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Bernardo de
Gálvez the Spanish governor of Louisiana and commander of Spanish forces in
North America is the best-known Hispanic of the American Revolution. When Spain joined the fight against England, Galvez
captured Baton Rouge, Natchez, Mobile, and Pensacola, opening a second front
against Britain and supplying the Continental Army with weapons, ammunition,
medicine, and funding. Congress later granted him honorary U.S. citizenship.
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The Founding Fathers are often
portrayed as stoic, wig-wearing statesmen, but many were deeply unconventional
characters whose quirks, obsessions, and larger-than-life personalities added
color to the Revolutionary era.
Thomas Jefferson was a brilliant but
peculiar inventor and tinkerer. At Monticello, he installed innovations like a
wine dumbwaiter, automatic double doors, a calendar clock with weights dropping
into the cellar, and a revolving serving door (lazy Susan). He bathed his feet
in cold water daily, kept a pet mockingbird that perched on his shoulder and
ate from his lips, and shocked contemporaries by eating tomatoes (then viewed
with suspicion).
A shabby dresser who preferred riding
horseback over carriages, Jefferson had a reported fear of public speaking and
an obsessive love of cataloging and order. His multifaceted genius came with
many eccentric edges.
The Founding Fathers are often
portrayed as stoic, wig-wearing statesmen, but many were deeply unconventional
characters whose quirks, obsessions, and larger-than-life personalities added
color to the Revolutionary era.
Benjamin Franklin stands out as perhaps
the most delightfully eccentric. He famously took daily “air baths,” sitting
naked at an open window for 30–60 minutes to promote health through fresh air
circulation. He conducted wild electrical experiments, including nearly
electrocuting himself while trying to cook a turkey with a shock and using
electricity for party tricks like electrified wine glasses.
A prolific inventor (swim fins,
bifocals, the glass harmonica), he also wrote satirical pieces like “Fart Proudly” and used multiple pseudonyms. Franklin’s restless curiosity and
disregard for convention made him a beloved oddball who retired early from
business to pursue science and diplomacy.
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
George Washington at
Princeton by Charles Willson
Peale (1779)
Painted
during the war, this portrait shows Washington after his victory at the Battle
of Princeton in January 1777. Peale, who knew Washington, captured him in a
commanding yet approachable pose amid the battlefield. It is one of the most
important contemporary portraits of the era.
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
The Spirit of ’76 (Yankee Doodle) by Archibald MacNeal Willard (1876)
Created
for the U.S. Centennial, this depicts three generations of musicians—an elderly
drummer, a younger fifer, and a boy—marching through a battlefield. It evokes
enduring patriotism, resilience, and the Revolutionary spirit. Though not
depicting a specific event, it became a quintessential symbol of American
independence.
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
The Death of General
Warren at the Battle of Bunker’s Hill by John Trumbull (1786)
Trumbull
memorializes the June 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill and the death of Dr. Joseph
Warren, a prominent Patriot. The chaotic battle scene captures heroism and
sacrifice, drawing on Trumbull's firsthand war experience. It is one of his
series of eight major Revolutionary history paintings.
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
The Bloody Massacre (Boston Massacre) by
Paul Revere (1770)
Though an engraving rather than an oil
painting, this is one of the most influential images from the Revolutionary
era. Paul Revere's propaganda print shows British soldiers firing into a crowd
of unarmed Boston civilians on March 5, 1770, killing five. It exaggerates
British aggression to inflame colonial sentiment and remains a powerful example
of visual propaganda.
Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis by John Trumbull
(1820)
A Trumbull masterpiece in the Capitol
Rotunda, this depicts the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, effectively
ending major combat. American and French forces receive the surrender
(Cornwallis himself is absent, citing illness). The painting highlights the
Franco-American alliance and military triumph, with careful attention to
uniforms and figures based on Trumbull's research and portraits.
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
Sully's
massive canvas portrays Washington on horseback overseeing the Delaware
crossing, with soldiers, horses, and cannons in dramatic action under a stormy
sky. It emphasizes tension and resolve. Though less famous than Leutze’s
version, it was an ambitious early attempt at the subject.
The American Revolution (1775 to1783)
inspired generations of artists who sought to capture its drama, heroism,
sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were created long after the
events—often blending historical fact with artistic license and symbolism—these
paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans visualize their founding
struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda pieces to grand
19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
The March to Valley
Forge by William B. T. Trego
(1883)
Trego
depicts the Continental Army's grueling winter march to Valley Forge in
December 1777, highlighting hardship, resilience, and determination. Soldiers
trudge through snow with Washington leading; it humanizes the suffering and
endurance of the Revolutionary forces.
