American Revolution Institute

American Revolution Institute Promoting knowledge and appreciation of the achievement of American independence.
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On this day, August 29, 1778, the Battle of Rhode Island took place—the first major joint operation of American and Fren...
08/29/2026

On this day, August 29, 1778, the Battle of Rhode Island took place—the first major joint operation of American and French forces of the Revolutionary War.

Their goal was to drive British troops from Newport, a key naval base. After the French fleet was damaged in a storm and abandoned the campaign, the Continentals and local militia attempted to hold their positions in the face of attacking British and German infantry and artillery.

Among the American troops in the battle was the First Rhode Island Regiment, which held its ground in the fierce fighting on Quaker Hill just north of town, helping to allow the eventual American retreat. The segregated unit consisted of free and formerly enslaved men of color led by Col. Christopher Greene and other white officers. Many of the men enlisted under Rhode Island’s Slave Enlistment Act of 1778, which allowed enslaved men to enlist in the army in exchange for their freedom.

The First Rhode Island Regiment is featured in our current exhibition, Voices of Revolution. On display on loan from the Rhode Island Historical Society is a muster roll for a company of the First Rhode Island recording the names of 35 enlisted men on the eve of the Battle of Rhode Island. Among them is Sharper Gardner of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. The son of an enslaved Black man and Narragansett woman, he enlisted on February 27, 1778, and served until his discharge in June 1783.

Learn more about the exhibition online and see it at the museum through January 10, 2027.

https://bit.ly/4zM5fZ9

For the first time, Britain will have a monarch whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution against the very crown...
08/28/2026

For the first time, Britain will have a monarch whose ancestors fought in the American Revolution against the very crown he will bear. But what are Prince William’s family connections to the Revolutionary War?

Join us next Thursday, September 3 at 6:30 p.m. for an author’s talk featuring independent historian Stephanie Green discussing her new book, American Crown: From Revolutionaries to Royalty, The Story of Prince William’s American Ancestors. She will highlight William’s connection to the American Revolution and how past generations can shape the Prince of Wales’s role in the future of Britain, America, and the world.

Stemming from the roots of Diana, Princess of Wales, Prince William’s ancestry includes numerous American rebels. The Spencer family had a friendship with the Washington clan of Sulgrave Manor, whose family produced the first president of the United States. On Diana’s maternal side, American ancestors fought in the Revolution in New England, became successful in the new nation, and then sent a daughter across the Atlantic Ocean to marry into the British elite. Embodying more interconnected history than any of his predecessors, William’s sense of his own role in the world is markedly different from anyone who’s ever held the throne.

Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4qJM5z1

08/27/2026

250 years ago, the armies of Generals George Washington and William Howe clashed in one of the largest battles of the American Revolution: the Battle of Long Island.

Just weeks after declaring independence, Washington’s Continental Army faced its first great test. Determined to seize New York City, Howe landed a large army of British and Hessian forces on Long Island. Before dawn on August 27, the Crown forces exploited an unguarded route though the Jamaica Pass and struct the American left flank, while other forces engaged Continentals defending around Brooklyn.

The result was a devastating American defeat. Outmaneuvered and overwhelmed, Washington’s army fell back to Brooklyn Heights. With the East River behind them and Howe’s army in front, thousands of American soldiers faced the possibility of capture and the Revolution stood in jeopardy.

The battle did not end the American cause, though. On the night of August 29-30, Washington orchestrated a remarkable evacuation across the East River. Under the cover of darkness, aided by favorable winds and fog, about 9,000 soldiers slipped across to Manhattan, preserving the core of the Continental Army. The Battle of Long Island exposed enormous challenges confronting the nascent Continental Army, though it reinforced that its survival could be as important as a battlefield victory.

Learn more about the Battle of Long Island and New York City during the American Revolution by watching one of our Year in Revolution series videos.

This past weekend the Institute teamed with members of the Society of the Cincinnati and more than 20,000 living history...
08/24/2026

This past weekend the Institute teamed with members of the Society of the Cincinnati and more than 20,000 living history reenactors and spectators to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn, the largest battle of the American War for Independence—in Prospect Park, at the [Old Stone House], and at the [the Green-Wood Cemetery]. Contents from our classroom traveling trunks—now poised to begin their journeys to schools nationwide—were a special draw in our effort to perpetuate the memory of the American Revolution!

#250

Join us next Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Long I...
08/19/2026

Join us next Wednesday, August 26 at 6:30 p.m. for a lecture commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Long Island. Award-winning author and historian Patrick K. O’Donnell the battle that occurred on August 27, 1776, where Gen. George Washington found his troops outmanned and outmaneuvered. Thanks to a series of desperate charges by a single heroic regiment, the First Maryland Regiment—famously known as the Maryland 400—Washington was able to evacuate his men and the nascent Continental Army lived to fight another day. In this talk, O’Donnell brings to life the Battle of Long Island, along with and the remarkable men of the elite First Maryland Regiment.

