Tarleton’s Quarter
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Last week, the British turned the focus of the Revolutionary War south, first capturing Savannah, Georgia in 1779, and then taking Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780. After taking these two key ports, the plan was to extend British influence inland and then move like a wave up through North […]
Turning South
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Okay, so last time we ended with the newly minted British Commander in Chief Henry Clinton, fending off the American attack at Monmouth Courthouse and escaping with his army up to New York City. Just barely unable to prevent this escape, George Washington then led his own forces north, eventually […]
Valley Forge
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. Okay, so I did in fact survive my week with the boy. So we are back. When we left off last time, the Americans had just ‘Burgoyned‘ the British up at Saratoga. Seriously, ‘to Burgoyne someone’ briefly entered the American vocabulary. The British surrender had profound consequences for the course […]
Saratoga
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So last week, we dropped off General Washington at Valley Forge, where he would try to hold his army together over the rough winter of 1777-1778. Meanwhile, we will be going back in time to cover the Saratoga campaign of 1777 that did so much to turn the course of […]
Crossing the Delaware
Hello, and welcome to Revolutions. So I want to start this week with a brief note about Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, helpfully provided in the comments by listener T. Scott Johnson. It would appear that a recent book called The Republic in print has pretty effectively debunked the myth that Common Sense reached anywhere near […]