These
artworks, while often romanticized, have educated and inspired millions. Many
hang in major museums or the U.S. Capitol, and their reproductions appeared in
textbooks, prints, and currency. They remind us that the Revolution was not
just a series of battles but a profound story of ideas, sacrifice, and nation-building.
For deeper study, resources from the American Revolution Institute and museums
like the Met offer rich context.
Virginia in the American Revolution
How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs
,_by_John_Trumbull.jpg)
The
American Revolution (1775 to1783) inspired generations of artists who sought to
capture its drama, heroism, sacrifice, and ideals. While many works were
created long after the events—often blending historical fact with artistic
license and symbolism—these paintings have profoundly shaped how Americans
visualize their founding struggle. They range from near-contemporary propaganda
pieces to grand 19th-century historical epics. Among the best:
The Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull
(1819)
John Trumbull, a Continental Army
veteran often called the "Painter of the Revolution," created this
iconic scene of the Committee of Five (including Thomas Jefferson, John Adams,
and Benjamin Franklin) presenting the Declaration draft to Congress on June 28,
1776. The painting idealizes the moment with key founders prominently featured
in a grand hall. Multiple versions exist; the large one hangs in the U.S.
Capitol Rotunda. It prioritizes symbolic unity over strict historical accuracy.
Saratoga was actually a campaign fought in two major actions
in 1777, Freeman’s Farm and Bemis Heights. British General John Burgoyne
advanced south from Canada but became overextended, short of supplies, and
unable to secure the support he expected. American forces under Horatio Gates,
with key battlefield leadership from Benedict Arnold, held their ground and
eventually forced Burgoyne’s surrender.
Its importance was diplomatic as much as military. Saratoga convinced
France that the Americans had a real chance to win, helping bring French
support into the Revolutionary War. That alliance changed the war from a
colonial rebellion into a global struggle against Britain.
General George Washington wrote of the march into Valley Forge: "To see men without
clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes by
which their marches might be traced by the blood from their feet, and almost as
often without provisions as with; marching through frost and snow and at
Christmas taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the enemy,
without a house or hut to cover them till they could be built, and submitting
to it without a murmur is a mark of patience and obedience which in my opinion
can scarce be paralleled."
George Washington
reached out for support, writing, "for some days past, there has been
little less, than a famine in camp. A part of the army has been a week, without
any kind of flesh, and the rest for three or four days. Naked and starving as
they are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the
soldiery.
The Continental Army that marched into Valley Forge consisted
of about 12,000 people, including soldiers, women, and children. That winter, starvation and disease killed
nearly 2,000 soldiers.
The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot
The Bermuda Gunpowder Plot of 1775, was a covert operation where Bermudians
sympathetic to the American Revolution stole about 100 barrels of British
gunpowder from a magazine in St. George’s, Bermuda, and delivered it to
American ships. This supply was vital for the Continental Army, which was
critically short on powder early in the war.
St. George Tucker, a 22-year-old Virginian studying law at the College of
William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, took part in the plot. Born in Bermuda
to a prominent family, he had moved to Virginia around 1771 and was living
there in 1775. His father, Henry Tucker, a leading Bermudian merchant,
negotiated the deal with Benjamin Franklin and Robert Morris in Philadelphia,
trading the gunpowder for an exemption from the Continental Congress's trade
embargo on British colonies. Tucker shared details about the lightly guarded
magazine with Americans, including a letter to Thomas Jefferson on June 8,
1775, pleading for relief from the embargo and confirming the powder's
vulnerability. On the night of August 14, 1775, he helped roll the barrels from
the magazine to Tobacco Bay for loading onto American ships.
Tucker returned to Virginia after the raid, served in the Continental Army (where he was wounded twice), became a prominent lawyer, judge, and law professor.
Freedom of religion, as we understand it, did not exist in America
until after the American Revolution. The Church of England was legally made the
established church. The established church was closely linked to the political
and financial elites.
Secrets of Early America 1607-1816
Daniel Nimham
Stockbridge, Massachusetts began as a mission or “praying
town” for Mochicans and Wappinger Indians.
