r/EarlyAmericanHistory

Idly curious as a foreigner to the US due to conversation on another thread. I can Google or use Wikipedia, but there are a lot of people here who can extract and explain better than AI can, and it starts interesting conversations.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Did this stuff get left out because it couldn't get agreed on by the delegates in time for the Continental Assembly (?) to get the Constitution out before it disbanded (or was that the Declaration of Independence?) Was it hard to get the Amendment agreed to? How was the Constitution seen as less of a "solid" document because it wasn't set in stone, and was there a time before the Civil War where everyone was more or less able to step back and say "Done"?

On July 6, 1779, the Continental Congress took a groundbreaking step that forever changed the relationship between the new nation and those who sacrificed for its defense. On that day, Congress voted to grant Margaret Cochran Corbin a lifelong military pension, making her the first woman in United States history to receive a pension for military service.

It was an extraordinary recognition of extraordinary courage. Corbin had not merely supported the Continental Army from behind the lines, she had stood on the battlefield, taken the place of her fallen husband at a cannon under enemy fire, and suffered devastating wounds that left her permanently disabled.

Her story is one of the most remarkable, and too often overlooked, acts of heroism during the American Revolution.

Margaret Cochran was born on November 12, 1751, in what was then the Pennsylvania frontier, an area frequently scarred by conflict between settlers and Native American tribes during the French and Indian War.

Tragedy struck early in her life. Around 1756, her father was killed in a Native American raid, and her mother was captured and never returned. Orphaned as a child, Margaret was raised by relatives, growing up in a world where hardship was a constant companion.

In 1772, she married John Corbin, a Virginia farmer who would later enlist in the Continental Army. Like thousands of soldiers’ wives during the Revolution, Margaret chose not to remain at home when her husband went to war.

Instead, she became what was known as a “camp follower.” These women traveled with the army, performing vital but often unrecognized duties. They cooked meals, washed uniforms, mended clothing, carried water, nursed the sick and wounded, and sometimes hauled ammunition to the front lines. Without these women, the Continental Army’s ability to remain in the field would have been severely diminished.

Margaret Corbin would ultimately prove that these women were capable of much more than supporting soldiers behind the lines.

The defining moment of her life came on November 16, 1776, during the Battle of Fort Washington on northern Manhattan Island. General George Washington had reluctantly left a garrison of nearly 3,000 Continental troops inside the fort, hoping it could delay British operations in New York. Instead, British and Hessian forces launched an overwhelming assault from several directions.

John Corbin was assigned to an artillery battery defending the fort. Margaret remained beside him, helping swab and load the cannon as enemy fire intensified. When a British cannonball killed John at his post, Margaret did not flee. Instead, she immediately stepped into his place.

She continued loading and firing the cannon directly at the advancing British troops despite the intense barrage. Witnesses later reported that she remained at the gun until grapeshot tore into her body. Her left shoulder, chest, and jaw were shattered by enemy fire. Her left arm was so badly damaged that she permanently lost its use.

Only after collapsing from her wounds was she removed from the battlefield.

Fort Washington fell that day in one of the Continental Army’s worst defeats of the war. Nearly 3,000 American soldiers were captured, a devastating loss that followed the defeats on Long Island and Manhattan. Yet amid the disaster, Margaret Corbin’s courage became legendary.

Because of the severity of her wounds, she never fully recovered. Chronic pain and the loss of her left arm made physical labor nearly impossible. She struggled financially, unable to earn a living as she once had.

Recognizing both her sacrifice and her service, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Executive Council granted her $30 in June 1779 to help pay her immediate expenses. Then, on July 6, 1779, the Continental Congress acted.

Congress ordered that Margaret Corbin receive an annual pension equal to one-half the pay and allowances of a disabled Continental soldier, along with a complete set of clothing or its cash equivalent each year for the remainder of her life. It marked the first time the United States government officially recognized a woman as a disabled veteran entitled to lifelong financial support because of wounds received in combat.

The Congressional resolution acknowledged that she had been “disabled and rendered incapable of supporting herself by the wound she received while heroically filling the post of her husband.”

That single vote established an important precedent. It recognized that military sacrifice, not gender alone, could merit the nation’s gratitude and financial support.

Corbin spent much of the remainder of her life living with fellow veterans at the military community of West Point and in the Hudson Highlands of New York. Although accounts suggest she endured chronic pain and declining health, she remained a familiar figure among Revolutionary War veterans who knew firsthand what she had sacrificed.

She died around January 16, 1800, and was buried near the Hudson River.

