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American Revolution

Chains Across the Hudson, Stirling Ironworks & The Townsend Family

April 5, 2022 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

13 Links of the Great Chain across the Hudson at Trophy Point, West Point“The importance of the Hudson River in the present contest, and the necessity of defending it, are subjects which have been so frequently and fully discussed and are so well understood that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them.” – George Washington

It is hard to imagine a time in the United States when highways did not exist, but that was certainly the case at the time of the Revolutionary War. Some cities could brag of their cobblestone streets but once outside the residential area, roads could best be described as single-lane dirt paths, frozen solid but probably covered with snow in winter, mud bogs in spring, and deeply rutted, jarring, swaying and unstable conveyances the rest of the year.

A small military wagon could move along only as fast as a team of oxen could pull it. Moving armies and cannon along these roadways was a slow, difficult undertaking, offering opposing forces considerable advance notice and many opportunities to thwart progress or attack. [Read more…] about Chains Across the Hudson, Stirling Ironworks & The Townsend Family

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Albany, American Revolution, Fort Clinton, Fort Constitution, Fort Montgomery, George Clinton, Hudson Highlands, Hudson River, Industrial History, Maritime History, Military History, Orange County, Transportation History, West Point

Noble Volunteers: British Soldiers in the American Revolution

April 4, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

noble volunteersMilitary histories often focus on battles campaigns, overlooking the soldiers who fought them. Don N. Hagist’s Noble Volunteers: British Soldiers Who Fought in the American Revolution (Westholme, 2020) takes a look at the red-coated soldiers who formed the ranks of the British Army in the 1770s.

Hagist investigates where British soldiers were from, what they did before joining the army, what motivated them to enlist, how they were trained, how they lived in America on campaign and in garrison, and what became of them after the American Revolution. [Read more…] about Noble Volunteers: British Soldiers in the American Revolution

Filed Under: Books, Events, History, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Fraunces Tavern Museum, Social History

Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion

March 27, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

daniel shays's honorable rebellionThe book Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion: An American Story (Westholme Publishing, 2021) by Daniel Bullen looks back to January 25th, 1787, in Springfield, Massachusetts, when militia Major General William Shepard ordered his cannon to fire grapeshot at a peaceful demonstration of 1,200 farmers approaching the federal arsenal.

The shots killed four and wounded twenty, marking the climax of five months of civil disobedience in Massachusetts, where farmers challenged the state’s authority to seize their farms for flagrantly unjust taxes. [Read more…] about Daniel Shays’s Honorable Rebellion

Filed Under: Books, Capital-Saratoga, Events, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Bennington Battlefield SHS, Massachusetts, Political History, Shays’s Rebellion

Revolutionary Albany: The Battles of Saratoga & Loyalist Opposition

March 21, 2022 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

Battle of SaratogaIn the first days of August, 1777, Albany seemed doomed to be overrun by the British. General John Burgoyne had taken Crown Point, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort George, Fort Anne, Fort Edward and Fort Miller, the last substantial fortified place protecting the city from the north.  To the west at Fort Stanwix, a siege was underway requiring many of General Philip Schyuler’s troops being sent to that fort’s defense from their camp on Van Schaick Island, now in the city of Cohoes.

Burgoyne however, had severely stretched his supply line. He was now having problems bringing up food and supplies over primitive roads that had been severely rutted and nearly destroyed by the Revolutionaries. He had to slow down to wait for food and had to keep his supply line protected all the way back to Canada, spreading his troops more thinly. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: The Battles of Saratoga & Loyalist Opposition

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, American Revolution, Battle of Bennington, Battle of Saratoga, Benedict Arnold, Columbia County, Fort Edward, Horatio Gates, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, John Burgoyne, Military History, New York City, Philip Schuyler, Political History, Revolutionary Albany, Saratoga County, Schuyler Mansion, Schuylerville

Albany Posse! The Capture of Remember Baker, Captain of the Green Mountain Boys

March 17, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Green Mountain Boys in Council by Benson LossingBetween 1749 and 1764 colonial governor of the Province of New Hampshire Benning Wenworth made about 135 land grants (now known as the New Hampshire Grants), including 131 towns, on land claimed by New Hampshire west of the Connecticut River.  This area was also claimed by the colonial Province of New York.

