David McCullough Praises Library of Congress

Award-winning historian David McCullough praises the Library of Congress in a speech after being named a "living legend"...

Getting Shot by a Musket

What was it like to be shot by a musket? I'm going to assume that none of my readers have had that experience. If so, do tell. Should be an interesting story. But, assuming no one has been shot with a musket, I ask the question again -- What must it have been like to be shot by one?

The most common weapon of the American Revolution was the smoothbore flintlock musket. The advantage to the target is that a smoothbore musket isn't very accurate. If you're the target, your chances of being missed are much greater than if you were in, say, World War II and coming under fire from a machine gun. But...

The advantages pretty much end there. To give you an idea...the Brown Bess British musket was 75 caliber and the Brits used a 69 caliber ball. If hit by one of these 69 caliber balls, it would hurt. A lot.

A musket ball didn't cut its way into you. It smashed through skin, bone, and muscle - and sometimes would then bounce around even more inside your body (doing even greater damage). If you were fortunate, the musket ball would pass clean through you - a simple in-and-out flesh wound, perhaps damaging some nerves and muscle tissue. But if it impacted bone, you were in trouble.

Of course, once wounded, your problems were only beginning. You would need medical care. And medical care in the Revolutionary War wasn't exactly...well...good. This wasn't the fault of the practitioners (not in most cases anyway). Medicine simpy hadn't developed to a point that it could adequately keep up with the diseases, hardships, and injuries of the Revolutionary War period. For a good overview of the medical problem, go here.

Getting back to that accuracy issue...the tactics of the day took the musket's limited range and accuracy into account. This is where volley lines and bayonets come in. A mass of soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder firing their muskets in a unified direction helped compensate as did the bayonet. If you feared getting hit by a musket ball, getting impaled by a bayonet was even less appealing.

Of course, if you were fortunate enough to escape battlefield injury during the Revolutionary War, you weren't "out of the woods" yet. Far more soldiers died of hardship and disease than on the battlefield. That's right. If musket balls and bayonets didn't get you, there was still something like smallpox to take care of business.

It's hard to find an upside to life in the Revolutionary War period. As historian David McCullough has repeatedly reminded us, life was hard in that time period. Today, we tend to see this era through romanticized paintings. But we need to guard against the assumption that things were easier or better.

I thought this Memorial Day weekend would be a good time to remind us all of that fact.

Battle Road 2008 Tower Park

Some great footage from a Revolutionary War reenactment...



This was apparently posted on YouTube by a fellow Revolutionary War blogger. I'd like to put a plug in for his blog. You can find it here.

Dancing With the Stars...er...Colonials

Not exactly Dancing With the Stars, but hey, this is an American history site, you know...

America, Islam, and the Middle East

Michael Oren is a historian, author and Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He is also the author of Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present.

Here is an interview I came across on YouTube. I personally am not a fan of Pat Robertson. (To those readers who are, I mean no offense, but my posting this interview is not an endorsement of Pat Robertson or the 700 Club). Still, the interview is worthy of being posted.

Revolutionary War Toy Soldiers

Do you collect toy soldiers? Revolutionary War era toy soldiers are not as popular as Civil War toy soldiers. In fact, American Revolution era toy soldiers are not as high in popularity as most other eras. World War II toy soldiers, medieval era toy soldiers, and ancient era (Greek and Roman) toy soldiers tend to be particularly popular for collectors and wargamers.

According to The Toy Soldier Company, toy soldiers can range from 1/2" to as large as 12" - the most popular being in the area of 2-3" high.

The Toy Soldier Company says that the 2-3 inch scale (better known as the 54mm or 1/32nd scale) provides toy soldiers "big enough to have a good deal of detail, yet small enough to allow you to play with lots of them in a small space." The second most popular scale, according to the toy company, is "HO scale," which is very popular with train enthusiasts and wargamers.

The Toy Soldier Company features several playsets from the American Revolution era, which can be viewed here.

The company Crossroads Diecast (from which I got the above picture) has a set of Revolutionary War era figures here.

You can also shop for American Revolution era toy soldiers on Ebay and Amazon.

For my own part, I loved playing with toy soldiers as a kid. Now that I'm a mature, responsible (ahem) adult, I would love to collect toy soldiers, but it's an expensive hobby. Besides, I wouldn't know where to put them. Still, the boy in me can't resist occasionally dreaming of one day having an elaborate case full of toy soldiers from various eras of American history - especially my favorite era, the American Revolution.

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Benjamin Franklin Success Quotes

Benjamin Franklin was one of the first "success gurus" in American history, as the above video and this article show.

People looking for sound wisdom on how to make and save money, advance in their careers, and/or succeed in business would do well to study Ben Franklin.

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North Bridge Revolutionary War Reenactment

A special episode of "Metal Detecting New England" featuring video clips of the North Bridge Revolutionary War reenactment in Concord on April 19, 2008.



My congratulations to the guys who put this video together. Great job.

