The American Revolution marked the beginning of an age of democratic revolutions that swept over France and challenged the old order throughout the Atlantic world. The French officers who served in the American War of Independence, whether as idealistic volunteers or resolute soldiers of their king, remembered the experience for the rest of their lives. […]
Executive Director Jack Warren discusses America’s First Veterans, the new book from the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati. Using eighty-five manuscripts, rare books, prints, broadsides, paintings and other artifacts, America’s First Veterans introduces the stories of the men—and some women—who bore arms in the Revolutionary War. The book follows their fate in […]
T. Cole Jones, assistant professor of history at Purdue University, discusses and signs copies of his book examining the ways the revolutionary generation dealt with the more than seventeen thousand enemy soldiers captured during the war. The number of enemy prisoners in American custody often exceeded that of American soldiers in the Continental Army. These […]
Sarah Purcell, L.F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College, discusses how public memories and commemorations of the Revolutionary War and its veterans helped early Americans form a common bond and create a new national identity. Officers were often remembered as national heroes in newspapers, songs, pamphlets, sermons and theater productions. Martyred heroes such as […]
Americans today honor the men and women who have served in our armed forces. We regard the payment of pensions and other veteran’s benefits as the fulfillment of our commitment to them and an expression of our appreciation for the sacrifices they have made for us. It has not always been so. Like so many […]