Abraham Lincoln usually gets the credit for establishing Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863. He deserves much of it for making it an annual event. But, Lincoln was harkening back to an earlier practice of giving thanks amidst the trials and tribulations of war, whether it was going well or not. The tradition predated the Revolutionary War generation, but they were as apt to a hold national day of giving thanks as any of their predecessors or successors in American history. Continue reading “Thanksgiving with the Continental Army, 1777”
Category: Uncategorized
George Washington Passed By Here
One of my favorite places to visit are the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania. The area abounds in history, and its scenery is, in my view, unparalleled. Rugged mountains overlook beautiful valleys of hardwoods, streams and waterfalls. Rocky outcroppings emerge from the forest. Powerful rivers wind through the region
It is a center of industrial history: railroading and mining, transportation like canals, the National Road, and other scenic highways. There is even a bit of Civil War history in the region. But my favorite topic to explore is its French and Indian War history. Which brings me to the person who started it all, George Washington.
Norman MacLeod’s Campaign Journal, November 7-14, 1778
(An occasional series highlighting British Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton’s march south from Detroit to recapture Vincennes (Indiana) on its 240th anniversary through the entries in Captain Norman MacLeod’s diary.)
Lieutenant Governor Hamilton’s army continued its progress towards Vincennes, but it was slow and backbreaking work. Building dams to raise river levels did not work everywhere and his army often had to resort to the simple and monotonous task of unloading its vessels, dragging them through the shallows, carrying supplies forward, and then reloading boats to continue making progress the next day. MacLeod’s diary entries for November 7th and 14th highlight the sheer fatigue involved in moving supplies on the frontier.
Continue reading “Norman MacLeod’s Campaign Journal, November 7-14, 1778”
Norman MacLeod’s Campaign Journal, October 31, 1778
(An occasional series highlighting British Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton’s march south from Detroit to recapture Vincennes (Indiana) on its 240th anniversary through the entries in Captain Norman MacLeod’s diary.)
This year marked the 240th anniversary of George Rogers Clark’s “conquest of the Illinois country” in modern-day Illinois and Indiana. During the summer, he led a small force of Virginia militia down the Ohio River and eventually captured the towns of Vincennes in modern-day Indiana as well as Cahokia and Kaskaskia in modern-day Illinois. The British Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Henry Hamilton, could not abide such American audacity and set out to recapture the town of Vincennes and the British fort that had ostensibly protected it, Fort Sackville. On his march south from Detroit, he prodded, pleaded, and encouraged Native American tribes to join his force, significantly swelling his numbers for the late-fall offensive. By October, Hamilton’s army was regularly struggling with low water and ice on the rivers it needed to move supplies while freezing rain, snow, and falling temperatures plagued men on the march.
Continue reading “Norman MacLeod’s Campaign Journal, October 31, 1778”
Norman MacLeod’s Campaign Journal, October 13, 1778
In the summer of 1778, Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark of the Virginia militia launched one of the most daring American military operations of the Revolutionary War when he invaded the “Illinois country” and captured Cahokia and Kaskaskia in modern-day Illinois and Vincennes in southern Indiana, effectively neutralizing British power on the Illinois, Wabash, and Mississippi Rivers. Henry Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec and Britain’s Superintendent for Indian Affairs in Detroit, could not allow such audacity to succeed, lest Britain’s influence with the western Indian nations wane. Learning of Fort Sackville’s fall at Vincennes on the Wabash River, he set out to recapture it.
Continue reading “Norman MacLeod’s Campaign Journal, October 13, 1778”
Missionary Extraordinaire: David Zeisberger
Over the summer, I took a family excursion to several Revolutionary War sites in Ohio, some of which I recently wrote about. In particular, I wanted to trace the experience of several Moravian missionaries and their congregations in the no-man’s land of the frontier. Traveling a back road along the Tuscarawas River between the villages of Gnadenhutten and New Schoenbrunn, we stumbled across the graves of David Zeisberger (1721-1808) and several notable missionaries at the crossroads of Goshen.
Continue reading “Missionary Extraordinaire: David Zeisberger”
War in the Mississippi Valley: Part II
Previously I wrote about the fighting in the Mississippi Valley and Gulf coast during the Revolution. Below is a brief overview of the modern states in the Mississippi Valley and a summary of their colonial origins and events there during the Revolution:
Alabama
The French colonized the area that is now Alabama in the early 1700s. They constructed a fort at what is now Mobile, and this was the capital of La Louisiane- not New Orleans. The French presence was never very strong or deep, and they had few settlements in the region.
