Let’s Review
By Categories: Ten Crucial Days

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

Dear Reader:

If you’ve read, or are reading, my latest book, Winning the Ten Crucial Days: The Keys to Victory in George Washington’s Legendary Winter Campaign (Brookline Books, 2025), I thank you for diving into those pages. I hope you’ve found it informative, engaging, and thought-provoking, and perhaps even (as Richard J. Kane, Chairman of the Swan Historical Foundation, put it) “an important, insightful, and distinctive companion to the many narratives available on this campaign.”

Your feedback is very important to me, because frankly I believe it’s the best gauge I have of whether it makes sense for me to continue pounding the keyboard in the manner I’ve been doing for the last several years. So if you have a moment, I’d love to hear your thoughts, either by emailing me at dpauthor64@gmail.com or, better yet, sharing your comments with fellow history enthusiasts on the book’s Amazon page. In the latter case, a brief review will help other readers discover this unorthodox account of one of the most storied military enterprises the world has ever known and keep the conversation going. I would truly appreciate it!

Thank you for your consideration, and here’s hoping you have a wonderful summer.

Oh yeah, enjoy our 249th Independence Day.

Best regards,

dp

P.S. My thanks to Jennifer Martin, Executive Director of the Friends of Washington Crossing Park, who provided the inspiration for this post in a recent email. In case you’re interested, I’ve included an excerpt on my Contact page.

 

82. An Uphill Struggle for Great Britain
By Categories: British Soldiery

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

The image displayed above is a work by Richard Purcell, entitled The Honorable Sir William Howe from 1777 (Anne S. K. Brown Military History Collection, Brown University Library), which shows His Lordship wearing the Order of the Bath awarded for his victory at the battle of Long Island (otherwise known as the battle of Brooklyn) on August 27, 1776. Although he was clearly an able and personally courageous officer, Howe exhibited an unimaginative and cautious leadership style as commander of the British army in America from 1775 to 1778. He failed to deliver a knockout blow against the rebel army in 1776 and allowed Washington an opportunity to strike at the Hessian contingent in Trenton, the most vulnerable in a chain of overextended outposts in which Howe deployed his troops for the winter of 1776-77. Sir William would be subjected to intense criticism that led him to call for a parliamentary committee of inquiry so as to vindicate his conduct in America, but the committee adjourned without reaching a conclusion.

The cautious tactics pursued by Howe may have very well stemmed, at least in part, from his experience at the battle of Bunker Hill or (actually) Breed’s Hill on June 17, 1775—250 years ago next week. And that, in turn, may have significantly impacted whatever hopes the British had of scoring a quick knockout blow against the Revolutionary enterprise in 1776, which was arguably their best chance to win the war.

The preservation of his army against what Howe perceived as an unnecessary hazard seems to have been paramount in his thinking and that logic was based, at least in part, on very painful personal experience. This was perhaps the psychological residue of his having been present at the bloodbath sustained by the crown’s soldiers at Breed’s Hill, for we know that Howe was horrified by what he saw there. His side carried the field but suffered more than a thousand casualties—some 40 percent of the British force—and all 12 of his aides were shot around him, only one of whom survived. In his understandably despondent reflection on “this unhappy day,” a distressed Howe wrote, “when I look to the consequences of it, in the loss of so many brave officers, I do it with horror. The success is too dearly bought.” He later explained his failure to launch a frontal assault on the American fortifications at Brooklyn Heights immediately following the battle at Long Island by asserting the logic of a more risk-averse plan of action: a siege that would accomplish the same purpose but with far fewer casualties. As he put it, “the lines must have been ours at a cheap rate by regular approaches.” Whatever his motivation, this go-slow approach gave the Patriot troops the opportunity they desperately needed to evacuate Brooklyn Heights two nights after the battle and escape across the East River to the safety (albeit temporary) of Manhattan Island.

