britain increased in the years leading up to the war, colonists began to reform their militia in preparation for the potential conflict. Training of militiamen increased after the passage of the Intolerable Acts in 1774. Colonists such as Richard Henry Lee proposed creating a national militia force, but the First Continental Congress rejected the idea.

The minimum enlistment age was 16 years of age, or 15 with parental consent.

On April 23, 1775, the Massachusetts Provincial Congress authorized the raising of a colonial army consisting of 26 company regiments, followed shortly by similar but smaller forces raised by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress decided to proceed with the establishment of a Continental Army for purposes of common defense, adopting the forces already in place outside Boston (22,000 troops) and New York (5,000). It also raised the first ten companies of Continental troops on a one-year enlistment, riflemen from Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia to be used as light infantry, who later became the 1st Continental Regiment in 1776. On June 15, the Congress elected George Washington as Commander-in-Chief by unanimous vote. He accepted and served throughout the war without any compensation except for reimbursement of expenses.

Four major-generals (Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Philip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam) and eight brigadier-generals (Seth Pomeroy, Richard Montgomery, David Wooster, William Heath, Joseph Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, and Nathanael Greene) were appointed in the course of a few days. Pomeroy declined and the position was left unfilled.

General George Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army on June 15, 1775. As the Continental Congress increasingly adopted the responsibilities and posture of a legislature for a sovereign state, the role of the Continental Army was the subject of considerable debate. There was a general aversion to maintaining a standing army among the Americans; but, on the other hand, the requirements of the war against the British required the discipline and organization of a modern military. As a result, the army went through several distinct phases, characterized by official dissolution and reorganization of units.

Soldiers in the Continental Army were citizens who had volunteered to serve in the army (but were paid), and at various times during the war, standard enlistment periods lasted from one to three years. Early in the war, the enlistment periods were short, as the Continental Congress feared the possibility of the Continental Army evolving into a permanent army. The army never reached over 17,000 men. Turnover was a constant problem, particularly in the winter of 1776-77, and longer enlistments were approved. Broadly speaking, Continental forces consisted of several successive armies, or establishments:

In addition to the Continental Army regulars, local militia units, raised and funded by individual colonies/states, participated in battles throughout the war. Sometimes, the militia units operated independently of the Continental Army, but often local militias were called out to support and augment the Continental Army regulars during campaigns. (The militia troops developed a reputation for being prone to premature retreats, a fact that was integrated into the strategy at the Battle of Cowpens.)

The financial responsibility for providing pay, food, shelter, clothing, arms, and other equipment to specific units was assigned to states as part of the establishment of these units. States differed in how well they lived up these obligations. There were constant funding issues and morale problems as the war continued. This led to the army offering low pay, often rotten food, hard work, cold, heat, poor clothing and shelter, harsh discipline, and a high chance of becoming a casualty.

At the time of the Siege of Boston, the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in June 1775, is estimated to have numbered from 14-16,000 men from New England (though the actual number may have been as low as 11,000 because of desertions). Until Washington's arrival, it remained under the command of Artemas Ward, while John Thomas acted as executive officer and Richard Gridley commanded the artillery corps and was chief engineer.

The British force in Boston was increasing by fresh arrivals. It numbered then about 10,000 men. Major Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, had arrived late in May and joined General Gage in forming and executing plans for dispersing the rebels. Feeling strong with these veteran officers and soldiers around him—and the presence of several ships-of-war under Admiral Graves—the governor issued a proclamation, declaring martial law, branding the entire Continental Army and supporters as "rebels" and "parricides of the Constitution." Amnesty was offered to those who gave up their allegiance to the Continental Army and Congress in favor of the British authorities, though Samuel Adams and John Hancock were still wanted for high treason. This proclamation only served to strengthen the resolve of the Congress and Army.

After the British evacuation of Boston (prompted by the placement of Continental artillery overlooking the city in March 1776), the Continental Army relocated to New York. For the next five years, the main bodies of the Continental and British armies campaigned against one another in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These campaigns included the notable battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Morristown, among many others.

The Continental Army was racially integrated, a condition the United States Army would not see again until the Korean War. African American slaves were promised freedom in exchange for military service in New England, and made up one fifth of the Northern Continental Army.

Throughout its existence, the Army was troubled by poor logistics, inadequate training, short-term enlistments, interstate rivalries, and Congress's inability to compel the states to provide food, money or supplies. In the beginning, soldiers enlisted for a year, largely motivated by patriotism; but as the war dragged on, bounties and other incentives became more commonplace. Two major mutinies late in the war drastically diminished the reliability of two of the main units, and there were constant discipline problems.

The army increased its effectiveness and success rate through a series of trials and errors, often at great human cost. General Washington and other distinguished officers were instrumental leaders in preserving unity, learning and adapting, and ensuring discipline throughout the eight years of war. In the winter of 1777-1778, with the addition of Baron von Steuben, of Prussian origin, the training and discipline of the Continental Army began to vastly improve. (This was the infamous winter at Valley Forge.) Washington always viewed the Army as a temporary measure and strove to maintain civilian control of the military, as did the Continental Congress, though there were minor disagreements about how this was carried out.

Near the end of the war, the Continental Army was augmented by a French expeditionary force (under General Rochambeau) and a squadron of the French navy (under the Comte de Barras), and in the late summer of 1781 the main body of the army travelled south to Virginia to rendezvous with the French West Indies fleet under Admiral Comte de Grasse. This resulted in the Siege of Yorktown, the decisive Battle of the Chesapeake, and the surrender of the British southern army. This essentially marked the end of the land war in America, although the Continental Army returned to blockade the British northern army in New York until the peace treaty went into effect two years later, and battles took place elsewhere between British forces and those of France and its allies.

A small residual force remained at West Point and some frontier outposts until Congress created the United States Army by their resolution of June 3, 1784.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continen...)

More:
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Rev...
http://www.mountvernon.org/educationa...
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revoluti...
http://www.masshist.org/revolution/wa...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continen...
http://www.army.mil/article/40819/
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h399...
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Rev...
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/...
http://www.usahistory.info/Revolution...
(no image) Rag, Tag and Bobtail The Story of the Continental Army 1775 - 1783 by Lynn Montross (no photo)
by E. Wayne Carp (no photo)
by Charles Neimeyer (no photo)
by Charles Royster (no photo)
by Edward G. Lengel
by James Kirby Martin (no photo)

Alexander Hamilton



Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis, in the Leeward group, British West Indies. He was the illegitimate son of a common-law marriage between a poor itinerant Scottish merchant of aristocratic descent and an English-French Huguenot mother who was a planter's daughter. In 1766, after the father had moved his family elsewhere in the Leewards to St. Croix in the Danish (now United States) Virgin Islands, he returned to St. Kitts while his wife and two sons remained on St. Croix.

The mother, who opened a small store to make ends meet, and a Presbyterian clergyman provided Hamilton with a basic education, and he learned to speak fluent French. About the time of his mother's death in 1768, he became an apprentice clerk at Christiansted in a mercantile establishment, whose proprietor became one of his benefactors. Recognizing his ambition and superior intelligence, they raised a fund for his education.

In 1772, bearing letters of introduction, Hamilton traveled to New York City. Patrons he met there arranged for him to attend Barber's Academy at Elizabethtown (present Elizabeth), NJ. During this time, he met and stayed for a while at the home of William Livingston, who would one day be a fellow signer of the Constitution. Late the next year, 1773, Hamilton entered King's College (later Columbia College and University) in New York City, but the Revolution interrupted his studies.

Although not yet 20 years of age, in 1774-75 Hamilton wrote several widely read pro-Whig pamphlets. Right after the war broke out, he accepted an artillery captaincy and fought in the principal campaigns of 1776-77. In the latter year, winning the rank of lieutenant colonel, he joined the staff of General Washington as secretary and aide-de-camp and soon became his close confidant as well.

In 1780 Hamilton wed New Yorker Elizabeth Schuyler, whose family was rich and politically powerful; they were to have eight children. In 1781, after some disagreements with Washington, he took a command position under Lafayette in the Yorktown, VA, campaign (1781). He resigned his commission that November.

Hamilton then read law at Albany and quickly entered practice, but public service soon attracted him. He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1782-83. In the latter year, he established a law office in New York City. Because of his interest in strengthening the central government, he represented his state at the Annapolis Convention in 1786, where he urged the calling of the Constitutional Convention.

In 1787 Hamilton served in the legislature, which appointed him as a delegate to the convention. He played a surprisingly small part in the debates, apparently because he was frequently absent on legal business, his extreme nationalism put him at odds with most of the delegates, and he was frustrated by the conservative views of his two fellow delegates from New York. He did, however, sit on the Committee of Style, and he was the only one of the three delegates from his state who signed the finished document. Hamilton's part in New York's ratification the next year was substantial, though he felt the Constitution was deficient in many respects. Against determined opposition, he waged a strenuous and successful campaign, including collaboration with John Jay and James Madison in writing The Federalist. In 1787 Hamilton was again elected to the Continental Congress.

When the new government got under way in 1789, Hamilton won the position of Secretary of the Treasury. He began at once to place the nation's disorganized finances on a sound footing. In a series of reports (1790-91), he presented a program not only to stabilize national finances but also to shape the future of the country as a powerful, industrial nation. He proposed establishment of a national bank, funding of the national debt, assumption of state war debts, and the encouragement of manufacturing.

Hamilton's policies soon brought him into conflict with Jefferson and Madison. Their disputes with him over his pro-business economic program, sympathies for Great Britain, disdain for the common man, and opposition to the principles and excesses of the French revolution contributed to the formation of the first U.S. party system. It pitted Hamilton and the Federalists against Jefferson and Madison and the Democratic-Republicans.

During most of the Washington administration, Hamilton's views usually prevailed with the President, especially after 1793 when Jefferson left the government. In 1795 family and financial needs forced Hamilton to resign from the Treasury Department and resume his law practice in New York City. Except for a stint as inspector-general of the Army (1798-1800) during the undeclared war with France, he never again held public office.

While gaining stature in the law, Hamilton continued to exert a powerful impact on New York and national politics. Always an opponent of fellow-Federalist John Adams, he sought to prevent his election to the presidency in 1796. When that failed, he continued to use his influence secretly within Adams' cabinet. The bitterness between the two men became public knowledge in 1800 when Hamilton denounced Adams in a letter that was published through the efforts of the Democratic-Republicans.

In 1802 Hamilton and his family moved into The Grange, a country home he had built in a rural part of Manhattan not far north of New York City. But the expenses involved and investments in northern land speculations seriously strained his finances.

Meanwhile, when Jefferson and Aaron Burr tied in Presidential electoral votes in 1800, Hamilton threw valuable support to Jefferson. In 1804, when Burr sought the governorship of New York, Hamilton again managed to defeat him. That same year, Burr, taking offense at remarks he believed to have originated with Hamilton, challenged him to a duel, which took place at present Weehawken, NJ, on July 11. Mortally wounded, Hamilton died the next day. He was in his late forties at death. He was buried in Trinity Churchyard in New York City.
(Source: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/char...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexande...
http://www.ushistory.org/brandywine/s...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/hamilton/
http://www.treasury.gov/about/history...
http://www.alexanderhamiltonexhibitio...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
by Ron Chernow
by Alexander Hamilton
by Richard Brookhiser (no photo)
by Willard Sterne Randall (no photo)
by Thomas J. Fleming
by Forrest McDonald
by Stephen F. Knott (no photo)
by Noble E. Cunningham Jr. (no photo)
by John Chester Miller (no photo)

Continental Currency



Early American currency went through several stages of development in the colonial and post-Revolutionary history of the United States. Because few coins were minted in the thirteen colonies that became the United States in 1776, foreign coins like the Spanish dollar were widely circulated. Colonial governments sometimes issued paper money to facilitate economic activity. The British Parliament passed Currency Acts in 1751, 1764, and 1773 that regulated colonial paper money.

During the American Revolution, the colonies became independent states; freed from British monetary regulations, they issued paper money to pay for military expenses. The Continental Congress also issued paper money during the Revolution, known as Continental currency, to fund the war effort. Both state and Continental currency depreciated rapidly, becoming practically worthless by the end of the war.

To address these and other problems, the United States Constitution, ratified in 1788, denied individual states the right to coin and print money. The First Bank of the United States, chartered in 1791, and the Coinage Act of 1792, began the era of a national American currency.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_A...)

More:
http://www.frbsf.org/education/teache...
http://etext.virginia.edu/users/brock/
http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-3...
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/mi...
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/fl...
by Eric P. Newman (no photo)
by Robert E. Wright (no photo)
by Larry Allen (no photo)
(no image) The Currency Of The American Colonies, 1700 1764: A Study In Colonial Finance And Imperial Relations by Leslie V. Brock (no photo)
(no image) Money and Politics in America, 1755-1775 by Joseph Ernst (no photo)

Iroquois Confederacy



Iroquois Confederacy, also called Iroquois League, Five Nations, or (from 1722) Six Nations, confederation of five (later six) Indian tribes across upper New York state that during the 17th and 18th centuries played a strategic role in the struggle between the French and British for mastery of North America. The five Iroquois nations, characterizing themselves as “the people of the longhouse,” were the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. After the Tuscarora joined in 1722, the confederacy became known to the English as the Six Nations and was recognized as such at Albany, New York (1722).

Tradition credits the formation of the confederacy, between 1570 and 1600, to Dekanawidah, born a Huron, who is said to have persuaded Hiawatha, an Onondaga living among Mohawks, to abandon cannibalism and advance “peace, civil authority, righteousness, and the great law” as sanctions for confederation. Cemented mainly by their desire to stand together against invasion, the tribes united in a common council composed of clan and village chiefs; each tribe had one vote, and unanimity was required for decisions. The joint jurisdiction of 50 peace chiefs, known as sachems, embraced all civil affairs at the intertribal level.

The Iroquois Confederacy differed from other American Indian confederacies in the northeastern woodlands primarily in being better organized, more consciously defined, and more effective. The Iroquois used elaborately ritualized systems for choosing leaders and making important decisions. They persuaded colonial governments to use these rituals in their joint negotiations, and they fostered a tradition of political sagacity based on ceremonial sanction rather than on the occasional outstanding individual leader. Because the league lacked administrative control, the nations did not always act in unison; but spectacular successes in warfare compensated for this and were possible because of security at home.

During the formative period of the confederacy about 1600, the Five Nations remained concentrated in what is now central and upper New York state, barely holding their own with the neighbouring Huron and Mohican (Mahican), who were supplied with guns through their trade with the Dutch. By 1628, however, the Mohawk had emerged from their secluded woodlands to defeat the Mohican and lay the Hudson River valley tribes and New England tribes under tribute for goods and wampum. The Mohawk traded beaver pelts to the English and Dutch in exchange for firearms, and the resulting depletion of local beaver populations drove the confederacy members to wage war against far-flung tribal enemies in order to procure more supplies of beaver. In the years from 1648 to 1656, the confederacy turned west and dispersed the Huron, Tionontati, Neutral, and Erie tribes. The Andaste succumbed to the confederacy in 1675, and then various eastern Siouan allies of the Andaste were attacked. By the 1750s most of the tribes of the Piedmont had been subdued, incorporated, or destroyed by the league.

The Iroquois also came into conflict with the French in the later 17th century. The French were allies of their enemies, the Algonquins and Hurons, and after the Iroquois had destroyed the Huron confederacy in 1648–50, they launched devastating raids on New France for the next decade and a half. They were then temporarily checked by successive French expeditions against them in 1666 and 1687, but, after the latter attack, led by the marquis de Denonville, the Iroquois once again carried the fight into the heart of French territory, wiping out Lachine, near Montreal, in 1689. These wars were finally ended by a series of successful campaigns by New France’s governor, the comte de Frontenac, against the Iroquois in 1693–96.

For a century and a quarter before the American Revolution, the Iroquois stood athwart the path from Albany to the Great Lakes, keeping the route from permanent settlement by the French and containing the Dutch and the English. In the 18th century the Six Nations remained consistent and bitter enemies of the French, who were allied with their traditional foes. The Iroquois became dependent on the British in Albany for European goods (which were cheaper there than in Montreal), and thus Albany was never attacked. The Iroquois’ success in maintaining their autonomy vis-à-vis both the French and English was a remarkable achievement for an aboriginal people that could field only 2,200 men from a total population of scarcely 12,000.

During the American Revolution, a schism developed among the Iroquois. The Oneida and Tuscarora espoused the American cause, while the rest of the league, led by Chief Joseph Brant’s Mohawk loyalists, fought for the British out of Niagara, decimating several isolated American settlements. The fields, orchards, and granaries, as well as the morale of the Iroquois, were destroyed in 1779 when U.S. Major General John Sullivan led a retaliatory expedition of 4,000 Americans against them, defeating them near present-day Elmira, New York. Having acknowledged defeat in the Second Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), the Iroquois Confederacy effectively came to an end. In a treaty that was made at Canandaigua, New York, 10 years later, the Iroquois and the United States each pledged not to disturb the other in lands that had been relinquished or reserved. Of the Six Nations, the Onondaga, Seneca, and Tuscarora remained in New York, eventually settling on reservations; the Mohawk and Cayuga withdrew to Canada; and, a generation later, the Oneida departed for Wisconsin.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois
http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Ha-...
http://www.iroquoismuseum.org/ve3.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://tuscaroras.com/pages/history/s...
http://www.carnegiemnh.org/online/ind...
http://www.bookrags.com/research/iroq...
http://www.ealmanac.com/809/numbers/t...
by William N. Fenton (no photo)
by Mary Englar (no photo)
by Nancy Bonvillain (no photo)
by Daniel P. Barr (no photo)
by Lewis Henry Morgan

Shays Rebellion



[image error]

In August, 1786, a group of 1500 farmers marched on Northampton to prevent the courts from hearing foreclosure proceedings. In September, an armed force led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays of Pelham closed the courthouse at Springfield. By January, 1787, the situation had become desperate. Daniel Shays led the main body of a large group of armed insurgents to confiscate arms an ammunition stored in the arsenal at Springfield. They were opposed by about 1200 militia under the command of General William Shepard. Shays advanced, expecting reinforcements that never came. When Shays refused to halt, Shepherd opened fire with small arms and artillery. The cannon fire routed Shays men, leaving twenty wounded and four dead.