The so-called Stockbridge Indians supported the Patriot cause during the
Revolution vowing:
“Wherever your armies go, there we will
go; you shall always find us by your side; and if providence calls us to
sacrifice our Lives in the field of battle, we will fall where you fall, and
lay our bones by yours. Nor shall peace ever be made between our nation and the
Red Coats.
Some of the Stockbridge
Indians enlisted as early as 1775, primarily as scouts and sharpshooters, and
were eventually allowed to serve in their own company. The unit suffered devastating casualties
fighting near Knightsbridge, New York (in what is now the Bronx) in 1778.
Daniel Nimham was the last chief of the Wappinger
People. He joined the Patriot cause in
Boston at the age of 49. He and his son
Abraham were killed at the Battle of Knightsbridge.
Sergeant Major John Champe (1752 -1798) was a senior enlisted soldier in the Continental Army
serving in the Virginia Cavalry under “Light Horse Harry” Lee. In October 1780, “Lee’s Legion” was encamped
near Bergen, New Jersey, a few miles from the Hudson River. It was
here that Champe, a native of Loudon County, became involved in one of
the most fantastic plots of the war.
Namely, the kidnapping of the traitor Benedict Arnold.
In September 1780, Arnold’s plot to surrender the
stronghold of West Point (and possibly George Washington as his prisoner) to
the British unraveled. Arnold fled to
the British and was rewarded with cash and the rank of brigadier general in the
British Army. George Washington wanted
the traitor brought before him alive, “My aim is to make a public example of
him.” Washington’s plan called for a soldier to cross the
Hudson River and present himself in New York as a deserter. With the aid of spies already in New York,
this secret agent would then kidnap Arnold and bring him back across the Hudson
into American lines. Did
General Lee know of a man up to the task?
Indeed he did, one John Champe who “was
about twenty-three or twenty-four years of age, had enlisted in 1776, rather
above the common size, full of bone and muscle, with a saturnine countenance,
grave, thoughtful, and taciturn, of tried courage and inflexible perseverance.”
Champe was intrigued
with the plan which he found “powerful and delicious.” Champe was not concerned
with the danger but was troubled by the idea of being seen as a deserter. General Lee assured Champe that his
reputation would be protected if the enterprise failed. And so the die was cast. On the night of October 20, 1780, John Champe
rode off with his arms to desert to the British. An American patrol spotted him and, when he
did not halt when given the command, the patrol gave chase. Only moments ahead
of the pursuing patrol, Champe plunged into
the Hudson River and swam toward a British warship. The warship sent a boat to
pick him up and fired upon the pursuing Americans.
Champe was questioned by a series of
ever-higher-ranking British officers to whom he told the same story over and
over. Men like himself were following Benedict
Arnold's example. The morale among
American troops was low. The British
already believed disaffection was rampant in Washington’s army and so were only
too willing to believe Champe’s story.
He was introduced to Benedict Arnold, who made Champe
one of his recruiting sergeants for the Loyalist American Legion. Champe now had continuous access to Arnold’s
house overlooking the Hudson River.
Champe sent General Lee his plan to abduct the traitor. Arnold’s fenced
garden overlooked the river, and Arnold strolled in the garden every night
before he went to bed. Champe intended
to pry fence boards loose, and with the help of one of Washington’s spies already
in the city, would tie and gag Arnold and drag him to a waiting small
boat. If stopped by anyone Champe would
say they were taking a drunken soldier to the guard house.
The plan now went awry.
The day before the planned abduction, Arnold moved his quarters to
another part of Manhattan, taking Champe, his recruiter, with him. Soon after, Arnold's American Legion sailed
to join other British units in an invasion of Virginia. After
sailing up the James River, Arnold and his invasion force took Richmond. The
British moved freely about Virginia burning and pillaging. Washington’s attitude toward Arnold hardened,
he no longer worried about Arnold becoming a martyr. After ordering Major
General the Marquis de Lafayette to Virginia to confront the invaders,
Washington ordered that if Arnold were captured he was to be summarily
executed.
Back in
his native Virginia, John Champe found himself in the odd position of fighting
with Arnold’s troops, sometimes against his old commander General Lee. Finally, Champe was able to escape through
British lines and make his way to the Appalachian Mountains, eventually
returning to “Light Horse Harry” Lee’s command. When Lee’s men learned the true
story, they showed Champe “love and respect” for his “daring” adventure, Lee wrote
years later in his memoir.
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