Whether because of his memory of Breed’s Hill or a desire to defeat the rebels with as little bloodshed as possible so as to bring about a relatively harmonious reconciliation between the two sides, Howe, throughout the New York campaign, eschewed the kind of scorched-earth policy—a concerted effort to destroy Washington’s army and lay waste to the Manhattan and Westchester countryside—that may have been required to crush the rebellion. And by doing so, he passed up an opportunity to shatter the confidence of the insurgents and thereby undermine their resolution to continue resisting the invaders. With the notable exception of the battle of White Plains on October 28, 1776, Howe continued his policy of avoiding frontal assaults and instead relying on flanking movements against the Americans, as he had done at Long Island and would repeat at the battle of Brandywine Creek on September 11, 1777. On both occasions, he achieved a tactical victory but failed in his objective of crushing Washington’s force. These were probably the two biggest engagements of the war in terms of the number of troops involved, and in both cases Howe’s foe eluded the Briton’s desire for a victory that would eliminate the opposing army as an effective fighting force and thereby quash the rebellion. In short, his failure presaged Britain’s ultimate debacle in this struggle. And Howe.

The content of this post is, in part, adapted from my new book, Winning the Ten Crucial Days.

And speaking of which, here’s the latest review to come in:

“David Price joins the ranks of recent scholars contributing to the study of the battles of Trenton and Princeton. In examining the keys to Washington’s winter victories, Price goes beyond a standard campaign narrative. His focus is instead thematic, exploring how five factors— leadership, geography, weather, artillery, and contingency—all influenced the campaign. This new approach is well worth the read.”
—JOHN R. MAASS, Ph.D., historian with the National Museum of the United States Army and author of From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the Revolutionary War

81. Lemuel Haynes
By Categories: Blacks in the Revolution

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

For those interested, I wanted to provide a link to an article of mine, which was just published in the Journal of the American Revolution, about Lemuel Haynes (1753-1833, pictured above), a Continental Army soldier who became the first Black minister ordained by a mainstream Protestant denomination. In the context of the Revolution, he is best known for his 1776 essay that argued for abolishing slavery—”Liberty Further Extended: Or Free Thoughts on the Illegality of Slave-keeping”—and which served as a source of inspiration to not only abolitionists but women’s rights advocates as well. Among the honors accorded Haynes was an honorary Master of Arts degree from Middlebury College at its second commencement in 1804, making him the first African American to receive an honorary degree. In 1975, the last home in which he lived—in South Granville, NY—was designated a National Historic Landmark.

You can read more here.

 

Miscellanea
By Categories: General

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

FYI, here’s a tidbit about the challenges facing one Rev War site—the Bennington Battle Monument in Vermont—that arrived in an email courtesy of John Maass, historian at the National Museum of the U.S. Army: take a look if you’re interested. John also passed along a link to a Smithsonian Magazine article about the early stages of the American rebellion in the South, which can be viewed here.

On June 19, the National Museum of the U.S. Army will host an author talk with historian Gary Ecelbarger about his new book, George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution. The event starts at 7 PM ET, and is free.
The direct Zoom link is: https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1611147630

Here’s a link to information about a conference on September 14-16 in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Jack Miller Center — “The American Revolution and Its Legacies from 1776 to Today.”

I’d like anyone who’s thinking about buying my new book—Winning the Tern Crucial Days—to know that, although it’s available wherever books are sold, if you’d like a signed copy AND want to support one of the most hallowed historic sites in North America, you can do so online through the gift shop at Washington Crossing Historic Park here (and nowhere else). FWIW, I’ll be speaking about the book as part of the park’s July 4 event — at 2 and again at 4 pm in the Visitor Center auditorium.

For your consideration  .  .  .

I’m always appreciative (as well I should be) when someone compliments me on one of my books; however, I would like to make a humble but earnest appeal to readers of that persuasion to share your sentiments with others online. In particular, for anyone who may be favorably impressed by the new book (or, as we say at Washington Crossing, if it floats your boat), I hope you’ll consider leaving a brief comment on Amazon—even just a sentence or two—BUT only if you honestly believe it deserves 5 stars. Quite frankly, those reviews are the mother’s milk of recognition for non-brand-name authors, so that would be very much appreciated—and many thanks in advance.

Please note: These remarks are not directed at the several readers who have graciously offered endorsement quotes for the book that are posted on this website, as well as by Brookline Books and Amazon. I am very grateful for your support!!

And Finally  .  .  .