Shays' men retreated to the Pelham Hills, where they were followed by four regiments of troops (raised and paid for by Boston and eastern Massachusetts merchants) under the command of General Benjamin Lincoln. After an all-night march through a howling snowstorm, Lincoln surprised Shays' men at Petersham, scattering the insurgents with artillery fire. Although sporadic resistance continued, Shays Rebellion was effectively over.

The Rebellion, however, left its mark. Reforms in line with Shays' demands were enacted after the next election turned his opponents out of office. But of larger significance, it put into sharp relief the crisis of government posed by the Articles of Confederation. To discontented farmers, the government seemed unresponsive to the will of the people. To merchants and creditors, the government seemed vulnerable to anarchy. Shays' Rebellion crystallized these issues precisely at the time when the states were choosing delegates to attend the convention that was to draft the Constitution of the United States.
(Source: http://www.historic-northampton.org/h...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays%27...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_S...
http://www.ushistory.org/us/15a.asp
http://shaysrebellion.stcc.edu/
http://www.mountvernon.org/educationa...
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-...
by Michael Burgan (no photo)
by David P. Szatmary (no photo)
by Mary E. Hull (no photo)
by Leonard L. Richard (no photo)
(no image) In Debt to Shays: The Bicentennial of an Agrarian Rebellion by Robert A. Gross (no photo)

James Bowdoin



Bowdoin (born Aug. 7, 1726, Boston, Mass. [U.S.]—died Nov. 6, 1790, Boston), political leader in Massachusetts during the era of the American Revolution (1775–83) and founder and first president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780).

Bowdoin graduated from Harvard in 1745. A merchant by profession, he was president of the constitutional convention of Massachusetts (1779–80) and a member of the state convention to ratify the federal Constitution (1788). As governor of Massachusetts (1785–87), he took prompt action to suppress Shays’s Rebellion (an uprising among poor and heavily taxed farmers) and was, in general, a stabilizing force in the critical postwar period.

Bowdoin was also a scientist prominent in physics and astronomy. He wrote several papers, including one on electricity with Benjamin Franklin. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, was named in his honour.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bo...
http://shaysrebellion.stcc.edu/shaysa...
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....
http://www.mass.gov/portal/government...
http://www.celebrateboston.com/biogra...
by James Bowdoin
by Michael Burgan (no photo)
by David P. Szatmary (no photo)
by Mary E. Hull (no photo)
(no image) James Bowdoin and the Patriot Philosophers by Frank Edward Manuel (no photo)

Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville



COULON DE VILLIERS DE JUMONVILLE, JOSEPH, ensign in the colonial regular troops; b. 8 Sept. 1718 on the seigneury of Verchères, son of Nicolas-Antoine Coulon* de Villiers and Angélique Jarret de Verchères; d. 28 May 1754 near present Jumonville, Pa.

One of six brothers, all officers in the colonial regulars, Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville had a relatively undistinguished military career until 28 May 1754 when he was killed by what Horace Walpole described as “a volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America [that] set the world on fire.” It proved to be the opening shot in the Seven Years’ War.

In 1733 Jumonville, a 15-year-old cadet, was at the post of Baie-des-Puants (Green Bay, Wis.) when his father and one of his brothers were killed in an attack on the Foxes. In the ensuing decade, without major conflicts and their attendant casualties, promotion was slow in the colonial regulars; thus it was not until 1743, after serving in Louisiana on Le Moyne de Bienville’s 1739 campaign against the Chickasaws, that he received the expectancy of an ensign’s commission. Two years later, however, with the onset of the War of the Austrian Succession, he was commissioned second ensign. His career now established, on 11 Oct. 1745 he married Marie-Anne-Marguerite Soumande at Montreal. During the following winter he served on the Acadian frontier and then saw action with war parties against the frontier outposts of New York.

No sooner had hostilities in Europe ended in 1748 than a conflict began in North America for the Ohio valley. Fur-traders from the English colonies had infiltrated the region and land speculators in Virginia claimed title to it. France disputed these claims, drove out the American traders, and in 1753 began constructing a chain of forts south of Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Tanaghrisson and other Indian leaders of the region protested and the governor of Virginia sent an officer of the colonial militia, George Washington, to order the French to vacate this territory. He received a polite but firm refusal. The French then built Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh now stands, thereby gaining military control of the region. In the spring of 1754 Washington was again sent to the Ohio with a force of colonial militia to assert British sovereignty, by force if necessary, despite the fact that England and France were at peace.

The commandant at Fort Duquesne, Claude-Pierre Pécaudy* de Contrecœur, had strict orders to avoid hostilities with the Americans but to defend his position against attack. Learning of the approach of a reportedly large American force, on 23 May 1754 he dispatched Jumonville with some 30 men to discover if Washington had in fact invaded French-claimed territory. Were this to be the case he was to send word back to the fort, then deliver a formal summons to Washington calling on him to withdraw. His small force was an embassy, resembling Washington’s to Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre the preceding year, and he neglected to post sentries around his encampment.

At daybreak on the 28th Washington with 40 men stole up on the French camp near present Jumonville, Pa. Some were still asleep, others preparing breakfast. Without warning Washington gave the order to fire. The Canadians who escaped the volley scrambled for their weapons but were swiftly overwhelmed. Jumonville, the French later claimed, was struck down while trying to proclaim his official summons. Ten of the Canadians were killed, one wounded, all but one of the rest taken prisoner. Washington and his men then retired, leaving the bodies of their victims for the wolves. A force of 500 Canadian regulars and militia sent to avenge the attack and drive the Americans out was led by Jumonville’s brother, Louis Coulon de Villiers.
(Source: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio.php?Bi...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C...
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.bel...
http://whtime.cloudapp.net/tl/family/...
http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/page-135-en...
http://suite101.com/article/washingto...
http://www.whoislog.info/profile/jose...
http://www.wqed.org/tv/specials/the-w...
http://www.fortedwards.org/cwffa/f-i-...
http://www.fortedwards.org/cwffa/f-i-...
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/b...
by Jesse Russell (no photo))
by Neville B. Craig (no photo)
by Fred Anderson (no photo)
by Walter R. Borneman (no photo)
by William M. Fowler Jr. (no photo)
by Ruth Sheppard (no photo)

Seven Years' War (French and Indian War)





The final Colonial War (1689-1763) was the French and Indian War, which is the name given to the American theater of a massive conflict involving Austria, England, France, Great Britain, Prussia, and Sweden called the Seven Years War. The conflict was played out in Europe, India, and North America. In Europe, Sweden , Austria, and France were allied to crush the rising power of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. The English and the French battled for colonial domination in North America, the Caribbean, and in India. The English did ultimately come to dominate the colonial outposts, but at a cost so staggering that the resulting debt nearly destroyed the English government. It was that debt that caused the escalation of tensions leading to the Revolutionary War. Parliament was desperate to obtain two objectives; first, to tax the colonies to recover monies expended on the battle over North America, and second to restore the profitability of the East India Company in an effort to recover monies spent on the battle over India.

The French and Indian War, as it was referred to in the colonies, was the beginning of open hostilities between the colonies and Gr. Britain. England and France had been building toward a conflict in America since 1689. These efforts resulted in the remarkable growth of the colonies from a population of 250,000 in 1700, to 1.25 million in 1750. Britain required raw materials including copper, hemp, tar, and turpentine. They also required a great deal of money, and so they provided that all of these American products be shipped exclusively to England (the Navigation Acts). In an effort to raise revenue and simultaneously interfere with the French in the Caribbean, a 6 pence tax on each gallon of molasses was imposed in 1733 (the Molasses Act, see note: The Sugar Act). Enforcement of these regulations became difficult, so the English government established extensive customs services, and vice-admiralty courts empowered to identify, try, and convict suspected smugglers. These devices were exclusive of, and superior to, the colonial mechanisms of justice.

The colonies were wholly interested in overcoming the French in North America and appealed to the King for permission to raise armies and monies to defend themselves.* Despite sincere petitions from the royal governors, George II was suspicious of the intentions of the colonial governments and declined their offer. English officers in America were also widely contemptuous of colonials who volunteered for service. A few of the men who signed the Declaration had been members of volunteer militia who, as young men, had been dressed down and sent home when they applied for duty. Such an experience was not uncommon. It led communities throughout the colonies to question British authorities who would demand horses, feed, wagons, and quarters — but deny colonials the right to fight in defense of the Empire, a right which they considered central to their self-image as Englishmen.
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Y...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_a...
http://www.history.com/topics/seven-y...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/...
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...
http://www.history.com/topics/french-...
http://www.heritage-history.com/www/h...
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1...
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/...
by Fred Anderson (no photo)
by Walter R. Borneman (no photo)
byWilliam M. Fowler Jr. (no photo)
by Ruth Sheppard (no photo)
by Daniel A. Baugh (no photo)
by Richard Middleton (no photo)
by Franz A.J. Szabo (no photo)

Jumonville Affair



In the mid-1700's, three European powers were well established in North America. Britain claimed the coastal region from Nova Scotia to Georgia and inland. The French claimed the interior region along the Great Lakes and the Mississippi Valley down to New Orleans. The Spanish claimed Florida, Mexico and the desert southwest.

Settlers, particularly English settlers, were drawn to this new land in increasing numbers and began moving westward, pushing the English claims closer and closer to French territory. Both sides began to build forts and militarize the region to protect their interests. The center of the conflict was "The Forks". It was here that the Allegheny River from the north and the Monongahela River from the south converged to form the Ohio River, the largest tributary of the Mississippi River and a water highway to the ocean. Later, this would become Pittsburgh but in those days, it was an unsettled wilderness called the Ohio River Valley. In the mid-1700's, this was the western frontier of America. It was every bit as lawless and dangerous as the "wild west" would be 100 years later.

Modern-day western Pennsylvania at that point was part of the Virginia Colony, administered by Governor Robert Dinwiddie. In the fall of 1753, Governor Dinwiddie sent 21 year old Major George Washington on a diplomatic mission to the French. He was accompanied by seven men including Christopher Gist, a surveyor and land owner who knew the area well. Dinwiddie sent a simple message to the French - Get out!

Washington traveled from Williamsburg, VA to Fort LeBoeuf, near present-day Erie, PA - a distance of almost 500 miles - in the harsh mountain winter. He arrived at the French fort in late December. The French received him politely but told him they were staying. Washington returned home with their reply.

Twice during this journey, Washington narrowly escaped death. He was pulled from a swift, icy river by Christopher Gist and spent a freezing cold night on an island. He was also fired upon by a French sentry, putting a hole in his hat. These were but two of many close calls he would have in his military career.

To counter French intentions, Governor Dinwiddie sent a militia company commanded by Captain William Trent to the Ohio Valley to build a fort at The Forks in March of 1754. In early April, Dinwiddie sent Washington, now a Lieutenant Colonel, out with orders to reinforce the new fort, gathering forces and supplies along the way. As part of that mission, he was to build a road that would support heavy wagons and artillery. While on the march near Cumberland, MD in mid-April, Washington learned that the British fort building company had been run off by 1,000 French troops, who were now building their own fort.

Washington pressed on, planning to advance and construct the road as far forward as possible. Progress was slow and arduous. The terrain and mountains made for slow going and the men became exhausted from hard work and minimal rations. On May 24, they reached a spot near present-day Uniontown, PA called the Great Meadows. This was a flat area in the Allegheny Mountain foothills with plenty of grass and water from two streams running through it. It was also a boggy area prone to flooding. But areas like these are few in the mountains and essential for livestock, so Washington set up camp. It had taken them six weeks to advance 60 miles.

Three days later, his friend Christopher Gist showed up. Gist had a farm less than 20 miles to the north. He informed Washington that a French force of about 40 men had passed through his farm the day before and appeared headed towards the Great Meadows. Shortly thereafter Washington received a message from his Native American ally, Tanacharison, a Seneca chief. They had located the French force about five miles away.

Not knowing what the French intentions were, Washington decided to lead a contact mission himself. Taking 40 men, he led an all night march through the pitch black mountain forest in the pouring rain to where Tanacharison was camped, arriving in the pre-dawn darkness. Then they moved out to ascertain French intentions, accompanied by about a dozen Native American braves.

The commander of the French force was Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville. He was a French-Canadian officer and an Ensign in the French Marines. The mission of his group is disputed to this day. Were they a raiding party? A recon patrol? Spies? Diplomats? No one knows for sure. Likewise, no one knows for sure what Washington's intentions were as his force cornered the unsuspecting French on three sides.

As daylight broke, the French were just waking up with only one sentry posted. They had no other security out at all, which would have been odd for a raiding party or recon patrol. Around 7:00 AM, someone fired a shot and the fight was on. Nobody knows who fired first. The French found themselves taking fire from rocks and high ground on two sides. The cul-de-sac that had given them some shelter from the storm turned into a kill zone. Some fled downhill along a narrow path, where they ran into the tomahawks of Tanacharison's braves.

Ten French soldiers were killed outright. Twenty one were captured, some of them wounded. One of them was Ensign Jumonville.

Jumonville was treated honorably as a prisoner of war and was being questioned by Washington. The French commander was carrying papers which supposedly showed them on a diplomatic mission similar to Washington's earlier that year. Then out of the clear blue sky, Tanacharison walked up to Jumonville and cleaved his skull with a tomahawk as Washington stood by dumbfounded. The other braves started killing and scalping the wounded before Washington re-gained his wits and put a stop to it.

As Washington sorted out the chaos, it was discovered that at least one French soldier had gotten away clean. The British mission was now compromised and options were limited. Attacking The Forks was out of the question without reinforcements, including artillery. That meant finishing the road. Going back to Virginia meant leaving the entire area and beyond open to French incursions. Washington probably had concerns about the ability of his men to carry out an orderly retreat, possibly under fire. They were inexperienced, sick and exhausted. He decided to remain in the Great Meadows and prepare for the French attack he knew would come.

To compound Washington's difficulties, Tanacharison and his Native American allies bugged out on him for depriving them of their "trophies" - the scalps of the wounded. This would set a trend for the entire war. The French had much more support from the Native Americans than the British did, a factor that would put British forces at a serious disadvantage in many wilderness engagements. Tanacharison ceased to be a factor, though. He left the area soon after and died of pneumonia five months later.

In the meantime, the French built their own fort at The Forks - Fort Duquesne (doo-cane'). It anchored a line of forts that stretched north to Lake Erie, giving them a solid foothold in the Ohio Valley. This gave them a strong base from which to operate along the frontier - which they did very effectively with their Native American allies. The first order of business was paybacks for killing Jumonville. A French force of 700 men would soon set out from Fort Duquesne to do just that. They would be led by Ensign Jumonville's brother, Captain Louis Coulon de Villiers.

The stage was set for the Battle of the Great Meadows, also called Fort Necessity.
Even though war wouldn't be declared for almost two more years, the Ohio Valley was now a battlefield The elimination of Fort Duquesne became a top priority of the British. It would take four years of fighting to accomplish that.
(Source: http://www.offthebeatenpath.ws/Battle...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_C...
http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.bel...
http://whtime.cloudapp.net/tl/family/...
http://www.cmhg.gc.ca/cmh/page-135-en...
http://suite101.com/article/washingto...
http://www.whoislog.info/profile/jose...
http://parallelnarratives.com/george-...
http://explorepahistory.com/odocument...
http://explorepahistory.com/odocument...
http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/...
http://www.wqed.org/tv/specials/the-w...
http://www.fortedwards.org/cwffa/f-i-...
http://www.fortedwards.org/cwffa/f-i-...
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/b...
by Jesse Russell (no photo)
by Neville B. Craig (no photo)
by Fred Anderson (no photo)
by Walter R. Borneman (no photo)
by William M. Fowler Jr. (no photo)
by Ruth Sheppard (no photo)

Declaration of Independence



The History Book Club has previously studied the Declaration of Independence and maintains ongoing discussions on the subject. If you are interested in learning more, please browse the following links:

Charters of Freedom folder:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

Declaration of Independence thread:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Benjamin Franklin



Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, may by his life alone be the most profound statement of what an American strives to be.

With no formal education beyond the age of 10 years, Franklin was celebrated throughout Europe, welcomed in any Royal Court, sought out by every prestigious society. Indeed, when the reputations of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson had yet to be sorted out, Franklin was worshipped wherever his name was known.
He attended grammar school at age eight, but was put to work at ten. He apprenticed as a printer to his brother James, who printed the New England Courant, at age twelve, and published his first article there, anonymously, in 1721. Young Benjamin was an avid reader, inquisitive and skeptical. Through his satirical articles, he poked fun at the people of Boston and soon wore out his welcome, both with his brother and with the city. He ran away to New York and then on to Philadelphia at the age of 16, looking for work as a printer. He managed a commission to Europe for the purpose of buying supplies to establish a new printing house in Philadelphia, but found himself abandoned when he stepped off ship. Through hard work and frugality he bought his fare back to Philadelphia in 1732 and set up shop as a printer. He was appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1736, and as Postmaster the following year. In 1741 he began publishing Poor Richard's Almanac, a very popular and influential magazine. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751 and served as an agent for Pennsylvania (and ultimately for three other colonies) to England, France, and several other European powers.

