Remembering Rose O’Neal Greenhow, Civil War Confederate Spy
Mrs. Rose Greenhow portrait, circa 1855-1865. Brady-Handy photograph collection, Library of Congress The Civil War produced a war machine that had never been thought possible in the early decades of...
Remembering John Billington, Mayflower Passenger and Convicted Murderer
We tend not to think of our Pilgrim ancestors as violent people, and for the most part they weren’t. There were exceptions, however, in the case of John Billington is one of them. We share his...
ELIZABETH VAN LEW: Richmond’s Defiant Spymaster in the Heart of the Confederacy
In the divided world of Civil War Richmond, where loyalty to the Confederacy was expected and dissent was dangerous, one woman quietly built one of the most effective espionage networks of the entire...
Why Did Benedict Arnold Betray America?
Historians offer up many explanations, including that the Revolutionary War general may have had some self-esteem issues as a child and young man. Benedict Arnold was once a patriotic war hero valued...
September 22, 1776: Nathan Hale is Hanged by the British as an American Spy
There are many iconic moments in the history of the American Revolution that Americans tend to remember: Paul Revere’s ride, Washington crossing the Delaware, and so on. One such iconic moment we...
Remembering James Wilson, the Brilliant, Restless Mind Behind “We the People”
If you ask most Americans who were the most important “Founding Fathers,” chances are that only a tiny fraction will name the man who at the time was considered perhaps the most important of...
Remembering Admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse: Hero of the American Revolution
We’ve written about the famous “Battle of the Chesapeake” that took place on September 5, 1781, in which a French fleet defeated a smaller British fleet in a fierce sea battle that took place...
Remembering Euthanasia Sherman Meade, Frontier Physician and Niece of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman
When we think of courageous women of the 19th century, among the top ten would be Clara Barton, the Civil War-era nurse who served on the battlefields of the “war between the States,” and who...
September 7, 1857: The Mountain Meadows Massacre Takes Place, A Black Mark on the History of the American West
The history of the American West is replete with stories of atrocities committed by Native-Americans against white settlers, and vice-versa. There is no escaping that our U.S. government failed to...
September 5, 1781: The French Navy Defeats the British Navy in the Battle of the Chesapeake, Setting Up the American Victory at Yorktown
Most Americans know that the battle that effectively ended the American Revolution was the Battle of Yorktown, pitting British General Cornwallis against General George Washington and his French...