Memorial Day being close at hand, I’ll leave you with this snippet from Thomas Paine:

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must … undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” (The American Crisis IV, September 12, 1777)

 

80. The Letter That Started a War
By Categories: British Soldiery

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

You may have never heard of Discover Magazine magazine, and neither had I until very recently; however, this article made its way into the spring issue and I thought you might enjoy it. (My marching orders were to limit this to two pages, but hopefully brevity is not its only virtue.)

This piece actually ensued from something I wrote for the Journal of the American Revolution (JAR) in response to a question posed to contributors by the editors: What is the most underrated event that occurred in 1775, and why should it get more attention? My response apparently piqued the interest of the magazine’s co-publisher and co-founder, Cynthia Baudendistel—so my thanks to JAR.

And BTW, you can check out the magazine’s Battle Road Official Commemorative book, Discover the Battle Road, here.

For anyone who may have been thinking about purchasing my newest hardcover creation, here are the latest reviews to come in:

“I found Winning the Ten Crucial Days to be a fascinating and insightful new look at this critical period of history. The idea of leadership involving theatrical gestures is spot on. David Price’s treatment of Washington is fair and balanced with enlightening nuance—as with Joseph Reed and Edward Hand, both so important to this story, and John Cadwalader and Henry Knox. Price’s emphasis on the complexity of all the factors is well taken, luck included. It brought to mind the old dictum, ‘Armchair generals talk about battles, real generals talk about logistics.’ Things like geography, weather, supplies, etc. often make the difference.”
— JACK KELLY, author of God Save Benedict Arnold, Band of Giants, and other books on the Revolutionary War and early America  

And from the other side of the pond  .  .  .

“This book offers an interesting approach to analysing Washington’s winter campaign that will best be appreciated by readers who already have some familiarity with the battles from more conventional military histories.… Contains much useful information and is well worth reading.”
— MINIATURE WARGAMES magazine, published in Great Britain since 1983

And speaking of the other side of the pond  .  .  .

At the initiative of Aaron Callan, Editor of The Bann Disc (since 1994 the annually published journal of the Coleraine Historical Society in Northern Ireland), I’ve conjured up a draft of an article about John Haslet and the Delaware Continental Regiment of 1776 for a special edition of that periodical. (Haslet grew up in the area.) This edition, to be released next year, will commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence and the historical connection between Ulster and the American Revolution. (BTW, the Bann disc is an Iron Age bronze artifact discovered in the River Bann near Coleraine in 1939. Irish I could think of something clever to say about that—but obviously cannot. On the other hand, if the article was very long—which it’s not—you could say it has a lot of Bann width.)

Finally, for anyone interested in buying commemorative American Revolution stamps from the USPS, you’ll find more information about that here.

79. April 19
By Categories: British Soldiery

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

Well, it’s almost here—the 250th anniversary of the date that armed combat erupted in a significant way between British troops occupying Boston and the provincial militia, which triggered the longest war in American history prior to Vietnam. At that time, both sides probably shared the same expectant assumption that hostilities were unavoidable in the absence of any change in the mother country’s colonial policy or the attitude of Whig-minded insurrectionists among the body politic—and now, at last, the powder keg had exploded at Lexington and Concord. The wait was over.

In his diary, Frederick MacKenzie, the son of a Dublin merchant who arrived in Boston in 1774 as a lieutenant in the British army (and would be promoted to captain in the fall of 1775), recorded his firsthand observations about the events and dismal outcome of the ill-fated and bloody expedition by his redcoated countrymen, as ordered by General Thomas Gage, into the Massachusetts countryside on April 19, 1775 to secure military supplies gathered by the insurgents. Here are some excerpts from the lieutenant’s entries in the immediate aftermath of the opening clash:

April 19—During the whole of the march from Lexington [as the British withdrew to Boston after they had exchanged shots with the militia at Lexington and Concord], the rebels kept an incessant irregular fire from all points at the column, which was the more galling as our flanking parties, which at first were placed at sufficient distances to cover the march of it, were at last, from the different obstructions they occasionally met with, obliged to keep almost close to it. Our men had very few opportunities of getting good shots at the rebels, as they hardly ever fired but under cover of a stone wall, from behind a tree, or out of a house; and the moment they had fired, they lay down out of sight until they had loaded again or the column had passed…. Many houses were plundered by the soldiers, notwithstanding the efforts of the officers to prevent it. I have no doubt this inflamed the rebels, and made many of them follow us farther than they would otherwise have done.

