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Books > Humanities > History > American history > 1500 to 1800
In the summer of 1781, during the seventh year of the Revolutionary
War, the allied American and French armies of Generals Washington
and Rochambeau were encamped at Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, Hartsdale,
Edgemont and White Plains. Washington chose lower Westchester for
encampment because of its proximity to the British forces which
controlled Manhattan, and which Washington intended to attack.On
August 14 Washington and Rochambeau received a communication from
French Admiral de Grasse, who suggested a joint sea and land
campaign against General Cornwallis's British troops in Virginia.
Washington risked all on this march. Its success depended on
precise timing and coordination of multiple naval and land
movements including those of Generals Washington, Rochambeau and
Lafayette, and of French Admirals de Grasse and Barras. Success
also required the utmost secrecy, and an elaborate deception was
prepared by Washington in order to convince the British that
Manhattan remained the target of the allied armies. Two months
later, at Yorktown, Virginia, Cornwallis surrendered his entire
army to the American and French forces.
During the critical Battle of Oriskany in August 1777, Continental
forces led by General Nicholas Herkimer defeated the British army
under St. Leger in the heart of New York's Mohawk Valley. It was a
hard-won victory, but he and his brave troops prevented the British
from splitting the colonies in two. Although they did not succeed
in relieving the British siege of Fort Stanwix, Herkimer's
citizen-soldiers turned back the British and protected Washington's
northern flank from attack. The Continental army survived to fight
the decisive Battle of Saratoga the next month. Herkimer was
mortally wounded, but his heroism and leadership firmly placed him
in the pantheon of Revolutionary War heroes. Paul Boehlert presents
a gripping account of the events before, during and after this
critical battle.
Marion is proverbially the great master of strategy?the wily fox of
the swamps?never to be caught, never to be followed, ?yet always at
hand, with unconjectured promptness, at the moment when he is least
feared and is least to be expected. South Carolina's ?Swamp Fox, ?
Francis Marion, is one of the most celebrated figures of the
American Revolution. Marion's cunning exploits in the Southern
theater of the Revolution earned him national renown and a place in
history as an American hero and master of modern guerilla warfare.
Although dozens of works have been written about Marion's life over
the years, this biography -- written by William Gilmore Simms,
South Carolina's greatest author -- remains the best. First
published in 1844, The Life of Francis Marion was Simms's most
commercially successful work of nonfiction. It offers a treatment
of Marion's life that is unparalleled in its scope and accuracy,
all in Simms's inimitable style.
Jamie and Todd are horrified to learn that the grand plan, which
they thought had been defeated, might be about to be implemented in
1775, America. Hector and Catherine have to go back in time and
thwart Travis - an agent of the grand plan - who is hell bent on
world domination. Jamie and Todd go with Hector and Catherine on a
mission to 1775, to prevent a super gun from being used in the
battle of bunker hill, during the American war of independence, but
they have only days to stop history from being altered.
Glenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great
Reset, revisits Thomas Paine's Common Sense. In any era, great
Americans inspire us to reach our full potential. They know with
conviction what they believe within themselves. They understand
that all actions have consequences. And they find commonsense
solutions to the nation's problems. One such American, Thomas
Paine, was an ordinary man who changed the course of history by
penning Common Sense, the concise 1776 masterpiece in which,
through extraordinarily straightforward and indisputable arguments,
he encouraged his fellow citizens to take control of America's
future-and, ultimately, her freedom. Nearly two and a half
centuries later, those very freedoms once again hang in the
balance. And now, Glenn Beck revisits Paine's powerful treatise
with one purpose: to galvanize Americans to see past government's
easy solutions, two-party monopoly, and illogical methods and take
back our great country.
In late 1775, a few months after the first shots of the Revolution
were fired, Benedict Arnold led over 1,000 troops into Quebec to
attack the British there. Departing from Massachusetts, by the time
they reached Pittston, Maine, they were in desperate need of
supplies and equipment to carry them the rest of the way. Many
patriotic Mainers contributed, including Major Reuben Colburn, who
constructed a flotilla of bateaux for the weary troops. Despite his
service in the Continental Army, many blamed Colburn when several
of the vessels did not withstand the harsh journey. In this
narrative, the roles played by Colburn and his fellow Mainers in
Arnold's march are re-examined and revealed.
Michael Stephenson's "Patriot Battles" is a comprehensive and
richly detailed study of the military aspects of the War of
Independence, and a fascinating look at the nuts and bolts of
eighteenth-century combat. Covering everything from what motivated
those who chose to fight to how they were enlisted, trained,
clothed, and fed, it offers a close-up view of the war's greatest
battles, with maps provided for each. Along the way many cherished
myths are challenged, reputations are reassessed, and long-held
assumptions are tested.