Learn more and register: https://bit.ly/4cQpawa

08/18/2026

, August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote was ratified. This milestone was the product of generations of women’s suffrage efforts dating back to debates over the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence.

In the spring of 1776, while John Adams was serving in the Continental Congress contemplating the subject of American independence, Abigail Adams wrote a letter to her husband, dated 31 March:

“I long to hear that you have declared an independency—and by the way in the new Code of Laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors... If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.”

In 1848, the Seneca Falls “Declaration of Sentiments” claimed “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.” The same year, author Elizabeth Ellett wrote extensively about the women of the 18th century who fought to secure the Revolution’s high ideals for all Americans, “to which…we are not less indebted for national freedom, than to the swords of our patriots who poured out their blood.”

Learn more about the role of women in the American Revolution, like Abigail Adams, with our new classroom video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0TBVAWXZ_o&t=2s

Synonymous with the notion of the Scottish Highland soldier is the basket-hilted sword. During the American Revolutionar...
08/17/2026

Synonymous with the notion of the Scottish Highland soldier is the basket-hilted sword. During the American Revolutionary War, the British Army included specific regiments raised in the Scottish Highlands, such as the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment and the 71st Regiment, sometimes referred to as Fraser’s Highlanders. In addition to carrying such swords, the men of these regiments wore distinctive Highland dress that at times included a kilt and a bonnet.

Newly added to our online museum collections database is this ca. 1771-1785 British basket-hilted sword, which we acquired earlier this year. Click here to view the entry for more images and information about this evocative artifact: https://bit.ly/4x4xu3F

Ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago directly influenced the actions of the citizens and so...
08/15/2026

Ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence 250 years ago directly influenced the actions of the citizens and soldiers of colonial America.

Witness to this is a remarkable series of surviving letters in our library’s Robert Charles Lawrence Fergussson Collection written from New York in the summer and fall of 1776 by Capt. Jonathan Birge of Bolton, CT, to his wife Priscilla. The letters detail Birge’s company’s activities, including descriptions of their supplies, sickness, and casualties. Modern readers experience the emotional toll of war through Birge’s love for his family and the loss of his friends.

, August 15, 1776, Cpt. Birge penned the first of these letters, writing:

“on Wednesday we arrived at Newyork about 3 oclock in the after noon, and when we had arrived the news in the camp was that we was to be attacked that night it was conjectured from several circumstances as Dunmore’s fleet arriving & the winds being
strong at South & troops from the fleets landing on Long &c but it being very Rainey Night we lay very still without Being Alarmed… it is Generally beleved that the enemy will make an attack on Newyork very soon… I Subscribe my selfe desiering an intrest in your prayers att the throne of grace for me and the army & the Cause of Liberty. Your loyal husband Jonathan Birge”

Over the coming weeks, and through his personal letters, we'll continue to follow Captain Birge's experiences 250 years ago.

It’s the last few weeks of summer, so beat the heat and explore Anderson House! Our headquarters is a Gilded Age mansion...
08/10/2026

It’s the last few weeks of summer, so beat the heat and explore Anderson House! Our headquarters is a Gilded Age mansion in the heart of Washington, D.C., that combines palatial interiors with stories and artifacts of the American Revolution. Book tickets to tour the museum and our current exhibition, Voices of Revolution, at: https://bit.ly/45T0e3g

The most treasured object in our museum collections has been called the most important piece of jewelry in American hist...
08/08/2026

The most treasured object in our museum collections has been called the most important piece of jewelry in American history.

The Diamond Eagle of the Society of the Cincinnati was made in Paris, France, in 1784 as a gift from French naval officers to George Washington, the Society’s first president general. It’s been worn by every president general since, from Alexander Hamilton to the Society’s current leader. But it’s because of two extraordinary women that the Diamond Eagle became passed down as the insignia of the Society’s president general.

When George Washington died in 1799, the Diamond Eagle was the most valuable object he had. It was treated as his personal possession, not the Society’s property—and, as with all things Washington, there was no precedent for what would become of it after him. His widow, Martha, made sure that the Diamond Eagle was sent to Washington’s successor as president general, Alexander Hamilton.

Eliza Hamilton played a similar role after her husband’s untimely death in 1804. She sent the Eagle to the next president general, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney—although it took seven years to do it. It was on this day, August 8, 1811, that Pinckney reported having received the Diamond Eagle to the Society’s leaders, who resolved that it become the Society’s property and the official badge of the office of the president general.

Read more about the Diamond Eagle: https://bit.ly/4wM5qSh

Images:
1. Diamond Eagle of the Society of the Cincinnati. Made by Nicolas Jean Francastel and Claude Jean Autran Duval, Paris, France, 1784. Gold, silver, enamel, diamonds, emeralds, and rubies.
2. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney to Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, September 10, 1811, thanking her for returning the Diamond Eagle.

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