On this day in 1776, General George Washington wins the Battle of Trenton. 1776 had been a difficult year. The victory provided a much-needed morale boost. As discussed in yesterday’s post , the beginning of December found Washington and British General William Howe on opposite sides of the Delaware River. As the weather deteriorated, Howe had decided to go into winter quarters. Washington, instead, decided to make a difficult crossing of the Delaware. His plan was to arrive

On this day in 1776, General George Washington makes a harrowing trip across the Delaware River, in the dead of night. The tremendous feat came just when it was needed most. Washington’s army was reeling from a series of crushing defeats: The British had won important battles in New York and had chased Americans across New Jersey. Early in December, a defeated American army had narrowly escaped across the Delaware River. That river provided a barrier from further British atta

On this day in 1783, General George Washington resigns his commission as Commander-in-Chief of the American army. Okay. So we’ve all heard this story about Washington before. We’ve heard it so often, perhaps it is easy to gloss over the astonishing nature of Washington’s action. Let me emphasize: What Washington did during this week 242 years ago is almost unheard of. Other military leaders have seized power and refused to let it go. But Washington would not be one of these m

On this day in 1773, a group of American colonists boards three ships in Boston Harbor and throws 46 tons of tea overboard. Yes, you guessed it. The anniversary of the original Boston Tea Party is this weekend!   It’s the semiquincentennial, or 250th anniversary, of this landmark event. These colonists were protesting the Tea Act of 1773, enacted by Britain earlier that year. Believe it or not, the Tea Act did not raise taxes on the colonists. Americans had been paying taxes

On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress flees Philadelphia, fearing a British advance. Things had not been going well for the Patriot cause.   “From the last week of August to the last week of December,” historian David McCullough writes, “the year 1776 had been as dark a time as any in the history of the country.”   Indeed, the Continental Army was reeling from a series of crushing defeats: Losses at Brooklyn Heights, New York City, and White Plains had sent American f

On this day in 1787, New Jersey’s state ratification convention begins. It would quickly approve the then-new U.S. Constitution, making New Jersey the third state to join the union.   New Jersey’s quick action is interesting, if only because the state’s delegates to the Constitutional Convention had expressed doubt about the earliest draft of the Constitution.   They definitely were not on board with that  idea! When the Constitutional Convention opened in the summer of 1787,

On this day in 1748, James Armistead is born. He began life as a slave, but he would become an important spy during the American Revolution. He ended his life as a free man and a farmer in Virginia. Armistead was the slave of a Virginia official named William Armistead. In 1781, he received permission to leave and join the American Army. Once there, he was soon tasked with a special mission: The Marquis de Lafayette wanted Armistead to pose as a runaway slave and infiltrate t

At about this time in 1783, George Washington says his final goodbye to a group of officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York. New York had served as the British headquarters throughout the long years of the American Revolution. It was the last city to be evacuated when the war was over! On November 25, however, the British finally left , and George Washington entered the city. Despite the celebrations and elaborate dinners that ensued over the course of the next week, the Briti

On this day in 1776, American forces arrive on the banks of the Delaware River. They’d been retreating from the British—yet again! Surely George Washington was beginning to get tired of it all?   If only he and his men could have known that the miraculous victory at Trenton was just around the corner.   Mere weeks before, a few thousand Americans had been trapped and forced to surrender at Fort Washington, close to Manhattan. At the time, Washington was across the river with

On this day in 1783, the British finally evacuate New York, which had been their headquarters during the American Revolution. Maybe you won’t be surprised to hear that the British took one last stab at insulting Americans before they left? They hoisted the Union Jack up a flagpole and greased the pole. The grease would make it difficult for Americans to switch out the flag for one of their own. A young sailor, John Van Arsdale, was undeterred. He put on some cleats and climbe

On this day in 1780, a force led by Benjamin Tallmadge silently crosses the Long Island Sound. You might know Tallmadge for his association with the Culper Spy Ring, but on this occasion, he was on a different sort of mission: George Washington had authorized him to attack a British fort.   The attack came mere weeks after Benedict Arnold’s treason, and Tallmadge would write that “my former scheme of annoying the enemy on Long Island came fresh upon my mind” in the wake of Ar

On this day in 1751, Revolutionary War patriot Margaret Cochran Corbin is born. Margaret is one of the patriotic women behind the folk hero “Molly Pitcher.”   “[Molly Pitcher] has held a revered place in the patriotic lore of the American Revolution,” one National Archives article concludes, “right next to Betsy Ross.” Yet no one is sure if one woman inspired the legend or if “Molly Pitcher is merely a persona created from numerous sources.”   Whether she was the true inspira

On this day in 1781, George Washington’s stepson passes away. It had been less than three weeks since Washington’s victory over British General Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown. What an odd mixture of emotions? Washington had been celebrating America’s miraculous victory after a long, brutal war. Now he was mourning the death of his only stepson. George Washington never had any children of his own. Historians speculate that an early case of smallpox, apparently followed by tub

On this day in 1732, a baby boy is born. While that boy was born into slavery, he would go on to become a free man and a hero of our American Revolution.   Relatively little is known about Jordan Freeman’s early life, but we do know that he was born into the household of Richard Lord of Old Lyme, Connecticut. At some point, Jordan was sold to Groton merchant John Ledyard. John, in turn, gave Jordan to his son William to be his “man-servant.”   The two became friends, and Will

On this day in 1776, George Washington’s army loses the Battle of White Plains, but it is one of those losses that doesn’t feel like a defeat: General Sir William Howe missed his chance to completely crush the American army. And, on a humorous note, he’d perhaps learned a thing or two about the tenacity of the upstart colonists who now took on the powerful British Army. The Battle of White Plains came not long after Washington’s men had been forced out of first Brooklyn, then

On this day in 1781, George Washington’s aide-de-camp continues a multi-day ride from Yorktown to Philadelphia. You might know about Paul Revere’s famous midnight ride, but do you know about Tench Tilghman’s? Paul Revere’s service earned him a poem, and he’s endured in American memory ever since. By contrast, Tilghman’s ride has gone mostly unnoticed—but the effort took so much out of him that he was sick for days afterwards. Tilghman didn’t mind. He’d been entrusted with the

On this day in 1746, Esther de Berdt Reed is born. Some say that she worked so hard to support the Revolution that she literally worked herself into an early grave. She was just shy of 34 years old when she passed away. Esther was the wife of Joseph Reed, the military secretary to George Washington. Esther had moved to America with her new husband only a few years before the war began. You can imagine that she initially felt torn between loyalty to the country of her birth an

On this day in 1778, the Affair at Little Egg Harbor occurs near the coast of New Jersey. Unfortunately, “affair” is too kind of a word. It was more like a massacre.   Little Egg Harbor was a base for American privateers during the Revolution. These privateers would capture British transport ships, then take the captured cargoes inland. Some cargo was sold. At times, supplies intended for the British army made their way to Washington’s troops instead.   British Sir Henry Clin

On this day in 1780, a band of Loyalists is defeated at the lesser-known Battle of Shallow Ford.  It was the second Patriot victory...

On or around this day in 1777, George Washington’s spy ring in Pennsylvania gets to work. Maybe you’ve heard of Revolutionary-era spies...