Guy Carleton

Benedict Arnold’s Retreat Up Lake Champlain

September 4, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Towards the evening of the Battle of Valcour Bay on October 11, 1776, the HMS Inflexible got within point-blank shot of the Americans, “when five broadsides,” wrote Sir Charles Douglas, “silenced their whole line.”

One fresh ship, with scantling [a design] for sea-going, and a concentrated battery, has an unquestioned advantage over a dozen light-built craft, carrying one or two guns each, and already several hours engaged in battle. [Read more…] about Benedict Arnold’s Retreat Up Lake Champlain

The Naval Campaign on Lake Champlain in 1775-1776

September 3, 2026 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

In 1775, only fifteen years had elapsed since the expulsion of the New France from Canada following the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The concentration of French power in the valley of the St. Lawrence had impressed upon the minds of colonial leaders the importance of Lake Champlain, of its tributary Lake George, and of the Hudson River, as forming a consecutive, if not continuous, water line of communications from the St. Lawrence River to the city of New York. [Read more…] about The Naval Campaign on Lake Champlain in 1775-1776

Manhattan in Flames: Arson, Rebellion, Conspiracy, & Sabotage

August 28, 2026 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

Early British colonists brought English common law to the colonies and adapted it to frontier conditions. Formally known as Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall, “Dale’s Code” was a legal system enacted in 1610 (published in 1612) by the Deputy-Governor of colonial Virginia, Thomas Dale.

It mandated the death penalty for a range of misdeeds, from stealing grapes to trading with Indigenous populations. Arson too was a capital crime. [Read more…] about Manhattan in Flames: Arson, Rebellion, Conspiracy, & Sabotage

Champlain Frontier Loyalists During the American Revolution

June 15, 2026 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

During the American Revolution, the Province of New York was a stronghold of Loyalism. While a difficult matter to estimate with any degree of certainty, available records would seem to indicate that the Loyalists may have constituted an actual majority of the total population.

The statement has even been made that New York furnished more men to the British forces engaged in the war than to the American. [Read more…] about Champlain Frontier Loyalists During the American Revolution

The Great Burning: Carleton’s Raid of 1780 Being Memorialized

September 30, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Major Christopher Carleton led an expedition of the British Army’s 29th Regiment of Foot comprising soldiers, Loyalists and Native Americans, to implement “The Great Burning” of Continental forts and patriot homesteads in Washington, Warren and Saratoga Counties during the fall of 1780. [Read more…] about The Great Burning: Carleton’s Raid of 1780 Being Memorialized

The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks

October 10, 2020 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

During the Revolutionary Era much of New York State was a heavily forested frontier, sparsely populated but bitterly divided.

Although the only major campaign in the Adirondacks would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war.

Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams details many of those frontier raids in her new book The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness (Arcadia Publishing, 2020). [Read more…] about The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks

The Jessup Brothers in the American Revolution

April 3, 2018 by Marie Williams Leave a Comment

In the mid-1760s, brothers Edward and Ebenezer Jessup moved from Dutchess County, NY, to Albany and engaged in land speculation in the Hudson River Valley and Lake George area.

The Jessups would become friendly with Sir William Johnson, who had built Fort William Henry in 1755. Thanks to his close relationship with the Mohawk, Johnson became the Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The Jessups acquired much of their land from Johnson and the Mohawks. [Read more…] about The Jessup Brothers in the American Revolution

Black Americans in the Revolutionary War

March 20, 2014 by George Bryjak 4 Comments

Black Americans have a long and distinguished history of military service. They participated in every colonial war from 1690 through the French and Indian War (1754-1763) as soldiers, sailors, laborers, scouts, and spies.

Blacks generally served in integrated units and earned the same pay as whites. Even enslaved people served in the army and were paid although their enlistment compelled them to surrender some portion of this money to the people who held them enslaved. [Read more…] about Black Americans in the Revolutionary War

Guy Carleton

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