The American Revolution articulated ideals of universal liberty, but for more than a century the United States had little political or diplomatic involvement with other nations. A republic in a world dominated by imperial monarchies, the United States avoided the dynastic quarrels, territorial disputes and diplomatic maneuvers that consumed the European state system through most […]
To win their independence, Americans had to create an effective artillery service able to challenge the British on the battlefield. They had to secure cannon barrels, gun carriages, limbers, ammunition wagons and a wide array of other specialized equipment. They had to create a system to maintain that equipment. They had to obtain a steady […]
The War of the American Revolution was conducted mainly at sea and its outcome was ultimately determined by naval power. The war involved the two greatest naval powers in the world—Britain and France—in a maritime conflict of unprecedented scale. The two navies deployed more than 1,200 warships, 25,000 naval cannons and more than 300,000 sailors […]
“In a country where every gentleman is a soldier, and every soldier a student in the art of war, it necessarily follows that military treatises will be considerably sought after, and attended to.” – Hugh Henry Ferguson, editor of the American edition of Military Instructions for Officers Detached in the Field (Philadelphia, 1775) The […]
The American republic was born in war. While statesmen asserted the independence of the United States in an eloquent declaration, tens of thousands of British soldiers and sailors converged on New York to subdue the rebellion by force. Revolutionaries armed with muskets and swords had to wage an eight-year war to free the new nation […]