April 20—It is conceived by many that the expedition to Concord for the destruction of the military stores, which it is said were deposited there in considerable quantities, might have been conducted with greater secrecy, and been effected without the loss which ensued and the consequences which must now inevitably follow….

There was a general muster of all the neighboring militia only the day before (whether by accident, or in consequence of the general’s intention is not certain, but most probably the latter) so that every man was in a state of preparation and equipment. This should have been known, because if their meeting was not on purpose to oppose the troops, there was hardly time for them to disperse and return to their several homes. I believe the fact is that General Gage was not only much deceived with respect to the quantity of military stores said to be collected at Concord but had no conception the rebels would have opposed the king’s troops in the manner they did. But the temper of the people, the preparations they had been making all the winter to oppose the troops should they move out of Boston with hostile intentions, and above all their declared resolution to do so made it evident to most persons that opposition would be made on any attempt to destroy stores and ammunition which they had avowedly collected for the defense of the province….

The troops [are] ordered to lay dressed in their barracks this night.

April 21—The town is now surrounded by armed rebels, who have intercepted all communication with the country.

This was the beginning of the American siege of Boston that would last almost a year and end only when His Majesty’s forces evacuated the city on March 17, 1776—never to return.

On another April 19—exactly eight years later—the pamphleteer Thomas Paine, author of America’s first bestselling publication Common Sense, released the last of his Crisis series, wherein he ruminated about the outcome of the American rebellion. He termed it “a revolution, which to the end of time, must be an honor to the age that accomplished it, and which has contributed more to enlighten the world, and diffuse a spirit of freedom and liberality among mankind, than any human event (if this may be called one) that ever preceded it.”

Sources:

“Frederick MacKenzie: Diary, April 18-21, 1775,” in The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, ed. John Rhodehamel (The Library of America, 2001), 5-18.

Thomas Paine, “The Last Crisis, Number XVIII,” April 19, 1783, in Thomas Paine, Collected Writings, ed. Eric Foner (The Library of America, 1955), 348-354.

78. So Unexpected A Book
By Categories: Ten Crucial Days

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

Hi All –

Allow me to introduce Jeffrey Evan Brooks and his new book, So Unexpected A Moment: A Novel of the Revolutionary War, which yours truly had the pleasure of assisting with in terms of reviewing and commenting on the manuscript. To be sure, I found its narrative to be at variance with my interpretive understanding on certain points, but, hey, it IS a novel and I enjoyed the read very much—so much so that I asked Jeff if he would agree to be interviewed for one of my blog posts. He has graciously consented to do so.

Jeff, tell us about your background and how and why you came to write this book.
I am a lifelong student and teacher of history. As a boy, I devoured every history book I could lay my hands on. My parents took me on wonderful road trips, visiting historical sites all across the country. Now that I’m an adult, I buy far too many history books to ever read. And my chosen vocation (I wouldn’t call it a “job”) is to teach American history to 8th graders. History is my life.
As to why I came to write this particular book, I have always found the story of the “Ten Crucial Days” irresistible. It’s simply so full of drama and great characters, with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance. It’s a historical event crying out to be turned into a good historical-fiction novel.

Give us a quick summary of the book’s contents.
The novel is a retelling of the Ten Crucial Days—the Delaware River crossing, the first Battle of Trenton, the critical decisions made by both sides immediately afterwards, the much-neglected Battle of Assunpink Creek (or second Trenton), and finally the Battle of Princeton. Everyone has seen the famous Leutze painting of the Delaware crossing, of course, but as I like to tell my students, the true story is infinitely richer and more dramatic than its depiction in art. There is no need to dramatize it, but what really happened is a more vivid and astonishing story than anything imagined by the best fictional novelist.
But it’s not just a dramatic military tale. The Revolutionary period was a time of new questions about human freedom. If America was going to be an independent nation, what kind of nation was it going to be? So as the protagonists struggle through their various adventures, they find themselves debating with themselves and with one another exactly what the war is really about.

