Free Republic

Today was one of the most pivotal dates in American history in 1776, when Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee put forth a motion to the Second Continental Congress, in part: "Resolved: That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." Lee's resolution was debated and eventually led to the approval and signing of the Declaration of Independence a few weeks later. Lee himself...

Today marks the beginning of Jack Jouett's Ride in 1781. When Jouett spotted a British force moving toward Charlottesville, Virginia to attempt to capture the Viriginia government and Governor Thomas Jefferson, the "Revere Of The South" rode 40 miles in rough terrain to beat the British there and sound the alarm. He first notified Jefferson at Monticello, where several legislators were staying, then rode to Charlottesville a few miles further. Jouett's efforts saved Jefferson, most of the legislature and General Edward Stevens from capture by the British.

Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,-- One if by land, and two if by sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread the alarm Through every Middlesex village and...

I thought this sounded good. It starts this Sunday on AMC. Has anyone heard anything about it yet?

The new AMC series Turn, which premieres April 6, is bewildering at first. We’re dropped smack in the middle of British-occupied New York. The year is 1776, and Abraham Woodhull (Jamie Bell) is scraping by as a cabbage farmer and sometime innkeeper in Setauket, Long Island. He’s husband to Mary (Meegan Warner), and father to a young child. His father, Richard (Kevin McNally), is a local magistrate loyal to George III. Then the scene shifts. We’re now in New Jersey. A stunning overhead shot reveals a sprawling field of bluecoat rebel bodies lying next to a pool dyed red with...

While speaking to the second Virginia Convention on this day, in 1775, Patrick Henry voiced his opposition to the increasingly violent British rule over the colonies. The issue at hand was not insufficient healthcare or an unlivable minimum wage… America was growingly increasingly weary of Brits telling us how to live. (It turns out, the sentiment stuck with us – as is evidenced by Piers Morgan getting kicked off of CNN.) Speaking to the delegates of the Convention, Henry cried the now famous ultimatum: “Give me liberty, or give me death!” And when spoken in opposition to the world’s most...

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part I consider it...

Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth. -George Washington, 1776

On this date in 1776, Henry Knox reported to General George Washington that cannon he had transported from forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point in upstate New York had finally arrived at besieged Boston. The move had taken six weeks to accomplish, involving men and oxen moving 60 tons of cannons and other supplies approxomately 300 miles in the middle of winter. Once the cannons were deployed at Dorchester Heights, the British withdrew their fleet from Boston Harbor, ending the siege. Knox would continue to serve under Washington through the Revolutionary War, eventually becoming the United States' first Secretary of...

Map of the Battle of Cowpens From Today in U.S. Military History: The Battle of Cowpens took place in the latter part of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution and of the Revolution itself. It became known as the turning point of the war in the South, part of a chain of events leading to Patriot victory at Yorktown. The Cowpens victory was one over a crack British regular army and brought together strong armies and leaders who made their mark on history. From the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge on, the British had made early and mostly...

Today marks the anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens in 1781, a victory for the Continental Army in South Carolina. To mark the day, we raise the Cowpens Flag, the United States flag which was flown during the battle, designed much like the Betsy Ross 13-star flag except for the one star in the middle of the circle. Independence Forever!

Men who are sincere in defending their freedom, will always feel concern at every circumstance which seems to make against them; it is the natural and honest consequence of all affectionate attachments, and the want of it is a vice. But the dejection lasts only for a moment; they soon rise out of it with additional vigor; the glow of hope, courage and fortitude, will, in a little time, supply the place of every inferior passion, and kindle the whole heart into heroism. -Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. IV

It was lying in a drawer in the attic, a 12-page document that was not just forgotten but misfiled. Somehow it had made its way into a folder with colonial-era doctor’s bills that someone in the 1970s decreed was worthless and should be thrown away. Luckily, no one did. For when Emilie Gruchow opened the folder last summer and separated it from the doctor’s bills, she recognized it as a one-of-a-kind document. Ms. Gruchow, an archivist at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, was an intern at the museum in Upper Manhattan when she made her discovery. The mansion served as George Washington’s...

Today marks the anniversary of the publication of one of Thomas Paine's most celebrated works, The American Crisis, a series of pamphlets published over a span of seven years during the Revolutionary War. The first pamphlet was published on December 23, 1776, and contained some of Paine's most memorable work. A few of those words from the first pamphlet include: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and...

On this day in 1777, General George Washington led his Continental Army into Valley Forge for what would be a brutal winter encampment where approxomately 2,500 soldiers would eventually perish due to exposure, disease and starvation. However, the remaining men in the Army would eventually leave Valley Forge a better army, due in part to increased and unified training during the winter, along with the knowledge that France had joined the American effort to defeat the British. In their honor, we raise the Betsy Ross flag along with our own modern Stars and Stripes, which would have been impossible today...

RICHMOND, VA. – A group working to preserve a New York military cemetery from the Revolutionary War says it has identified 15 soldiers from Virginia believed to be buried there. The Friends of the Fishkill Supply Depot has pored over old muster rolls, military correspondence, private letters, physicians’ journals and other documents to identify soldiers buried in unmarked graves on privately owned land in New York’s Hudson Valley. So far, they’ve been able to identify 84 listed in the records as having died at Fishkill. The group announced the new identifications on Monday, including the soldiers from Virginia who died...

This is simply a gem of a movie based on Howard Fast's excellent 1962 novel,( which I still have), of the first day of hostilities between colonists and Britain. There may have been bigger blockbusters made about the American Revolution (The Patriot, Revolution etc) but to me this under- rated 1988 film is a true classic, capturing the quintessential decency of American colonial village life in Lexington and the developing tensions and conflict on that fateful day of 19th April 1775. I agree with the 2 previous reviewers that this film is a great teaching tool. It shows many things:...

These stunning images are early photographs of some of the men who bravely fought for their country in the Revolutionary War some 237 years ago. Images of Americans who fought in the Revolution are exceptionally rare because few of the Patriots of 1775-1783 lived until the dawn of practical photography in the early 1840s. These early photographs – known as daguerreotypes – are exceptionally rare camera-original, fully-identified photographs of veterans of the War for Independence – the war that established the United States. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2356524/Faces-American-revolution-Amazing-early-photographs-document-heroes-War-Independence-later-years.html#ixzz2j9ggoFAd Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Typically domestic terrorists in the U.S. are people who cling to obsolete beliefs from the time of the American Revolution. They are conservative Christians, reactionary Republicans and conspiracy theorists many of whom belong to racist hate groups. Tea Partiers commonly own guns and stock up ammunition and food in anticipation of starting another civil war to overthrow the will of the governing body that represent all of the American people. Did I miss anything here? I don’t think so because we see this everyday on national television with the Tea Party Taliban accusing the government of infringing on their “God...

ALEXANDER ROSE: Thankfully, this isn’t a chicken-and-egg question, so the answer is a simple one: Washington’s spies, otherwise known as the Culper Ring. There were five primary members. First in seniority was Benjamin Tallmadge, a dragoons officer who acted as the Ring’s manager in American-held Connecticut and made sure their intelligence was passed on to Washington back at headquarters. The agent who sailed back and forth across Long Island Sound (I prefer the more colorful contemporary description of it, “the Devil’s Belt”), tussling with freebooters and dodging patrol-boats, was Caleb Brewster, a former whaleboatman who really, really liked fighting. Brewster’s...