As you settle into your winter holidays or looking for one more gift for that history enthusiast on your Christmas list (and speaking for fellow book-lovers, a late Christmas gift book is always appreciated), Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes you to join us for the return of Tom Hand, of AmericanaCorner as he discusses his second volume, America Victorious, Lesser Known Campaigns and Commanders That Helped Win American Independence.
Tom, who created AmericanaCorner in 2020, is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Class of 1982, and a lifelong student and enthusiast of American History. He also sits on the Board of Trustees for the American Battlefield Trust.
During the Revelry on Sunday night, at 7 p.m. EDT, a special discount code (we have heard from our sources) will be offered for those interested in purchasing the book. Tom will also discuss upcoming book signings and other happenings at AmericanaCorner.
Tune in and end the weekend (and the last Revelry of 2025) with Emerging Revolutionary War and Tom Hand!
On Veteran’s Day in 2022, the American Battlefield Trust published the following article on their website “Archaeologists, Historians Unearth Remarkable Discovery at Camden Battlefield.” The Battle of Camden, fought in South Carolina on August 16, 1780, was a disastrous defeat for the American army, which suffered 1,900 casualties out of 3,700 engaged. Among those 1,900 approximate casualties were 5 Marylanders of the 1st Maryland Brigade. Over 242 years later, these five soldiers’ remains were found on the battlefield in a shallow grave. Another nine were found buried in other sites on the hallowed ground of Camden.
With forensic analysis and other research done in the ensuing months, a few facts about who these men were came to light. One of the most poignant discoveries was the age of two of the fallen Marylanders. Their ages were 16 to 19 years of age.
Although I have studied, lectured, and written about numerous engagements in two American wars, the simple fact of how young these soldiers were, as I read the memorial bronze plaque on the boulder monument, gives a deeper sense of sadness. Wars kill people of all ages, bullets don’t differentiate.
As we enter the holiday season and gather with friends and family, young and old, the fact that one of these soldiers, as young as 16, possibly, sacrificed his life, still name unknown, and lost to history for over 242 years. A family never knew what happened to their relation.
It is why it is invaluable that history continues to be studied. Archaeology is still important. And preservation of hallowed ground, like Camden, is worth preserving and interpreting. As you spend your holidays in the fashion that suits you, take a moment to think about a fallen soldier at Camden, in August 1780, sacrificed at sixteen.
Monument to the MarylandersThe flags mark the location of the five remainsGravestones of nine American soldiers, their remains found on the Camden Battlefield, now in the Revolutionary War Memorial outisde Quaker Cemetery in Camden, SC.
We’ve made an update to the cover of our upcoming book on the battle of Bunker Hill by Dan Davis and Phill Greenwalt. We thought you’d like a peek:
The previous cover design featured a woodcut that was obviously in the public domain–yet we couldn’t quite put our finger on it. That made us nervous enough to swap out the image!
The replacement image, which comes courtesy of the Library of Congress, was painted by E. Percy Moran around 1909. It shows the advance of British troops up the slope of Breed’s Hill, where they paid a heavy toll—indeed, a dear-bought victory.
We love the contrast between the red coats and the green design, which is much more eye-catching than the original cover. We hope you agree: this really pops!
Look for A Dear-Bought Victory: The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston by Daniel T. Davis and Phill Greenwalt coming in June 2026.
Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes back guest historian Michael Aubrecht
To call Robert Morris “a political renaissance man” would be an understatement. He was vice president of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety (1775–76) and was a member of the Continental Congress (1775–78) as well as a member of the Pennsylvania legislature (1778–79, 1780–81, 1785–86). Morris practically controlled the financial operations of the Revolutionary War from 1776 to 1783. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1787) and served in the U.S. Senate (1789–95). Perhaps most impressive is the fact that he signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation and later signed the U.S. Constitution.
At the start of the war Robert Morris was one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, but he would go on to claim bankruptcy after some catastrophic decisions. To fully appreciate the contributions of Robert Morris we must go back and examine him from the beginning.
Robert Morris
Robert Morris was born on January 31, 1734, in Liverpool, England, the son of Robert Morris, Sr., and Elizabeth Murphet Morris. His mother died when he was only two and he was raised by his grandmother. Morris’ father immigrated to the colonies in 1700, settled in Maryland and in 1738 he began a successful career working for Foster, Cunliffe and Sons of Liverpool. His job was to purchase and ship tobacco back to England. Morris Sr. was known for his ingenuity, and he was the creator of the tobacco inspection law. He was also regarded as an inventive merchant and was the first to keep his accounts in money rather than in gallons, pounds, or yards.
