John Paul Jones Refuses to Surrender to the British on his Sinking Ship: “I have not yet begun to fight!”
There are many different versions of the phrasing of what Continental Navy Captain John Paul Jones yelled at Royal Navy Captain Richard Pearson during the battle with H.M.S. Serapis, but no matter what Jones said, the circumstance and spirit of his famous retort is probably more meaningful. Make no mistake; John Paul Jones was an absolute nautical bad ass, as his early life and career indicates ...
Washington on His Ragged Army: “men without clothes to cover their nakedness, without blankets to lay on, without shoes… marching through frost and snow…”
Valley forge April 21st 1778 Dr Sir On saturday evening1 I had the pleasure to receive your favor of the 16th Inst. I thank you very much for your obliging tender of a friendly intercourse between us; and you may rest assured, that I embrace it with chearfulness, and shall write you freely, as often as Leisure will permit, of such points as appear to me material ...
General Washington and his Troops arrive at Valley Forge
The images are heartrending, dramatic and so powerful that they are embedded in the nation's historical consciousness: Bloody footprints in the snow left by bootless men. Near naked soldiers wrapped in thin blankets huddled around a smoky fire of green wood. The plaintive chant from the starving: "We want meat! We want meat!" These are the indelible images of suffering and endurance associated with Valley Forge ...
Thomas Paine: “THOSE who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, …undergo the fatigues of supporting it”
THOSE who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it. The event of yesterday was one of those kind of alarms which is just sufficient to rouse us to duty, without being of consequence enough to depress our fortitude. It is not a field of a few acres of ground, but a cause, that we are defending, and ...
John Adams: “Posterity! You Will Never Know, How Much it Cost the Present Generation, to Preserve Your Freedom! I Hope You Will Make a Good Use of It.”
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, Saturday Evening 26 April 1777 I have been lately more remiss, than usual in Writing to you. There has been a great Dearth of News. Nothing from England, nothing from France, Spain, or any other Part of Europe, nothing from the West Indies. Nothing from Howe, and his Banditti, nothing from General Washington. There are various Conjectures that Lord How ...
The Declaration of Independence Approved by Congress as 56 Courageous Signers “Pledge… Our Lives, Our Fortunes, and Our Sacred Honor.”
When the First Continental Congress adjourned in October of 1774, the delegates agreed to meet again in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775. Between the First and the Second Continental Congress, many events happened that increased the tensions between the British and the Colonists. The battles of Lexington and Concord, the Colonist defeat in Quebec. The Colonists tried to establish their rights and to fight against the British oppressive taxation ...
Adam Weishaupt Establishes a Secret Society called the Order of the Illuminati in the Bavarian Town of Ingolstadt
On the night of Wednesday, the first of May 1776, three men gathered at the house of a young law professor, Adam Weishaupt, in the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt and established a secret society called the Order of the Illuminati. Weishaupt was the Professor of Canon Law at the University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria, part of Germany. It was secret order to undermine the social system, at ...
Reverend John Peter Gabriel Muhlenburg Removes His Robe to Reveal his Colonel Uniform, Recruiting 300 Patriots to Enlist & Defend Liberty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPo3SjqOhMI Toward the end of 1775, Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command as its colonel the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army. After George Washington personally asked him to accept this task, he agreed. However, his brother Fredrick Augustus Muhlenberg, who was also a minister, did not approve of him going into the army until the British burned down his own church in front ...
Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ is Published
It was first published anonymously on January 10, 1776, during the American Revolution. Common Sense was signed "Written by an Englishman", and the pamphlet became an immediate success. In relation to the population of the Colonies at that time, it had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history. Common Sense presented the American colonists with a powerful argument for independence from British ...
The Continental Congress officially established the Continental Army
Interestingly, the United States (U.S.) Army traces its lineage to the American Army of the 1780s, not the Continental Army that fought the American Revolution.[3] The U.S. Army, however, celebrates its birth on the 14th of June each year. This anniversary documents the birth of the Continental Army on June 14, 1775 when the Continental Congress authorized three different states to raise ten rifle companies, six ...
