Boston 1775

As I’ve been discussing, a British army court-martial ordered Lt. Col. William Walcott to be reprimanded on the Common in front of the se...

Thomas Hyde Page (1746–1821) graduated top in his class from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1769, winning a gold medal from the ...

As discussed yesterday , Lt. Col. Robert Donkin distributed Historical Collections and Remarks to most of his subscribers in the spring of...

On the afternoon of 27 Aug 1776, British and Hessian soldiers under Gen. James Grant advanced on a Continental force, including men from...

In June 1776, Lt. John Ragg of the marines was in Halifax, Nova Scotia , with the rest of the British military force evacuated from Boston...

The wound that Lt. John Ragg suffered at the Battle of Bunker Hill wasn’t bad enough to knock him out of the marines . He recovered, rem...

John Rowe reported that Monday, 11 Mar 1776, brought “Gloomy heavy Weather,” and his mood wasn’t any better. The day before, as quoted ye...

Here’s merchant John Rowe ’s diary entry for Sunday, 10 Mar 1776: Capn. Dawson is Returnd with Two Vessells —he has had a severe Brush with...

With Continental cannon pointing at Boston from Dorchester Heights, the merchant John Rowe realized that the siege was coming to an end....

As I continue to recount merchant John Rowe ’s experience of the end of the siege of Boston , I’ll skip his diary notes on the weather, soci...

I’ve looked for more sources about the British army deserter who reached the Continental lines around Boston on the night of 8–9 Mar 1776 a...

After Continental troops moved onto Dorchester heights on the night of 4–5 March 1776, Gen. George Washington and his commanders waited a...

For decades authors have quoted Gen. William Howe seeing the Continental fortifications on Dorchester heights and remarking: “These fello...

John G. McCurdy, author of Quarters , recently reviewed Julie Flavell’s The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the W...

As Parliament ’s 31 Oct 1776 debate over the American War went on, the next speaker was Sir Herbert Mackworth , recently made a baronet. T...

On 31 Oct 1776, Parliament opened a new legislative session. King George III addressed the assembled House of Commons and House of Lords. ...

Last week the Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Mount Vernon announced the finalists of the 2022 Ge...

Here are two more online talks to consider, both happening on Thursday but fortunately at different times. Thursday, 2 December, 1:00 P.M....

I’ve just shared the two versions of the story of Dr. Joseph Warren sneaking across the siege lines in early June 1775 to try to talk Dr...

When I started looking at Dr. John Jeffries ’s records of caring for young smallpox inoculatees in June 1775 , I hoped to find clues to his ...