More than a century later, historians and veterans sought to ensure she received the honor long due to her service. In 1926, her remains were reinterred with full military honors at the United States Military Academy at West Point. She became one of the very few Revolutionary War veterans, and only one of two women associated with the Revolution, to be buried at the academy, a lasting tribute to her courage.

Margaret Corbin’s legacy also paved the way for later recognition of women who fought in America’s wars. Although Deborah Sampson would famously disguise herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army, Corbin’s service was different. She fought openly as a soldier’s wife defending an artillery position during battle. Her heroism demonstrated that women were active participants in the struggle for independence, often placing themselves in as much danger as the soldiers beside them.

Her story reminds us that the American Revolution was not won solely by generals and statesmen. It was won by ordinary people whose courage emerged in extraordinary moments.

George Washington often praised the perseverance that sustained the Revolution, writing that “Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”

Margaret Corbin embodied that perseverance. Her willingness to stand behind a cannon after watching her husband fall, knowing death was only yards away, reflected the determination that carried the Continental Army through its darkest years.

By awarding her a pension, Congress acknowledged that the cause of American independence had been defended not only by the men who carried muskets but also by the women whose sacrifices were every bit as real.

Today, Margaret Cochran Corbin stands as one of the earliest female combat heroes in American history. Her pension established a precedent for caring for disabled veterans, while her battlefield bravery demonstrated that courage knows no gender.

More than two centuries later, her life remains a powerful reminder that the fight for American independence was carried forward by countless unsung patriots whose names deserve to be remembered alongside the Revolution’s most celebrated heroes. #TodayInHistory #AmericanRevolution #MargaretCorbin #WomenInHistory #MilitaryHistory #ContinentalArmy #FortWashington #AmericanHistory

It’s gonna be a fight to the finish to make
it to year 251 and beyond for democracy; cheers
to the leaders who helped us get this far.

The words of the Declaration of Independence, like those of all great revolutionary documents, come suddenly alive in periods of social struggle. Its denunciation of George III, a ruler “marked by every act which may define a Tyrant … unfit to be the ruler of a free people,” reads today like a condemnation of the Trump administration. As the historian Adam Hochschild observed in the webinar held by the World Socialist Web Site on June 25, the Declaration’s indictment of the king reads as if it “were written this morning.”

In the language of the Declaration, the military has been rendered “superior to the Civil Power” through the deployment of troops into American cities. Immigrants are “transported beyond Seas” without charge or trial to a concentration camp in El Salvador. Federal agents are protected “from punishment for any Murders which they should commit,” as in the cases of the ICE agent who shot Renée Good and the CBP agents who shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

The Declaration’s statement that “all men are created equal” stands as an indictment of a society that has just minted its first trillionaire, Elon Musk. Nearly 1,000 billionaires command $8.4 trillion, and the top 1 percent holds as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of the population combined. American society is mired in corruption and criminality, with President Donald Trump having reaped $1.43 billion in a cryptocurrency scam during his first year in office. 

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Today in the Civil War July 4

1861-The Kansas Flag is introduced.

1861-U.S. President Lincoln, in a speech to Congress, stated the war is..."a People's contest... a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and substance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men..."

1861-The U.S. Congress authorized a call for 500,000 men.

1861-Leonidas Polk is put in charge of the Confederate Department Number 2.

1861-Skirmish, Harpers Ferry, Jefferson County West Virginia.

1862-[July 4-August 1] John Hunt Morgan leads a Confederate raid into Kentucky.

1863-Morgan's men run into a contigent of federal troops in Columbus, Kentucky.

1863-Ulysses S. Grant accepts the surrender of the second Confederate Army he has defeated, at Vicksburg Mississippi.

1863-The West Virginia flag is introduced. This is the final Union flag of the Civil War.

1863-General Lee began to withdraw his forces to Virginia. Lee did not threaten Northern territory again.

1864-"Retreating Joe" Johnston, as he is now called in the Richmond papers, withdraws to his previously prepared Chattahoochee Line Georgia.

1864-Battle of Helena Arkansas.

1864-Skirmish, Bolivar Heights, Jefferson County West Virginia.

On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress did far more than approve a document. It proclaimed the birth of a new nation and forever altered the course of world history. Although Congress had already voted for independence two days earlier, on July 2, it was on this day that delegates adopted the final wording of the Declaration of Independence, transforming a political decision into a timeless statement of human liberty.