One of the most satisfying and illuminating contributions to
the literature on the War of Independence in many years, "Patriot
Battles" is a vastly entertaining work of superior scholarship and
a refreshing wind blowing through some of American history's
dustier corridors.
Relying principally on Ian Saberton's edition of The Cornwallis
Papers: The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Theatre of
the American Revolutionary War, 6 vols (Uckfield: The Naval &
Military Press Ltd, 2010), this work opens with an essay containing
a groundbreaking critique of British strategy during the momentous
and decisive campaigns that terminated in Cornwallis's capitulation
at Yorktown and the consolidation of American independence. The
essay begins by analysing the critical mistakes that led the
British to disaster and ends, conversely by describing how they
might have achieved a lasting measure of success. The remaining
essays address certain characters and events in or connected to the
war.
Relying principally on Ian Saberton's edition of The Cornwallis
Papers: The Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 in the Southern Theatre of
the American Revolutionary War, 6 vols (Uckfield UK: The Naval
& Military Press Ltd, 2010), this work opens with an essay
containing a groundbreaking critique of Cornwallis's decision in
1781 to march from Wilmington, North Carolina, into Virginia, a
decision that was critical in a series of events that cost Britain
the southern colonies and lost it the entire war. Together, this
and the remaining essays comprise a comprehensive re-evaluation of
the momentous and decisive campaigns that terminated in
Cornwallis's capitulation at Yorktown and the consolidation of
American independence.
Jeffry H. Morrison offers readers the first comprehensive look at
the political thought and career of John Witherspoon - a Scottish
Presbyterian minister and one of America's most influential and
overlooked founding fathers. Witherspoon was an active member of
the Continental Congress and was the only clergyman both to sign
the Declaration of Independence and to ratify the federal
Constitution. During his tenure as president of the College of New
Jersey at Princeton, Witherspoon became a mentor to James Madison
and influenced many leaders and thinkers of the founding period. He
was uniquely positioned at the crossroads of politics, religion,
and education during the crucial first decades of the new republic.
Morrison locates Witherspoon in the context of early American
political thought and charts the various influences on his
thinking. This impressive work of scholarship offers a broad
treatment of Witherspoon's constitutionalism, including his
contributions to the mediating institutions of religion and
education, and to political institutions from the colonial through
the early federal periods. This book will be appreciated by anyone
with an interest in American political history and thought and in
the relation of religion to American politics.
When Puritans Edward Whalley and William Goffe joined the
parliamentary army against King Charles I in the English civil
wars, they seized an opportunity to overthrow a tyrant. Under their
battlefield leadership, the army trounced the Royalist forces and
then cut off the king's head. Yet when his son, Charles II,
regained the throne, Whalley and Goffe were force to flee to the
New England colonies aboard the ship Prudent Mary--never to see
their families or England again. Even with the help of New
England's Puritan elite, including Reverend John Davenport, they
struggled to stay a step ahead of searches for their arrest in
Boston, New Haven (where they hid out in Judges Cave) and the
outpost of Hadley, Massachusetts. Forced to live as fugitives,
these former major generals survived frontier adventures in
seventeenth-century New England. Author Christopher Pagliuco
reveals the all-but-forgotten stories of these Connecticut heroes.
The first major work on this enigmatic British general for more
than 40 years, William Howe and the American War of Independence
offers fascinating new insights into his performance during the
revolution in America. From 1775 to 1777, Howe commanded the
largest expeditionary force Britain had ever amassed, confronting
the rebel army under George Washington and enjoying a string of
victories. However, his period in command ended in confusion,
bitterness and a parliamentary inquiry, because he proved unable to
crush the rebellion. Exactly what went wrong has puzzled historians
for more than 200 years. For most Howe has been relegated to the
role of a bit player, but, with the help of new evidence, this book
looks afresh at his army, his relationships with key military and
political figures and his own personal qualities. The result is a
compelling reassessment of a forgotten general that offers a new
perspective on a man who won his battles, but could not win his
war.
