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In 1875, the New York Herald published a “Bunker Hill Centennial” edition and a Revolutionary War recruitment poster was reprinted there. An original page from that edition exists today in the Havens House vault and is quoted here to commemorate Washington’s birthday, courtesy of the Shelter Island Historical Society. It reads as follows: Recruitment Poster “To all brave, healthy, able bodied and well disposed young men in this neighborhood, who have any inclination to join the troops now raising under General Washington, for the defence [sic]) of the liberties and independence of the United States, against the hostile design of...

New Milford historian and researcher Michael-John Cavallaro, vice-chairman of the Conservation Commission, with a one-of-a-kind Revolutionary War era confession of a local man hanged for a mass murder of the Mallory family in Washington, Ct. Cavallaro tracked down the illusive, 14-page document at the University of Virginia. He will be giving lectures about the murders in New Milford and Washington in February. Photo: Nanci Hutson / The News-Times | WASHINGTON -- In this sleepy town during the Revolutionary War, a 19-year-old Continental Army soldier committed a murder so gruesome the local historian who unearthed his treachery still mourns the long-dead...

The exterior of Peter Townsend’s house in Chester, now torn down. Contract for West Point’s Great Chain signed in Chester 233 years ago. In these days of intercontinental ballistic missile shields and missile-tracking radar, it’s hard to imagine that the national defense once depended on a simple iron chain. During the Revolutionary War, a patriot named Peter Townsend lived on a three-acre lot not far from the corner of present-day Elm and Main streets in Chester. He was a member of an important family from Oyster Bay, Long Island. The family home, Raynham Hall, is today a museum, and...

PARKERSBURG - A Meigs County native has written a book about the Battle of Point Pleasant and whether it was the first fought in the Revolutionary War. Charles S. Badgley of the Badgley Publishing Co., Canal Winchester, Ohio, says he often heard while growing up along the river in Meigs County that the battle was the first in the war, the basis of his most recent novel, "A Point of Controversy." Conventional wisdom was the battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775 were the first in the war of independence. "The controversy has been around a long time, it actually...

A callow youngster's thirst for honor triggered the Seven Years' War. Unlike many of his fellow Founding Fathers, George Washington never wrote an autobiography...His sole effort at memoir emerged from notes he wrote clarifying points for a proposed biography by a former aide and trusted friend, David Humphreys. These "Remarks" were written in 1787-88, when Washington was in his mid-50s and pondering the daunting prospect of becoming the first president....Washington chose to reminisce about the five years when he had labored as a loyal subject of the British Empire to thwart French designs on the Ohio Valley. In late 1753,...

Revolutionary war fashion show comes to Corsicana Corsicana — Yards and yards of embroidered silk and damask, wool and linen swirled through the Kinsloe House as part of a special 1700s fashion show hosted by the James Blair Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution Wednesday. The creator of the dresses was Carolyn Schiewe of the Captain Molly Corbin Chapter of the DAR in Grapevine. Schiewe researched the dresses and then sewed them for herself and her friends. “Ladies during the revolutionary war were just as interested in fashion as we are today,” Schiewe explained. And although she had...

By DIANE CARDWELL It may be almost a year later than originally expected, but Fraunces Tavern, where Gen. George Washington bade farewell to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War and where patrons have been eating and drinking on and off since 1762, has finally taken a big leap forward in its reincarnation. The bar, operated by an Irish outfit called the Porterhouse Group, opened last night for the first time since closing in February, attracting a mellow crowd of industry insiders, people who worked on the project and longtime patrons drawn to the place’s sense of history...

America’s First Christmas How we reversed our fortunes in the Revolutionary War Gen. George Washington’s army retreated from New York in ignominy in November 1776. As it moved through New Jersey, Lt. James Monroe, the future president, stood by the road and counted the troops: 3,000 left from an original force of 30,000. In December 1776, the future of America hung on the fate of a bedraggled army barely a step ahead of annihilation. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...

Photo from Edie Allen Tom Allen has written dozens of books and contributes frequently to both National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine. If the title of Bethesda author Tom Allen's new book requires a double-take, you're probably not alone. After all, it mentions America's "First Civil War," which might leave you wondering when we suffered through a civil war other than the one that ended in 1865. As Allen thoroughly addresses in "Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War," the Revolutionary War was about more than the battle to win freedom from Great Britain. Although many colonists wanted...

The cannon at Nathaniel Woodhull School (PS 35) in Hollis is the only marker of death of the Revolutionary War general Nathaniel Woodhull. Historians are lobbying for official state signage. Exactly 234 years ago this month, a Revolutionary War general died from wounds incurred during a defiant showdown with the British - a gripping tale of patriotism that began in Queens. But the spot where Nathaniel Woodhull was mortally wounded in 1776 does not bear tribute to the first high-ranking colonial officer to become a prisoner of war and die in enemy captivity. "It needs to be preserved as a...