How did the experience of writing this book compare with your previous book, which is an alternate history novel of the Civil War?
The first third of my first novel, Shattered Nation, was genuine historical fiction. It was only with the “point of divergence” that it became alternate history. This book, on the other hand, is straight-up historical fiction. So I did not have the freedom to imagine events unfolding in my own way. I thought this would make the novel easier to write, but I found it was actually much more difficult. I had to do much more intensive research.
And as far as primary source material, the Revolutionary War is not as rich a time period as the Civil War era.

What was most challenging for you in crafting this novel?
As with any historical fiction, there is the problem of accuracy. The needs of the novelist are different from the needs of the nonfiction writer. Sometimes, telling the story with perfect historical accuracy might actually leave the reader more confused than they otherwise would have been. I wanted to tell the true story of the Ten Crucial Days, but not to get so bogged down in details as to leave the reader frustrated and confused. So certain things have gone unmentioned or been simplified, but only in cases so minor as not to make any real difference.
Almost everything depicted is, as nearly as possible as we can determine, what really happened, or at least what could have happened. The adventures of John Mott are largely conjectural, as I needed a vantage point for the reader to see certain events, such as Edward’s Hand’s brilliant delaying action on January 2, 1777. The only point in the novel where I really allowed my imagination to run wild was the story of how Robert Morris obtained the money needed by Washington on December 30, 1776 to pay a bonus to those soldiers who agreed to remain with the army when their enlistments expired, but that story is so steeped in legend that I felt it a worthwhile indulgence.
I decided earlier on that, while the story obviously revolves around Washington, I was not going to use him as a perspective character. I’m not so arrogant as to think I could get inside that man’s head. So it was a challenge to write a novel in which the reader never sees the events through the eyes of the most important person.

What sources of information proved most helpful to you in your research?
The most fun I had doing research for the book was using the free and easily accessible Founders Online, the National Archives’ online database of the writings of Washington and others. Reading the letters and official orders issued by Washington during this period, some of which are included verbatim in the novel, is simply thrilling.
Of the numerous books written about the crossing of the Delaware and the battles at Trenton and Princeton, by far the best is Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer. It’s a stupendous feat of historical writing and fully deserved its Pulitzer Prize. Another very useful source was The Winter Soldiers by the late, great Richard M. Ketchum. I read a number of biographies, including those of Nathanael Greene, Benjamin Rush, Henry Knox, Charles Cornwallis, and others.
And, of course, your wonderful books were a great help to me, especially your book on John Haslet. [Note to the reader: Let the record reflect that no bribery was involved here—at least none that can be proven.]

Did writing this book change your perception of the events or people about whom you wrote and, if so, how?
I felt I already knew a lot about these events when I started to write the novel. But as I wrote, I found myself more and more in awe of these amazing men and what they went through during those ten days. Needless to say, our nation was not created by soft people. It makes me wonder if today’s Americans would have what it takes to match the feats of the founding generation.
At the same time, I found myself admiring the British characters, who were not the cardboard cutout villains Americans sometimes imagine (as, for example, in Mel Gibson’s movie “The Patriot”). General Cornwallis and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Mawhood were great and honorable men, fighting for what they thought was right. And they had a sense of decorum and dignity that has almost entirely vanished in our time and which we would do well to try to restore.

What would you most like readers to take away from reading the book?
This book is an expression of my gratitude and appreciation for the people who created this country. We take our freedoms for granted, so much so that I have 8th graders express astonishment that there are people in the world who don’t have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, and all the rest. We too easily forget that those who came before us struggled and suffered, and many gave their lives, to win those freedoms for us. David McCullough once commented that not bothering to learn about the founding generation is a form of ingratitude and that ingratitude is a shabby personal quality. I entirely agree.

Do you have another writing project in mind?
I am thinking of writing a novel about Operation Dragoon, the little-known invasion of southern France during World War II.

Thanks, Jeff. Good luck with the new book and your next undertaking.

And if readers want to check out your Amazon page, they can do so here.