The French established trade network with Native Americans in the interior. The English were also interested in the region, and trades and explorers penetrated the northern area of modern-day Alabama.
The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years’ War after France’s defeat by Britain, resulted in France ceding its territories east of the Mississippi to Britain. Great Britain came into undisputed control of the region between the Chattahoochee and the Mississippi rivers. The portion of Alabama below the 31st parallel became a part of British West Florida. Today this is the long section of the Alabama-Florida state line.
The portion north of this line became a part of the “Illinois Country,” established by the British Crown for use by Indians. At the conclusion of the Revolution, The British ceded West Florida to Spain, and the land to the north to the United States. Yet there was disagreement about where the division between Spanish and American territory was, laying the foundation for a long boundary dispute between the two nations.
War in the Mississippi Valley: Part I
While the majority of Revolutionary War action occurred on the Atlantic coast, important events occurred farther west as well. This article takes a look at this lesser known part of the conflict.
It is well known that France was an eager ally of the fledgling United States, secretly making loans and selling supplies to the Revolutionaries. When the French felt the Americans had proved themselves at Saratoga, France officially entered the war, and became the first foreign nation to recognize the United States. On February 6, 1778 both nations signed the Treaty of Alliance, in which France declared war on Great Britain and recognized American Independence.
Spain was also on the sidelines, watching events closely. Unlike France, when Spain declared war on Great Britain, they did not recognize American independence. By the Treaty of Aranjuez on April 12, 1779, Spain entered the war as an ally of France, and agreed to attack British forts in the Mississippi Valley and Gulf Coast. Spain’s King Charles III would assist his first cousin, Louis XV of France in the conflict with the British. The Spanish hoped to recover territory lost from the British, and take advantage of Britain’s preoccupation with the rebellious colonies.
The British were already realigning their military for a worldwide conflict: facing France, Spain, and the Netherlands in India, Gibraltar, Europe, and the high seas. The Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi Valley was yet another front, one that was poorly defended by the British.
In the first action of this vast theater, American marines raided Fort Bute, a British fort located at Bayou Manchac, about 115 miles from New Orleans. The attack on the far western border of British West Florida took place in February, 1778. Continue reading “War in the Mississippi Valley: Part I”
The Crawford Campaign, 1782: Captivity, Torture, and Execution
(part five of five)
For those men separated from the retreating main body in the pell-mell retreat, Crawford’s expedition had become a nightmare, beginning with the panic on the night of June 5. James Paul remembered being shaken awake with word that the men were leaving and attempting to retrieve his horse in the dark before finding it had already slipped its bridle and wandered away.
“I groped about in the dark and discovered two other horses tied to the same sapling and my horse standing at their tails. This revived my drooping spirits. On finding my horse standing quiet, I bridled him and mounted, and about the same time a number of other horses were mounted by their owners, and all put out from the camp ground together, amounting in all to nine in number, and we made as much haste to get away as we could, considering the darkness of the road, and no roads but open woods to ride through, and no one to guide us.” Paul and his fellows realized Colonel Williamson, now leading the main body, was retreating on a longer route home, “leaving us nine and many other stragglers behind to take care of themselves as best they could, and to steer their own course homeward, and, as it turned out afterward, but few of these stragglers ever got home.”[1]
Paul and his group eventually became mired in a swamp and had to abandon their horses, making their way on foot, pursed by Native American warriors who forced them to scatter. After sleeping in hollow logs and under rocks, going without food other than a blackbird and occasional handful of berries, Paul eventually made his way back across the Ohio alone near Wheeling, arriving at a small fort where settlers had taken refuge against renewed Indian raids.[2]
Continue reading “The Crawford Campaign, 1782: Captivity, Torture, and Execution”
Myths of Eutaw Springs
September 8th will mark the 237th anniversary of this battle in South Carolina’s low country. Hard fought and bloody (General Nathanael Greene used the word obstinate to describe it), the battle has not been well remembered or commemorated.
This small roadside park preserves a portion of the battlefield. Continue reading “Myths of Eutaw Springs”
Emerging Revolutionary War Era 