Any American Revolutionary War history fans here?

It was an excellent show. Netflix has it as well.

We were richer compared to the rest of the world then than we are now. And powerful? Well, I guess it's easy to claim since we haven't been tested, but I don't have the same faith in our military thinkers that you have. I mean $6 million drones may be fancy, but the next war will probably be won by a billion $100 drones.

No I hate the American Revolution. The way its history is done is pompous and lacking any sort of comparative context. I like the Haitian Revolution.

I can understand how you think that the history is written in a "pompous" way, but I don't understand the part about "comparative context," R3.

Compared to what?

As far as causing earthquakes with sound weapons, I fear we are late to the party. Chinese Communists have been disorganizing minds with sounds waves for fifty years.

Also on Amazon Prime.

I have a direct ancestor who fought at Valley Forge.

The BF is very into this.

He is currently reading a book called "The British Are Coming" by Rick Atkinson which he said to tell you he highly recommends.

If you don't want to take his word for it, the Times gives it a stellar review

If you read R6 as an extension of R5, it's funny. And a little scary.

Being from Morristown, NJ we grew up on it, signs entering town proclaim "Military Capital of the Revolution" (which seems rather Soviet to me).

"I have a direct ancestor who fought at Valley Forge. "

So do I, an ancestor was one of General Washington's aides de camp.

I could join the DAR if I cared to! And if I were female.

Did the Redcoats present hole?

Join the Sons of the American Revolution, r11.

Has anyone been to the relatively new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia? The star attraction is the actual tent George Washington used during his campaigns.

No R14, but that sounds like a great idea for a surprise birthday trip, so thank you!

One of my favorite bits from Family Ties was about the American Revolution. Mallory needed to do a report on it and talked about how the British wore redcoats, but the Patriots went all casual.

[quote]the outcome produced the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world.

For someone who professes a love of history, your lack of historical knowledge and relevant context is troubling.

Roman Empire and Mongol Empire of Ghengis Khan?

Sorry R17, but that's just not true.

I'm not going to get into the many reasons you're so very wrong, but suffice it to say... you're wrong.

If you have any evidence to the contrary, feel free to produce it.

Sorry r18, but that's just not true.

I'm not going to get in the many reasons why you're so very wrong, but suffice it to say...you're wrong.

If you have any evidence to the contrary, feel free to produce it - since you're the one who made the initial faulty claim of that the revolution "produced the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world" which I rebutted with a claim made at the same level of abstraction as your initial claim.

Therefore, since we've both made assertions at the same level of abstraction, the next step is for you to provide support for your claim(s) - that the US is the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world.

Which I, in turn, will rebut with supporting evidence. Otherwise, I'm letting you off the hook by defending my position, which was a rebuttal to your claim, rather than your supporting yours.

Or not. Do as you please.

HEADLINE:

GAY MESSAGE BOARD POSTERS SOLVE ISSUE OF WHETHER UNITES STATES OR ROME WAS GREATER POWER

News at 11

Headline:

Silly Millennial Goes to a Thread Labeled for History Fans and Wonders Why It Discusses History

--Tweeted since they don't have the attention span to actually watch the news

TL;DR R21

Lmao!

It's a fascinating period of history.

Yes, OP.

I have an 1860 letter from my Great-Great Grandpa, Young Sam, about his Great-Grandpa, Old Sam, who he knew to age 20. The letter has mistakes of memory. There are differences between what I can prove about war service (pensions, etc., they paid war-service pensions then), and what is in the letter, but it seems thusly:

The men from my native hometown, Marblehead, MA, assembled in a militia, and marched to Bunker Hill because they heard of the commotion. They arrived late, but still engaged the British.

Old Sam either marched there with the militia, or he heard the stories from the returning men. He got pissed off and definitely signed with the Continental Army a week later as a drummer boy, being only 14. He served in Cambridge under Washington for 9 months. He eventually lost a log, and had to give up being a mariner and became an artist.

The Marblehead boys, being expert mariners, were the soldiers who rowed Washington’s Army across the East River, and then the Delaware River, thus saving the Republic.

The end.

Here’s a British drum from the Bunker Hill Museum. You surely know that the drummers were used to signal battle action, and to help troops pace their steps while marching.

Old Sam lost a [italic] leg, [/italic] not a log. Though he might also have lost a log, I don’t know.

Thank you, OP, I will watch that.

There was this ship builder who was in the “Sons of Liberty”, a pro-revolution group, and a participant in the Boston Tea Party. A book I bought in Boston’s Old North Church said that his burial place was unknown. That was the church that hung the lantern in the steeple, in Longfellow’s poem, to signal Paul Revere (“One if by land, two if by sea...”). The family was friends with Revere and entertained him often.

I actually found the guy’s burial place - it was in a crypt in that very Church! I researched it because he’s buried with my own family and I thought there might be an intermarriage, but there wasn’t. They were just business associates and pals. I got the man’s descendants admitted to the Sons of the American Revolution, which still exists. I go to their lectures, when they have one.

