Henry Knox

Henry Knox
Author: Mark Puls
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2010-05-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0230623883

A comprehensive biography of military tactician and later the nation's first Secretary of War, Henry Knox, that chronicles his childhood, military service with the Boston Grenadier Corps, and appointment to Washington's cabinet.

Liberty Men and Great Proprietors

Liberty Men and Great Proprietors
Author: Alan Taylor
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 398
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807839973

This detailed exploration of the settlement of Maine beginning in the late eighteenth century illuminates the violent, widespread contests along the American frontier that served to define and complete the American Revolution. Taylor shows how Maine's militant settlers organized secret companies to defend their populist understanding of the Revolution.

American Generals of the Revolutionary War

American Generals of the Revolutionary War
Author: Robert P. Broadwater
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2024-10-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0786491736

At the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, the colonies faced the daunting task of creating the first American army, and its requisite leadership, capable of combating a global superpower whose standing army and general ship were among the finest in the world. Built largely from state and local militias, the colonial army performed surprisingly well and produced a number of fine generals. Some were experienced before the war, like George Washington of the Virginia Militia and the British-born Horatio Gates, while others were as green as the soldiers they led. This book presents basic biographical information about America's first generals in the Revolutionary War. Included are all generals of the Continental Army, along with those commissioned in the colonies' militias. Drawn from primary sources, including death and census records, records of the Continental Congress, and contemporary writings, each biographical sketch provides date and place of birth, prewar education and occupation, wartime service, date and place of death, and place of burial. Portraits of each general are included where available, and appendices display important statistics, including comparative ages; occupations; officers lost by death, resignation, murder or changing loyalty; and states or countries of origin.

Adams Family Correspondence

Adams Family Correspondence
Author: Lyman Henry Butterfield
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 630
Release: 1963
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780674032750

A collection of letters exchanged by members of the Adams family through three full generations and part of a fourth beginning with the courtship of John Adams and Abigail Smith and ending with the death of Abigail Brooks Adams, wife of the first Charles Francis Adams, United States minister to London during the American Civil War.

Following the Drum

Following the Drum
Author: Nancy K. Loane
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2021-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1640123954

Friday, December 19, 1777, dawned cold and windy. Fourteen thousand Continental Army soldiers tramped from dawn to dusk along the rutted Pennsylvania roads from Gulph Mills to Valley Forge, the site of their winter encampment. The soldiers' arrival was followed by the army's wagons and hundreds of camp women. Following the Drum tells the story of the forgotten women who spent the winter of 1777-78 with the Continental Army at Valley Forge--from those on society's lowest rungs to ladies on the upper echelons. Impoverished and clinging to the edge of survival, many camp women were soldiers' wives who worked as the army's washers, nurses, cooks, and seamstresses. Other women at the encampment were of higher status: they traveled with George Washington's entourage when the army headquarters shifted locations and served the general as valued cooks, laundresses, or housekeepers. There were also the ladies at Valley Forge who were not subject to the harsh conditions of camp life and came and went as they and their husbands, Washington's generals and military advisers, saw fit. Nancy K. Loane uses sources such as issued military orders, pension depositions after the war, soldiers' descriptions, and some of the women's own diary entries and letters to bring these women to life.

Houses of the Founding Fathers

Houses of the Founding Fathers
Author: Hugh Howard
Publisher: Artisan Books
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2012-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1579655106

Presents a tour of the houses belonging to some of America's early leaders, sharing an inside look at the domestic world of the Founding Fathers to chronicle their private lives, families, culture, interests, and aspirations.

1776

1776
Author: David McCullough
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 438
Release: 2005-05-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0743287703

America’s beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story of the year of our nation’s birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of the Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed America’s survival in the hands of George Washington. In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known. Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough’s 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.

A History Of The Organizational Development Of The Continental Artillery During The American Revolution

A History Of The Organizational Development Of The Continental Artillery During The American Revolution
Author: Major William C. Pruett US Army
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2015-11-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1782899545

The thesis of this study is that the Continental artillery in the American Revolution, despite its ad hoc beginning and wartime challenges, gradually developed into a professional organization by the end of the war. Rather than operational history of the organization, its focus is on the growth of the organization over time, in terms of its cultural beginnings, its doctrinal development, and the leadership and career paths of some of its middle ranking leaders. The first chapter lays out the structural framework and statutory authorizations for the organization. The second chapter describes its early cultural shift from its pre-war legacy of provincialism to a trajectory toward professionalism. This chapter uses a cultural analysis to argue that Washington’s decision to replace the aged Richard Gridley with Henry Knox as the commander of the Continental artillery ushered in a cultural shift away from an older provincial organizational culture to one that sought professionalism. The third chapter portrays the development of a battlefield tactical doctrine described in books that gradually took hold in informal ways. It takes a comparative theory and practice approach to argue that the kernel of an emerging doctrine existed in available European books and from those kernels, a consistent and effective doctrine developed over time. The fourth chapter uses a collective biographical approach to show organizational development in the careers of its middle ranking leaders. The concluding chapter summarizes findings and ties the professionalization of the corps of artillery to the military establishments of the new republic.