BTW, in case anyone is wondering, the official release date for my new book, Winning the Ten Crucial Days, is April 15, although signed copies are currently available in the gift shop at Washington Crossing Historic Park.

 

Odds & Ends
By Categories: Uncategorized

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

Hello All,

I wanted to use this blog post to facilitate access to information about a potpourri of sources and events that may be of interest to some of you  .  .  .

— Dennis P. Ryan’s 1975 booklet, New Jersey During the American Revolution, A Chronology – 1763 to 1783 (now out of print) can be downloaded from the NJ State Library page at this link.

— A series of twenty-eight New Jersey’s Revolutionary Experience pamphlets (also out-of-print), which were published by the New Jersey Historical Commission to commemorate the Bicentennial of the Revolution, can be viewed at this link.

— In keeping with the observance of Black History Month, February 11, 2025 was designated 1st Rhode Island Regiment/Black Regiment Day pursuant to resolutions adopted by the Rhode Island Senate and House of Representatives to commemorate the contribution of Black soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

— For Central Jersey history aficionados or fans of Founding Father John Hart of Hopewell (c.1713-1779), an article by Patrick H. Ryan, Tracing the Central Jersey Roots of John Hart, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, appeared in the free email newsletter from TAPinto Princeton on February 14.

— Washington Crossing State Park (NJ) is undergoing a dramatic transformation that will include the opening of a new visitor center next year, as described here.

— An Evening with Rick Atkinson, to be held at Washington Crossing Historic Park (PA), on June 10 from 7 to 9 pm, will feature a discussion by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of his new book, The Fate of the Day—the second volume in his Revolution trilogy—and the signing of books purchased in connection with this event.

— Finally, I’m scheduled to talk about two of my books and sign copies per below:

  • The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776, at a Lecture & Book Signing sponsored by the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum, 432 W. Walnut St., Allentown, PA, on March 29 at 1 pm; and
  • my new book, Winning the Ten Crucial Days, at Living History Day: Celebrating America’s Independence sponsored by Washington Crossing Historic Park, on July 4, in the Visitor Center auditorium—with an initial presentation at 2 pm and an encore at 4 pm. (Please note: the entire Independence Day event is from 12:30 to 4 pm.) This begs the question whether giving two talks in one day about the Ten Crucial Days will reduce me to a tense, crucial daze.

There you have it. Hope you enjoy (or endure, as the case may be) the final days of winter.

77. Small Battles Loomed Large in the Revolution
By Categories: American Revolution

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

In the Series Editors’ Introduction to each book in Westholme Publishing’s Small Battles Series, coeditors Mark Edward Lender and the late James Kirby Martin contend that the too-often ignored, smaller military actions impacted the course of the war for independence as much as, if not more than, the celebrated engagements that retain their indelible grip on our collective historical consciousness—Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown, being foremost among the latter. These more obscure encounters were typically fought at what Lender and Martin term the “grassroots level,” usually without the direct involvement of regular troops on either side, and without the presence of famed commanders such as George Washington, Nathanael Greene, William Howe, Charles Cornwallis, etc., but rather with Patriot militia opposing Loyalist units, and sometimes involving Native warriors who more-often-than-not sided with the British.[1]

Although smaller battles accounted for the predominant share of fighting, they have generally received little attention in popular narratives about the Revolutionary struggle, perhaps due to the fact that the “big names” were not present. Private Joseph Plumb Martin, in his classic memoir that represents one of the best-known primary accounts of army life then, lamented the lack of public regard for these events owing, in his opinion, to the absence of famous men. As a result, the combatants who faced off on these occasions linger in obscurity to this day. “Such circumstances and such troops,” he wrote, “generally get but little notice taken of them, do what they will. Great men get great praise, little men nothing. But it always was so and always will be.”[2]