He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775, where he played a crucial role in the rebellion against Gr. Britain, including service to Jefferson in editing the Declaration of Independence. Franklin, who was by this time independently wealthy and retired from publishing, continued to serve an important role in government both local and national. He was the United States first Postmaster General, Minister to the French Court, Treaty agent and signer to the peace with Gr. Britain, Celebrated Member of the Constitutional convention (See Work, above). Benjamin Franklin: Businessman, Writer, Publisher, Scientist, Diplomat, Legislator, and Social activist, was one of the earliest and strongest advocates for the abolition of Slavery, and for the protection of the rights of American aboriginal peoples. He died on the 17th of April in 1790. On that day he was still one of the most celebrated characters in America. So should he always be.
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjami...
http://www.biography.com/people/benja...
http://history.howstuffworks.com/revo...
http://www.fi.edu/franklin/
http://library.thinkquest.org/22254/h...
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/c...
http://www.famousscientists.org/benja...
http://www.benjaminfranklinbiography....
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-...
http://www.revolutionary-war.net/benj...
http://www.answers.com/topic/benjamin...
http://benjamin-franklin.chaninternet...
by H.W. Brands
by Walter Isaacson
by Benjamin Franklin
by Joyce E. Chaplin (no photo)
by Stacy Schiff
by David Waldstreicher (no photo)
by Edmund S. Morgan (no photo)
by Gordon S. Wood
by Ronald William Clark (no photo)
by David Freeman Hawke (no photo)

Jonathan Dayton



Dayton was born in Elizabethtown (now known as Elizabeth) in New Jersey. He was the son of Elias Dayton, a merchant who was prominent in local politics and had served as a militia officer in the French and Indian War. He graduated from the local academy, run by Tapping Reeve and Francis Barber, where he was classmates with Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. He then attended the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University). He left the College of New Jersey in 1775 to fight in the revolution, though he would later receive an honorary degree in 1776.

During the Revolutionary War, 15 at the outbreak in 1775, served under his father (Elias ) in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment as an ensign. On Jan. 1, 1777 he was commissioned a lieutenant and served as paymaster. He saw service under Washington fighting, at both the battles of Brandywine Creek and Germantown. The son remained with Washington at Valley Forge, and helped push the British from their position in New Jersey into the Safety of New York City. In October 1780, along with an uncle were captured by loyalist who held him captive for the winter, released in the coming year. They again served under 's father, Elias, in the New Jersey Brigade. Now only 19, was promoted to rank of captain on March 30, 1780, and transferred to the second New Jersey, where he took part in the ensuing Yorktown Campaign fighting at the Battle of Yorktown. The Revolutionary War Pension files also states that he served as Aid-de-Camp to Genenal Sullivan on his expedition against the Indians from May 1 to Nov 30, 1779.

After the war, Dayton studied law and established a practice, dividing his time between land speculation, law, and politics. After serving as a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention ( which he was the youngest member of, at the age of 26), he became a prominent Federalist legislator. He was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1786–1787, and again in 1790, and served in the New Jersey Legislative Council (now the New Jersey Senate) in 1789.

Dayton was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1789, but he did not take his seat until he was elected again in 1791. He served as speaker for the Fourth and Fifth Congress. Like most Federalists, he supported the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton, and helped organize the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. He supported the Louisiana Purchase and opposed the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801.

Wealthy from his heavy investments in Ohio where the city of Dayton would later be named after him, Dayton lent money to Aaron Burr becoming involved by association in the "conspiracy" in which Burr was accused of intending to conquer parts of what is now the western United States. (This was never proven.) Dayton was exonerated, but this effectively ended his political career.

He married Susan Williamson and had two daughters. Her Revolutionary War Pension Application W.6994 states that the marriage occurred on the twenty-eighth day of March, in the year seventeen hundred and seventy nine. A supporting letter, written by Aaron Ogden, a Captain in the New Jersey Brigade, states that he "was present at the marriage of the said Jonathan Dayton and Susan his wife ; which marriage ceremony was performed by the Reverent Mr. Hoyt, a Presbyterian Clergyman... in the fore part of spring of the year seventeen hundred and seventy nine (1779) while the New Jersey Brigade lay at Elizabethtown in the Borough of Elizabeth & state of new Jersey;"

After resuming his political career in New Jersey, he died Oct. 9, 1824 in his hometown and was interred in an unmarked grave now under the present St. John's Episcopal Church in Elizabeth which replaced the original church in 1860. Shortly before his death, Lafayette visited him, as reported in an obituary: "In New-Jersey, Hon. JONATHAN DAYTON, formerly Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress, and a Hero of the Revolution. When the Nation's Guest lately passed New-Jersey, he passed the night with General Dayton, and such were the exertions of this aged and distinguished federalist, to honor the Guest, and gratify the wishes of his fellow citizens to see, that he sunk under them ; and expired, without regret, a few days after."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan...)

More:
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://www.history.army.mil/books/Rev...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.constitutionday.com/dayton...
http://www.adherents.com/people/pd/Jo...
http://colonialhall.com/daytonj/dayto...
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....
bJoseph C. Morton (no photo)
by David O. Stewart (no photo)
by Robert G. Ferris (no photo)
by Edward C. Quinn (no photo)
by L Carroll Judson (no photo)

William Maclay



William Maclay (July 20, 1737 – April 16, 1804) was a politician from Pennsylvania during the eighteenth century. Maclay, along with Robert Morris, was a member of Pennsylvania's first two-member delegation to the United States Senate. Following his tenure in the Senate, he served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on two separate occasions, as a county judge, and as a presidential elector.

Maclay pursued classical studies, and then served as a lieutenant in an expedition to Fort Duquesne in 1758. He went on to serve in other expeditions in the French and Indian Wars. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1760. After a period of practicing law he became a surveyor in the employ of the Penn family, and then a prothonotary and clerk of the courts of Northumberland County in the 1770s. During the American revolution he served in the Continental Army as a commissary. He was also a frequent member of the State legislature in the 1780s. During that period he was also the Indian commissioner, a judge of the court of common pleas, and a member of the executive council.

After the ratification of the Constitution Maclay was elected to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1789 to March 4, 1791. He received a two-year term instead of the usual six-year term for senators after he lost a lottery with the other Pennsylvania senator, Robert Morris. In the Senate, Maclay was one of the most radical members of the Anti-Administration faction. In his journal, which is the only diary and one of the most important records of the First United States Congress, he criticizes John Adams and George Washington. He also criticized many of their supporters who ran the senate and included particularly senators, believing that their ways of running the Senate were inefficient. He was unsuccessful in his attempt to be re-elected by the state legislature of Pennsylvania.

Maclay retired to his farm in Dauphin, Pennsylvania, but was also a member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives in 1795, 1796 and 1797;. In addition, he was a presidential elector in 1796, a county judge from 1801 until 1803, and a member again of the State house of representatives in 1803. He was married to the daughter of John Harris, Sr., of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He later died in 1804 and was interred in Old Paxtang Church Cemetery in Harrisburg. Several of his relatives were also politicians, including his brother, Samuel Maclay and his nephew, William Plunkett Maclay.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...


More:
http://www.gwu.edu/~ffcp/mep/displayd...
http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.p...
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/...
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/timeli...
http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/americ...
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/membe...
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10...
by William Maclay (no photo)
by Joanne B. Freeman (no photo)
by Charlene Bangs Bickford (no photo)
by John Ferling
by Ron Burrows (no photo)
by Douglas R. Cubbison (no photo)
by Gordon S. Wood

King George III



George III was born on 4 June 1738 in London, the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He became heir to the throne on the death of his father in 1751, succeeding his grandfather, George II, in 1760. He was the third Hanoverian monarch and the first one to be born in England and to use English as his first language.

George III is widely remembered for two things: losing the American colonies and going mad. This is far from the whole truth. George's direct responsibility for the loss of the colonies is not great. He opposed their bid for independence to the end, but he did not develop the policies (such as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend duties of 1767 on tea, paper and other products) which led to war in 1775-76 and which had the support of Parliament. These policies were largely due to the financial burdens of garrisoning and administering the vast expansion of territory brought under the British Crown in America, the costs of a series of wars with France and Spain in North America, and the loans given to the East India Company (then responsible for administering India).
By the 1770s, and at a time when there was no income tax, the national debt required an annual revenue of £4 million to service it. The declaration of American independence on 4 July 1776, the end of the war with the surrender by British forces in 1782, and the defeat which the loss of the American colonies represented, could have threatened the Hanoverian throne.

However, George's strong defence of what he saw as the national interest and the prospect of long war with revolutionary France made him, if anything, more popular than before. The American war, its political aftermath and family anxieties placed great strain on George in the 1780s.After serious bouts of illness in 1788-89 and again in 1801, George became permanently deranged in 1810.

He was mentally unfit to rule in the last decade of his reign; his eldest son - the later George IV - acted as Prince Regent from 1811. Some medical historians have said that George III's mental instability was caused by a hereditary physical disorder called porphyria. George's accession in 1760 marked a significant change in royal finances. Since 1697, the monarch had received an annual grant of £700,000 from Parliament as a contribution to the Civil List, i.e. civil government costs (such as judges' and ambassadors' salaries) and the expenses of the Royal Household.

In 1760, it was decided that the whole cost of the Civil List should be provided by Parliament in return for the surrender of the hereditary revenues by the King for the duration of his reign. (This arrangement still applies today, although civil government costs are now paid by Parliament, rather than financed directly by the monarch from the Civil List.)

The first 25 years of George's reign were politically controversial for reasons other than the conflict with America. The King was accused by some critics, particularly Whigs (a leading political grouping), of attempting to reassert royal authority in an unconstitutional manner.

In fact, George took a conventional view of the constitution and the powers left to the Crown after the conflicts between Crown and Parliament in the 17th century.

Although he was careful not to exceed his powers, George's limited ability and lack of subtlety in dealing with the shifting alliances within the Tory and Whig political groupings in Parliament meant that he found it difficult to bring together ministries which could enjoy the support of the House of Commons.

His problem was solved first by the long-lasting ministry of Lord North (1770-82) and then, from 1783, by Pitt the Younger, whose ministry lasted until 1801.

George III was the most attractive of the Hanoverian monarchs. He was a good family man (there were 15 children) and devoted to his wife, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, for whom he bought the Queen's House (later enlarged to become Buckingham Palace).
However, his sons disappointed him and, after his brothers made unsuitable secret marriages, the Royal Marriages Act of 1772 was passed at George's insistence. (Under this Act, the Sovereign must give consent to the marriage of any lineal descendant of George II, with certain exceptions.)

Being extremely conscientious, George read all government papers and sometimes annoyed his ministers by taking such a prominent interest in government and policy.

His political influence could be decisive. In 1801, he forced Pitt the Younger to resign when the two men disagreed about whether Roman Catholics should have full civil rights. George III, because of his coronation oath to maintain the rights and privileges of the Church of England, was against the proposed measure. One of the most cultured of monarchs, George started a new royal collection of books (65,000 of his books were later given to the British Museum, as the nucleus of a national library) and opened his library to scholars.

In 1768, George founded and paid the initial costs of the Royal Academy of Arts (now famous for its exhibitions). He was the first king to study science as part of his education (he had his own astronomical observatory), and examples of his collection of scientific instruments can now be seen in the Science Museum. George III also took a keen interest in agriculture, particularly on the crown estates at Richmond and Windsor, being known as 'Farmer George'.

In his last years, physical as well as mental powers deserted him and he became blind. He died at Windsor Castle on 29 January 1820, after a reign of almost 60 years - the second longest in British history.
(Source: http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthem...)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?i...
http://kinggeorgeiii.com/
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
http://www.britannia.com/history/mona...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.usahistory.info/American-R...
by Christopher Hibbert
by Jeremy Black
by Stella Tillyard
by Alan Lloyd (no photo)
by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy (no photo)
by Janice Hadlow (no photo)

Continental Congress





The Continental Congress was the formal means by which the American colonial governments coordinated their resistance to British rule during the first two years of the American Revolution. The Congress balanced the interests of the different colonies and also established itself as the official colonial liaison with Great Britain. As the war progressed, the Congress became the effective national government of the country, and, as such, conducted diplomacy on behalf of the new United States.

In 1774, the British Parliament passed a series of laws collectively known as the Intolerable Acts, which were intended to suppress unrest in colonial Boston by closing the port and placing it under martial law. In response, colonial protestors led by a group called the Sons of Liberty issued a call for a boycott. Merchant communities were reluctant to participate in such a boycott unless there were mutually agreed upon terms and a means to enforce the boycott’s provisions. Spurred by local pressure groups, colonial legislatures empowered delegates to attend a Continental Congress which would set terms for a boycott. The colony of Connecticut was the first to respond.

The Congress first met in Philadelphia on September 5, 1774, with delegates from every one of the 13 colonies, except Georgia. On October 20, the Congress adopted the Articles of Association, which stated that if the Intolerable Acts were not repealed by December 1, 1774, a boycott of British goods would begin in the colonies. The Articles also outlined plans for an embargo on exports if the Intolerable Acts were not repealed before September 10, 1775.

On October 21, the delegates approved separate addresses for the people of Great Britain, and the North American colonies, both explaining the colonial position, and on October 26 a similar address was approved for the people of Quebec.

Also, on October 26, the delegates drafted a formal petition to British King George III, which outlined the colonists’ grievances. Many delegates were skeptical about changing the king’s attitude towards the colonies, but believed that every opportunity should be exhausted to de-escalate the conflict before more radical steps were taken. They did not draft such a letter to the British Parliament as the colonists viewed it as the aggressor behind the recent Intolerable Acts. Lastly, not fully expecting the standoff in Massachusetts to explode into full-scale war, the Congress agreed to reconvene in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775.

By the time Congress met again, war was already underway, and thus the delegates to the Second Continental Congress formed the Continental army and dispatched George Washington to Massachusetts as its commander. Meanwhile, Congress drafted the Olive Branch Petition to King George III, which attempted to suggest means of resolving disputes between the colonies and Great Britain. Congress sent the petition on July 8, but George III refused to receive it.

As British authority crumbled in the colonies, the Continental Congress effectively took over as the de facto national government, thereby exceeding the initial authority granted to it by the individual colonial governments. However, the local groups that had sprung up to enforce the colonial boycott continued to support the Congress. The Second Congress continued to meet until the Articles of Confederation that established a new national government for the United States took effect on March 1, 1781.

As the de facto national government, the Continental Congress assumed the role of negotiating diplomatic agreements with foreign nations. As the war progressed, the British Parliament banned trade with the colonies and authorized the seizure of colonial vessels on December 23, which served to further erode anti-independence moderates’ positions in Congress and bolster pro-independence leaders. Congress responded by opening American ports to all foreign ships except British ones on April 6, 1776. Reports from American agent Arthur Lee in London also served to support the revolutionary cause. Lee’s reports suggested that France was interested in assisting the colonies in their fight against Great Britain.

With a peaceful resolution increasingly unlikely in 1775, Congress began to explore other diplomatic channels and dispatched Silas Deane to France in April of 1776.

Dean succeeded in securing informal French support by May. By then, Congress was increasingly conducting international diplomacy, and had drafted the Model Treaty with which it hoped to seek alliances with Spain and France. On July 4, 1776 the Congress took the important step of formally declaring the colonies’ independence from Great Britain. In September, Congress adopted the Model Treaty, and then sent commissioners to France to negotiate a formal alliance, though they would have to wait until 1778 for a formal alliance with France. Congress eventually sent diplomats to other European powers to encourage support for the American cause and to secure loans for the money-strapped war effort.

Congress and the British government made further attempts to reconcile, but negotiations failed when Congress refused to revoke the Declaration of Independence, both in a meeting on September 11, 1776 with British Admiral Richard Howe, and when a peace delegation from Parliament arrived in Philadelphia in 1778. Instead, Congress spelled out terms for peace on August 14, 1779, which demanded British withdrawal, American independence, and navigation rights on the Mississippi River. The next month John Adams was appointed to negotiate such terms with England, where British officials did their best to avoid him.

Formal peace negotiations would have to wait until after the Confederation Congress took over the reins of government on March 1, 1781, following American victories at Yorktown that resulted in British willingness to end the war.
(Source: http://history.state.gov/milestones/1...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continen...
http://www.history.com/topics/the-con...
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://history.howstuffworks.com/revo...
http://www.annapolisccs.org/
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collectio...
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwj...
http://www.masshist.org/revolution/co...
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/popup...
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ03128...
by Benjamin H. Irvin (no photo)
by C.L. Gammon
by Betty Burnett (no photo)
(no image) The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress by Jack N. Rakove

Proclamation Act of 1763





The end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was a cause for great celebration in the colonies, for it removed several ominous barriers and opened up a host of new opportunities for the colonists. The French had effectively hemmed in the British settlers and had, from the perspective of the settlers, played the "Indians" against them. The first thing on the minds of colonists was the great western frontier that had opened to them when the French ceded that contested territory to the British. The royal proclamation of 1763 did much to dampen that celebration. The proclamation, in effect, closed off the frontier to colonial expansion. The King and his council presented the proclamation as a measure to calm the fears of the Indians, who felt that the colonists would drive them from their lands as they expanded westward. Many in the colonies felt that the object was to pen them in along the Atlantic seaboard where they would be easier to regulate. No doubt there was a large measure of truth in both of these positions. However the colonists could not help but feel a strong resentment when what they perceived to be their prize was snatched away from them. The proclamation provided that all lands west of the heads of all rivers which flowed into the Atlantic Ocean from the west or northwest were off-limits to the colonists. This excluded the rich Ohio Valley and all territory from the Ohio to the Mississippi rivers from settlement.