In the late summer and fall of 1777, after two years of indecisive
fighting on both sides, the outcome of the American War of
Independence hung in the balance. Having successfully expelled the
Americans from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end
the rebellion the following year and devised what they believed a
war-winning strategy, sending General John Burgoyne south to rout
the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort
Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it looked as if
it was a matter of time before they would break the rebellion in
the North. Less than three and a half months later, however, a
combination of the Continental Army and Militia forces, commanded
by Major General Horatio Gates and inspired by the heroics of
Benedict Arnold, forced Burgoyne to surrender his entire army. The
American victory stunned the world and changed the course of the
war. Kevin J. Weddle offers the most authoritative history of the
Battle of Saratoga to date, explaining with verve and clarity why
events unfolded the way they did. In the end, British plans were
undone by a combination of distance, geography, logistics, and an
underestimation of American leadership and fighting ability. Taking
Ticonderoga had misled Burgoyne and his army into thinking victory
was assured. Saratoga, which began as a British foraging
expedition, turned into a rout. The outcome forced the British to
rethink their strategy, inflamed public opinion in England against
the war, boosted Patriot morale, and, perhaps most critical of all,
led directly to the Franco-American alliance. Weddle unravels the
web of contingencies and the play of personalities that ultimately
led to what one American general called "the Compleat Victory."
This book describes the everyday lives of people during the
American Revolution as they adapted to the political and military
conflicts of the time. Students studying the American Revolutionary
War learn primarily about battles and how independence from the
British was achieved. In Voices of Revolutionary America:
Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life, readers get the largely untold
story of the American Revolution: the ongoing issues and details of
life in the background, behind the battles. This book surveys the
entirety of the Revolutionary era, describing topics like marriage,
childbirth, learning a trade, cost of living, slavery, and religion
in the late 18th century. While some documents from the 1760s and
early 1770s are provided to present general information about life,
the book focuses on the years of the war from 1775 to 1783 and
describes how the prolonged conflict impacted people's day-to-day
lives. Includes original documents showing the impact of war on
daily life, such as a series of letter exchanges between John and
Abigail Adams showing how Abigail ran the family farm while John
was serving in the Continental Congress Provides a chronology of
events in American history during the Revolutionary Era Supplies a
bibliography of important books, websites, and films related to the
Revolution and its impact on Americans Contains a helpful glossary
of terms
The seven-volume edition contains about 500 constitutional texts,
constitutional amendments, failed constitutions and draft
constitutions from the United States, all in their original
languages and alphabetically ordered. The texts, including some
rare original versions, have been edited and annotated on the basis
of the printed official state documents and conventions, consulting
the original manuscripts. The constitutional documents from South
Carolina to Texas are published in volume VI and the constitutional
documents from Vermont to Wisconsin are published in volume VII.
Young Continental soldiers carried a heavy burden in the
American Revolution. Their experiences of coming of age during the
upheavals of war provide a novel perspective on the Revolutionary
era, eliciting questions of gender, family life, economic goals,
and politics. "Going for a soldier" forced young men to confront
profound uncertainty, and even coercion, but also offered them
novel opportunities. Although the war imposed obligations on
youths, military service promised young men in their teens and
early twenties alternate paths forward in life. Continental
soldiers' own youthful expectations about respectable manhood and
their goals of an economic competence and marriage not only ordered
their experience of military service; they also shaped the fighting
capacities of George Washington's army and the course of the
war.
"Becoming Men of Some Consequence" examines how young soldiers
and officers joined the army, their experiences in the ranks, their
relationships with civilians, their choices about quitting
long-term military service, and their attempts to rejoin the flow
of civilian life after the war. The book recovers young soldiers'
perspectives and stories from military records, wartime letters and
journals, and postwar memoirs and pension applications, revealing
how revolutionary political ideology intertwined with rational
calculations and youthful ambitions. Its focus on soldiers as young
men offers a new understanding of the Revolutionary War, showing
how these soldiers' generational struggle for their own
independence was a profound force within America's struggle for
"its" independence.
Focuses on the military, political, diplomatic, and economic
aspects of the War or Revolution - allowing the reader to grasp the
complex web of interactions that occurred at different times
throughout the war. This is a key topic in American history and on
American history courses. Other books don't focus so clearly on the
military aspects, in totality from a practical viewpoint.
Showcasing French participation in the Seven Years' War and the
American Revolution, this book shows the French army at the heart
of revolutionary, social, and cultural change. Osman argues that
efforts to transform the French army into a citizen army before
1789 prompted and helped shape the French Revolution.
* Includes new maps and an expanded treatment of the War of 1812,
allowing students to grasp further dimensions of the conflict and
the emergence of the United States. * Broad scope and
interdisciplinary approach fully contextualize the Revolution,
giving readers a comprehensive view of the era. * Fourth edition
has been fully revised and updated to incorporate the insights of
the latest scholarship throughout.
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