In his majestic chronicle of the Revolution, Page Smith argues that because many of the minor engagements—to cite two examples, the Paoli massacre in September 1777 and the Battle of Waxhaws (also known as Buford’s Massacre) in May 1780—ended in disaster for the forces of rebellion, there ensued less incentive to recount them in great detail than would have been the case if the American side prevailed. But as he reminds us, the smaller actions were often as agonizingly contested as the larger ones, and those who fell in them were just as dead as the soldiers who perished in more famous battles.[3] According to Smith, there were thousands of smaller clashes—many of them between bands of Loyalists and Patriots—that involved no more than fifty men, and the records of those encounters, if preserved at all, lie buried in some local archive, comprise half-legendary tales passed on from one generation to another, or are briefly mentioned in a seldom-read newspaper. Nonetheless, these affairs embodied the grim circumstances of war endured by the great majority of Americans, for relatively few participated in the famous battles that occupy the center stage of historiography. As Smith puts it, most in the Revolutionary generation “labored in the wings and experienced in very acute form the hunger, the fear, the continual and corrosive anxiety, the bitter divisions between friends and neighbors, the scattered incidents of violence, the demoralizing effect of rumor that were part of the daily lives of Americans, patriot or Tory, during the years of the war.”[4]

The frightful aspect of America’s first civil war that was characterized by the ferocity of combat between opposing factions among the civilian population—a feature that has been attendant to other such contests here and abroad—is embodied in the bloody record of these little-known episodes, to the extent it is available to us. Friends, neighbors, family members, and relatives all became caught up in the brutality that often manifested itself in the smaller actions. This savagery may be at variance with the idyllic image of our path to independence embraced by traditional accounts and conveyed by popular memory across the generations, for as Holger Hoock points out, the perpetuation of a too-sentimental narrative of the conflict obscures the truth that it caused proportionately more suffering than any other in American history, except the Civil War.[5}

Margaret MacMillan notes that civil wars often assume the character and cruelty of a crusade because they are about the nature of society itself.[6] Thomas Brown, a Loyalist who led troops in the Southern theater from 1777 to 1781, echoed these sentiments from personal experience: “A civil war being one of the greatest evils incident to human society, the history of every contest presents us with instances of wanton cruelty and barbarity. Men whose passions are inflamed by mutual injuries, exasperated with personal animosity against each other, and eager to gratify revenge, often violate the laws of war and principles of humanity.”[7] Indeed, the violence perpetrated on both sides in the Revolution is the stuff of historical reality—the kind Henry Knox presumably had in mind when he wrote his wife in the aftermath of the first Battle of Trenton: “War, my Lucy, is not a humane trade, and the man who follows (it) as such will meet with his proper demerits in another world.”[8]

Notes:

[1] Series Editors’ Introduction, in David Price, The Battle of Harlem Heights, 1776 (Westholme Publishing: Yardley, PA, 2022), ix-x.

[2] Joseph Plumb Martin, Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier: The Narrative of Joseph Plumb Martin (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2006), 54.

[3] Page Smith, A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976), 2:1124-1125.

[4] Ibid., 2:1125.

[5] Holger Hoock, Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth (New York: Crown, 2017), 11-17.

[6] Margaret Macmillan, War: How Conflict Shaped Us (New York: Random House, 2020), 42.

[7] Thomas Brown to David Ramsey, December 25, 1786, in The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence, 1775-1783, ed. John Rhodehamel (New York: The Library of America, 2001), 681-682.

[8] Henry Knox to Lucy Knox, January 2, 1777, in William S. Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1898), 436.

And speaking of small things (as in books), Rescuing has been rescued:

For anyone who has, or knows anyone who has, tried without success to acquire a copy of my first book, Rescuing the Revolution, during its recent exile to the publishing wilderness (having been out of print for the last couple of years), please be advised that it has returned from Elba (for any Napoleonic-minded readers out there). My thanks to the Friends of Washington Crossing Park—the nonprofit that runs the gift shop at Washington Crossing Historic Park (WCHP) and oversees the historical/educational programming there—for publishing a new edition as a successor to the Knox Press release from 2016. This marks the Friends’ first-ever foray into this sort of activity, and credit is due to Roger Williams, Jennifer Martin, Larry Kidder, Guy Sava, and Michelle Flanagan for their contributions to this effort. I anticipate (hopefully) that signed copies of the new edition will soon be available at WCHP for purchase in person or online. It can also be ordered from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

76. A Founding-Focused Foundation
By Categories: Uncategorized

Reminder: If you’re reading this in your email, you have to go to dpauthor.com and click on the Speaking of Which tab in order to view the actual blog post with the featured image.