For more than a year, Americans had fought British soldiers on battlefields from Lexington and Concord to Bunker Hill, Quebec, Charleston, and New York. Blood had already been spilled, cities had burned, and thousands had sacrificed their lives before independence was formally declared.

Until this moment, however, many colonists still viewed themselves as Englishmen defending their constitutional rights. The Declaration announced that the struggle was no longer about restoring old liberties within the British Empire, it was about creating an entirely new nation.

Meeting in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress once again resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, allowing every delegate to participate in the final revisions before the document returned to formal session for adoption. Benjamin Harrison of Virginia reported that the committee had completed its work, and Congress unanimously approved the revised Declaration.

The principal author, Thomas Jefferson, had produced an extraordinary draft, drawing upon Enlightenment philosophy, the writings of John Locke, colonial grievances, and Virginia’s own Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason only weeks earlier. Jefferson later wrote that he sought not originality, but rather “to place before mankind the common sense of the subject.”

During two days of debate, delegates carefully edited Jefferson’s language. Nearly one-quarter of his original draft was removed or revised. The most significant deletion involved Jefferson’s lengthy condemnation of the transatlantic slave trade.

In one of the most controversial passages ever written by a Founder, Jefferson accused King George III of committing a “cruel war against human nature itself” by supporting the capture and transportation of Africans into slavery. He denounced Britain for maintaining “a market where MEN should be bought & sold” and for encouraging enslaved people to seek their freedom by rising against their colonial masters.

Delegates from South Carolina and Georgia objected strongly to the passage, while some northern merchants who had profited from the slave trade also resisted its inclusion. To preserve colonial unity at this critical moment, Congress reluctantly removed the entire section.

The deletion revealed one of the central contradictions that would haunt the United States for generations. The Declaration would proclaim universal human equality while leaving slavery untouched. It established ideals that would later inspire abolitionists, civil rights leaders, suffragists, and reformers, even as many of its authors failed to fully apply those principles in their own time.

Despite the revisions, the Declaration retained the words that would become among the most famous ever written:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

With these words, Congress declared that governments derived “their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that when governments became destructive of those rights, “it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it.”

This was a revolutionary idea unlike anything previously asserted by a national government. Kings ruled by hereditary right. Parliament claimed authority through ancient tradition. The Declaration instead argued that legitimate government existed only because free people allowed it to exist.

Congress further declared that the 13 colonies were no longer colonies at all.

They were now:

“Free and Independent States.”

As independent nations, they possessed “full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”

These words announced to Britain, France, Spain, the Dutch Republic, and every other government in Europe that America intended to join the community of sovereign nations.

Immediately after adoption, Congress ordered the Declaration authenticated and printed for public distribution. Philadelphia printer John Dunlap worked through the night producing what became known as the Dunlap Broadsides, large single-sheet printings designed to be quickly carried throughout the continent.

Only about 26 of these original broadsides survive today.

Congress ordered copies sent to every colonial assembly, convention, council of safety, committee of correspondence, and Continental Army commander so the Declaration could be publicly read in every state and before every regiment.

The broadside bore only two printed names, President John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson. Contrary to popular belief, most delegates did not sign the engrossed parchment copy until August 2, with several signing even later.

While Congress declared independence in Philadelphia, General William Howe continued assembling what would become the largest British expeditionary force ever sent across the Atlantic.

Thousands of British troops occupied Staten Island, transforming it into a vast military base from which to launch the coming invasion of New York.

Captain William Bamford recorded:

“The Troops march’d to their several cantonments round the Island.”

Corporal Thomas Sullivan likewise observed that Howe’s growing army had landed and was “distributed about” Staten Island.

Washington watched these developments with growing concern.

His adjutant general, Joseph Reed, reported that Loyalist leader Cortlandt Skinner and armed supporters had crossed onto Staten Island, gathering livestock and provisions while encouraging Loyalist sympathizers.

Washington warned Congress that approximately 4,000 British soldiers had marched around the island attempting to rally inhabitants loyal to the Crown. He feared they would soon cross into New Jersey, attracting additional Loyalists through persuasion or intimidation before launching their attack against Manhattan.

Patriot communities across New Jersey shared those fears.

The Newark Committee of Correspondence appealed directly to Washington for protection, explaining that much of the local militia was already serving with the Continental Army around New York.

Committee chairman Lewis Ogden wrote that local families remained:

“unprotected either from the Enemy without or the Tories & Negroes in the midst of us.”

The statement reflected both the intense fear of Loyalist uprisings and the racial anxieties of many white Patriots following Lord Dunmore’s 1775 proclamation offering freedom to enslaved people who escaped and joined British forces. The committee cited no specific plot or act by Black residents, but its language reveals how deeply fear and suspicion had spread throughout communities threatened by invasion.