The proclamation also established or defined four new colonies, three of them on the continent proper. Quebec, which was of course already well settled, two colonies to be called East Florida and West Florida — and off the continent, Grenada. These facts were established immediately, but most of the proclamation is devoted to the subject of Indians and Indian lands. It asserted that all of the Indian peoples were thereafter under the protection of the King. It required that all lands within the "Indian territory" occupied by Englishmen were to be abandoned. It included a list of prohibited activities, provided for enforcement of the new laws, and indicted unnamed persons for fraudulent practices in acquiring lands from the Indians in times past. Resolution of the hostilities of the French and Indian War was a difficult problem for the crown. Most of the Indian tribes had been allied with the French during the war, because they found the French less hostile and generally more trustworthy that the English settlers. Now the French would depart, and the Indians were left behind to defend themselves and their grounds as best they could. Relations between the Indians and the English colonials were so poor that few settlers would argue in public that the Indians had rights to any lands. In this proclamation the King sided with the Indians, against the perceived interests of the settlers. Moreover, it provided, and Parliament soon after executed, British royal posts along the proclamation boundary. Parliament was under no illusions about relations between the Indians and the colonists. They understood that the colonists would not respect the boundary without some enforcement mechanism. Finally, the English were interested in improving the fur trade, which involved the Indians and independent trappers who lived out on the frontier.

The Proclamation line extended from the Atlantic coast at Quebec to the newly established border of West Florida. Establishing and manning posts along the length of this boundary was a very costly undertaking. The British ministry would argue that these outposts were for colonial defense, and as such should be paid for by the colonies. From the American perspective this amounted to a tax on the colonies to pay for a matter of Imperial regulation that was opposed to the interests of the colonies. A bitter pill indeed.
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Pr...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.history.com/topics/1763-pr...
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/multimedia/...
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h120...
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.co...
http://www.hobart.k12.in.us/gemedia/a...
http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_tr...
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/P...
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1...
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/01...
http://www.venturausd.org/balboa/ante...
by Colin G. Calloway (no image)
by Fred Anderson (no photo)
by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy (no photo)
by Daniel K. Richter (no photo)

Quartering Act



Quartering Act, (1765), in American colonial history, the British parliamentary provision (actually an amendment to the annual Mutiny Act) requiring colonial authorities to provide food, drink, quarters, fuel, and transportation to British forces stationed in their towns or villages. Resentment over this practice is reflected in the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which forbids it in peacetime.

The Quartering Act was passed primarily in response to greatly increased empire defense costs in America following the French and Indian War and Pontiac’s War. Like the Stamp Act of the same year, it also was an assertion of British authority over the colonies, in disregard of the fact that troop financing had been exercised for 150 years by representative provincial assemblies rather than by the Parliament in London. The act was particularly resented in New York, where the largest number of reserves were quartered, and outward defiance led directly to the Suspending Act as part of the Townshend legislation of 1767. After considerable tumult, the Quartering Act was allowed to expire in 1770.

An additional quartering stipulation was included in the Intolerable Acts of 1774.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarteri...
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hi...
http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/conwel...
http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the...
http://ahp.gatech.edu/quartering_act_...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h641...
http://www.venturausd.org/balboa/ante...
http://www.usconstitution.net/quarter...
http://www.sparknotes.com/history/ame...
http://www.cantonrep.com/life/x384173...
by Judy Baker (no photo)
by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy (no photo)
by Richard Beeman (no photo)
by Don Cook (no photo)

Tea Act of 1773


(Source: http://www.glogster.com/iamlegend123/...)

Tea Act, (1773), in British American colonial history, legislative maneuver by the British ministry of Lord North to make English tea marketable in America. A previous crisis had been averted in 1770 when all the Townshend Acts duties had been lifted except that on tea, which had been mainly supplied to the Colonies since then by Dutch smugglers. In an effort to help the financially troubled British East India Company sell 17,000,000 pounds of tea stored in England, the Tea Act rearranged excise regulations so that the company could pay the Townshend duty and still undersell its competitors. At the same time, the North administration hoped to reassert Parliament’s right to levy direct revenue taxes on the Colonies. The shipments became a symbol of taxation tyranny to the colonists, reopening the door to unknown future tax abuses. Colonial resistance culminated in the Boston Tea Party (December 1773), in which tea was dumped into the ocean, and in a similar action in New York (April 1774).
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_Act
http://www.bostonteapartyship.com/the...
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hi...
http://ahp.gatech.edu/tea_act_bp_1773...
http://www.boston-tea-party.org/tea-a...
http://www.stamp-act-history.com/tea-...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h124...
http://raglinen.com/tag/tea-act-of-1773/
by Harlow Giles Unger (no photo)
by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy (no photo)
by Richard Beeman (no photo)
by Don Cook (no photo)
by Benjamin L. Carp (no photo)
by Joseph Cummins (no photo)

British East India Company





East India Company, also called English East India Company, formally (1600–1708) Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East Indies, or (1708–1873) United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies, English company formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, incorporated by royal charter on December 31, 1600. Starting as a monopolistic trading body, the company became involved in politics and acted as an agent of British imperialism in India from the early 18th century to the mid-19th century. In addition, the activities of the company in China in the 19th century served as a catalyst for the expansion of British influence there.

The company was formed to share in the East Indian spice trade. This trade had been a monopoly of Spain and Portugal until the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588) by England gave the English the chance to break the monopoly. Until 1612 the company conducted separate voyages, separately subscribed. There were temporary joint stocks until 1657, when a permanent joint stock was raised.

The company met with opposition from the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and the Portuguese. The Dutch virtually excluded company members from the East Indies after the Amboina Massacre in 1623 (an incident in which English, Japanese, and Portuguese traders were executed by Dutch authorities), but the company’s defeat of the Portuguese in India (1612) won them trading concessions from the Mughal Empire. The company settled down to a trade in cotton and silk piece goods, indigo, and saltpetre, with spices from South India. It extended its activities to the Persian Gulf, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

After the mid-18th century the cotton-goods trade declined, while tea became an important import from China. Beginning in the early 19th century, the company financed the tea trade with illegal opium exports to China. Chinese opposition to this trade precipitated the first Opium War (1839–42), which resulted in a Chinese defeat and the expansion of British trading privileges; a second conflict, often called the Arrow War (1856–60), brought increased trading rights for Europeans.

The original company faced opposition to its monopoly, which led to the establishment of a rival company and the fusion (1708) of the two as the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies. The United Company was organized into a court of 24 directors who worked through committees. They were elected annually by the Court of Proprietors, or shareholders. When the company acquired control of Bengal in 1757, Indian policy was until 1773 influenced by shareholders’ meetings, where votes could be bought by the purchase of shares. This led to government intervention. The Regulating Act (1773) and Pitt’s India Act (1784) established government control of political policy through a regulatory board responsible to Parliament. Thereafter, the company gradually lost both commercial and political control. Its commercial monopoly was broken in 1813, and from 1834 it was merely a managing agency for the British government of India. It was deprived of this after the Indian Mutiny (1857), and it ceased to exist as a legal entity in 1873.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/e...
http://history.howstuffworks.com/hist...
http://history1800s.about.com/od/1800...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Ind...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03...
http://www.economist.com/node/21541753
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://web.utk.edu/~gerard/romanticpo...
http://www.anmm.gov.au/site/page.cfm?...
by Brian Gardner (no photo)
by John Keay (no photo)
by Philip Lawson (no photo)
by Tirthankar Roy (no photo)
by Stephen R. Bown
by H. V. Bowen (no photo)
by Huw Bowen (no photo)
by Emily Erikson (no photo)

Battles of Lexington and Concord





The Battles of Lexington and Concord, fought on April 19, 1775, kicked off the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). Tensions had been building for many years between residents of the 13 American colonies and the British authorities, particularly in Massachusetts. On the night of April 18, 1775, hundreds of British troops marched from Boston to nearby Concord in order to seize an arms cache. Paul Revere and other riders sounded the alarm, and colonial militiamen began mobilizing to intercept the Redcoat column. A confrontation on the Lexington town green started off the fighting, and soon the British were hastily retreating under intense fire. Many more battles followed, and in 1783 the colonists formally won their independence.

Lead-Up to the Battles of Lexington and Concord
Starting in 1764, Great Britain enacted a series of measures aimed at raising revenue from its 13 American colonies. Many of those measures, including the Sugar Act, Stamp Act and Townshend Acts, generated fierce resentment among the colonists, who protested against “taxation without representation.” Boston, the site of the 1770 Boston Massacre and the 1773 Boston Tea Party, was one of the main points of resistance. King George III of Britain ramped up the military presence there, and in June 1774 he shut down the city’s harbor until colonists paid for tea dumped overboard the previous year. Soon after, the British Parliament declared that Massachusetts was in open rebellion.

On April 18, 1775, Joseph Warren learned from a source inside the British high command that Redcoat troops would march that night on Concord. Warren dispatched two couriers, silversmith Paul Revere and tanner William Dawes, to alert residents of the news. They first traveled by different routes to Lexington, a few miles east of Concord, where revolutionary leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock had temporarily holed up. Having persuaded those two to flee, a weary Revere and Dawes then set out again. On the road, they met a third rider, Samuel Prescott, who alone made it all the way to Concord. Revere was captured by a British patrol, while Dawes was thrown from his horse and forced to proceed back to Lexington on foot.

Fighting Breaks Out in Lexington and Concord
At dawn on April 19, some 700 British troops arrived in Lexington and came upon 77 militiamen gathered on the town green. A British major yelled, “Throw down your arms! Ye villains, ye rebels.” The heavily outnumbered militiamen had just been ordered by their commander to disperse when a shot rang out. To this day, no one knows which side fired first. Several British volleys were subsequently unleashed before order could be restored. When the smoke cleared, eight militiamen lay dead and nine were wounded, while only one Redcoat was injured.

The British then continued into Concord to search for arms, not realizing that the vast majority had already been relocated. They decided to burn what little they found, and the fire got slightly out of control. Hundreds of militiamen occupying the high ground outside of Concord incorrectly thought the whole town would be torched. The militiamen hustled to Concord’s North Bridge, which was being defended by a contingent of British soldiers. The British fired first but fell back when the colonists returned the volley. This was the “shot heard ‘round the world” later immortalized by poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.

After searching Concord for about four hours, the British prepared to return to Boston, located 18 miles away. By that time, almost 2,000 militiamen—known as minutemen for their ability to be ready on a moment’s notice—had descended to the area, and more were constantly arriving. At first, the militiamen simply followed the British column. Fighting started again soon after, however, with the militiamen firing at the British from behind trees, stone walls, houses and sheds. Before long, British troops were abandoning weapons, clothing and equipment in order to retreat faster.

When the British column reached Lexington, it ran into an entire brigade of fresh Redcoats that had answered a call for reinforcements. But that did not stop the colonists from resuming their attack all the way through Menotomy (now Arlington) and Cambridge. The British, for their part, tried to keep the colonists at bay with flanking parties and canon fire. In the evening a contingent of newly arrived minutemen from Salem and Marblehead, Massachusetts, purportedly had a chance to cut off the Redcoats and perhaps finish them off. Instead, their commander ordered them not to attack, and the British were able to reach the safety of Charlestown Neck, where they had naval support.

Aftermath of Lexington and Concord
The colonists did not show great marksmanship that day. As many as 3,500 militiamen firing constantly for 18 miles only killed or wounded roughly 250 Redcoats, compared to about 90 killed and wounded on their side. Nevertheless, they proved they could stand up to one of the most powerful armies in the world. News of the battle quickly spread, reaching London on May 28. By the following summer, a full-scale war of independence had broken out.
(Source: http://www.history.com/topics/battles...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_...
http://www.ushistory.org/us/11c.asp
http://www.wpi.edu/academics/military...
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ03128...
http://www.britishbattles.com/concord...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.masshist.org/revolution/le...
http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-...
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public...
http://www.shmoop.com/american-revolu...
by Kevin Phillips (no photo)
by Arthur Bernon Tourtellot (no photo)
by Joseph Andrews (no photo)
by Thomas J. Fleming

General Thomas Gage



Thomas Gage, (born 1721, Firle, Sussex, Eng.—died April 2, 1787, England), British general who successfully commanded all British forces in North America for more than 10 years (1763–74) but failed to stem the tide of rebellion as military governor of Massachusetts (1774–75) at the outbreak of the American Revolution.

Gage’s military career in North America began in 1754, when he sailed with his regiment to serve in the last French and Indian War (1756–63). He participated in Gen. Edward Braddock’s disastrous campaign in western Pennsylvania (1754) and in the successful operation against Quebec (1759–60). He was thereupon made governor of Montreal (1760) and promoted to major general (1761).

In 1763 Gage was appointed commander in chief of all British forces in North America—the most important and influential post in the colonies. Headquartered in New York, he ran a vast military machine of more than 50 garrisons and stations stretching from Newfoundland to Florida and from Bermuda to the Mississippi. He exhibited both patience and tact in handling matters of diplomacy, trade, communication, Indian relations, and western boundaries. His great failure, however, was in his assessment of the burgeoning independence movement. As the main permanent adviser to the mother country in that period, he sent critical and unsympathetic reports that did much to harden the attitude of successive ministries toward the colonies.

When resistance turned violent at the Boston Tea Party (1773), Gage was instrumental in shaping Parliament’s retaliatory Intolerable (Coercive) Acts (1774), by which the port of Boston was closed until the destroyed tea should be paid for. He was largely responsible for inclusion of the inflammatory provision for quartering of soldiers in private homes and of the Massachusetts Government Act, by which colonial democratic institutions were superseded by a British military government. Thus Gage is chiefly remembered in the U.S. as the protagonist of the British cause while he served as military governor in Massachusetts from 1774 to 1775. In this capacity, he ordered the march of the redcoats on Lexington and Concord (April 1775), which was intended to uncover ammunition caches and to capture the leading Revolutionary agitator, Samuel Adams, who escaped. This unfortunate manoeuvre signalled the start of the American Revolution; after the equally disastrous Battle of Bunker Hill in June, Gage was succeeded by Gen. Sir William Howe. He soon returned to England and was commissioned a full general in 1782.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gage
http://www.nndb.com/people/237/000049...
http://www.mountvernon.org/educationa...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...
http://www.mass.gov/portal/government...
http://www.shmoop.com/american-revolu...
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revoluti...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h129...
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsm...
http://www.revolutionary-war.net/thom...
http://history.howstuffworks.com/revo...
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....
by James Fleming (no photo)
by Kevin Phillips (no photo)
by Arthur Bernon Tourtellot (no photo)
by Joseph Andrews (no photo)
by Thomas J. Fleming

Pennsylvania State House



The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on May 10, 1775. This time it met in the Pennsylvania State House, or Independence Hall, as it is now called. It was in this building that the Declaration of Independence was signed. Pennsylvania State HousePennsylvania State House The Committee of Secret Correspondence met here from its establishment in 1775 until it was replaced by the Committee for Foreign Affairs on April 17, 1777, except for the brief time that Congress was in Baltimore. It was here, too, that the first diplomatic representative to the American Colonies, Conrad Alexandre Gérard of France presented his letter of credence to Congress on August 6, 1778. The State House had been built for the provincial government, which for a half century previously had had no official building. Construction on the building began in 1732, and although the Assembly had met in the building as early as 1735, it was not completed until 1748. When completed, the building had a facade 107 feet in length connected by closed arcades, or piazzas, to wing buildings some 50 feet long. The following is a description of the building:

"The main building had a decked gable roof, balustraded between the chimneys and surmounted by a centrally located cupola.... The first floor contained two chambers about 40 feet square, separated by a spacious center hall about 20 feet wide.... The State House was not elegantly furnished. Chairs, tables, curtains, screens, and other items purchased for the building were never unduly expensive .... The building appears to have been heated originally by open fireplaces for which stoves were later substituted."

In 1750 the Assembly directed that a tower be erected to contain a staircase and belfry. By 1753 the tower was completed and the State House bell (now called the Liberty Bell) was hung. This was the bell that was rung to announce the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, 1776.

There have been various alterations of the State House through the years. When the British occupied Philadelphia in 1777-1778, they damaged the State House by converting the first floor into a barracks and making the second floor into a hospital for wounded American prisoners. The old steeple had rotted and become so weak that it was taken down in 1781. A new one was built in 1828. Congress Hall was begun in 1787 and finished in 1789. The City Hall building was begun in 1789 and finished in 1791. These two halls formed part of the complex of which the State House was a part. From 1802 until 1828 Charles Wilson Peale used the Assembly Room and second floor of the State House for a museum and portrait gallery.

Beginning in 1828, there have been a series of restorations, continuing even at the present time. Since 1898 the State House has been a public shrine in Independence National Historical Park.
(Source: http://history.state.gov/departmenthi...)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indepen...
http://www.ushistory.org/tour/indepen...
http://www.ushistory.org/iha.html
http://www.ushistory.org/districts/hi...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/...
http://www.aviewoncities.com/philadel...
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/st...
http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm
http://phlvisitorcenter.com/attractio...
by David McCullough
by David Armitage (no photo)
by Richard R. Beeman (no photo)
by John Ferling
by Charlene Mires (no photo)

Capture of Fort Ticonderoga



Built in 1755 by the French, Fort Ticonderoga controlled the southern part of Lake Champlain and guarded the northern approaches to the Hudson Valley. Attacked by the British in 1758 during the Battle of Carillon, the fort's defenses successfully turned back the enemy. The fort fell into British hands the following year and remained under their control for the rest of the French & Indian War. With the end of the conflict, Fort Ticonderoga's importance diminished as the French were forced to cede Canada to the British. Though still known as the "Gibraltar of America," the fort soon fell into disrepair and its garrison was greatly reduced. In 1775, the fort was held by 48 men from the 26th Regiment of Foot led by Captain William Delaplace.