We’ve all been there. You’re having a grand old time at a drinking establishment — the stories and the drinks are flowing, an air of camaraderie permeates — and suddenly the music screeches to a halt because a few boneheads decide to get into a fight. Typical. Brooklyn has certainly seen some fights in its day, but nothing will ever quite compare to the battle witnessed by tavern-goers on August 27, 1776. This was one for the history books. Literally. The Battle of Brooklyn. This week marks the anniversary of that fateful fight, also known as the Battle of Long...

A digital sonar image of a different vessel on the floor of the York River. Shipwreck may date to 1781 siege YORK — Two years ago a sonar company in Gloucester was testing equipment in the York River when the crew hit the jackpot: an uncharted shipwreck on the river bottom. “That was quite a surprise,” said David Hazzard, an archaeologist with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. The area where the ship was found is well-documented. There have previously been nine documented shipwrecks in the York River associated with the Revolutionary War and the Siege at Yorktown. Seven ships...

Yorktown, a play set on the eve of the battle that ended the Revolutionary War, gets its world premiere at the June Havoc Theatre in Manhattan Aug. 6-28. Written by Robert Manns, the play is directed by Eric C. Dente and features a cast including Andrew Kaempfer, Jenny Strassburg, James Knight, Gregory Jones and Chloe Rose, with Tom O'Neill, Robbie Baum, Tommy Nelms and Jason Gray. Drama Garden produces the play. According to press notes, "In a field house overlooking the Colonial Army at the decisive battle of the American Revolution, two great generals and their wives devote themselves to...

Re-enactors march out of the field after commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Hubbardton, the only revolutionary war battle fought in Vermont. HUBBARDTON – The famous battle did not make much of a physical mark on Hubbardton. “It was hay fields and cow pastures before and it was hay fields and cow pastures immediately after,” said David Bernier, who coordinates the annual re-enactment of the battle. The ensuing two centuries may have changed the rest of the town, but they still made little mark on the battlefield. So, when between 300 and 500 re-enactors converge on it this weekend,...

Journal Register file photo Archaeologists excavate the cabin behind Washington's Headquarters at Valley Forge National Historical Park. UPPER MERION — Archaeologists believe they’ve found evidence of a log cabin Martha Washington mentioned in a letter to a friend 232 years ago while she was visiting her husband in Valley Forge. When National Park Service archaeologists began digging behind Washington’s Headquarters this summer, they spotted soil discoloration indicating a log cabin Gen. George Washington had built behind the headquarters to use as a dining hall for himself and his top military advisers during the six-month Revolutionary War encampment, according to Joe...

For a 14th straight year, James S. Kaplan spent the Fourth of July walking in the middle of the night among ghosts of the American Revolution. ... What Mr. Kaplan does every Independence Day, in recent years under the aegis of the Fraunces Tavern Museum, is guide several dozen people to sites in Lower Manhattan that have Revolutionary War significance. Only his tour begins at 2 a.m..snip... Perhaps another distinction is that Mr. Kaplan makes a point of stopping outside Trinity Church to note an injustice that he believes has been done to Horatio Gates, a Revolution-era general who commanded...

<p>NORTH WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.</p> <p>There’s always been a forlorn tale about history slipping away in the Miller House, a farmhouse where George Washington slept and plotted strategy during the Battle of White Plains in 1776.</p> <p>Elijah Miller and two of his sons died in the war. Anne Miller died in 1819. The house was restored and opened to the public in 1918. snip...Ms. Hohl doubts it will last another winter. The county’s plan was to raise $1.2 million to fix and restore the building and $600,000 or so more in private money to move it to a more accessible spot on county parkland near the Kensico Dam.</p>

Springfield celebrated the 230th anniversary of the Battle of Springfield with a dedication of a clock and benches in Patriot Park on Wednesday. Springfield resident and member of the 3rd New Jersey Regiment Mark Hurwitz tells the story of the battle. Springfield was burned to the ground by the English. SPRINGFIELD — Springfield paused this week to remember a time 230 years ago when it was under siege. snip... On June 23, 1780, Springfield stood in the way of the British army’s attempt to attack Washington’s Morristown headquarters. The Americans held their ground there, despite being outnumbered nearly three...

Most of the heroes in the Revolutionary War, from Washington down to the humblest recruit shivering through the winter at Valley Forge, fought on the land. The tiny, hastily formed Continental Navy—consisting mainly of improvised small craft and converted merchantmen—had to content itself with pinprick raids on enemy commercial shipping or coastal targets and occasional small-scale actions against lesser British military craft, never ships of the line in battle array. Only two American naval officers, both foreign-born, emerged from the Revolutionary War with true hero status, and only one of them, John Paul Jones, is widely remembered today. A vain...

Exactly 230 years ago today, American General Benjamin Lincoln surrendered his force of 6,000 men in Charleston. His move capped a 42-day British siege that had turned the central peninsula into a vast battleground. The siege's end ranked among the Patriots' worst defeats in the Revolutionary War, and it all unfolded in and around what's now known as Marion Square. At noon today, a group of historians and other onlookers will gather in the square, near King Street, to unveil a new historical marker highlighting this under-appreciated chapter in the city's history. If you go WHAT: Unveiling of a new...