Say that three times fast!

No, but seriously, I don’t know how many of you are familiar with the work of the Swan Historical Foundation, Inc. (SHF), so let me suggest that this is as good a time as any—what with the impending semiquincentennial (250th anniversary) of American independence in 2026—to recognize its efforts at promoting awareness and understanding of our Revolutionary heritage.

This nonprofit is dedicated to encouraging and inspiring continuing knowledge and appreciation of the Revolution for the benefit of present and future generations. It’s named for an early member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Samuel Swan, of Somerville, NJ, who sponsored legislation that provided a pension for the widows and orphans of the first American soldiers and led to the creation of the federal Veterans Administration. His great, great grandson, H. Kels Swan—a lifelong resident of South Bound Brook, NJ, a Rutgers University alumnus, and an author who served as historian and curator at Washington Crossing State Park, Titusville, NJ (Hopewell Township)—founded SHF in 1989 and became its president.
​
​A proud partner and sponsor of RevolutionNJ, SHF is working closely with the State of New Jersey to build a new visitor center that is rising on the banks of the Delaware River at Washington Crossing State Park. Most of the artifacts in the SHF collection of 1,200 original items from the Revolutionary era (1750-1810), which are currently displayed in the old visitor center, have been on loan to the park for a number of years. The old center is slated for demolition, but a new iteration of the imposing SHF exhibit will greet visitors to the state-of-the-art facility that opens next year. (Additional items in the collection are currently on loan to other institutions or in storage.)

Besides the care, interpretation, and expansion of its breathtaking collection​, what else has SHF been up to?

Well, in 2002, it commissioned artwork by a noted local artist, Loyd Garrison, which conveys what is believed to be an accurate image of Washington’s legendary Christmas night 1776 crossing by ferry boat. More recently, SHF participated in  a 13-minute video, Crossing To Victory: Washington Recaptures New Jersey, which was made possible by a joint effort of the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission, NJ Historical Commission, Mercer County Board of County Commissioners, NJM Insurance Group, and several generous individuals. The film examines some of the lesser-known events and sites at Washington Crossing State Park so critical to the success of that momentous event and the subsequent march to Trenton and victory over the Hessian garrison there.

But there’s a lot more to the story. The vital educational role embraced by SHF is illustrated by the wide range of activities in which it has engaged over the past generation:

  • Supporting organizations with a common interest in the Revolution;
  • ​Participating in historical fairs, meetings, and conferences;
  • Giving talks and lectures to community, historical, and patriotic groups;
  • Providing financial support for historical programs in partnership with Washington Crossing State Park;
  • Loaning artifacts from its collection to other museums;
  • Offering periodic exhibits at various locations in PA and NJ;
  • Providing access for third parties to photograph artifacts in its collection for books, articles, and various publications;
  • Funding an annual short-term residential research fellowship with the David Center for the American Revolution at the library and museum of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia for scholars in all fields to work in the artifact collections of SHF, the American Philosophical Society, and other repositories in the greater Philadelphia area;
  • Organizing living history talks and demonstrations;
  • Distributing a newsletter that features articles about the Revolution and profiles of items in the SHF collection;
  • Sponsoring the Washington Crossing American Revolution Round Table; and
  • Conducting tabletop demonstrations of Revolutionary War battles.

Rev War aficionados need to appreciate the work SHF is doing to establish a firm (ahem) foundation for the celebration of our founding. Obviously, it has many partners in this enterprise, but SHF is one of those truly unsung heroes in the upcoming national project that is dedicated to commemorating our historical legacy and reminding us once again that America is more than just a place, but an idea as well.

As John Adams famously observed, “The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people.” May it always be so.

Attention Rev War Buffs:

Mark your calendar!

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, a new six-part, 12-hour documentary series from acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns—focusing on the country’s founding and the War for Independence—will launch on Sunday, November 16 and run for six consecutive nights through Friday, November 21. It will air from 8 to 10 p.m. ET on PBS.

I Ken hardly wait.