In 1750 tragedy would once again strike the Morris family. In July Morris Sr. hosted a dinner party aboard one of the company’s ships. As he prepared to depart a farewell salute was fired from the ship’s cannon and wadding from the shot burst through the side of the boat and severely injured him. He died a few days later of blood poisoning on July 12, 1750. The tragedy had a terrible effect on Morris who became an orphan at the age of 16. Looking for a change he left Maryland for Philadelphia in 1748. He was taken under the wing of his father’s friend, Mr. Greenway, who filled the gap left by the death of Morris’ father. Raised with a tremendous work ethic Morris flourished as a clerk at the merchant firm of Charles Willing & Co.
Following in his father’s footsteps Morris was also gifted with successful ingenuity. In his twenties he took his earnings and joined a few friends in establishing the London Coffee House. (Today the Philadelphia Stock Exchange claims the coffee house as its origin.) Morris was sent as a ship’s captain on a trading mission to Jamaica during the Seven Years War (1756-1763). He was captured by a group of French Privateers but managed to escape to Cuba where he remained until an American ship arrived in Havana. Only then was he able to secure safe passage back to Philadelphia.
Shortly after Morris’ return to the colonies Willing retired and handed the firm over to his son Thomas who offered him a partnership. This resulted in the formation of Willing, Morris & Co. The firm boasted three ships that were dispatched to the West Indies and England importing British cargo and exporting American goods. This relationship lasted for over 40 years and was immensely successful. At one point, Morris was ranked by the Encyclopedia of American Wealth, along with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, as the two wealthiest signers of the Declaration of Independence.
As influential merchants, Morris and Willing disagreed with the changes in tax policy. In 1765, the Stamp Act was passed and was met with massive resistance. Morris was at the forefront and led protests in the streets. His fervor was so striking that he convinced the stamp collector to suspend his post and return the stamps back to their origin. The tax collector stated that if he had not complied, he feared his house would have been torn down “brick by brick.” In 1769, the partners organized the first non-importation agreement, which forever ended the slave trade in the Philadelphia region.
Morris married Mary White on March 2, 1769, and they had seven children. In 1770, he bought an eighty-acre farm on the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River where he built a home he named “The Hills.” Due to his growing reputation Morris was asked to be a warden of the port of Philadelphia. Showing his tenacity, he convinced the captain of a tea ship to return to England in 1775.
Later on, Morris was appointed to the Model Treaty Committee following Richard Henry Lee’s resolution for independence on June 7, 1776. The resulting treaty projected international relations based on free trade and not political alliance. The treaty was eventually taken to Paris by Benjamin Franklin who transformed it into the Treaty of Alliance which was made possible by the Continental Army’s victory at Yorktown in 1781.
Scholars disagree as to whether Morris was present on July 4 when the Declaration of Independence was approved. But when it came time to sign the Declaration on August 2 he did so. Morris boldly stated that it was “the duty of every individual to act his part in whatever station his country may call him to in hours of difficulty, danger and distress.” Until peace was achieved in 1783, Morris performed services in support of the war. His efforts earned him the moniker of “Financier of the Revolution.”
Michael is the author of “The Letters of Robert Morris: Founding Father and Revolutionary Financier.“
Join us this Sunday, December 14th at 7pm as we return LIVE for this Rev War Revelry on the Canadian Campaign of 1775. We will discuss Arnold, Montgomery, Morgan and others on America’s attempt to capture Montreal, Quebec and create a “14th state.” From Arnold’s arduous march to Quebec through the wilds of Maine to Montgomery’s capture of Montreal, our historians Alex Cain and Mike Cecere will cover the entire campaign and answer the question “was the capture of Canada possible?”
This fall and winter mark the 250th anniversary of the campaign and the battles of Montreal and Quebec, and both of our speakers have taken part in the commemorative events. Grab a drink and watch live on our Facebook page, also add questions in the chat.
I want to take a moment to give a shout out to the Quincy Historical Society in Quincy, Massachusetts.
For my upcoming ERW Series book on John Adams in the Revolution, Atlas of Independence, I included an appendix that highlights a number of Adams-related sites in his hometown of Quincy: his birthplace; the home he first lived in with Abigail; his later-in-life home, Peacefield; the “Church of the Presidents,” which includes his crypt; and several other cool spots.