Washington responded by strengthening defenses on both sides of the Hudson River.

He dispatched military engineer Antoine Félix Wiebert to oversee fortifications near King’s Bridge, the only land connection between Manhattan and the mainland. He renewed urgent requests for reinforcements from the Flying Camp, a planned mobile reserve of 10,000 militia intended to reinforce threatened positions around New York and New Jersey.

During the previous night, American artillery fired two nine-pounder cannon at British ships near the Narrows while covering the arrival of New Jersey militia. Every available soldier and cannon was being positioned for what everyone expected would be the largest battle of the war.

Elsewhere, the political revolution became a public celebration.

At New Castle, Delaware, Colonel John Haslet’s Delaware Regiment marched to the courthouse carrying the visible symbols of royal authority.

Second Lieutenant Enoch Anderson remembered the soldiers piling together the king’s insignia before setting them ablaze.

He proudly described burning:

“all the insignia of monarchy”

and

“all the baubles of Royalty.”

Only weeks earlier, on June 15, Delaware’s Assembly had formally ended governmental authority in the name of King George III. The destruction of the royal emblems transformed that legal decision into a powerful public ceremony.

Anderson joyfully remembered the occasion as:

“our first jubilee”

and simply,

“a merry day.”

Yet while celebration echoed through Philadelphia and Delaware, the northern frontier told a very different story.

Following the disastrous collapse of the American invasion of Canada, exhausted Continental soldiers streamed south toward Crown Point along Lake Champlain.

Disease had devastated the army. Smallpox, dysentery, exposure, and hunger had weakened thousands more effectively than British musket fire.

Army physician Dr. Lewis Beebe described an army approaching collapse.

Instead of constructing fortifications against the expected British advance, soldiers wandered aimlessly.

General officers rode through camp while field officers spent much of their time conducting courts-martial. Company officers often gathered in taverns.

The enlisted men, Beebe observed with frustration, were:

“The Soldiers either sleeping, swiming, fishing, or Cursing and Swearing most generally the Latter.”

His account revealed an exhausted army struggling under the weight of defeat, disease, poor discipline, and declining morale. The retreat from Canada marked one of the Revolution’s greatest early failures and demonstrated the immense challenges facing the young republic even as it celebrated its birth.

July 4, 1776, therefore, was both a day of extraordinary hope and sobering reality.

In Philadelphia, representatives of 13 colonies announced that a new nation had entered the world, founded not upon bloodlines or monarchy but upon universal principles of natural rights and self-government. They declared that liberty belonged not by permission of a king but by the inherent rights of humanity.

Yet outside Independence Hall, the war continued. British armies gathered for their greatest offensive. American soldiers retreated from Canada. Loyalists and Patriots prepared to fight neighbors as well as imperial troops. The ideals proclaimed that day would require seven more years of war to secure and generations of Americans to more fully realize.

The Declaration of Independence became the Revolution’s defining statement because it explained not merely why Americans were separating from Britain, but what kind of nation they hoped to become. Its words inspired revolutions across the globe, influenced constitutions on every continent, and remain one of history’s greatest affirmations that governments exist to protect the rights of the people rather than rule over them.

John Adams predicted that the Revolution would be remembered with “Pomp and Parade… Bonfires and Illuminations.” Although he mistakenly believed July 2 would become America’s great anniversary, history instead chose July 4, the day the principles of the Revolution were committed to parchment and presented to the world.

Today, 250 years later, the Declaration remains America’s founding creed, reminding each generation that liberty is never merely inherited. It must be understood, defended, and continually renewed. #TodayInAmericanHistory #ThisDayInHistory #RoadToRevolution #america250 #Semiquincentennial #250YearsOfAmerica #SpiritOf1776 #HistoricAmerica #LivingHistory

The American Revolution produced a wealth of incredible history, and these 25 books offer some of the best perspectives on the people, battles, and ideas that shaped the founding of the United States. From military campaigns to political debates and personal memoirs, there’s something here for every history enthusiast. Did your favorite Revolutionary War book make the list, or do you have any recommendations we should add? We’d love to hear your suggestions and expand the collection.

On July 1, 1776, the American Revolution entered one of its most dramatic and consequential days. In Philadelphia, after more than a year of war and months of increasingly heated debate, the Continental Congress finally confronted the question it could no longer avoid: Should the United Colonies declare themselves free and independent states?

