July 12, 2020
The British Fleet deploys an army of over 15,000 British and Hessian soldiers at Head of Elk, Maryland. It takes the army several days to unload and to recover from the long journey. The Americans move to Wilmington Delaware as they scouted out the enemy. The armies clash several days later at Cooch's Bridge before the British move into Pennsylvania.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: The British Invasion of Delaware, Aug-Sep 1777, by Gerald J. Kauffman and Michael R. Gallagher
Online Recommendation of the Week: Proceedings at the unveiling of the monument at Cooch's Bridge, Historical Society of Delaware https://archive.org/details/proceedingsatunv00wilm
June 21, 2020
With a demoralized and shrinking Continental Army facing General Burgoyne's invasion of upstate New York, New Englanders turn to a disaffected former Continental colonel, John Stark, to form a militia army.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: Stark; The Life and Wars of John Stark, French and Indian War Ranger, Revolutionary War General, by Richard & John Polhemus
Online Recommendation of the Week: eBook: A Life of General John Stark of New Hampshire, by Howard P. Moore. https://archive.org/details/lifeofgeneraljoh00moor
June 14, 2020
On August 22, 1777, the Americans launch two independent raids on British defenses around New York City. General Sullivan leads an attack on Staten Island, while General Putnam orders a raid on Setauket, Long Island.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: Lost British Forts of Long Island, by David M Griffin
Online Recommendation of the Week: The Military Services and Public Life of Major-General John Sullivan of the American Revolutionary Army, by Thomas Coffin Amory: https://archive.org/details/militaryservice00amorgoog
June 7, 2020
General Nicholas Herkimer leads a militia relief force to save Fort Stanwix. A native an militia force form St. Leger's Army ambushes the relief force in the bloody battle of Oriskany. The relief force retreats and the siege continues.
Days later, General Benedict Arnold leads a relief force to the fort. After the enemy believes exaggerated numbers of Arnold's army, the force under St. Leger flees back to Lake Ontario. Arnold lifts the siege and keeps the fort in American hands.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: Rebellion in the Mohawk Valley: The St. Leger Expedition of 1777, by Gavin K. Watt
Online Recommendation of the Week: Orderly book of Sir John Johnson during the Oriskany Campaign, 1776-1777, by William Leete Stone (ed): https://archive.org/details/cu31924032310629
May 31, 2020
As General Burgoyne Launches his Campaign from Canada into upstate New York, General Barry St. Leger leads a second army made up primarily of Native Americans and Loyalists through Western New York's Mohawk Valley. St. Leger planned to capture Fort Stanwix, then link up with Burgoyne's army at Albany.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: With Musket and Tomahawk. Volume II: The Mohawk Valley Campaign in the Wilderness War of 1777, by Michael O. Logusz.
Online Recommendation of the Week: ebook, Border Wars of the American Revolution, Vol. 1, by William Leets Stone: https://archive.org/details/borderwarsamrev01stonrich
May 24, 2020
General William Howe gets a late start to the 1777 fighting campaign, not leaving New York City until the end of July. He opts to sail all they way to Virginia and then up the Chesapeake Bay to land in Maryland, with Philadelphia as his goal.
Weeks of the British Army at sea leave the Continentals perplexed and guessing at what the ultimate goal would be.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: The Philadelphia Campaign: Volume One: Brandywine and the Fall of Philadelphia, by Thomas J. McGuire
Online Recommendation of the Week: The Civil War 1861-1865 (Podcast) CivilWarPodcast.org
May 17, 2020
The Marquis de Lafayette, a young french noble with dreams of fighting for liberty travels to America to become a major general in the Continental Army. In doing so, he must overcome skepticism and resistance from both sides of the Atlantic.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered, by Laura Auricchio
Online Recommendation of the Week: ebook, The Life of General Lafayette, by John Quincy Adams: https://archive.org/details/lifeofgenerallaf00adam
May 10, 2020
General Burgoyne's army reaches the Hudson river after slogging through the wilderness for most of August 1777. Burgoyne relied on his Indian allies to keep the enemy from setting up ambushes or otherwise interfering with progress.
After an Indian returned with the scalp of Jane McCrea, the fiancé of one of his officers, Burgoyne had to put restrictions on the Indians. Most warriors responded by leaving the army and returning home. The story of Jane McCrea became a rallying point for Americans against the barbarous tactic of the British.
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Book Recommendation of the Week: The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution, by Alan Taylor
Online Recommendation of the Week: The Life of Jane McCrea, by David Wilson: https://archive.org/details/lifeofjanemccrea01wils