How the Americans REALLY Won the Revolution

Did you know that lightsabers weren't invented by George Lucas? No, they were invented by the Continentals in the American Revolution. Don't believe me!? Well, watch this...



I gotta get me one of those lightsaber tomahawks.

Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings: Fact or Fiction

Due to a DNA link between the Jefferson and Hemings families, the allegations first raised during the third President's lifetime that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with slave Sally Hemings have now been widely accepted.

But they have not been completely accepted. Skeptics correctly point out that the DNA evidence links the families, but not Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson directly.

For a rather impressive, scholarly refutation of the alleged Hemings-Jefferson affair, follow this link.

I would ask that you not post your opinion here, until you've at least reviewed the David N. Mayer article linked above. If you disagree with Professor Mayer, that is your right. But we should all strive for informed opinions, especially on controversial subjects such as this one.

Interview with HBO "John Adams" Screenwriter

Here's an interview with HBO "John Adams" series screenwriter Kirk Ellis...

Happy Birthday, James Monroe

Today marks the birthday of the fifth President of the United States -- James Monroe. President Monroe's signal accomplishment was the issuance of the Monroe Doctrine (a document that bears his name, but was actually authored by his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams).

Monroe is also noteworthy for helping expose Alexander Hamilton's adulterous scandal with James Reynolds and (more commendably) being one of the only soldiers wounded at the pivotal battle at Trenton.

What do you think of Monroe's legacy?

Any Liberty's Kids Fans Out There?

Should we Abolish the Electoral College?

Presidents of the United States are not elected by popular vote, but rather by the states of the Union. Each state selects individuals designated as "electors," who then vote on the next President. These electors constitute the "Electoral College."

All fifty states now allow the people to elect the electors. What this means is that individual citizen voters are not casting their ballots directly for the candidate of their choice. Instead, they are voting to select electors committed to their candidate.

If you're confused about what the Electoral College is, let the folks at SchoolHouse Rock explain it to you...



The Electoral College was originally designed to empower the states and to guard against "mob rule." Many critics today are asking if it has outlived its time.

Historian H.W. Brands says that it has. Brands calls the Electoral College "anachronistic" and argues that it's time for it to go.



Political commentator and scholar Larry Sabato takes a more moderate tack. He says we should MEND the Electoral College and not end it.



What do YOU think?

Washington Takes the Oath of Office

I really like how HBO showed the awkwardness and nervousness of the principal characters present at George Washington's swearing-in as President of the United States.



When Washington adds "so help me God" to the presidential oath, those watching this scene truly understand why. It wasn't a political ploy to appeal to Christian voters - not then and not now. As courageous as Washington was in war, he was genuinely troubled by this responsibility he was undertaking. He did not feel himself adequate to the role, and was deeply concerned he would fail. And he knew that failure would not only wreck his reputation, it could also doom the nation. To steal a phrase from the movie Apollo 13: "Failure [was] not an option!" So, Washington placed his fate and that of the United States in the hand of Providence. "So help me God" was indeed an understandable thing to say.

Lexington & Concord

Today (April 19) marks the opening of the American Revolution - the central contest in the making of the United States of America.

It was on this day that British soldiers and armed colonists engaged in their first, serious contest of arms. Ray Raphael, author of A People's History of the American Revolution has pointed out that other stand-offs between colonists and British redcoats had transpired before Lexington. But Lexington was the flash pin. It was the engagement that triggered the war.

For a neat video on the "Shot Heard Round the World," go here.

Robert Morris - The "Mr. Money Bags" of the Revolution

Robert Morris was one of the most crucial individuals in the American War for Independence. Without Morris, it would have been very difficult for Congress and General Washington to sustain the war effort against the British.

Watch this video (hosted on YouTube) from historian Stanley Louis "Stan" Klos on Robert Morris...

Michael Barone on England's Glorious Revolution

What was the influence of England's "Glorious Revolution" on America's War for Independence? Watch these video excerpts from Michael Barone as he discusses the influence of England's "Glorious Revolution" on America's Founders...

Lehrer News Hour Interview with Gordon Wood

One of the most celebrated scholars of the American Revolutionary era is Gordon Wood. In surfing the Web, I came across an interview with Gordon Wood - an interview conducted on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

Follow this link for an interview with renowned historian Gordon Wood.

The Death of American History

Thanks to materialism, consumerism, and postmodernism, our nation is sliding deeper into collective apathy and amnesia, when it comes to the study and understanding of its own history.

For a great article on this subject, follow this link to a piece by Brad Hart over at the excellent American Revolution blog.

For a discussion of postmodernism's effect on history, check out this link - which features Australian scholar Keith Windschuttle's remarks at a debate on "History, Truth, and Postmodernism." Windschuttle is the author of The Killing of History.

And, finally, for a great AUDIO resource...check out this link, which features Amy Orr-Ewing, a brilliant theologian, who refutes the postmodernist claim that "We cannot know history." Though her remarks focus on Christian history, her arguments apply to history in general. I highly recommend you listen to her presentation.