Non-Profit Dedicated to Historical Education of the American Revolution and the Colonial Period
Major General Joseph Spencer (October 3, 1714 – January 13, 1789) was a good officer. Through three wars, rising in rank from lieutenant to major general, he followed orders and demonstrated clear thinking and carefully thought-out decisions. But he was not a great general. He had not the daring and drive of a Benedict Arnold, …
A hotheaded patriot lawyer whose cheeks would become so red when arguing a point, he was nicknamed ‘Old Bacon Face.’[1] An aggressive proponent of independence, thirty-three-year-old Samuel Chase was chosen to represent Maryland in the First Continental Congress, September 5, 1774. In the Second Congress, he rebelled against his conservative colony that favored peaceful concessions …
Scopholites was a derogatory name given to mainly South Carolina backcountry Loyalists, or ‘King’s Men,’ during the American Revolution by rebellious colonials calling themselves patriots. A form of propaganda, the term united patriot frontiersmen who lumped all who favored the Crown to be defined as enemies. The moniker’s origins ran from a notorious cattle thief, …
Hugh Gaine was the leading newspaper publisher in New York City and its most successful printer during the time of the American Revolution. He was often accused for his absence of moral fiber, choosing which side of the rebellion to back as easily as one would pick which hat to don for a day’s outing. …
The Moravian or Gnadenhutten Massacre, March 8, 1782, resulted in the vicious rape and murder of 96 Moravian Native Americans by Pennsylvania militia settlers in the closing months of the American Revolution. The converted Christian Lenni-Lenape and Mohicans were mostly old men and women and children. Innocent pacifists, because of their commitment to non-violence, they …
On September 12, 1782, Elizabeth Zane, age seventeen, braved death in a solo dash over open ground to retrieve a keg of gunpowder stored in a nearby blockhouse. Her action helped save her family and friends from certain death, becoming a wilderness legend in her own time. On September 11, 1782, a strong force of …
Major General Robert Howe (c. 1732 – December 14, 1786) is not known for his accomplishments, but what he had failed to achieve. In fairness to the only major general in the Continental Army from North Carolina, he was given an impossible task that few men could press on to success. Unfortunately, General Howe was not one …
Speak of South Carolina’s role in the American Revolution and four names rise above all others: William Moultre, Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter, and of course, Francis ‘Swamp Fox’ Marion. But turn the browned pages of early historical texts, and one name appears first and foremost among South Carolina’s founding fathers; Richard Richardson (May, 1704[1] – …
General William Heath was an excellent administrator. Versed in military training from his militia leadership role during the French and Indian War, he was loyal, hardworking, and dedicated to duty. In fact, it could be said that Heath was everything a good commander could be, except one major flaw; he was rubbish in combat. Early …
The important thing to remember about the Ferguson Rifle is that it was not invented by Patrick Ferguson. The breechloading rifle that historians, novelists, gun enthusiasts, and countless internet articles state was born of the creative mind of Major Patrick Ferguson (1744 – 1780), had been around since the early stages of firearms. Breechloading matchlocks …
On Christmas Day, 1780, famed rifleman General Daniel Morgan received a present of enormous consequence. A small band of sixty South Carolina militiamen rode into camp. The leader was church elder Colonel Andrew Pickens (1739-1817); rigid, somber, a man of few words, and the south’s greatest militia fighter. And for Morgan, who would face the …
Colonel Isaac Shelby (1750-1826) was an exceptional leader of patriot militia who, by the end of his life, became one of the country’s most admired men. Born to fight, he grew up in the wilderness where at an early age, stood second in command to his father’s company against the Shawnee. When war with England …
Colonel Thomas Brown was a fierce partisan fighter. An able leader, he was always in the thick of battle, deploying his men skillfully and encouraging them to fight on. Passionate to the cause, he would have been at the forefront of America’s Revolutionary heroes, had he been a patriot; but he was not. Brown was …
Colonel Elijah Clarke, b. December 10, 1736 (some give 1733 & 1742) – December 15, 1799, was one of the unsung heroes of the American Revolution. Fierce and determined in battle, the Georgian militia leader was always in the thick of the fight, having received multiple wounds throughout the war; two life threatening. From Florida …
Captain Robert Henry Kirkwood (1756-1791) was one of most competent American field officers of the American Revolution. He fought in almost every major battle including countless skirmishes. Always in the thick of the hardest fighting, like a stone wall, his men often held the line when other regiments folded. Or charged with bayonet at the …