Boston 1775

Yesterday I started quoting a 29 Apr 1776 letter from the Rev. Dr. Samuel Cooper to Samuel Adams about Boston’s defenses soon after the B...

In the HUB History podcast episode “Drinker, Draftsman, Soldier, Spy,” Jake Sconyers quotes my remark on how difficult it is to track Capt....

Continuing my speculation about what might have happened if Paul Revere and William Dawes hadn’t alerted Lexington about the regulars ...

On Saturday I attended the “Spies Among Us” event in Concord , described back here . Top highlights: Seeing the Wright Tavern sprucing u...

Yesterday I wrote about Ens. Henry DeBerniere , the young mapmaking army officer. He turned up at Henry and Christian Barnes ’s house in...

A few days back , I linked again to a hand-drawn map at the Library of Congress that appears to be the work of Ens. Henry DeBerniere . The ...

Last month Alexander Cain at Historical Nerdery announced a resource for people researching the Battle of Lexington and Concord ahead of ...

On Thursday, 15 September, I’ll deliver an online lecture for the Golden Ball Tavern Museum in Weston . The talk will be titled “General ...

William Browne received his commission as a captain in the British army on 24 June 1771. He must have enlisted at a lower rank a few years...

On 22 Feb 1775, Gen. Thomas Gage dispatched two army officers (and the servant of one of them) to scout out the roads to Worcester and le...

On 18–19 Apr 1775, Ens. Henry DeBerniere was in the column of British troops that marched to Concord and back. Having visited the town lo...

Earlier in the year I analyzed a map almost certainly made by Ens. Henry DeBerniere after his scouting expeditions in the Massachusetts c...

On 10 May 1816, the Wilkesbarre Gleaner newspaper, published by Charles Miner, announced a discovery about the Battle of Bunker Hill , more...

On 30 June 1775, Ens. Henry DeBerniere was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the 10th Regiment of Foot. Nine months later, on 17 Marc...

Ens. Henry DeBerniere went back to Concord on the British army expedition of 18-19 April. Indeed, DeBerniere probably served as a close...

When Capt. William Brown and Ens. Henry DeBerniere first ventured out into the Massachusetts countryside in civilian clothes , from 23 Feb...

Yesterday I started to discuss a hand-drawn map from the Library of Congress that Ed Redmond has identified as likely coming from British a...

In 2016, Ed Redmond of the Library of Congress’s Geography and Map Division shared an interesting discovery about an item in that collectio...

When we left Capt. William Brown and Ens. Henry DeBerniere , they were in a back room of Henry Barnes ’s house in Marlborough , listening a...