From the 1760s until 1779 the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and his brother Ira, controlled the area. Based at a tavern in Bennington, they evaded arrest warrants from New York State and harassed settlers from New York, surveyors, and other officials, often with severe beatings and destruction of their belongings. [Read more…] about Albany Posse! The Capture of Remember Baker, Captain of the Green Mountain Boys

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, Events, History Tagged With: Albany, American Revolution, Crime and Justice, Green Mountain Boys, New Hampshire, New Hampshire Grants, Vermont

The Downstate-Upstate Life of Marinus Willett

March 11, 2022 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, New York City correspondent Jim Kaplan discusses the life of Marinus Willett. Willett is well known to Upstate New York historians because of the work he did during the American Revolution in the Mohawk Valley. [Read more…] about The Downstate-Upstate Life of Marinus Willett

Filed Under: History, Mohawk Valley, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, Fort Plain, Fort Stanwix, Marinus Willett, Military History, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Podcasts, Political History, Queens

Revolutionary Veterans in New Lebanon’s Cemetery of the Evergreens

March 11, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

John Bull, Capt., Stephens' Northern AP'T, Rev. War graveFormer New Lebanon resident George Clark, a member of the community’s Floyd Carlton Post of the American Legion, has been working to identify the graves of Revolutionary War soldiers for many years.

Helping him has been his friend Dale Ackley. Former town historian Sharon Moon and Cemetery of the Evergreens board members have been working at it, too. The undertaking has been immense, and, if they succeed in their goal to restore headstones, it will be very costly. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Veterans in New Lebanon’s Cemetery of the Evergreens

Filed Under: History, Hudson Valley - Catskills Tagged With: 1876 Election, American Revolution, Cemeteries, Columbia County, Daughters of the American Revolution, New Lebanon, Samuel Tilden

Revolutionary Albany: Setbacks As The War Presses Toward Albany

March 7, 2022 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery's troops prepare to embark for the invasion of Canada from Crown Point, New York in 1775After a late-summer of preparations, too late in the fall of 1775, the Colonial Army mounted a two-pronged invasion of Canada. General Schuyler invaded Montreal from Fort Ticonderoga and General Benedict Arnold attacked Quebec.

Schuyler fell ill and was replaced by General Richard Montgomery. Montgomery took Montreal and then marched to assist Arnold at Quebec. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: Setbacks As The War Presses Toward Albany

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, American Revolution, Battle of Fort Anne, Battle of Oriskany, Battle of Saratoga, Crime and Justice, Essex County, Fort Ann, Fort Edward, Fort Miller, Fort Ticonderoga, George Washington, Haudenosaunee, Hudson River, Indigenous History, Iroquois, John Johnson, Lake Champlain, Lake George, Military History, Mohawk River, New York City, New York Harbor, Philip Schuyler, Political History, Rensselaer County, Saratoga County, Schuylerville, Vermont, Washington County

The Late Horrid Massacre in King-Street (A Boston Massacre Poem)

March 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Boston Massacre Poem“The 29th Regimt on Duty. A Quarrell between the soldiers & Inhabitants—The Bells—Rung—A Great Number Assembled in Kingstreet A Party of the 29th under the Command of Capt Preston fird on the People they killed five—wounded Several Others—particularly Mr. Edw Payne in his Right Arm—Capt Preston Bears a good Character—he was taken in the night & Committed also Seven more of the 29th—the Inhabitants are greatly enraged and not without Reason.” – Diary of John Rowe, 5 March 1770

Unlike the quote above, penned by an eventual Loyalist, stating the facts, the poem “A Verse Occasioned by the Late Horrid Massacre in King-Street” propagandizes the events of March 5th, 1770 in Boston when soldiers fired into a crowd of rioting Bostonians. The event is now known as the Boston Massacre. [Read more…] about The Late Horrid Massacre in King-Street (A Boston Massacre Poem)

Filed Under: Arts, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Boston, Boston Massacre, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Historical Society, Poetry

We Should Celebrate New York State’s Birthday on April 20th

March 3, 2022 by Bruce Dearstyne 1 Comment

Secretary of the 1777 Convention Robert Benson reading NYS's new constitution in KingstonNew Yorkers, and New York’s historical community in particular, should be gearing up to commemorate and promote New York State’s birthday on April 20th.

That was the date in 1777 when the Convention of Representatives of the State of New York, an ad hoc group elected the previous year to guide New York’s Revolutionary War efforts and develop its first constitution, completed its work. [Read more…] about We Should Celebrate New York State’s Birthday on April 20th

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: American Revolution, John Jay, Kingston, Legal History, NYS Constitution, Political History, Poughkeepsie

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