With the beginning of the American Revolution in April 1775, Fort Ticonderoga's significance returned. Recognizing its importance along the route between New York and Canada, the British commander at Boston, General Thomas Gage, issued orders to the Governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton, that Ticonderoga and Crown Point be repaired and reinforced. As the Siege of Boston commenced, American leaders became concerned that the fort afforded the British in Canada with a route for attacking their rear. Voicing this, Benedict Arnold appealed to the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence for men and money to mount an expedition to capture Fort Ticonderoga and its large store of artillery. This was granted and Arnold moved north and made a similar plea to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. This too was approved and he received a commission as a colonel with orders to raise 400 men to attack the fort.

While Arnold began planning his expedition and recruiting men, Ethan Allen and militia forces in the New Hampshire Grants (Vermont) began plotting their own strike against Fort Ticonderoga. Known as the Green Mountain Boys, Allen's militia gathered at Bennington before marching on to Castleton. Crossing into the Grants on May 6, Arnold learned of Allen's intentions. Riding ahead of his men, he reached Bennington the next day. There he was informed that Allen was at Castleton. Pressing on, he rode into the Green Mountain Boys' camp before they departed for Ticonderoga. Meeting with Allen, who had been elected colonel, Arnold argued that he should lead the attack against the fort and cited his orders from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety.

This proved problematic as the majority of the Green Mountain Boys refused to serve under any commander except Allen. After extensive discussions, Allen and Arnold decided to share command. While these talks were ongoing, elements of Allen's command were already moving towards Skenesboro and Panton to secure boats for crossing the lake. Assessing the situation, Allen and Arnold decided to attack Fort Ticonderoga at dawn on May 10. Assembling their men at Shoreham late on May 9, the two commanders embarked with around half the command (83 men) and slowly crossed the lake. Arriving on the western shore, they became concerned that dawn would arrive before the rest of the men could make the journey. As a result, they resolved to attack immediately.

Approaching the south gate of Fort Ticonderoga, Allen and Arnold led their men forward. Charging, they caused the sentry to abandon his post and swept into the fort. Entering the barracks, the Americans awakened the stunned British soldiers and took their weapons. Moving through the fort, Allen and Arnold made their way to the officer's quarters to compel Delaplace's surrender. Reaching the door, they were challenged by Lieutenant Jocelyn Feltham who demanded to know on whose authority they had entered the fort. In reply, Allen famously stated, "In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress!" (Allen later claimed to have said this to Delaplace). Roused from his bed, Delaplace quickly dressed before formally surrendering to the Americans.

Taking possession of the fort, Arnold was horrified when Allen's men began to plunder and raid its liquor stores. Though he tried to stop these activities, the Green Mountain Boys refused to adhere to his orders. As American forces occupied Fort Ticonderoga, Lieutenant Seth Warner sailed north to Fort Crown Point. Lightly garrisoned, it fell the next day. Following the arrival of his men from Connecticut and Massachusetts, Arnold began conducting operations on Lake Champlain which culminated with a raid on Fort Saint-Jean on May 18. While Arnold established a base at Crown Point, Allen's men began to drift away from Fort Ticonderoga and back to their land in the Grants.

In the operations against Fort Ticonderoga, one American was injured while British casualties amounted to the capture of the garrison. Later that year, Colonel Henry Knox arrived from Boston to transport the fort's guns back to the siege lines. These were later emplaced on Dorchester Heights and compelled the British to abandon the city on March 17, 1776. The fort also served as a springboard for the 1775 American invasion of Canada as well as protected the northern frontier. In 1776, the American army in Canada was thrown back by the British and forced to retreat back down Lake Champlain. Encamping at Fort Ticonderoga, they aided Arnold in building a scratch fleet which fought a successful delaying action at Valcour Island that October. The following year, Major General John Burgoyne launched a major invasion down the lake. This campaign saw the British re-take the fort. Following their defeat at Saratoga that fall, the British largely abandoned Fort Ticonderoga for the remainder of the war.
(Source: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/A...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_...
http://www.fortticonderoga.org/
http://www.history.com/topics/capture...
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/et...
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h127...
http://www.britishbattles.com/battle-...
http://totallyhistory.com/capture-of-...
http://www.townshend.windham.vt.us/5t...
by Ethan Allen
by Smith B. Richard (no image)
by Kevin Phillips (no photo)
by Richard R. Beeman (no photo)

Ethan Allen



Ethan Allen was born at Litchfield, CT, on January 21, 1738, to Joseph and Mary Baker Allen. The eldest of eight children, Allen had hoped to attend Yale, but was prevented from doing so when his father died in 1755.

During the French & Indian War, Ethan Allen served as a private in the colonial ranks. After moving to Vermont, he was elected colonel commandant of the local militia, better known as the "Green Mountain Boys." During the early months of the American Revolution, Allen held no official rank in the Continental Army. Upon his exchange and release by the British in 1778, Allen was given the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and major general of militia. After returning to Vermont later that year, he was made a general in the Army of Vermont.

While working as the part owner of an iron foundry in Salisbury, CT, Ethan Allen married Mary Brownson. The couple had five children (Loraine, Joseph, Lucy, Mary Ann, & Pamela) before Mary's death from consumption in 1783. A year later, Allen married Frances "Fanny" Buchanan. The union produced three children, Fanny, Hannibal, and Ethan. Fanny would survive her husband and lived until 1834.

Though he served in the ranks during the French & Indian War, Ethan Allen's military career began in earnest after he relocated to Vermont in 1770. In this period, the territory of Vermont was claimed jointly by the colonies of New Hampshire and New York, and both issued competing land grants to settlers. As a holder of grants from New Hampshire, and wishing to associate Vermont with New England, Allen aided in forming the "Green Mountain Boys," an anti-New York militia.

With Allen as its "colonel commandant" and several hundred in the ranks, the Green Mountain Boys effectively controlled Vermont between 1771 and 1775. With the beginning of the American Revolution in April 1775, Allen began making plans to capture the principle British base in the region, Fort Ticonderoga. Located at the south edge of Lake Champlain, the fort commanded the lake and the route to Canada. The day before their planned attack, they were interrupted by the arrival of Colonel Benedict Arnold who had been sent north to seize the fort.

Commissioned by the government of Massachusetts, Arnold claimed that he was to have overall command of the operation. Allen disagreed, and after the Green Mountain Boys threatened to return home, the two colonels decided to share command. On May 10, 1775, Allen and Arnold's men stormed Fort Ticonderoga, capturing its entire forty-eight man garrison. Moving up the lake, they captured Crown Point, Fort Ann, and Fort St. John in the weeks that followed.

That summer, Allen and his chief lieutenant, Seth Warner, traveled south to Albany and received support for the formation of a Green Mountain Regiment. They returned north and Warner was given command of the regiment, while Allen was placed in charge of a small force of Indians and Canadians. On September 24, 1775, during an ill-advised attack on Montreal, Allen was captured by the British. Initially considered a traitor, Allen was shipped to England and imprisoned at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall. He remained a prisoner until being exchanged for Colonel Archibald Campbell in May 1778.

Upon gaining his freedom, Allen opted to return to Vermont, which had declared itself an independent republic during his captivity. Settling near present-day Burlington, he remained active in politics and was named a general in the Army of Vermont. Later that year, he traveled south and asked the Continental Congress to recognize Vermont's status as an independent state. Unwilling to anger New York and New Hampshire, Congress declined to honor his request.

For the remainder of the war, Allen worked with his brother Ira and other Vermonters to ensure that their claims to the land were upheld. This went as far as negotiating with the British between 1780 and 1783, for military protection and possible inclusion in the British Empire. For these actions, Allen was charged with treason, however since it was clear that his goal had been to force the Continental Congress into taking action on the Vermont issue the case was never pursued. After the war, Allen retired to his farm where he lived until his death in 1789.
(Source: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...)

More:
http://www.biography.com/people/ethan...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_A...
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies...
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/v...
http://www.ethanallenhomestead.org/a-...
http://totallyhistory.com/ethan-allen/
http://www.ethanallen.org/html/about_...
http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Allen-1
http://www.salisburycannonmuseum.org/...
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/eth...
http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/Rev...
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/e...
by Ethan Allen
by Willard Sterne Randall (no photo)
by Smith B. Richard (no photo)
by Charles Brown (no photo)
by John P. Roach Jr. (no photo)

Invasion of Canada (1775)



The Invasion of Canada in 1775 was the first major military initiative by the newly formed Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. The objective of the campaign was to gain military control of the British Province of Quebec, and convince the French-speaking Canadiens to join the revolution on the side of the Thirteen Colonies. One expedition left Fort Ticonderoga under Richard Montgomery, besieged and captured Fort St. Johns, and very nearly captured British General Guy Carleton when taking Montreal. The other expedition left Cambridge, Massachusetts under Benedict Arnold, and traveled with great difficulty through the wilderness of Maine to Quebec City. The two forces joined there, but were defeated at the Battle of Quebec in December 1775.

Montgomery's expedition set out from Fort Ticonderoga in late August, and began besieging Fort St. Johns, the main defensive point south of Montreal, in mid-September. After the fort was captured in November, Carleton abandoned Montreal, fleeing to Quebec City, and Montgomery took control of the city before heading for Quebec with an army much reduced in size by expiring enlistments. There he joined Arnold, who had left Cambridge in early September on an arduous trek through the wilderness that left his surviving troops starving and lacking in many supplies and equipment.

These forces joined before Quebec City in December, where they assaulted the city in a snowstorm on the last day of the year. The battle was a disastrous defeat for the Americans; Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded, and the city's defenders suffered few casualties. Arnold then conducted an ineffectual siege on the city, during which Loyalist sentiments were boosted by successful propaganda campaigns, and General David Wooster's blunt administration of Montreal served to annoy both supporters and detractors of the Americans.

The British sent several thousand troops, including General John Burgoyne and Hessian mercenaries, to reinforce those in the province in May 1776. General Carleton then launched a counter-offensive, ultimately driving the smallpox-weakened and disorganized American forces back to Fort Ticonderoga. The Americans, under Arnold's command, were able to hinder the British advance sufficiently that an attack could not be mounted on Fort Ticonderoga in 1776. The end of the campaign set the stage for Burgoyne's campaign of 1777 to gain control of the Hudson River valley.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion...)

More:
http://www.revolutionarywaranimated.c...
http://www.historynet.com/invasion-of...
http://www.americanrevolutioncenter.o...
http://www.britishbattles.com/battle-...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/A...
by Arthur S. Lefkowitz (no photo)
by Brendan Morrissey (no photo)
by John Lespérance (no photo)
by Thomas A. Desjardin (no photo)
(no image) Thrust for Canada by Robert M. Hatch (no photo)

Green Mountain Boys



Green Mountain Boys, patriot militia in the American Revolution. The Green Mountain Boys began in 1770 at present-day Bennington, Vermont, as an unauthorized militia organized to defend the property rights of local residents who had received land grants from New Hampshire. New York, which then claimed present-day Vermont, disputed New Hampshire’s right to grant land west of the Green Mountains. The Green Mountain Boys stopped sheriffs from enforcing New York laws and terrorized settlers who had New York grants, burning buildings, stealing cattle, and administering occasional floggings with birch rods.

The Green Mountain Boys immediately joined the Revolution, and on May 10, 1775, fewer than a hundred of them, under the joint command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, captured Fort Ticonderoga. Eventually they became part of the Continental Army and served in the abortive offensive against Canada. Reorganized despite an ongoing conflict with New York over jurisdiction, the Green Mountain Boys took the field against General John Burgoyne in 1777, playing central roles at the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington. The latter action, which destroyed a detachment of Burgoyne’s army as it sought to forage for supplies, was crucial to Burgoyne’s eventual defeat.

Other Green Mountain Boys, under Allen’s mercurial leadership, continued an internal war against “Yorkers,” a campaign Allen is said by some accounts to have pursued to the point of negotiating for Vermont’s return to British allegiance. His resignation from the Vermont militia in 1781 rendered the subject moot, and Vermont in 1791 joined the Union as its 14th state.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Mo...
http://vermonthistory.org/explorer/ve...
http://www.ethanallenhomestead.org/gr...
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmv...
http://www.hobart.k12.in.us/gemedia/a...
http://dictionary.reference.com/brows...
http://www.revolutionary-war.net/gree...

by Slater Brown (no photo)
by R. Conrad Stein (no photo)
by Daniel P. Thompson (no photo)
(no image) Gathering Storm: The Story of the Green Mountain Boys by Clifford Lindsey Alderman (no photo)

William Howe



William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe, (born Aug. 10, 1729—died July 12, 1814, Plymouth, Devonshire, Eng.), commander in chief of the British army in North America (1776–78) who, despite several military successes, failed to destroy the Continental Army and stem the American Revolution.

Brother of Adm. Richard Lord Howe, William Howe had been active in North America during the last French and Indian War (1754–63), in which he earned a reputation as one of the army’s most brilliant young generals. Sent in 1775 to reinforce Gen. Thomas Gage in the Siege of Boston, he led the left wing in three costly but finally successful assaults in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Assuming supreme command the following year, Howe transferred his forces southward and captured the strategic port city of New York, severely defeating the Americans at the Battle of Long Island. A competent tactician, he preferred maneuver to battle, partly to conserve scarce British manpower, but also in the hopes of demonstrating British military superiority so convincingly that the Americans would accept negotiation and reconciliation with Britain.

When active operations were resumed in June 1777, Howe moved his troops to the south bank of the Delaware River and won two successive victories over the Americans at the Battle of Brandywine (September) and the Battle of Germantown (October). His next winter was spent in the occupation of Philadelphia. Howe recognized his failure, however, to destroy the modest force of Gen. George Washington, then encamped at nearby Valley Forge. His Pennsylvania campaign had furthermore exposed the troops of Gen. John Burgoyne in upper New York State and led to the disastrous British defeat at the Battle of Saratoga that fall. Under increasing criticism from the British press and government, Howe resigned his command before the start of operations in 1778.

Returning to England, Howe saw no more active service but held a number of important home commands. He succeeded to the viscountcy on the death of his brother in 1799; upon his own death, without issue, the peerage expired.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_...
http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ03128...
http://www.revolutionary-war.net/gene...
http://www.jfjcccmuseum.com/tjoschult...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h667...
http://www.historynet.com/general-sir...
http://www.revolutionarywararchives.o...
http://franklaughter.tripod.com/cgi-b...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...
http://www.nndb.com/people/365/000103...
by W. H. Wilkin (no photo)
by George Athan Billias (no photo)
by Bruce Adelson (no photo)
by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy (no photo)
by Caroline Tiger (no photo)
by Charles E. Bennett (no photo)
by Christopher Hibbert
by Michael Pearson (no photo)
by Matthew H. Spring (no photo)

King George I



George I was born March 28, 1660, son of Ernest, Elector of Hanover and Sophia, granddaughter of James I. He was raised in the royal court of Hanover, a German province, and married Sophia, Princess of Zelle, in 1682. The marriage produced one son (the future George II) and one daughter (Sophia Dorothea, who married her cousin, Frederick William I, King of Prussia). After ruling England for thirteen years, George I died of a stroke on a journey to his beloved Hanover on October 11, 1727.

George, Elector of Hanover since 1698, ascended the throne upon the death of Queen Anne, under the terms of the 1701 Act of Settlement. His mother had recently died and he meticulously settled his affairs in Hanover before coming to England. He realized his position and considered the better of two evils to be the Whigs (the other alternative was the Catholic son of James II by Mary of Modena, James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender). George knew that any decision was bound to offend at least half of the British population. His character and mannerisms were strictly German; he never troubled himself to learn the English language, and spent at least half of his time in Hanover.

The pale little 54 year-old man arrived in Greenwich on September 29, 1714, with a full retinue of German friends, advisors and servants (two of which, Mohamet and Mustapha, were Negroes captured during a Turkish campaign). All were determined to profit from the venture, with George leading the way. He also arrived with two mistresses and no wife - Sophia had been imprisoned for adultery. The English population was unkind to the two mistresses, labeling the tall, thin Ehrengard Melusina von Schulenberg as the "maypole", and the short, fat Charlotte Sophia Kielmansegge as the "elephant". Thackeray remarked, "Take what you can get was the old monarch's maxim... The German women plundered, the German secretaries plundered, the German cooks and attendants plundered, even Mustapha and Mohamet... had a share in the booty."

The Jacobites, legitimist Tories, attempted to depose George and replace him with the Old Pretender in 1715. The rebellion was a dismal failure. The Old Pretender failed to arrive in Britain until it was over and French backing evaporated with the death of Louis XIV. After the rebellion, England settled into a much needed time of peace, with internal politics and foreign affairs coming to the fore.

George's ignorance of the English language and customs actually became the cornerstone of his style of rule: leave England to its own devices and live in Hanover as much as possible. Cabinet positions became of the utmost importance; the king's ministers represented the executive branch of government, while Parliament represented the legislative. George's frequent absences required the creation of the post of Prime Minister, the majority leader in the House of Commons who acted in the king's stead. The first was Robert Walpole, whose political mettle was tried in 1720 with the South Sea Company debacle. The South Sea Company was a highly speculative venture (one of many that was currently plaguing British economics at that time), whose investors cajoled government participation. Walpole resisted from the beginning, and after the venture collapsed and thousands were financially ruined, he worked feverishly to restore public credit and confidence in George's government. His success put him in the position of dominating British politics for the next 20 years, and the reliance on an executive Cabinet marked an important step in the formation of a modern constitutional monarchy in England.

