Jefferson: The Man Who Moved Mountains

On June 10, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Revolutionary War1 Comment

He leveled the top of the mountain with gunpowder.

He began the project in 1768, when he was twenty-five. He had his slaves literally sheer off the tip of the mountaintop, peeling away soil rich in iron and clay, revealing bedrock of a local variety known as Catoctin greenstone.

On the flattened plane, he built his dream home. Over the next fifty-eight years, Thomas Jefferson would significantly remodel the house twice more as his personal tastes evolved. The house has a splash of Cavalier Virginia to it, but it also has touches of the classical and the continental.

Jefferson called it “my essay in architecture.” He named his “essay” Monticello. Continue reading “Jefferson: The Man Who Moved Mountains” →

James Monroe at War

On June 3, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Emerging Civil War, Revolutionary War2 Comments

Part Two

With an excess of officers in the Continental Army and little prospect of getting a field command, James Monroe resigned his commission in 1779. He became a Lieutenant-Colonel of Virginia forces, but was unable to recruit enough men to form a new regiment. In 1780 he went to North Carolina as a military observer for Governor Thomas Jefferson, with whom he had begun the study of law. Continue reading “James Monroe at War” →

James Monroe at War

On June 3, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Emerging Civil War, Revolutionary War5 Comments

Part One

Emerging Revolutionary War is honored to welcome guest historian Scott H. Harris, Director of the James Monroe Museum.

It is one of the great exploits of the American Revolution. On the night of December 25, 1776, General George Washington led the Continental Army across the icy Delaware River to attack a Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey. Young Lieutenant James Monroe held the flag behind Washington as they were rowed across the freezing river (standing up).

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware. Oil on canvas, 1851. Only two figures in this fictitious image are identified—General George Washington and Lieutenant James Monroe (holding flag).

Except, that’s not what happened.

Continue reading “James Monroe at War” →

Inspired By the Americans

On May 13, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Emerging Civil War, Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

On December 16, 1773, in Boston, Massachusetts harbor, American colonists belonging to the Sons of Liberty stole aboard trade vessels anchored in the water. In protest to recently passed British legislation, the Native American dressed Sons of Liberty dumped 342 chests of tea into the water.

The Boston Tea Party became a prominent and well-known defiant act by the Americans on the road to the American Revolution.

Unbeknownst to the Adams, Warrens, and Hancock’s of the American Revolution, this particular form of protest–attacking the purse strings of the governing power–would resonate 75 years later, 3,284 miles, and one continent away. Continue reading “Inspired By the Americans” →

Jefferson: America’s Great Contradiction

On May 6, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Revolutionary War7 Comments

The first in a four-part series

I sit on a small wooden bench, little more than a plank with legs, really, beneath a tulip poplar whose wide branches umbrella me. The grass around the bench has been worn away by weary travelers come to the bench to rest, revealing the reddish iron-rich soil of Virginia beneath.

A few yards away from me, Thomas Jefferson rests in peace.

A slow stream of visitors comes down the brick walkway from Jefferson’s house to stand outside the black, wrought-iron fence that surrounds his family’s small graveyard, still in use today by descendents. Many visitors have thrown coins onto the president’s grave—not just the Jefferson-faced nickels you’d expect, either, but pennies, dimes, and quarters, too. Considering the rift between Washington and Jefferson in Washington’s last years, I wonder what Jefferson would think about that. Continue reading “Jefferson: America’s Great Contradiction” →

Battle of Blandford

On April 29, 2015June 19, 2024 By Phill GreenwaltIn Emerging Civil War, Revolutionary War4 Comments

On April 25, approximately 2,500 smartly dressed but campaign worn uniformed invaders attacked Virginians defending their homes and hearths around Petersburg, Virginia.

One would suspect that the next few sentences would talk about the latest Union excursion against their Southern counterparts in the nine month siege that broke the back of the Confederacy.

However, one would be wrong. Continue reading “Battle of Blandford” →

Shots Heard Round the World

On April 22, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

A quote from poet Ralph Waldo Emerson at the North Bridge in Concord. — A quote from poet Ralph Waldo Emerson at the North Bridge in Concord: “The thunderbolt falls on an inch of ground; but the light of it fills the horizon.”

This past weekend marked the 240th anniversary of “the Shot Heard ‘Round the World”—the opening engagement, in Concord, Massachusetts, of what became the American Revolution. There at the North Bridge, on April 19, 1775, colonial militiamen fired on British soldiers who’d marched from Boston to seize an arsenal of weapons cached in the town. Earlier in the day, the British soldiers had gunned down colonial militamen in the nearby town of Lexington—but this time, when they opened fire on the colonists (killing two of them), the colonists fired back. Two British soldiers died, and a third was mortally wounded.

Writer Ralph Waldo Emerson called it “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

The last time I visited Concord’s North Bridge was August 6, 2010. As it happened, the date marked the anniversary of another shot heard ’round the world…one certainly as impactful and probably more infamous:  Continue reading “Shots Heard Round the World” →

Ready in a Minute

On April 19, 2015 By Phill GreenwaltIn Photography, Revolutionary War1 Comment

Remember Concord, Massachusetts—April 19, 1775
“The shot heard ’round the world”

240th Anniversary of the “Shot Heard Around the World”

On April 19, 2015 By Rob OrrisonIn Battlefields & Historic Places, Revolutionary WarLeave a comment

As we remember the events around Bennett Place this weekend, keep in mind our friends near Boston are commemorating another important anniversary. Today marks the 240th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord. To read more about the events taking place at Minuteman National Park, the Lexington Historical Society and the Concord Historical Society our friend J.L. Bell’s “Boston 1775” blog is an excellent resource. You may visit his blog by following the link: http://boston1775.blogspot.com/

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read our Rev War Wednesday posts. We hope shedding light on the events during the American Revolution gives more perspective to the events leading up to the American Civil War.

“A Negro Man”: Prince Estabrook of Lexington

On April 15, 2015 By Rob OrrisonIn Emerging Civil War, Revolutionary War3 Comments

As the British under Lt. Col. Francis Smith marched out of Lexington on the morning of April 19^th, they left behind them 18 American casualties. One of these men who suffered wounds that morning was Prince Estabrook. Estabrook was unlike the others who lined up that morning on the Lexington Green, Estabrook was an enslaved African American.

Prince Estabrook Service Record for June 1775

Born in the 1740’s and owned by Benjamin Estabrook there is little information on Prince’s life and family. Benjamin Estabrook operated a grist mill near Lexington and maintained a decent sized farm. Benjamin served in various positions in Lexington including coroner, justice of the peace and Selectman. He inherited Prince from his father and both men were near the same age. Prince enlisted in the Lexington militia in 1773 and his owner had to grant him the ability to do so. Continue reading ““A Negro Man”: Prince Estabrook of Lexington” →