The answer, after hours of passionate debate, was almost, but not quite, yes. Nine colonial delegations voted in favor of independence during a preliminary vote. At the same time, Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposed the measure, Delaware stood divided, and New York abstained because its delegates remained bound by earlier instructions from home. The official vote would be delayed until the following day, but by sunset, the momentum toward independence had become nearly unstoppable.

At the very same time, a massive British invasion fleet was sailing into New York Harbor, the battered remnants of the failed Canadian expedition were limping back to Crown Point, South Carolina prepared for another possible British assault after its victory at Sullivan’s Island, frontier settlers faced Cherokee attacks in the Carolina backcountry, and revolutionary governments continued replacing royal authority across America.

The Revolution had reached the point of no return. For months, Richard Henry Lee’s resolution declaring “that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States” had hung over Congress. The delegates knew that approving it meant committing treason in the eyes of Great Britain, a crime punishable by death.

Only one obstacle remained before debate could begin. Congress first received Maryland’s resolution of June 28, withdrawing earlier instructions that had prevented its delegates from supporting independence. Maryland now authorized its representatives to join the majority in declaring independence, creating a confederation, and seeking foreign alliances. It was another domino falling in the steady collapse of resistance to separation from Britain.

With Maryland’s restrictions removed, Congress resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, a parliamentary procedure allowing freer debate than formal congressional proceedings, and began considering Lee’s resolution before turning to Thomas Jefferson’s draft Declaration of Independence.

The most eloquent opponent of immediate independence was John Dickinson of Pennsylvania. Few men in America had done more to defend colonial rights before the Revolution. His Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania had made him one of the most respected political writers in British America. Dickinson believed Parliament had violated colonial liberties, but he also believed independence should come only after America had established functioning governments, secured foreign alliances, and created a permanent union.

Without those preparations, he warned, independence would rest upon a dangerously fragile foundation. He famously cautioned Congress that declaring independence before completing those tasks would mean they would “brave the Storm in a Skiff made of Paper.”

For a moment, silence filled the chamber. No delegate immediately rose to answer him. Then John Adams of Massachusetts stood.

Although no verbatim transcript survives, Adams later recalled that he defended independence with one of the most important speeches of his life. Years afterward, Thomas Jefferson remembered Adams as “the pillar of support to the Declaration on the floor of the House.”

Adams argued that reconciliation had become impossible. British armies were already devastating American towns. The king had rejected every petition. Foreign nations would not openly aid colonies still professing loyalty to the Crown. Independence was no longer merely desirable; it had become militarily and diplomatically necessary.

By the end of the debate, the Committee of the Whole reached its preliminary decision. Nine colonies voted for independence. Pennsylvania and South Carolina voted no. Delaware split evenly because only Thomas McKean and George Read were present, with one supporting and one opposing independence.

New York’s delegates personally favored independence but abstained because they still lacked authorization from their provincial convention.

The committee reported its recommendation back to Congress. Yet independence had not officially been declared.

Edward Rutledge of South Carolina requested that the final vote be postponed until the next day. He believed additional discussions might persuade his colony to join the majority, allowing Congress to act with greater unanimity before the world.

That brief delay would change American history. Recognizing Delaware’s deadlock, Thomas McKean immediately dispatched an express rider, at his own expense, to summon Caesar Rodney, the third Delaware delegate. Rodney, suffering from severe asthma and facial cancer, mounted his horse that evening and began an exhausting overnight ride through rain and darkness from Dover to Philadelphia. His arrival the next day would break Delaware’s tie and help secure independence.

While Congress debated words that would reshape history, General George Washington faced a far more immediate reality. The British invasion had begun.

For weeks, the Royal Navy had gathered outside New York Harbor at Sandy Hook. On July 1, Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Blachley Webb watched as “the whole fleet weighed Anchor and came from Sandy Hook” toward the Lower Bay.

Washington had previously informed Congress that 45 ships had arrived. That report was already obsolete. Observers now counted approximately 110 vessels, with additional sails still appearing on the horizon.

The fleet included ships-of-the-line, frigates, troop transports, supply ships, artillery vessels, and hundreds of smaller craft carrying what would soon become the largest expeditionary force Great Britain had ever sent across the Atlantic.

Panic spread among residents of Staten Island as the British armada entered the harbor. Washington could do little except prepare. The Continental Army possessed no navy capable of challenging the Royal Navy.

Instead, Washington intensified construction of defensive works across New York. Soldiers labored at redoubts on Jews Hill and Bayard’s Hill, strengthened positions at Red Hook and Governors Island, dug wells, hauled earthworks, and practiced live-fire exercises under carefully controlled conditions.

