Tag «American Revolution»

Battle of Chelsea Creek

Fought between May 27 and 28, 1775, on the islands off northeastern Boston, it is also known as the Battle of Noodle’s Island or Battle of Hog Island. It was the American Revolution’s second military action of open warfare within the region; the Battle of Lexington and Concord being the first on April 19th. It …

Black Soldiers in the American Revolution; Chronological Listing

Colonial leaders always had misgivings about black enlistments in militias during pre-Revolutionary War years and later among those who fought for American Independence. Though there was a large population of available African Americans to fill the ranks of colonial enlistments, the number one fear both north and south was the apprehension that slaves trained in …

Rachel Silverthorn: Paul Revere of the American Frontier

Rachel Silverthorn's ride.

History treats the feats by men as fact; whereas woman’s accomplishments are legends. Women’s actions come with an accompanying tag line ‘fact or fiction,’ or are described by highlighting the myth. More often than not, a women’s achievements are either downplayed, or left out of history entirely. There is a simple reason for this; men …

Plum Tree Massacre and the “Bloodiest Day”

June 10, 1778, has been referred to as the ‘bloodiest day,’ in the history of Lycoming County; a span of settlements along the west branch of the Susquehanna River of northcentral Pennsylvania. The Plum Tree Massacre was one of three separate attacks in one day on settlers by a war party of Iroquois and Loyalists. …

Cherry Valley Massacre

The Cherry Valley Massacre, November 11, 1778, was one of three major attacks in 1778 on American ‘rebel’ wilderness settlements and military outposts. British Loyalists and Native American forces, particularly four tribes of the Iroquois Nation Confederation; Mohawk, Seneca, Onondaga, and Cayuga ascended on the New York settlement, destroying it while killing and capturing many …

General Sullivan’s Expedition Against the Iroquois and the Battle of Newtown

Skoi Yase Heoweh gnogek Once a Home, Now a Memory: Iroquoian In the spring of 1779, Major General John Sullivan was selected to lead an expedition against the Iroquois Nation that was launched later that summer. Most of the Native American Confederation (known as the Longhouse Confederation) had aligned with the British. The campaign was budgeted by …

Siege of Vincennes: Dedication, Sacrifice, and Bloody Murder

The Siege of Fort Vincennes, February 22 – 24, 1779, was a desperate attack by approximately 200 Virginia militia and French Volunteers to maintain the American momentum established in 1778; capturing British forts and settlements in the far western regions from Kentucky to the upper Mississippi River Valley. Colonel George Rogers Clark, older brother of …