George avoided entering European conflicts by establishing a complex web of continental alliances. He and his Whig ministers were quite skillful; the realm managed to stay out of war until George II declared war on Spain in 1739. George I and his son, George II, literally hated each other, a fact that the Tory party used to gain political strength. George I, on his many trips to Hanover, never placed the leadership of government in his son's hands, preferring to rely on his ministers when he was abroad. This disdain between father and son was a blight which became a tradition in the House of Hanover.

Thackeray, in The Four Georges, allows both a glimpse of George I's character, and the circumstances under which he ruled England: "Though a despot in Hanover, he was a moderate ruler in England. His aim was to leave it to itself as much as possible, and to live out of it as much as he could. His heart was in Hanover. He was more than fifty-four years of age when he came amongst us: we took him because we wanted him, because he served our turn; we laughed at his uncouth German ways, and sneered at him. He took our loyalty for what it was worth; laid hands on what money he could; kept us assuredly from Popery and wooden shoes. I, for one, would have been on his side in those days. Cynical, and selfish, as he was, he was better than a king out of St. Germains [the Old Pretender] with a French King's orders in his pocket, and a swarm of Jesuits in his train."
(Source: http://www.britannia.com/history/mona...)

More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...
http://www.britroyals.com/kings.asp?i...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic...
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.nndb.com/people/397/000093...
http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheM...
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/geo...
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/v...
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
by Ragnhild Hatton (no photo)
by Claudia Gold (no photo)
by J.H. Plumb (no photo)
by John M. Beattie (no photo)
by Joyce Marlow (no photo)
(no image) England under George I: The Quadruple Alliance by Wolfgang Michael (no photo)

Israel Putnam



After moving to Pomfret, Connecticut, about 1740, Putnam became a prosperous farmer. He saw service throughout the French and Indian War, being captured by Indians and rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1759. By this time his numerous adventures on the frontier had given him a formidable reputation for strength and bravery. At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, he was appointed a major general in the Continental Army. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775, but at the Battle of Long Island he commanded the divisions in Brooklyn that were defeated. In May 1777 he was put in charge of American defenses in the Hudson highlands, including Forts Montgomery and Clinton. When he abandoned these forts to the British soon afterward, he was faced with a court of inquiry, which nevertheless exonerated him. A paralytic stroke ended his active service in December 1779.

George Washington and others had originally placed high hopes in Putnam as a Continental commander, given his near-legendary feats as an Indian fighter. But Putnam proved disappointing as a tactician, being unable to plan and coordinate operations involving large numbers of troops. His dilatory execution of orders from Washington further diminished his effectiveness on the battlefield. Although brave, self-confident, and energetic, Putnam was not competent to fill the generalship that his popularity had brought him, and after 1777 Washington was forced to withhold important commands from him.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_P...
http://www.israelputnam.com/
http://www.masshist.org/bh/putnambio....
http://www.connecticutsar.org/patriot...
http://www.ct.gov/mil/cwp/view.asp?a=...
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/I...
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revoluti...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Isr...
http://www.heritage-history.com/www/h...
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmv...
http://biography.edigg.com/Israel_Put...
by Jesse Russell (no photo)
by David Humphreys (no photo)
by William Livingston (no photo)
by Israel Putnam (no photo)

Thomas Paine



One of the most influential writers during the American Revolution, Thomas Paine also helped shape the political ideologies of George Washington. Yet Paine's popularity was based not solely on original ideas, but rather his feverish level of activity and style of writing. Evidenced in the title of his most famous pamphlet, Common Sense, Paine wrote in a manner that appealed to the masses, not just American elites. In addition, Paine constantly agitated for democratic reforms not only in the United States, but also in France and England as well, and helped link the dramatic transformations of the various nations in the northern Atlantic world during the late 1700s.

Paine was born in 1737 in Thetford, England. After brief stints as a sailor and tax official, Paine was introduced to Benjamin Franklin in London in 1774 and subsequently moved to Philadelphia. As anger at Great Britain deepened and armed conflict erupted in the American colonies, Paine wrote his most famous pamphlet, Common Sense, which appeared in January 1776. While many other writers spoke of England trampling on the British rights of colonials, but believed King George III would soon rectify the wrongs done to the colonies, Paine argued that the entire British system was fundamentally based on a tyranny of aristocracy and monarchy.

Paine claimed that the colonies should sever their ties to England once and for all, establish a democratic government with a written constitution, and thus gain the advantages of free trade and freedom from being constantly dragged into European wars. Paine wrote clearly and simply in order to reach the common masses and his ideas contributed greatly to spreading enthusiasm for independence from Great Britain. It has been estimated that nearly 50,000 copies of the pamphlet appeared in the colonies in the years leading to the Revolution.

George Washington was amongst the wide readership of Paine's writings. Before the famous crossing of the Delaware on the way to victory at Trenton in late 1776, General George Washington ordered officers to read Paine's The American Crisis to the Continental Army. Contained in that pamphlet were Paine's famous words, "These are the times that try mens souls." During the Revolution, Paine also worked with radicals in Philadelphia to draft a new state constitution in 1776 that abolished property qualifications for voting and holding office.

Paine returned to Britain in 1787, but soon experienced persecution due to his fervent support of the French Revolution. When the conservative English writer and politician Edmund Burke heavily criticized the French Revolution, Paine wrote a new work titled The Rights of Man which argued that oppression in society stemmed from aristocratic control of an unequal and undemocratic political system. Paine was charged with treason and escaped to France in 1793 where he was elected a member of the National Assembly. When he objected to the beheading of the French King Louis XVI, he was thrown in jail until the American ambassador to France, James Monroe, was able to secure his release.

Paine remained in France for several years, writing his last well-known work, the three-part Age of Reason. In 1796 Paine published a bitter open Letter to George Washington, personally attacking Washington as an incompetent general and elitist president who had betrayed Paine for not protecting him when he claimed American citizenship when arrested by France. Paine scathingly wrote in regards to Washington that, "Monopolies of every kind marked your administration almost in the moment of its commencement. The lands obtained by the Revolution were lavished upon partisans; the interest of the disbanded soldier was sold to the speculator…In what fraudulent light must Mr. Washington's character appear in the world, when his declarations and his conduct are compared together!"1 Despite Paine's dissatisfaction with the years following the America Revolution, Paine returned to the United States in 1802 upon the invitation of President Thomas Jefferson. Paine remained in the United States until his death in 1809.
(Source: http://www.mountvernon.org/educationa...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_P...
http://www.ushistory.org/paine/
http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/biographies...
http://www.biography.com/people/thoma...
http://www.historyguide.org/intellect...
http://www.thomaspainesociety.org/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/...
http://www.biographybase.com/biograph...
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://www.answers.com/topic/thomas-p...
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/tho...
http://www.moonstoneartscenter.org/th...
http://www.history.com/topics/thomas-...
http://totallyhistory.com/thomas-paine/
by by Thomas Paine
by Craig Nelson (no photo)
by Harvey J. Kaye (no photo)
by John Keane (no photo)
by Jack Fruchtman Jr. (no photo)

The History Book Club has previously studied Thomas Paine and maintains an ongoing discussion on the subject. If you are interested in learning more, please browse the following links:

Founding Fathers Folder:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_...

Common Sense Folder:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Battle of Brooklyn






The Battle of Brooklyn (sometimes called the Battle of Long Island) occurred on August 27, 1776, less than two months after the Declaration of Independence. The Battle’s two major confrontations between the Continental Army and the British took place at Flatbush Pass (now called Battle Pass) and at the Vechte-Cortelyou House, now known as the Old Stone House, at Fifth Avenue and Third Street in Park Slope.

At Battle Pass in Prospect Park, the Continental Army of around 1,300 men blocked 5,000 Scottish and Hessian attackers by chopping down a large oak tree – The Dongen Oak—, temporarily holding their line at the Pass.

Since the Continental Army was greatly outnumbered and had never fought a battle against organized and seasoned troops, they retreated at mid-day over what is now the Long Meadow and down First Street. They eventually got to the Old Stone House, but the British had sent about 10,000 troops in a flanking maneuver from the Jamaica Pass/Atlantic Avenue area, and hoped to trap the American troops at the Old Stone House.

Three British pincer movements began to close in on the Old Stone House – one from Battle Pass, one from Atlantic Avenue, and one from Gravesend Bay, via what is now the Gowanus Expressway, paralleling the Brooklyn docks. With the Continental Army greatly outnumbered, the sacrificial bravery of 400 Maryland soldiers against 2,000 British troops led by Major-General Cornwallis enabled the Continental Army to regroup and retreat over the Gowanus marshes where the Union Street Bridge now stands.

Now in full retreat, the Continental Army made it to Brooklyn Heights, and under the cover of fog and darkness were ferried across the harbor from Fulton Ferry Landing into lower Manhattan. George Washington’s Continental Army was saved.

The British won the Battle of Brooklyn, but because of this successful retreat, the Continental Army was able to rally and eventually accept Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in October 1781.
(Source: http://www.warrenlewis.com/news/the-b...)

More:
http://www.sonsoftherevolution.org/wa...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_o...
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-hi...
http://www.brooklynonline.com/bol/his...
http://theoldstonehouse.org/battle-of...
http://www.racontours.com/archive/bat...
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public...
http://southbrooklynpost.com/2011/11/...
http://www.nypl.org/blog/2009/05/22/b...
http://brooklyn.about.com/od/Battle-O...
http://www.britishbattles.com/long-is...
by David McCullough
by Richard M. Ketchum (no photo)
by John J. Gallagher (no photo)
(no image) Revolutionary War, Battle of Brooklyn by Sam W. Galowitz (no photo)
(no image) The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn by Henry Johnston (no photo)
(no image) The Maryland 400 in the Battle of Long Island, 1776 by Linda Davis Reno (no photo)

Charles Lee



Charles Lee (February 6, 1732 – October 2, 1782) was a British soldier who served as a General of the Continental Army during the American War of Independence. Lee also served earlier in the British army during the Seven Years War. After the war he sold his commission and served for a time in the Polish army of King Stanislaus II. In 1773 Lee, who had Whig views, moved to America and bought an estate in Virginia. When the fighting broke out in the American War of Independence in 1775 he volunteered to serve with rebel forces. Lee's ambitions to become Commander in Chief of the Continental Army were thwarted by the appointment of George Washington.

During 1776, forces under his command repulsed a British attempt to capture Charleston, which boosted his standing with the army and Congress. Later that year he was captured by British cavalry under Banastre Tarleton and held as a prisoner until exchanged in 1778. During the indecisive Battle of Monmouth later that year, Lee led an assault on the British which miscarried. He was subsequently court-martialed and his military service brought to an end. He died in Philadelphia in 1782.

Lee was born in Cheshire, England, the son of General John Lee and Isabella Bunbury (daughter of Sir Henry Bunbury, 3rd Baronet). He was sent to school in Switzerland and became proficient in several languages. He returned to England in 1746 at the age of fourteen to attend grammar school at Bury St Edmunds. That same year his father, then Colonel of the 55th Foot (later renumbered the 44th), purchased a commission for Charles as an Ensign in the same regiment.

After completing his schooling, Lee reported for duty with his regiment in Ireland. He purchased a Lieutenant's commission in 1751. He was sent with the regiment to America in 1754 for service in the French and Indian War under Major General Edward Braddock, and was at his defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela in 1755. During this time in America, he married the daughter of a Mohawk Indian chief. His wife (name unknown) gave birth to twins. Lee was known to the Mohawks as Ounewaterika, or "Boiling Water".

Lee purchased a Captain's commission in the 44th in 1756. The following year he took part in an expedition against the French fortress of Louisbourg, and in 1758 he was wounded in a failed assault on Fort Ticonderoga. After recovering, he took part in the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759 and Montreal in 1760, which brought the war on the North American theater to an end by completing the Conquest of Canada.

Lee went back to Europe, transferred to the 103rd Foot as a major, and served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Portuguese army, fighting against the Spanish invasion of Portugal (1762) in which he distinguished himself under John Burgoyne at the Battle of Vila Velha.

He returned to England in 1763 following the Peace of Paris which ended the Seven Years' War. His regiment was disbanded and he was retired on half pay as a Major. In May 1772, although still inactive, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

In 1765 he fought in Poland, serving as an aide-de-camp under King Stanislaus II. After many adventures he came home to England. Unable to secure promotion in the British Army, in 1769 he returned to Poland and saw action in the Russo-Turkish War, and lost two fingers in a duel in which he killed his opponent. Returning to England once again, he found that he was sympathetic to the American colonists in their quarrel with Britain. He moved to the colonies in 1773 and purchased an estate in Virginia, in an area now part of West Virginia, which he named Prato Rio.

When war appeared inevitable, he volunteered his services to the colonies. He expected to be named Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, being the most experienced candidate. On the other hand, he was born in Britain, somewhat eccentric, slovenly in appearance, coarse in language, and perhaps most of all, he wanted to be paid: by joining the rebellion, he forfeited all his properties in England, and wanted to be compensated. George Washington, on the other hand, was sober, steady, calm, and best of all, would work without pay, asking only that the Continental Congress should cover his expenses. Washington also was a good political choice: a southern commander to pair with a primarily New England fighting force. Washington received the appointment, and Lee was offered the subordinate rank of Major General. Because of this, Lee had nothing but the utmost disdain for his superior. He once remarked, "Washington is not fit enough to command a Sergeant's Guard". Lee was often considered second in command of the Continental forces, although Artemas Ward, who was not in good health, officially held this position.

Lee also received various other titles: in 1776, he was named Commander of the so-called Canadian Department, although he never got to serve in this capacity. Instead, he was appointed as the first Commander of the Southern Department. He served in this post for six months, until he was recalled to the main army. During his time in the South, the British sent an expedition under Henry Clinton to recover Charleston, South Carolina. Lee oversaw the fortification of the city. Fort Sullivan was a fortification built out of palmetto logs, later named for commander Col. William Moultrie. Lee ordered the army to evacuate the fort because as he said it would only last thirty minutes and all soldiers would be killed. Governor John Rutledge forbade Moultrie to evacuate and the fort held. The spongy palmetto logs repelled the cannonball from the British ships. Thus a British assault on Sullivan's Island was driven off and Clinton then abandoned his attempts to capture the city.

When he arrived in New York to join General Washington and the main part of the Continental Army, Washington chose to show his appreciation of General Lee (who was a very popular general officer among not only the army, but Congress) by changing the name of Fort Constitution, which was located on the New Jersey side of the Hudson opposite Fort Washington, to Fort Lee.

Toward the end of 1776, Lee's animosity for Washington began to show. During the retreat from Forts Washington and Lee, he dawdled with his army, and intensified a letter campaign to convince various Congress members that he should replace Washington as Commander-in-Chief. Around this time, Washington was accidentally given and opened a letter from Lee to a Colonel Reed, in which Lee condemned Washington's leadership and abilities, and blamed Washington entirely for the dire straits of the Army. Though he was the victim of the letter, Washington was not angry. He was suspicious and disappointed at both Lee and himself, Washington being inclined to take much responsibility and little credit for himself. He sent the letters to Reed and wrote an accompanying letter apologizing for the mistake.

Although his army was supposed to join that of Washington's in Pennsylvania, Lee set a very slow pace. On the night of December 12, Lee and a dozen of his guard inexplicably stopped for the night at White's Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, some three miles from his main army. The next morning, a British patrol of two dozen mounted soldiers found Lee writing letters in his dressing gown, and captured him. Among the members of the British patrol was Banastre Tarleton. Lee returned to service after he was exchanged for General Richard Prescott.

Lee is most notorious for his actions during the Battle of Monmouth. Washington needed a secondary commander to lead the frontal assault. He unwillingly chose to put Lee in charge, as he was the most senior of his generals. Washington ordered him to attack the retreating enemy, but instead, Lee ordered a retreat. He retreated directly into Washington and his troops, who were advancing, and Washington dressed him down publicly. Lee responded with insubordination, was arrested, and shortly thereafter court-martialed. Lee was found guilty, and he was relieved of command for a period of one year. (In his Narrative, Joseph Plumb Martin recounted that Washington rode up during the retreat and asked Martin's officers "by whose order the troops [are] retreating". Being told it was "by Gen. Lee's", he said something that Martin wasn't close enough to hear. Martin was told later, by those who had been close enough, that Washington had said "damn him!" as he rode off, which Martin found unusual but plausible since Washington had been "in a great passion" because of the retreat.)

It is not clear that Lee had made a bad strategic decision: he believed himself outnumbered (which he in fact was: British commander Sir Henry Clinton had 10,000 troops to Lee's 5,440), and that a retreat was reasonable. However, he disobeyed his orders, and he publicly expressed disrespect to his Commander-in-Chief. Furthermore, Washington had wanted to test the abilities of Lee's troops, since they were among the first to be trained in European tactics by Baron von Steuben.

Treachery may have been the reason for Lee's retreat at the Battle of Monmouth. While Lee had been held prisoner by the British General Sir William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe in March, 1777, Lee drafted a plan for British military operations against the Americans. At the time, Lee was under a threat of being tried as a deserter from the British Army, because he hadn't resigned his British commission as Lieutenant-Colonel until several days after he accepted an American commission. The plan in Lee's handwriting was found in the Howe family archives in 1857.

Lee tried to get Congress to overturn the court-martial's verdict, and when this failed, he resorted to open attacks on Washington's character. Lee's popularity then plummeted. Colonel John Laurens, an aide to Washington, challenged him to a duel, one in which Lee was wounded in his side. He was challenged to many more duels. He was released from his duty on January 10, 1780. He retired to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was stricken with fever and died.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_...)