That evening, Washington issued one of his clearest warnings that battle might come at any moment:

“The whole Army to be under Arms tomorrow morning at daylight.”

Every regiment would assemble fully equipped with ammunition before sunrise. Months of preparation were ending. The campaign for New York was about to begin.

Far to the north, another American army reached the end of a very different campaign. Around 11 p.m., Brigadier General John Sullivan arrived at Crown Point with nearly all the surviving Continental troops retreating from Canada. Only about 600 men remained behind to guard the fleet of armed vessels on Lake Champlain.

The retreat had become one of the most miserable operations of the war. Smallpox had ravaged the army. Disease claimed far more lives than British bullets. Supplies had collapsed.

Soldiers had been forced to withdraw aboard bateaux, shallow flat-bottomed boats that carried exhausted men, artillery, provisions, and the sick down the Richelieu River toward Lake Champlain.

Only 10 months earlier, Generals Philip Schuyler and Richard Montgomery had launched the invasion of Canada from Crown Point with hopes of bringing the 14th colony into the Revolution. Now the survivors returned to the same ruined French and British fortress from which they had departed.

The dream of liberating Canada had ended. Instead, Lake Champlain would become America’s northern shield against British invasion.

Hundreds of miles farther south, Charleston remained on high alert despite its stunning victory over the British fleet only three days earlier at Sullivan’s Island. Five Americans who had escaped from Commodore Sir Peter Parker’s squadron reached Fort Johnson after slipping away in a small boat during the night.

Previously captured at sea and impressed into Royal Navy service, they brought valuable intelligence. They reported severe British casualties, extensive damage to warships, and discussions aboard the fleet suggesting that another attack would bring British vessels much closer to the American fortifications.

Colonel Christopher Gadsden immediately forwarded the information to Colonel William Moultrie while congratulating him on the memorable “drubbing” inflicted upon the British.

Major General Charles Lee, however, refused to let victory breed complacency. Construction continued on beach fortifications, unfinished gates, and defensive bridges.

Lee warned Moultrie:

“We are never in so great danger as when success makes us confident.”

His caution reflected hard military experience. The British had been beaten, but not destroyed.

Meanwhile, violence spread across the South Carolina frontier. At his Cornacre plantation in the Ninety-Six District, Francis Salvador, a Jewish immigrant and Patriot leader who had become one of South Carolina’s most influential revolutionaries, received alarming news.

Captain Aaron Smith’s wounded son arrived after Cherokee warriors attacked the family settlement at Little River, shooting away two of his fingers. Without hesitation, Salvador rode 28 miles to White Hall, where Major Andrew Williamson commanded Patriot militia forces.

Another wounded Smith son had already arrived carrying the same warning. The Cherokee offensive threatened frontier settlements throughout the region. British Native American agents continued encouraging Native nations to support the Crown, while expanding colonial settlement increasingly fueled violent conflict over land.

Williamson immediately dispatched express riders throughout the district. Militia mobilization proved difficult. Before joining military companies, settlers first rushed their families toward forts, stockades, and safer communities.

Salvador described the growing panic:

“The whole country was flying, some to make forts, others as low as Orangeburg.”

Among those assembling was Captain Andrew Pickens, whose frontier leadership would soon make him one of the Revolution’s most effective militia commanders. The southern frontier was rapidly becoming another major theater of the war.

Political revolution also continued to reshape America. In Georgia, the Revolutionary Council of Safety ordered the arrest of the Reverend John Joachim Zubly after he refused to swear allegiance to the Continental Congress. Ironically, Zubly had previously served as one of Georgia’s delegates to Congress and had strongly defended colonial rights. Yet he opposed complete independence.

Revolutionary authorities now reportedly declared the Swiss-born minister an “enemy of the state.” His arrest illustrated a profound transformation. Only months earlier, disagreements over reconciliation had been ordinary political debates. By July 1776, those same disagreements increasingly raised questions of loyalty, security, and public safety as Americans chose sides in an expanding civil war.

In Williamsburg, another milestone in self-government unfolded. George Mason announced that Patrick Henry had formally accepted election as Virginia’s first governor under its new revolutionary constitution.

Henry acknowledged that the new government entered existence amid uncertainty, describing Virginia as facing:

“Numberless hazards and perils in its infantine state.”

Nevertheless, he pledged his “unwearied endeavors” to secure the Commonwealth’s freedom, prosperity, and happiness. Virginia, like several other former colonies, was no longer waiting for Parliament or the Crown. It had become a self-governing state.

