American Revolution Archives

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Welsh Adventurer Henry Lloyd

By Adrian Lowe

Few men in the 18th century lived a life as varied and unpredictable as that of Henry Lloyd. Read more

General George Washington rallies his Continental Army during the Battle of Monmouth in June 1778 in a 19th-century painting by Emanuel Leutze. Maj. Gen. Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben’s relentless drilling of Washington’s soldiers at Valley Forge the previous winter enabled them to fight the British Army to a draw that day.

American Revolution

Monmouth: Longest Battle of the American Revolution

By Eric Niderost

On June 19, 1778, Continental soldiers marched out of Valley Forge, happy to leave the rough wooden cabins where they had spent a miserable winter; cold, hunger, and disease had been their constant companions. Read more

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Deborah Sampson: Continental Soldier

By Kelly Bell

Yearning for more out of life than a woman could hope for in her place and time, Deborah Sampson took the only opportunity she could see to fully realize her patriotic ambitions and wanderlust—she cut her waist-length blonde hair, put on men’s clothes and joined the Continental Army to fight for the embryonic country’s independence during the American Revolution. Read more

Colonial troops under Lord Stirling retreat across Gowanus Creek after holding off the British long enough for Washington’s army to regroup along Brooklyn Heights.

American Revolution

William Alexander: Hero of the American Revolution

By William Be. Allmon

Of all the generals who fought on the Patriot side during the American Revolution, none was more renowned than New York City native William Alexander, better known to his contemporaries as “Lord Stirling.” Read more

A young George Washington, mounted at right, accompanied his Virginia militia onto the field at Great Meadows, exposing everyone to the French and Indians concealed in the woods. From the Robert Griffing mural, A Charming Field for an Encounter.

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Fort Necessity: George Washington’s First Defeat

By Kevin M. Hymel

George Washington looked down at the surrender documents. They were soaked from pouring rain and the ink was splotched. Read more

A hard-bitten Prussian recruiting officer dragoons a reluctant peasant into the service in Louis Joseph Watteau’s 1770 painting, The Unwilling Recruit.

American Revolution

To Field an Army: A Short History of the Draft

By Mike Haskew

The call of a nation on its civilian population either to create a military force or to augment a standing army is virtually as old as civilization itself. Read more

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Major General Braddock’s March on Fort Duquesne

By Colonel John P. Sinnott AUS (Ret.)

Seldom was the hand of fate so clearly exposed in the affairs of men as it did during the French and Indian War when Maj. Read more

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Battle of Kings Mountain: an American Patriot Victory in the Carolinas

By James K. Swisher

The brightly uniformed soldiers that George III of England dispatched to subjugate the rebellious citizens of his North American colonies were at that time possibly the world’s best. Read more

Indians make their way through the woods. Familiar with the forest, they stealthily tracked U.S. Army movements and staged devastating ambushes.

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Northwest Indian War: Marching Against Little Turtle

By Robert A. Lynn

In the 1780s the Founding Fathers of the United States didn’t so much revise the old Articles of Confederation as devise an entirely new government as set forth in the Constitution. Read more

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The Frigate Sailing Ship: Pride of The British Royal Navy

By John D. Gresham

Looking back on the age of fighting sail, a common image is that of battles between huge ships of the line, led by such famous admirals as Nelson and Collingwood. Read more

Lieutenant Colonel John Edgar Howard slashes his way into the British line, which reels under the pressure. The British were hasty in their attacks and came to regret it.

American Revolution

Duel in the Backwoods

By James K. Swisher

Richard Hovenden of His Majesty’s British Legion Dragoons cautiously urged his tired horse through a parklike expanse of tall trees that marked the entrance to a South Carolina country crossroads junction called locally “Hannah’s Cowpens.” Read more

Benedict Arnold tells British Major André to hide military papers in his boot. Washington’s spy ring helped foil the pair’s plot to capture West Point.

American Revolution

The Culper Spy Ring: The American Revolution’s Great Secret

By Peter Kross

The American Revolution was a proving ground for American spy operations. General George Washington’s use of deception, covert activities, secret inks, and informers was a model for future spymasters. Read more

Civil War veteran Capt. Joseph A. Faris completed a depiction of the fight at Point Pleasant long after the action but with a soldier’s sensibilities to combat and terrain.

American Revolution

Lord Dunmore’s War: The Battle of Point Pleasant

By James K. Swisher

In the lengthening shadows of a late October afternoon, a column of tired marchers attired in dusty, fringed hunting dress emerged from the trees along the north bank of the Kanawha River, raising an exhilarating shout upon sighting its confluence with the Ohio. Read more

“The Hanging of Nathan Hale , New York 1776” by Don Troiani.

American Revolution

Continental Army Captain Nathan Hale

By Kevin Seabrooke

On the night of September 16, 1776, young Nathan Hale, a captain in the Continental Army, set out across Long Island Sound from his native Connecticut on the armed sloop Schuyler. Read more

Determined to defend the Mohawk Valley, patriots under General Nicholas Herkimer fight back at Indians and Tories ambushing them in the wilderness. The wounded Herkimer commanded from under a tree as the battle raged hour after hour.

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The Battle of Oriskany: Into the Trap

By Donald Roberts II

The year 1776 ended on a high note for Washington’s Continental Army despite its earlier devastating defeats on Long Island and Manhattan. Read more

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George Washington and Lord Cornwallis at Germantown

By Eric Niderost

On a gloomy Friday morning, September 26, 1777, an advance party of the British Army marched into Philadelphia to take possession of the city. Read more

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Revolutionary War Weapons: The American Long Rifle

By David Alan Johnson

By the mid-1700’s, the American long rifle had acquired an almost supernatural reputation. To the British troops who were unfortunate enough to come up against it in combat during the Revolutionary War, the rifle was more an affliction than a weapon. Read more

Continental Army units march toward Guilford Courthouse in a modern painting by Keith Rocco. Greene would use similar tactics to those employed by Brig. Gen. Daniel Morgan in his triumph over British forces at Cowpens two months earlier.

American Revolution

Showdown at Guilford Courthouse

By William E. Welsh

American militiamen with their lungs heaving, hearts pounding, and eyes bulging with terror ran for their lives as soon as the British and Hessian troops in their bright red and blue uniforms came ashore at Kips Bay on Manhattan Island. Read more

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The Redoubts At Yorktown

By Jessica J. Sheets

At nightfall on October 14, 1781, 150 British and Hessian soldiers sheltered in two small earthen fortifications at Yorktown, Virginia. Read more

Sir Peter Parker’s nine-warship fleet unleashes a devastating barrage of fire on Ft. Sullivan from Charleston Harbor.

American Revolution

Patriots’ Great Day: The Battle of Sullivan’s Island

By Earl Echelberry

By the early 1770s, with a full century of settlement already behind it, Charleston, S.C., had come into its own as a thriving urban center. Read more

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From Around the Network

The U.S. Navy’s Seabees: Bulldozing a Road to Victory

Weapons: The Soviet MiG-17 in Vietnam

Unstoppable God Of War Alexander At Issus

WWII Spies: the Soviet Cambridge Network