More:
http://dansamericanrevolutionblog.blo...
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revoluti...
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/a...
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public...
http://www.mountvernon.org/educationa...
http://www.examiner.com/article/gener...
http://history.howstuffworks.com/revo...
http://www.historycentral.com/Bio/Rev...
http://www.virtualology.com/charleslee/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Cha...
by Dominick Mazzagetti (no photo)
by Christian M. McBurney (no photo)
by David McCullough
by Joseph G. Bilby (no photo)
(no image) Mr. Lee's Plan March 29, 1777. The Treason Of Charles Lee, Major General, Second In Command In The American Army Of The Revolution by George Henry Moore (no photo)

Archibald Campbell



Late in 1778 Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell was dispatched by the British commander in chief in North America, Sir Henry Clinton, to proceed against Savannah. Through his Georgia campaign, particularly his capture of Savannah and Augusta, Campbell achieved one of the few unqualified British successes in the American Revolution (1775-83).

Baptized at Inveraray, Argyllshire, Scotland, on August 24, 1739, Archibald Campbell was the third son of Elizabeth Fisher and James Campbell.

Archibald Campbell commissary of the Western Isles. An engineering officer, Campbell served in Guadalupe, Dominica, and other West Indies islands before becoming chief engineer for the British East India Company in Bengal, India, from 1768 to 1772.
With the outbreak of revolution in America, Campbell recruited for and received a commission of lieutenant colonel in the Seventy-first (Fraser's) Highlanders. Captured by patriot forces in Boston Harbor on June 16, 1776, he was exchanged for Ethan Allen on May 6, 1778.

On November 8, 1778, Campbell received unexpected orders to take command of 3,000 men sailing the next day from New York to invade Georgia. The expedition captured Savannah in late December. He next led a column into the interior and captured Augusta on January 31, 1779. When Georgia Loyalists failed to appear there, Campbell began a withdrawal on February 14. While awaiting transportation from Savannah to England to marry Amelia, daughter of the artist Allan Ramsey, Archibald Campbell restored the colonial government under his commission as civil governor.
Thus Georgia became the only part of the United States ever reduced back to the status of a colony.

Campbell continued his distinguished career. He ended the American Revolution as lieutenant governor and major general in Jamaica (1779-81). In 1782 he was appointed governor of Jamaica. He became a Knight of the Bath in 1785 and served as governor of Madras from 1786 to 1789. Campbell died March 31, 1791, in London and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
(Source: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/ng...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibal...
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/20...
http://jmfs1.ortn.edu/MySchool/jnussb...
http://www.xtimeline.com/evt/view.asp...
http://todayshistorylesson.wordpress....
http://www.anishinabe-history.com/his...
http://1770s.blogspot.com/2008/11/bat...
(no image) Journal of an Expedition Against the Rebels of Georgia in North America Under the Orders of Archibald Campbell, Esquire, Lieut. Colol. of His Majesty' by Archibald Campbell (no photo)
(no image) American Revolution in Georgia, 1763-1789 by David S. Coleman (no photo)
by Henry Lumpkin (no photo)
by Walter B. Edgar (no photo)
by Richard D. Blackmon (no photo)

Huguenot



The Huguenots were French Protestants most of whom eventually came to follow the teachings of John Calvin, and who, due to religious persecution, were forced to flee France to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Some remained, practicing their Faith in secret.

The Protestant Reformation began by Martin Luther in Germany about 1517, spread rapidly in France, especially among those having grievances against the established order of government. As Protestantism grew and developed in France it generally abandoned the Lutheran form, and took the shape of Calvinism. The new "Reformed religion" practiced by many members of the French nobility and social middle-class, based on a belief in salvation through individual faith without the need for the intercession of a church hierarchy and on the belief in an individual's right to interpret scriptures for themselves, placed these French Protestants in direct theological conflict with both the Catholic Church and the King of France in the theocratic system which prevailed at that time.

Followers of this new Protestantism were soon accused of heresy against the Catholic government and the established religion of France, and a General Edict urging extermination of these heretics (Huguenots) was issued in 1536. Nevertheless, Protestantism continued to spread and grow, and about 1555 the first Huguenot church was founded in a home in Paris based upon the teachings of John Calvin. The number and influence of the French Reformers (Huguenots) continued to increase after this event, leading to an escalation in hostility and conflict between the Catholic Church/State and the Huguenots. Finally, in 1562, some 1200 Huguenots were slain at Vassey, France, thus igniting the French Wars of Religion which would devastate France for the next thirty-five years.

The Edict of Nantes, signed by Henry IV in April, 1598, ended the Wars of Religion, and allowed the Huguenots some religious freedoms, including free exercise of their religion in 20 specified towns of France.

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in October, 1685, began anew persecution of the Huguenots, and hundreds of thousands of Huguenots fled France to other countries. The Promulgation of the Edict of Toleration in November, 1787, partially restored the civil and religious rights of Huguenots in France.

Since the Huguenots of France were in large part artisans, craftsmen, and professional people, they were usually well-received in the countries to which they fled for refuge when religious discrimination or overt persecution caused them to leave France. Most of them went initially to Germany, the Netherlands, and England, although some found their way eventually to places as remote as South Africa. Considerable numbers of Huguenots migrated to British North America, especially to the Carolinas, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. Their character and talents in the arts, sciences, and industry were such that they are generally felt to have been a substantial loss to the French society from which they had been forced to withdraw, and a corresponding gain to the communities and nations into which they settled.
(Source: http://www.huguenot.netnation.com/gen...)

More:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07527...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huguenot
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.huguenotsociety.org/histor...
http://www.historytoday.com/robin-gwy...
http://thehistoryprofessor.us/bin/his...
http://www.academia.edu/269334/Huguen...
http://www.indepthinfo.com/articles/h...
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h609...
http://www.huguenot-museum-germany.co...
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.a...
http://huguenotsocietyofamerica.org/?...
by Geoffrey Treasure (no photo)
by Arthur Henry Hirsch (no photo)
by Arthur Conan Doyle
by Samuel Smiles
by Robin D. Gwynn (no photo)
by Charles Washington Baird (no photo)

Marie Antoinette



Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna (Austria) on November 2nd, 1755. She was the fourth daughter of the Emperor Francis 1st of Lorraine and Maria Theresa of Austria, at the head of the Habsburg dynasty.

Francis 1st died in August 1765, leaving his wife and his elder son to co-rule his empire. To promote diplomatic relationships with France, Marie Antoinette was asked to marry Louis Auguste, the Dauphin of France.

The celebration was held on May 16th, 1770 in the palace of Versailles. Fireworks were shot for the occasion and a huge crowd gathered in front of the palace, so many people that 32 of them died in a mob move.

Marie Antoinette was quickly appreciated and even admired at the court. She was a beautiful young lady who enjoyed the party-filled life of Versailles. However, her relationship with her husband was the subject of much sarcasm. The couple didn't have any children and the people of Paris found this suspicious.

They actually had to wait 8 years for the first royal baby to be born. Marie Antoinette had the bad reputation of partying a lot, spending huge amount of money in casino games and having affairs with other men. These rumors spread all over the country and even came to her mother who wrote some very concerned letters to her daughter.

On May 10th, 1774 Louis XV died. On June 11th, 1775 Louis Auguste was crowned king Louis XVI of France and Marie Antoinette was named Queen of France and Navarre at the cathedral of Reims. The weakness of Louis XVI permitted Marie Antoinette to take a part in French political power. She nominated some of her closest advisers to strategic positions. In 1784, Marie Antoinette supported her brother, Joseph 2nd, in his feud with Netherlands. However Louis XVI refused to support Austria and Marie Antoinette was strongly criticized by the French who ironically called her "L'Autrichienne" ("the Austrian"). In 1785, the "Marie Antoinette diamond necklace" affaire spread all over the country. Marie Antoinette was victim of a scam. Jeanne De La Motte Valois pretended to be the queen and by stealing her identity, she stole a huge amount of money from the Cardinal de Rohan. The queen was not directly involved in that scandal but her image was discredited. Marie Antoinette was then nicknamed "Madame Deficit" by the people of France. She tried to clear her bad reputation by promoting the image of a caring mother, which she obviously was, but this wasn't enough to calm the angry protesters.

From the beginning of the revolution, Marie Antoinette always refused to negotiate with the revolutionaries. On October 5th, 1789 a mob of Parisian women stormed Versailles and forced the royal family to move to the Tuileries, under the watch of the National Guards.

On September 4th, 1791 France became a "Monarchie Constitutionnelle" where Louis XVI had to share his power with the revolutionaries. Marie Antoinette's only hope was to get help from her brother to stop the revolution and bring her husband back to the throne.

On June 21st, 1791 the royal family decided to escape Paris to join Austria but they were arrested in Varennes and brought back to Paris a week later.

France declared war against Austria on April 20th, 1792 and Marie Antoinette was pictured as an enemy of the country. She got the nicknamed "Madame Veto" as she was accused of ordering Louis XVI to oppose every revolutionary's decisions. On June 20th, 1792 a mob stormed the Tuileries.

The tension was rising and the royal family was moved to the Temple prison and was held captive there under very poor living conditions. The Jacobin group called for the end of the Monarchy which they obtain on September 21st, 1792. The National Convention was now leading the country and Louis XVI was executed on January 21st, 1793. Marie Antoinette fought bravely to stay alive and spare the lives of her children. But her fate became a big political stake between the different groups of the assembly. Strong partisans of her dead, like Hebert, gained some credit within the Assembly.

On October 14th, 1793 her trial started and she was accused of very serious crimes. One of the most humiliating was the accusation of incest towards her son. Marie Antoinette became very emotional because of this unfair accusation. She defended herself fiercely but her fate had already been decided. Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16th, 1793.

Marie Antoinette's remains were transported to the Saint Denis Cathedral in 1815, along with Louis XVI's.
(Source: http://bastille-day.com/biography/Mar...)

More:
http://www.biography.com/people/marie...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_A...
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history...
http://www.marie-antoinette.org/artic...
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/rul...
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Lo-...
http://www.greatkat.com/03/marieantoi...
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedi...
http://digitalshowcase.dpsk12.org/ARC...
http://www.bena.com/lucidcafe/library...
by Antonia Fraser
by Évelyne Lever
by Carolly Erickson
by Chantal Thomas (no photo)
by Nancy Lotz (no photo)
by Munro Price (no photo)

Lord George Germain



George Sackville-Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, original name Lord George Sackville, also called (from 1770) Lord George Germain, or Sackville-Germain (born Jan. 26, 1716, London, Eng.—died Aug. 26, 1785, Stoneland Lodge, near Withyham, Sussex), English soldier and politician. He was dismissed from the British army for his failure to obey orders in the Battle of Minden (1759) during the Seven Years’ War. As colonial secretary he was partly responsible for the British defeat at Saratoga (1777) in the American Revolutionary War.

The third son of the 1st Duke of Dorset, he was educated at Westminster School and at Trinity College, Dublin (B.A., 1733; M.A., 1734). Commissioned in 1737, he fought well in the War of the Austrian Succession, particularly in the Battle of Fontenoy (May 11, 1745), where he led his infantry regiment so deep into the French ranks that he was taken prisoner and his wounds were treated in Louis XV’s own tent. Later, as a colonel of infantry, Sackville served in Scotland and Ireland.

Transferred to the cavalry, Sackville was promoted to major general in 1755. The badly managed attack on Saint-Malo (1758) during the Seven Years’ War was his first defeat. From October 1758 he commanded a British contingent of the allied army in Germany. At Minden (Aug. 1, 1759), after the British and Hanoverian infantry had routed the cavalry forming the French centre, he disregarded repeated orders by the allied commander, Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, to exploit this success, and the French retreated unpursued. Temporarily disgraced by and court-martialed for this episode, he was restored to favour in 1765. In 1770, under the terms of the will of Lady Elizabeth Germain, he inherited the estate of Drayton, Northamptonshire, and took the name of Germain.

As colonial secretary (from 1775) in Lord North’s government, Sackville was responsible for the general conduct of the war against the American colonists, and he was largely to blame for the poor coordination of British operations from Canada and New York, ending in the surrender of General John Burgoyne’s British army at the Second Battle of Saratoga, N.Y. (Oct. 17, 1777). After the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown (1781), Germain was the only cabinet minister to favour continued fighting, but he was dismissed.

Created Baron Bolebrooke and Viscount Sackville of Drayton in 1782, he retired from politics when North resigned that year.
(Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...)

More:
http://www.historytoday.com/eric-robs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_...
http://www.robertburns.org/encycloped...
http://www.jjhc.info/MarshGeorge1800G...
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/clementsm...
http://www.stonefortconsulting.com/20...
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Geo...
by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy
by Don Cook (no photo)
by Stanley Weintraub (no photo)
by J. Steven Watson (no photo)
by Peter Whiteley (no photo)

The Enlightenment





The Early Enlightenment: 1685-1730
The Enlightenment's important 17th-century precursors included the Englishmen Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes, the Frenchman Renee Descartes and the key natural philosophers of the Scientific Revolution, including Galileo, Kepler and Leibniz. Its roots are usually traced to 1680s England, where in the span of three years Isaac Newton published his "Principia Mathematica" (1686) and John Locke his "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1689)—two works that provided the scientific, mathematical and philosophical toolkit for the Enlightenment's major advances.

Locke argued that human nature was mutable and that knowledge was gained through accumulated experience rather than by accessing some sort of outside truth. Newton's calculus and optical theories provided the powerful Enlightenment metaphors for precisely measured change and illumination.

There was no single, unified Enlightenment. Instead, it is possible to speak of the French Enlightenment, the Scottish Enlightenment and the English, German, Swiss or American Enlightenment. Individual Enlightenment thinkers often had very different approaches. Locke differed from Hume, Rousseau from Voltaire, Thomas Jefferson from Frederick the Great. Their differences and disagreements, though, emerged out of the common Enlightenment themes of rational questioning and belief in progress through dialogue.

The High Enlightenment: 1730-1780
Centered on the dialogues and publications of the French “philosophes” (Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Buffon and Diderot), the High Enlightenment might best be summed up by one historian's summary of Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary": "a chaos of clear ideas." Foremost among these was the notion that everything in the universe could be rationally demystified and cataloged. The signature publication of the period was Diderot's "Encyclopédie" (1751-77), which brought together leading authors to produce an ambitious compilation of human knowledge.

It was an age of enlightened despots like Frederick the Great, who unified, rationalized and modernized Prussia in between brutal multi-year wars with Austria, and of enlightened would-be revolutionaries like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, whose "Declaration of Independence" (1776) framed the American Revolution in terms taken from of Locke's essays.

It was also a time of religious (and anti-religious) innovation, as Christians sought to reposition their faith along rational lines and deists and materialists argued that the universe seemed to determine its own course without God’s intervention. Secret societies—the Freemasons, the Bavarian Illuminati, the Rosicrucians—flourished, offering European men (and a few women) new modes of fellowship, esoteric ritual and mutual assistance. Coffeehouses, newspapers and literary salons emerged as new venues for ideas to circulate.

The Late Enlightenment and Beyond: 1780-1815
The French Revolution of 1789 was the culmination of the High Enlightenment vision of throwing out the old authorities to remake society along rational lines, but it devolved into bloody terror that showed the limits of its own ideas and led, a decade later, to the rise of Napoleon. Still, its goal of egalitarianism attracted the admiration of the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and inspired both the Haitian war of independence and the radical racial inclusivism of Paraguay's first post-independence government.

Enlightened rationality gave way to the wildness of Romanticism, but 19th-century Liberalism and Classicism—not to mention 20th-century Modernism—all owe a heavy debt to the thinkers of the Enlightenment.
(Source: http://www.history.com/topics/enlight...)

More:
http://www.online-literature.com/peri...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_E...
http://www.scienceandyou.org/articles...
http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/th...
http://www.theopedia.com/Age_of_Enlig...
http://www.westga.edu/~mmcfar/Workshe...
http://www.pinkmonkey.com/studyguides...
http://www.allabouthistory.org/age-of...
http://worldhistory.mrdonn.org/powerp...
by Anthony Pagden
by James R. Gaines
by John V Fleming (no photo)
by Guy G. Stroumsa (no photo)
by Christopher Braider (no photo)
by Margaret C. Jacob (no photo)
by Jonathan I. Israel (no photo)
by Jonathan I. Israel (no photo)
by Tom Shachtman (no photo)
by James MacGregor Burns (no photo)

Martha Washington



Born on June 2, 1731, in New Kent County, Virginia, Martha Washington married a wealthy plantation owner before becoming a widow and inheriting his estate. She wed Colonel George Washington in 1759 and became U.S. first lady upon his eventual ascendancy to the presidency. Martha was known for her aplomb and large social events, though she actually preferred privacy. She died in Mount Vernon, Virginia, on May 22, 1802.

Martha Washington, the wife of first U.S. President George Washington, was born Martha Dandridge on June 2, 1731, in New Kent County, Virginia, on the Chestnut Grove plantation. She was raised and educated with an emphasis on skills seen as integral to running a household, though also taught reading, writing and mathematics.

At 18 years old, Dandridge wed Daniel Parke Custis, a rich plantation owner, in 1749. The couple would have four children, though only two, Jack and Patsy, lived past childhood. Custis himself died in the summer of 1757, and Martha became the inheritor of his 15,000-acre estate.

She later met Colonel George Washington at a Williamsburg, Virginia cotillion, and the two wed in 1759. Martha and her two children moved to Washington's Mount Vernon, Virginia plantation, where the family became known for their social events and upscale lifestyle, though they suffered financial setbacks as well.

By 1775, George had become the leader of U.S. forces in the Revolutionary War, and Martha later took up residence with him at his encampments for extended periods of time.