July 1, 1776, marked the day the Continental Congress effectively decided the question of independence, even if the formal vote still awaited the following morning. The preliminary tally demonstrated that a clear majority of the colonies had embraced complete separation from Great Britain. Edward Rutledge’s request for a one-day delay and Thomas McKean’s urgent summons to Caesar Rodney would make possible the near-unanimous decision that followed on July 2.

The events unfolding beyond Philadelphia underscored why the delegates felt compelled to act. The greatest British invasion fleet ever assembled in North America was entering New York Harbor. The Canadian campaign had collapsed. Fighting continued on the southern frontier and along the Carolina coast. The colonies were already engaged in a full-scale war against the British Empire.

Declaring independence did not begin the Revolution; fighting had started more than a year earlier at Lexington and Concord, but it transformed the conflict. Americans were no longer resisting Parliament while professing loyalty to King George III. They were creating a new nation.

John Adams would later tell his wife Abigail that July 2, the day Congress formally approved Lee’s resolution, “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade… from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”

History chose July 4, the day the Declaration of Independence was approved, as America’s national birthday.

But it was on July 1, 1776, that Congress crossed the threshold, and the United States stood one debate away from declaring itself free.

#TodayInTheAmericanRevolution #AmericanRevolution #DeclarationOfIndependence #ContinentalCongress #JohnAdams #GeorgeWashington #AmericanHistory #USHistory #OnThisDay #RoadTo1776

"All of history is a struggle, and the struggle against slavery was already part of what was going on in the colonies and in the new states at the American founding." Watch "The American Revolution and Its Place in History", only on the World Socialist Web Site, wsws.org/1776

What's the significance of the Declaration of Independence today? Watch "The American Revolution and Its Place in History" at wsws.org/1776

06-30-1778

June 30, 1778: The Battle of Alligator Bridge: Florida’s Revolutionary War Crossroads That Stopped an American Invasion

On June 30, 1778, musket fire echoed through the pine forests and cypress swamps of British East Florida as Patriot and Loyalist forces collided at Alligator Bridge near present-day Callahan in Nassau County. Though often overshadowed by famous battles fought farther north, the Battle of Alligator Bridge was one of the most significant Revolutionary War engagements fought on Florida soil.

Its outcome preserved British control of East Florida, protected St. Augustine from capture, and demonstrated that the American Revolution was as much a brutal civil war between neighbors as it was a struggle between Britain and its rebellious colonies.

When Americans celebrate the Revolutionary War, Florida is often left out of the story because it was not one of the original 13 colonies. Yet Florida played a crucial role in the conflict. Britain had acquired Florida from Spain in 1763 following the French and Indian War and divided it into East and West Florida. Unlike Georgia, Virginia, and the other rebelling colonies, both Floridas remained loyal to the British Crown.

St. Augustine became a vital British military headquarters, a refuge for Loyalists fleeing persecution in the northern colonies, and an important base for launching raids against Patriot settlements in Georgia and the Carolinas. Throughout the war, East Florida served as Britain’s southern stronghold, making it a constant target for American invasion plans.

The campaign that led to the capture of Alligator Bridge was actually the third attempt by Patriot forces to conquer East Florida. The first invasion in 1776 collapsed when Continental General Charles Lee was ordered north before he could strike.

A second invasion in 1777 ended in disaster after the Georgia militia was ambushed at the Battle of Thomas Creek, forcing an embarrassing retreat. Nevertheless, Georgia’s leaders refused to abandon their dream of capturing St. Augustine and eliminating the Loyalist threat on their southern border.

By the spring of 1778, Major General Robert Howe assembled a combined force of Continental soldiers, South Carolina troops, and Georgia militia. The expedition was plagued almost from the beginning by oppressive summer heat, shortages of food, disease, desertions, and bitter disagreements between General Howe and Georgia Governor John Houstoun over who should command the operation. These disputes would prove nearly as dangerous as the British defenders waiting farther south.

Standing in their way was one of the Revolution’s most controversial Loyalist leaders, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Brown. Before the war, Brown had been a wealthy Georgia settler whose refusal to support the Patriot cause led to his brutal torture by a mob that tarred and feathered him, fractured his skull, and permanently damaged one of his feet.

That attack transformed him into one of Britain’s fiercest frontier commanders. Leading the East Florida Rangers, Brown became renowned and feared for his relentless raids into Georgia. Fighting beside British regulars commanded by Major James Marcus Prevost, Brown intended to stop the Patriot invasion long before it could threaten St. Augustine.

