Countless times, the fate of the nascent American nation depended on the right person being in the right place at the right time–like the gallant 26-year-old Marblehead captain James Mugford Jr. who captured the largest single prize of the Revolutionary War, the Hope.
This week marks the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Two hundred and forty-seven years ago, farmers, tradesmen, laborers, and mariners–Americans of all stripes–came together to defend themselves against the most professional army in the world.
St. Patrick’s Day is renowned for its green beer and revelry, but on March 17, 1776 the day marked a turning point in the Revolutionary War. Through the course of events, a young bookworm would serendipitously uncover a solution that unlocked American innovation and changed history.
Today, we take the term “The United States of America” for granted, but when a plucky Irishman in Washington’s Navy used it for the first time, the unity of the American colonies as well as their quest for independence was in question.
“Our republic cannot exist long in prosperity,” Doctor Benjamin Rush later wrote in a letter to John Adams. “We require adversity and appear to possess most of the republican spirit when most depressed.”
Two hundred and forty-five years ago, precursors to America’s nascent special operations forces got off to a rough start.
The term “information warfare” may not have been coined in 1775, but America’s Founding Fathers absolutely understood the importance of controlling the narrative.
Challenging the British Royal Navy by transforming a fishing schooner into a man of war seemed as preposterous then as it does now. But British disarmament and a lack of crucial gunpowder in the colonies led to American innovation.
Doctor Bond had a problem. During the Battle of Lexington and Concord in obedience to his Hippocratic Oath, he had treated British soldiers. For performing his duty as a doctor, he was falsely accused of being a Loyalist and had his life threatened by an angry mob.
Americans in 1775 faced an ammunition crisis—specifically a crucial shortage of gunpowder. “On Courage I know we have in abundance, conduct I hope we shall not want, but powder—where shall we get a sufficient supply?” John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife, Abigail.
Over 246 years ago, an invisible enemy descended on the town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. A virus divided the town politically and had a profound impact on the Revolutionary War that followed shortly after.
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” Paine wrote. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