She experienced tremendous loss with the deaths of her two surviving children: Patsy died from epilepsy during her teens and Jack succumbed to "camp fever" while enlisted as a soldier.

With the colonies achieving their independence and the U.S. Constitution ratified, George Washington was elected to become the country's first president, having his inauguration in April of 1789. Martha, who had also effectively assumed guardianship of Jack's children, took on the responsibility of arranging major social events and parties for the presidential home/office in New York, thus setting precedents and standards for future first ladies to come. (The term "first lady" wasn't used at this time, with Martha being called "Lady Washington.")

She also had Friday public receptions and handled household affairs while developing a friendship with Abigail Adams, wife of Vice President John Adams. The Washingtons relocated to Philadelphia, which was the nation's next capital, in 1790.

Martha Washington was seen as a gracious presence and looked to Europe for inspiration in terms of setting standards for official affairs, though it was noted that she often felt trapped and preferred a quieter life. She also held slaves in her household and did not favor manumission, though those held as slaves by George Washington, who took on an abolitionist stance, would be freed after his death.

The Washingtons returned to Mount Vernon once the president's second term was up in 1797. George Washington died in December of 1799, with his wife subsequently closing their bed chamber and taking up residence on the third floor of their mansion. Upon taking ill in early 1802, she wrote her will and burned most of the letter correspondences between her and her husband. She died on May 22, 1802, and was buried with George on the estate.
(Source: http://www.biography.com/people/marth...)

More:
http://www.firstladies.org/biographie...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_W...
http://www.history.org/almanack/peopl...
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/...
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/v...
http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archive...
http://www.mountvernon.org/educationa...
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha...
http://www.essortment.com/biography-m...
by Patricia Brady (no photo)
by Bruce Chadwick (no photo)
by Mary Higgins Clark
by Nancy Moser
by Helen Bryan

Staten Island Peace Conference



By May 1776, the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord had already occurred, but the American colonies had not yet declared independence. An increasingly skeptical George III thought that a prolonged conflict in North America might be avoided and appointed Admiral Lord Richard Howe and his brother General William Howe to be peace negotiators. Their instructions limited their authority to granting pardons to rebellious Americans who would pledge their loyalties to the king, but stopped short of allowing them to deal with the illegal colonial governments, provincial congresses that had replaced legitimate royal officials.

The Howes felt considerable good will toward the colonists, remembering that the Massachusetts assembly had earlier honored their older brother who was killed in the French and Indian War by erecting a statue in his honor in Westminster Abbey.

Because of the slowness of transportation and communication in that era, an effort to arrange a peace conference was not made until late summer. General John Sullivan, who had been captured in the Battle of Long Island on August 27, was released by the British and sent to the Continental Congress to convey a proposal for a conference. Congress responded affirmatively by sending Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edmund Rutledge to the British headquarters at Staten Island on September 11.

At the Staten Island Peace Conference, although the tone of the talks was civil, they were doomed from the start. The Howe brothers were under instructions to insist upon a retraction of the Declaration of Independence before true negotiations could commence. The Americans were unwilling to consider that demand. The British, confident of the military superiority, felt no need to compromise. The Staten Island Peace Conference yielded no results.
(Source: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h127...)

More:
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h127...
http://www.conferencehouse.org/about/...
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/conf...
http://dwkcommentaries.com/tag/staten...
http://siborrealtors.com/2010/08/02/t...
by Phillip Papas (no photo)
by Joseph S. Tiedemann (no photo)
by Richard M. Ketchum (no photo)
by David McCullough
by Joseph J. Ellis
by Robert Allison (no photo)
by Barnet Schecter (no photo)

Joseph Plumb Martin



The Life of a Soldier
Born in western Massachusetts in 1760, Joseph Plumb Martin was the son of a pastor; at the age of seven, he began living with his affluent grandfather. Almost as soon as the Revolutionary War broke out in the spring of 1775, young Joseph was eager to lend his efforts to the patriotic cause. In June 1776, at the tender age of 15, Martin enlisted for a six-month stint in the Connecticut state militia. By the end of the year, Martin had served at the Battles of Brooklyn, Kip's Bay and White Plains in New York. Though Martin declined to reenlist when his six-month stint ended in December 1776, he later changed his mind, and on April 12, 1777 he enlisted in the 8th Connecticut division of General George Washington's Continental Army, led by Colonel John Chandler. He would serve for the duration of the war (until 1783).

The life of a common soldier fighting on behalf of colonial independence during the American Revolution was a difficult one. Recruiters for the Continental Army targeted young and less wealthy men, including apprentices or laborers. Some (like Martin) enlisted voluntarily, while others were drafted. Among the discomforts Continental soldiers suffered were shortages of food or other supplies, long periods away from home, sinking morale and the constant threat of death.

Under Siege in Pennsylvania
In the fall of 1777, Martin's division was one of those called to Pennsylvania, where British forces led by General William Howe had managed to take the rebel capital of Philadelphia. Over the next several months, Martin and his fellow soldiers withstood one of the fiercest bombardments of the war, as Howe's troops laid siege to Fort Mifflin, located on Mud Island in the Delaware River. Their steadfast resistance under British fire extended the entire conflict, allowing Washington and his troops to withdraw to winter quarters at Valley Forge, too late in the season for Howe's men to follow them.

On arriving at Valley Forge at the start of that famously long winter, Martin wrote: "Our prospect was indeed dreary. In our miserable condition, to go into the wild woods and build us habitations to stay (not to live) in, in such a weak, starved and naked condition, was appalling in the highest degree….But dispersion, I believe, was not thought of, at least, I did not think of it. We had engaged in the defense of our injured country and were willing, nay, we were determined to persevere as long as such hardships were not altogether intolerable…"

Road to Yorktown
In 1778, Private Martin was transferred to the light infantry for a brief period, during which his unit operated against Tory sympathizers in the Hudson Highlands region. He saw little action for the next year, and in December 1778 began a winter encampment with his regiment at Morristown, New Jersey. This difficult period saw the army's first mutiny of the war, as Martin wrote: "We had borne as long as human nature could endure, and to bear longer we considered folly." But Martin persevered, and in the summer of 1780 he was recommended for appointment as a sergeant in the new engineer corps, the Sappers and Miners. Among the corps' principal duties were working with mines and with saps, as the approach trenches to enemy works were called.

In the summer of 1781, Martin was called upon to perform his new responsibilities after the combined French and American armies moved south to lay siege to British General Lord Charles Cornwallis' troops at Yorktown, Virginia. He was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown in October 1781, and wrote of the momentous occasion that: "We waited with anxiety the termination of the armistice and as the time drew nearer our anxiety increased. The time at length arrived--it passed, and all remained quiet. And now we concluded that we had obtained what we had taken so much pains for, for which we had encountered so many dangers, and had so anxiously wished. Before night we were informed that the British had surrendered and that the siege was ended."

Life After Revolution
Yorktown effectively sealed the Continental victory in the American Revolution, though the war did not formally end until 1783. After being discharged, Joseph Martin settled in Maine, near the mouth of the Penobscot River, on land that would become the town of Prospect. He served as a selectman and justice of the peace and as Prospect's town clerk for more than two decades. In 1818, Martin applied for and was granted a pension for needy veterans offered by the federal government, declaring that "by reason of age and infirmity" he was unable to work and support his wife and five children.

In 1830, at the age of 70, Martin published his diaries, under the title "A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier, Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents that Occurred Within His Own Observation." Published anonymously, as was customary at the time, the book sold poorly, and was largely forgotten by the time Martin died in 1850. More than a century later, however, the work was rediscovered and republished as "Private Yankee Doodle." Though Martin's account was often exaggerated and embellished (at times he recounted events he could not possibly have witnessed firsthand or improved the outcomes of incidents), it stands as the most graphic, vivid and detailed first-person account of the life of a Continental soldier during the American Revolution.
(Source:http://www.history.com/topics/joseph-...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P...
http://www.ushistory.org/march/other/...
http://www.ushistory.org/march/other/...
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/popup...
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defco...
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg....
by Joseph Plumb Martin (no photo)
by James K. Martin (no photo)
by Thomas J. Fleming
by Richard M. Ketchum (no photo)
by Bruce Chadwick (no photo)
by Charles Royster (no photo)
by Charles Neimeyer (no photo)

Flintlock Musket



The flintlock mechanism was the first reliable and relatively inexpensive system for firing a gun, and was hugely popular in colonial America. It was first developed in the mid-1500s and spread until, by 1660, the English Army adopted the flintlock system for its "Brown Bess" guns. The Brown Bess became famous because of its widespread use during the American Revolution. The flintlock remained popular until the mid-1800s, when it was replaced by the percussion-cap lock. By the time of the civil war, nearly all guns manufactured used the percussion cap. That means that the flintlock, as a technology, lasted about 300 years.
(Source: http://science.howstuffworks.com/flin...)

More:
http://flintlockrepair.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flintlock
http://www.strongblade.com/history/fl...
http://firearmshistory.blogspot.com/2...
http://derpwell.weebly.com/history-on...
http://www.militaryfactory.com/smalla...
http://www.military-history.org/artic...
http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetecti...
http://inventors.about.com/od/militar...
http://www.nramuseum.org/the-museum/t...
by Richard Holmes
by Torsten Lenk (no photo)
by Bill Ahearn (no photo)
by Norm Flayderman (no photo)
by George D. Moller (no photo)
by Matt Doeden (no photo)

Abigail Adams



Inheriting New England's strongest traditions, Abigail Smith was born in 1744 at Weymouth, Massachusetts. On her mother's side she was descended from the Quincys, a family of great prestige in the colony; her father and other forebearers were Congregational ministers, leaders in a society that held its clergy in high esteem.

Like other women of the time, Abigail lacked formal education; but her curiosity spurred her keen intelligence, and she read avidly the books at hand. Reading created a bond between her and young John Adams, Harvard graduate launched on a career in law, and they were married in 1764. It was a marriage of the mind and of the heart, enduring for more than half a century, enriched by time.

The young couple lived on John's small farm at Braintree or in Boston as his practice expanded. In ten years she bore three sons and two daughters; she looked after family and home when he went traveling as circuit judge. "Alas!" she wrote in December 1773, "How many snow banks divide thee and me...."

Long separations kept Abigail from her husband while he served the country they loved, as delegate to the Continental Congress, envoy abroad, elected officer under the Constitution. Her letters--pungent, witty, and vivid, spelled just as she spoke--detail her life in times of revolution. They tell the story of the woman who stayed at home to struggle with wartime shortages and inflation; to run the farm with a minimum of help; to teach four children when formal education was interrupted. Most of all, they tell of her loneliness without her "dearest Friend." The "one single expression," she said, "dwelt upon my mind and played about my Heart...."

In 1784, she joined him at his diplomatic post in Paris, and observed with interest the manners of the French. After 1785, she filled the difficult role of wife of the first United States Minister to Great Britain, and did so with dignity and tact. They returned happily in 1788 to Massachusetts and the handsome house they had just acquired in Braintree, later called Quincy, home for the rest of their lives.

As wife of the first Vice President, Abigail became a good friend to Mrs. Washington and a valued help in official entertaining, drawing on her experience of courts and society abroad. After 1791, however, poor health forced her to spend as much time as possible in Quincy. Illness or trouble found her resolute; as she once declared, she would "not forget the blessings which sweeten life."

When John Adams was elected President, she continued a formal pattern of entertaining--even in the primitive conditions she found at the new capital in November 1800. The city was wilderness, the President's House far from completion. Her private complaints to her family provide blunt accounts of both, but for her three months in Washington she duly held her dinners and receptions.

The Adamses retired to Quincy in 1801, and for 17 years enjoyed the companionship that public life had long denied them. Abigail died in 1818, and is buried beside her husband in United First Parish Church. She leaves her country a most remarkable record as patriot and First Lady, wife of one President and mother of another.
(Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first...)

More:
http://www.firstladies.org/biographie...
http://www.biography.com/people/abiga...
http://www.abigailadams.org/
http://www.history.com/topics/abigail...
http://womenshistory.about.com/cs/fir...
http://www25.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articl...
http://www.nps.gov/adam/abigailbio.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/v...
http://www.masshist.org/bh/aadamsbio....
http://www.abigailadamsbirthplace.com...
by Joseph J. Ellis
by Abigail Adams
by Edith B. Gelles (no photo)
by Woody Holton (no photo)
by Lynne Withey (no photo)
by Phyllis Lee Levin (no photo)
by Natalie S. Bober (no photo)
by Janet Whitney (no photo)

Mary Hays McCauley (Molly Pitcher)




Molly Pitcher (aka: Mary Ludwig Hays McCauly) was born in 1754, near Trenton, New Jersey. During the American Revolution, she accompanied her husband to the Battle of Monmouth and carried pitchers of water for cooling the cannons, thereby earning her nickname. Supposedly, after her husband collapsed, she took his place at the cannon and served heroically through the battle. She died in 1832.

Revolutionary heroine, born near Trenton, New Jersey, USA. In 1778 she joined her first husband, John Hays, at his army encampment in New Jersey. During the battle of Monmouth, she carried water to the American troops, earning the sobriquet Molly Pitcher, and when her husband was wounded at his cannon, she is said to have taken over and continued firing. After the American Revolution, she returned to Carlisle, PA and after her second husband died, she was voted an annuity for her ‘services’ rather than as a veterans' widow, suggesting that she had seen action. She was said to have ‘sworn like a trooper’ and chewed tobacco. Later her story would sometimes be confused with that of Margaret Corbin.
(Source: http://www.biography.com/people/molly...)

More:
http://www.infoplease.com/biography/v...
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/war...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Pi...
http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge/...
http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palit...
http://www.teachushistory.org/node/266
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/t...
http://www.villamaria.org/notablewome...
by Linda Grant De Pauw
by Rosalind Miles
by Linda, Grant De Pauw (no photo)
by Joseph G. Bilby (no photo)
by Melissa Lukeman Bohrer (no photo)

Hessians



Every school child in America has heard the term "Hessian" in the context of Washington having crossed the Delaware to attack them on Christmas night in 1776. Few people know anything about them, or, if they do, they have a rather "cartoonish" image. In some circles the term has become synonymous with "soldier of fortune," perhaps because, even in the 18th Century, they were referred to as "mercenaries".

We must begin by noting that our current concept of a unified, German nation (in no way to be confused with the more recent fall of the Berlin Wall), is a product of the 1870's. The Germany of the 18th Century was what was left of the old "Holy Roman Empire" of the Middle Ages. It was a somewhat bewildering collection of separate, and autonomous, city-states, duchies, and principalities as large and important as Prussia, and as small and nearly forgotten as Anhalt-Zerbst.

When trying to understand their role in the American Revolution, it is important to recognize that one of these principalities was Hanover, which was governed by it's "Elector". That "Elector" happened to be George III of Great Britain (hence the current ruling family of Britain is still, technically known as the "House of Hanover"). Great Britain traditionally relied on its impressive, defensive "moat" — the English Channel, and always maintained a relatively small army in peacetime. These German city-states, being a part of Continental Europe with few natural boundaries, of necessity, had to maintain comparatively large, standing armies for their own safety. Many regarded Great Britain as a natural ally and fought alongside her as such during the Seven Years' War and earlier conflicts.

Being a Constitutional Monarchy, Britain was one of the more liberal governments on Earth. The economy was generally in good shape, so labor was almost always at a premium. Consequently, Britain always found it difficult to raise many new regiments for it's army during times of war. Those new men it did recruit (or impress), needed to be trained. The new regiments needed to be exercised with others to become militarily viable. The German princes would often see Britain's military needs as opportunities to, at the same tim assist an ally, provide combat experience for their officer corps, and keep a portion of their own regiments embodied while someone else was paying for their upkeep.

The soldiers were themselves only mercenaries in the sense that they were paid for their service to their own ruler, just as any member of the U.S. Military is today. A "soldier of fortune" would be someone who acted, on his own, in a sense as a "free agent", contracting his services to whoever would pay him. In all, George III was able to contract with six of his fellow German princes for the use of some of their troops: Hesse-Cassel, Brunswick,Hesse Hanau, Anspach-Bayreuth, Waldeck, and. Anhalt-Zerb. Friedrich, Landgraff of Hesse-Cassel, by far, contributed the most men, so today, as then, we tend to refer to them all as "Hessians" for convenience. This is technically incorrect, but has become a kind of convention to ease understanding. All three of the regiments who occupied Trenton, in December of 1776, along with the detachments of artillery and jaegers (or riflemen), were, in fact from Hesse-Cassel, thus, truly Hessians. They were:
a)The Grenadier Regiment Rall
b)The Fusilier Regiment von Knyphausen
c)The Fusilier Regiment von Lossberg

All of these regiments were under the command of Col. Johann Gottlieb Rall. As grenadiers and fusiliers, they considered themselves elite units and thus, all the enlisted men wore a form of the well known, tall brass miter cap.

These units had already served with valor at the Battle of Long Island, the Battle of White Plains, and the taking of Ft. Washington in the several months prior to their occupation of Trenton.
(Source: http://www.ushistory.org/washingtoncr...)

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germans_...
http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public...
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.an...
http://knatzfamily.com/the-knatz-fami...
http://www.sonofthesouth.net/revoluti...
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2008/02/re...
by Jean-Pierre Wilhelmy (no photo)
by Bruce E. Burgoyne (no photo)
by Rodney Atwood (no photo)
by Walter Schroder (no photo)
byJohann Conrad Dohla (no photo)
by Bruce E Burgoyne (no photo)
by Valentine C. Hubbs (no photo)
(no image) The Voyage of The First Hessian Army from Portsmouth to New York, 1776 by Pfister, Albert (no photo)