After Patriot forces occupied the abandoned Fort Tonyn on June 29, Brown withdrew toward a defensive position at Alligator Bridge, a narrow crossing over Alligator Creek on the King’s Road. Major Prevost had already strengthened the bridge with log-and-brush breastworks defended by British regulars of the 16th and 60th Regiments, along with Loyalist rangers under Brown and Daniel McGirth. The bridge formed an ideal choke point where a much larger invading army could be stopped by disciplined defenders.

On the morning of June 30, General Howe ordered Brigadier General James Screven to lead roughly 100 mounted troops south in search of Brown’s force. Brown attempted to trap the Americans by dividing his command, but deserters from the Loyalist ranks warned Screven about the ambush. Brown’s flanking force was itself surprised, with many men captured or killed before the main battle even began. It appeared, for a brief moment, that fortune favored the Patriots.

Brown then retreated toward Alligator Bridge, drawing Screven’s cavalry into the waiting British defenses. In one of the battle’s most remarkable moments, confusion initially reigned because neither Brown’s Loyalists nor Screven’s Georgians wore standardized military uniforms. British regulars at the bridge briefly mistook the approaching horsemen for Brown’s own men returning safely from the field. The confusion vanished almost instantly when firing erupted, transforming the crossing into a deadly killing ground.

Prevost’s regulars quickly occupied superior firing positions behind their fortifications, pouring disciplined volleys into the exposed American cavalry. Brown’s Rangers simultaneously worked around the Patriot flank, threatening to encircle Screven’s command. Amid the smoke, noise, and confusion, Screven was wounded while attempting to rally his men. Recognizing that remaining at the bridge meant annihilation, he ordered a fighting withdrawal that narrowly saved his command from destruction.

The fighting did not end with the retreat. The following day, Prevost advanced with British regulars, Brown’s Rangers, and Daniel McGirth’s Loyalists, surprising Patriot soldiers repairing a damaged bridge. After driving them away, the British deliberately felled trees across the road to slow any renewed American advance before withdrawing to their defensive positions.

Meanwhile, the Patriot expedition was unraveling. Disease spread through the camp, food supplies dwindled, soldiers deserted in alarming numbers, and arguments between military and political leaders became increasingly bitter. By early July, only about 400 effective Continental soldiers remained fit for duty. The long-awaited Georgia militia reinforcements could not reverse the expedition’s collapse.

On July 14, the Americans abandoned the invasion and retreated into Georgia, ending the final major attempt to seize British East Florida during the Revolutionary War.

General James Screven survived his wound at Alligator Bridge, but only for a few months. In November 1778, he was killed during a surprise Loyalist attack led by Thomas Brown, the same commander he had pursued through the Florida wilderness. Screven’s death cemented Brown’s reputation as one of Britain’s most formidable frontier officers.

Although casualty figures were relatively modest compared to the great battles of the Revolution, the strategic consequences were enormous. The British victory at Alligator Bridge ensured that East Florida would remain under British control until the end of the war.

St. Augustine continued serving as Britain’s southern military headquarters and as a refuge for thousands of Loyalists escaping the rebelling colonies. When Britain finally recognized American independence in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, East Florida was not surrendered to the United States. Instead, Britain returned the colony to Spain, meaning Florida would remain outside the new American republic for another generation before becoming a U.S. territory in 1821.

The Battle of Alligator Bridge reminds us that the American Revolution was never a conflict fought only around Boston, Philadelphia, or Yorktown. It stretched into Florida’s swamps, pine forests, rivers, and frontier settlements, where families divided by loyalty fought one another for control of a colony that chose a different path than its northern neighbors.

The battle preserved British East Florida, delayed Florida’s eventual place in the United States, and demonstrated that Florida’s Revolutionary War history was every bit as consequential and as fiercely contested as the better-known campaigns fought elsewhere.

One of the most enduring reminders of the battle stands today near Callahan, where a Florida Historical Marker commemorates the engagement close to the site of the old bridge. Each year, descendants, historians, and members of hereditary societies gather there to honor the soldiers on both sides who fought along the King’s Road on that hot June day in 1778, ensuring that this pivotal chapter of Florida’s Revolutionary past is not forgotten. #americanrevolution250 #onthisdayinhistory #historicalmarker #AmericanHistory #TodayInHistory #OnThisDay #history #Georgia #florida #americanrevolution #americanrevolutionarywar #georgiahistory #FloridaHistory