Episodes

  • Introducing James Early's New Podcast "Key Battles of American History"

    Introducing James Early's New Podcast "Key Battles of American History"
    Feb 26 2021
    Did you enjoy this series? Then you'll love James Early's new show "Key Battles of American History." Check it out on the podcast player of your choice or go to keybattlesofamericanhistory.com. Listen here to a snippet of his episode where he and a guest discuss the World War One movie "All Quiet on the Western Front."
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    21 mins
  •  237 Years After the Revolutionary War, Some Say It Was a Mistake. Are They Right?

     237 Years After the Revolutionary War, Some Say It Was a Mistake. Are They Right?
    Mar 28 2020
    There are few events that would shake the world order like the success of the American Revolution. Some changes would be felt immediately. English traditions such as land inheritance laws were swept away. Other changes took longer. Slavery would not be abolished for another hundred years. Americans began to feel that their fight for liberty was a global fight. Future democracies would model their governments on the United States'.
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    43 mins
  • George Washington's Spies: The Culper Ring, Nathan Hale, and the Plot to Capture Benedict Arnold

    George Washington's Spies: The Culper Ring, Nathan Hale, and the Plot to Capture Benedict Arnold
    Mar 27 2020
    Spycraft was seen as a treacherous craft, but it was necessary to win a war. Washington knew this, as his early attempts to gather intelligence on British-occupied New York led to an execution of Nathan Hale, a young school teacher. More sophisticated networks developed, particularly the Culper Spy ring, which involved a farmer, a whaleboat captain, a tavern owner, and a slave.
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    55 mins
  • The Revolutionary War Comes to an End

    The Revolutionary War Comes to an End
    Mar 26 2020
    After Yorktown, a truce was declared in America, although some skirmishes did break out until final peace was negotiated in Paris in 1783. In this episode, Scott and James look at what happened to the British and American generals and politicians involved in the war.
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    24 mins
  • The Battle of Yorktown: Britain's Surrender in the Revolutionary War

    The Battle of Yorktown: Britain's Surrender in the Revolutionary War
    Mar 25 2020
    The Battle of Yorktown sealed the fate of the Revolutionary War. In late 1781, American and French troops laid siege to the British Army at Yorktown, Virginia. First, a bit of background. The partisan warfare that kept occurring in the upcountry of the Carolinas made it impossible for the British to obtain supplies from there. This in turn made it necessary for Cornwallis to keep his army relatively close to the coast. Greene kept his army far enough from Cornwallis to avoid a major pitched battle while constantly trying to lure Cornwallis away from the coast. Greene’s strategy was (in Allen Guelzo’s words) “dance like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” In this, he was assisted by a cavalry commander named Col. Henry (“Light Horse Harry”) Lee, as well as Francis Marion and Daniel Morgan. Skirmishers of the two armies occasionally fought each other, but the main armies never met.
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    1 hr and 9 mins
  • The Siege of Yorktown: American and France Corner Britain

    The Siege of Yorktown: American and France Corner Britain
    Mar 24 2020
    On October 14, 1781, Washington and French General Comte de Rochambeau attacked on October 14th, capturing two British defense. British Gen. Cornwallis surrendered two days later.
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    27 mins
  • King’s Mountain & Cowpens: The Revolutionary War's Largest 'All-American Fight'

    King’s Mountain & Cowpens: The Revolutionary War's Largest 'All-American Fight'
    Mar 23 2020
    The Battles of King's Mountain and Cowpens were fought in 1781, between the Continental Army under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Sir Banastre Tarleton, as part of the campaign in the Carolinas. Daniel Morgan, who had been sent south by Washington, joined Nathanael Greene’s army. Greene decided to send Morgan with a force of militia and cavalry westward. This dividing of his army was risky, but Greene wrote “It makes the most of my inferior force for it compels my adversary to divide his.”
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    27 mins
  • The War Moves South (And Benedict Arnold Commits Treason)

    The War Moves South (And Benedict Arnold Commits Treason)
    Mar 22 2020
    In 1788, the battle lines of the Revolutionary War moved from New England to the southern colonies. Lord George Germain, the British secretary responsible for the war, wrote to Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton that capturing the southern colonies was "considered by the King as an object of great importance in the scale of the war" Germain and the king believed that the majority of southern colonists were loyalists and that if the British army could take key parts of the South, Loyalists would rise up to join the British and at the very least, the southern colonies could be brought back into the empire. In September 1778, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Lincoln as the commander of Continental forces in the South. In November of that year, British forces conducted several raids into Georgia. The next month, a force of about 3000 British regulars under Archibald Campbell arrived and captured Savannah on December 29. They took Augusta a month later but soon withdrew due to the presence of American forces nearby.
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    39 mins