One of the places I direct people is to Merrymount Park, which features two monuments to Adams and members of his family. The newer of the two consists of a statue of John that stands across a small plaza from a dual statue of Abigail and a young John Quincy. The distance symbolizes the distance between John and his family for much of his public life.
Sculptor Lloyd Lillie created the Abigail and John Quincy statues first, in 1997. They stood together in downtown Quincy along Hancock Street. John was installed across from them in 2001, separated by traffic. When the city redesigned downtown and created the new Hancock-Adams Commons in 2022, the statues were relocated to Merrymount Park to join an older monument already standing there.
That older monument was a little harder to investigate.
The monument itself is made from Quincy granite, a longtime staple of the local economy. A bas relief bronze tablet mounted on the granite shows John and an adult John Quincy—both as presidents—seated together for an imagined conversation with each other. An inscription reads: “Father and Son, Second and Sixth Presidents of the Nation, Statesmen, Diplomats, Patriots, and Builders of our great Republic, they labored in the vanguard of human democracy on this soil.”
Beyond that, I knew the memorial had once been moved to the site where the John and John Quincy birthplaces stand along Franklin Street, but I didn’t know when and I didn’t know when the monument came back to Merrymount. I couldn’t even find the year of the monument’s dedication or the name of the sculptor. The internet didn’t seem to know these things, and none of my reference materials referenced them.
And so it was that I reached out to the Quincy Historical Society to see if they might have anything in their archives that could help me out.
Archivist Mikayla Martin went above and beyond to assist, sending me a neat little bonanza of stuff! Since she sent me more material than I had room for in the book, I thought I’d take the opportunity to share my windfall here so that you, too, could benefit from the Quincy Historical Society’s kindness.
The memorial, as it turned out, was dedicated in 1927. The chief of staff of the United States Army at the time, Maj. Gen. Charles P. Summerall, served as master of ceremonies for the event, according to a clipping from the Patriot Ledger the historical society sent me:
Photographer Warren S. Parker captured this image of the Adams Memorial on April 18, 1929. (courtesy of the Quincy Historical Society)
The Patriot Ledger hailed the memorial’s sculptor, Bruce Wilder Saville, as “One of Quincy’s most distinguished native sons.” Saville was best known in town for another of his works, the WWI “Doughboy” Memorial that stood in front of the Coddington School. The Quincy Historical Society included Saville’s obituary from the Patriot Ledger, which I’ll reproduce below, along with a photo of the Doughboy Memorial that the society sent me.
Another newspaper clipping revealed that the $5,000 memorial was a gift to the city of Quincy from the U.S. government. In 1961, city leaders voted to move the monument to the Adams birthplaces, but when the NPS took over management of the site 1979, the city returned the monument to Merrymount Park. I’ll reproduce a newspaper article related to that, as well (see below).
Every monument and memorial has a story of its own, and I find those stories fascinating. They can tell us a lot about the people they honor as well as the people who are doing the honoring.
Please consider supporting your own local historical society (and, if you’re so inclined, please consider supporting the Quincy Historical Society while you’re at it). Organizations like this provide invaluable services to researchers everywhere, but more importantly, they carry the torch for the history in your own back yard.
Emerging Revolutionary War welcomes back guest historian Evan Portman
By the time Ralph Waldo Emerson immortalized the “shot heard round the world” in his 1836 “Concord Hymn”, the battles of Lexington and Concord had already achieved fame as the first engagement of the Revolutionary War. However, in the early twentieth century one West Virginia historian began to argue that the true “shot heard round the world” had occurred six months earlier on October 10, 1774, at the battle of Point Pleasant.
The battle was the culmination of Lord Dunmore’s War, a five-month campaign against the Shawnee and Mingo tribes in an effort to quell the violence along the Ohio frontier.[1] Virginia settlers had begun moving into the Ohio Country following the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, in which the Iroquois Confederacy ceded the territories of present-day Kentucky and West Virginia to the Colony of Virginia. However, the Shawnee had not been consulted regarding the treaty and claimed ancestral hunting rights to the region, responding with violent raids along the frontier to reclaim their land.[2] Virginia Colonial Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore sanctioned the colonial militia to wage a campaign against the Native Americans after white settlers began reacting violently, themselves.[3]
On the cold morning of December 9, 1775, a British force of redcoats marched out of their wooden stockade and advanced towards the rebel earthworks on the southern end of the Great Bridge. For days both sides were expecting an action, and now it was about to happen. Royal Governor Dunmore, believing that Patriot cannon from North Carolina were on their way to drive the British from Great Bridge, sent Captain Samuel Leslie with 120 men of the 14th Regiment of Foot to drive the Patriots out with a straight frontal assault.