Keep in mind r28 Longfellow wrote a poem and took great poetic license in the story. Paul Revere already knew what was up before he crossed the river, he did not need the lanterns. He never said “the British are coming,” they were considered British themselves, he would have said “the Regulars are coming,” which is what they called the British soldiers

Paul Revere NEVER made it to Concord, he was captured and held by the soldiers. History should remember Samuel Prescott, an excellent horseman he ran into on the ride, who managed to outmaneuver the soldiers, get way and flee to Concord warning them of the invasion and preparing them for the battle.

Revere never rode off into the night warning everyone, he was held for awhile. Longfellow wrote the poem as propaganda to rally the North into fighting the Civil War, trying to inspire the idea that each person can make a difference in their actions.

I taught the poem, the historical record and read Paul Revere’s deposition as a primary source document to show how these elements intersect informing what we know about an historical event to my 4th grade students. Here’s a link to the deposition, which is interesting reading. The kids loved all the “God damns!” Paul said. You can click transcription to read it yourself.

R29, thank you, I will read it tomorrow.

I have at least one other Rev War soldier ancestor. A colonel who enlisted in the town militia at age 36. No escapades of note, to me.

Marblehead was a fishing town, but the British had a blockade. With no other way to earn money, the Brits, no doubt, encouraged the town’s men to enlist in the army to earn money.

In the oldest Marblehead cemetery, there are only two Blacks buried there, as far as I can tell.

One was a slave who seems to have raised the family children, after the mother died. No idea on the relationship between the father and “Agnis Negro”. But I imagine the children putting up a fuss when she died, to demand she be buried with the family. She died 1718.

The Black fellow buried there was “Black Joe” and seems to have been well liked. IIRC, he owned a tavern. He made a biscuit that didn’t go stale, which was a big deal as the fishermen would go out to sea for months with packages of biscuits. He also served in the Revolution. His gravemarker notes so, and adds “a well respected citizen”. Died 1834.

I wonder how much buggery happened among the fisherman at sea for months.

Me too, R32, but they were very religious. My 10th great grandfather was fined for working on the Sabbath! One time they charged him, but excused him, because “the cows really needed tending”. Isn’t that funny? I think cows need to be milked every day.

My ancestor painted this. It’s a copy of a famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. To demonstrate that it’s a copy and not a forgery, he added a moon in the sky, which is not in the original.

The original of this is in Marblehead.

I like this one.

Here’s some trivia:

OP, one of the first Americans to die in the Revolution was a Black man, Crispus Attucks.

Future President John Adams was the lawyer who defended the British soldiers who fired their guns in the Boston Massacre.

I heard a historian say that newspapers were so expensive, that one person would buy one, then read it to his friends in the coffee houses and bars.

Also, he said that the rebels had a team of riders to deliver important news in the colonies. So the news of the massacre in Boston would have reached Portland, Maine; and Richmond, Virginia, very quickly.

Benedict Arnold led the British to burn down my home town, New London, CT, a port city. As a child, we yearly toured one of the old historic homes that escaped the fire. We also toured Ft. Griswold in Groton, CT. When the America General surrendered it to the British, the British General accepted the American’s sword, then used it to run the American through. That kind of thing wasn’t done then, or even now, usually.

[quote] the British General accepted the American’s sword, then used it to run the American through

Not sure what you meant by this.

Do you mean he killed him with the sword?

Yes, r40, he thrust the sword right through him.

R39 I can't see in this link where the British General murders the revolutionary.

oh god, that yankee doodle guy. yes, we all know some relative is buried at the old north church. you have said it enough.

Shut it, R43.

This is the thread for him to share!

It's what the op asked.

There needs to be a source for R39's story. I've never heard it. So far as I know, the main 'war crimes' assertions during and after the war were against the Americans, because of how they treated prisoners of war. Their French allies were reportedly appalled.

[quote] I can't see in this link where the British General murders the revolutionary.

R42, it's in the Battle section

Jonathan Rathbun described a British officer cold-bloodedly killing Colonel Ledyard with Ledyard's own sword:

The wretch who murdered him [Ledyard] exclaimed, as he came near, "Who commands this fort?" Ledyard handsomely replied, "I did, but you do now," at the same moment handing him his sword, which the unfeeling villain buried in his breast! Oh, the hellish spite and madness of a man that will murder a reasonable and noble-hearted officer, in the act of submitting and surrendering![32]

There's Gore Vidal's Burr, which has a running account of the Revolution. Very Entertaining in that sassy / brilliant Vidal manner. I wonder why nobody thought to re-publish it during the whole Hamilton Mania?

R11 - There is an organization called Society of the Descendants of Washington's Army at Valley Forge. Membership is open to both men and women, as long as you can conclusively prove through various genealogical records that you are a direct descendant. My dad proved the direct line and I was able to use my birth certificate and his membership number to prove my qualifications for membership.

Thank you, r44. R43’s grandfather was hatched in a dung heap, and he’s sensitive about that.