The Great American History Blog

  Particularly unlucky were those Loyalist who actively took up arms or plotted against the Patriot cause. They suffered all of the pent up ...

  Late in 1775, Colonel Patrick Henry, on his own initiative, commissioned James Barron to arm a vessel and pursue two suspicious ships.   I...

  General John (“Gentleman Johnny”) Burgoyne surrendered a British Army at Saratoga, New York in October, 1777. The surrender terms document...

    Anna Maria Lane  (1755–1810) joined the Continental Army in 1776 with her husband John.   Lane’s is the only documented case in Virginia...

  Hundreds free and enslaved men from Virginia fought in the Patriot cause.   Like the rest of the population, these men had their own motiv...

    Hannah Lee Corbin (1728–1782) is reputed to be the first Virginia woman to take a stand for women's rights. She was born Hannah Lee...

  Elizabeth “Betty” Zane (1765–1823) was a heroine of the Revolutionary War. In 1782 Native American and Loyalist forces attacked a small g...

  George Washington's Riding Chair Movies often give the impression that everyone in the eighteenth century owned a horse.   In fact, ho...

  It is not generally known that during the time when he was becoming one of the leading Patriot leaders of Virginia Patrick Henry was under...

  At the outbreak of the American Revolution, William Grayson served as a captain of the local militia but left the Virginia forces to becom...

  Wealthy merchant Fielding Lewis, the husband of George Washington’s only sister, Betty, was a colonel in the Spotsylvania County militia. ...