Leading the attack were about 60 grenadiers of the 14th Regiment of Foot under the command of Captain Charles Fordyce. Behind them were some other British regulars, some Loyalist militia and some of Royal Governor Dunmore’s Ethiopian Regiment. Across the Great Bridge was a long causeway with swamp on either side. Any attack by the British would be across this this causeway with no other way to maneuver. At the southern end of the causeway were Patriot earthworks manned by Col. William Woodford’s 2nd Virginia Regiment. To their left were positioned some riflemen of the Culpeper Minute Men. Out on the causeway were some Patriot pickets, including the free African American Billy Flora.
As the British advanced across the bridge, they began to engage the American pickets. The pickets after firing for a few minutes began to pull back into the main American lines. Fordyce and the grenadiers continued to push forward despite receiving fire from the pickets as well as the extremely accurate Culpeper riflemen.
With the American fire alerting everyone, American reinforcements advanced into the main American lines. Lieutenant Edward Travis of the 2nd Virginia had his men hold their fire until the British advanced to point blank range.
The British grenadiers, marching forward six men abreast, hoped to rush the American position at the point of the bayonet. When they were just 50 yards from the American line, the 2nd Virginians aimed at the British soldiers and poured a heavy fire into them. Now the grenadiers were being hit from the flank by the American riflemen as well as from the front by the muskets of the 2nd Virginia. The fire was galling. Fordyce removed his hat and waved it enjoining his men to follow him into the American works. Fifteen paces from the American lines, Fordyce fell at the head of the column with 14 musket balls in his body.
Colonel Woodford remembered that “perhaps a hotter fire never happened or a greater carnage.” The British continued to engage for a little, but as more Patriot troops filled the American earthworks, and as the British sustained heavy fire the from the front and the right, they decided to pull back across the Great Bridge. They left behind a grisly scene, as the British suffered 17 men killed and 44 wounded or captured, about 50% of the attacking force. The Americans only had one man wounded in the hand.
The day had been an important Patriot victory. Dunmore was forced to cede the ground. William Woodford wrote to Patrick Henry that “the victory was complete . . . This was a second Bunker’s Hill affair, in miniature, with this difference, that we kept our post and had only one man wounded in the hand.”
To learn more about this significant, though often overlooked battle of the Revolutionary War, be sure to visit our Facebook page today, as historians from Emerging Revolutionary War will be filming videos in real time from the battlefield. Also, check out our Rev War Revelry with historian Patrick Hannum where we discuss in more depth the battle.
On the first Thursday of December, the unofficial kick-off to the holiday season takes place in Baltimore, Maryland. This year, on December 4, was the 54th year of the celebration. The 178-foot-tall George Washington Monument, the construction of which started on July 4, 1815, and was completed in 1829, is graced with lights and fireworks that light up the city sky about the figure of Washington.
On both sides of the Washington Monument stand two equestrian statues grace the grounds. One is of a local American Revolutionary War hero, John Eager Howard, born in Baltimore County in 1752. On the other side is honorary American, the Honorable Marquis de Lafayette.
If you peer to the left of the Howard equestrian statue photo, you see the spire of a Victorian Gothic church. Built in 1872, the church stands on the location of the Howard residence. On January 11, 1843, Francis Scott Key died there, at the age of 63.
If you celebrate, Emerging Revolutionary War hopes your holiday season kicks off grandly as well. If I may, if looking for a gift for that history enthusiast, check out the Emerging Revolutionary War storehere. Or the Emerging Revolutionary War Series, here.
It has taken us awhile, but after a few years of our followers and tour goers asking for the ability to purchase ERW merchandise, we have finally created a store via Cafe Press. You will find a few clothing options along with hats, bumper magnets and it wouldn’t be an ERW store without a pint glass.
It is nothing fancy, but wanted to give everyone the ability to purchase some ERW bling and we appreciate the support as you wearing our logo is the best marketing we can hope for! We have tried to keep the prices low and all proceeds go to support our operations (website and podcast support etc..).
Emerging Revolutionary War Era 