Early Life Historians disagree on the date of George Edward Pickett’s birth. Baptismal records show that he was born on January 16, 1825, in Richmond, Virginia. Other accounts have Pickett’s date of birth as January 25 or January 28. Whatever the correct date, Pickett was born in Richmond and raised on his prominent Virginia family’s … Read more
Early Life Jubal Anderson Early was born on November 3, 1816, in Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia. Early was the third of ten children born to Ruth Hairston Early and Joab Early, a wealthy tobacco farmer and local politician. After attending local schools and private academies in the Lynchburg and Danville, Virginia area, Early received … Read more
Early Life Arthur Lyon Fremantle was a British citizen born on November 11, 1835. He was the son of Major General John Fremantle and Agnes Lyon. Like his father and grandfather before him, Fremantle graduated from Sandhurst, the initial training center for British army officers. In 1852, Fremantle began a long career in the British … Read more
Early Life Ambrose Everett Burnside was born on May 23, 1824, near Liberty, Indiana. He was the son of Quaker parents, Edghill Burnside and Pamela Brown Burnside. Burnside received an appointment to the United States Military Academy in 1843, and he graduated in 1847. Following graduation, Burnside served in Mexico toward the end of the … Read more
Early Life George Gordon Meade was born on December 31, 1815, in Cadiz, Spain. Meade was the eighth of eleven children of Richard Worsam Meade and Margaret Coats Butler Meade. Meade’s father was a wealthy Philadelphia merchant who was serving as an agent for the U.S. Navy at the time of Meade’s birth. When Meade’s … Read more
Prelude Following the bloody Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862), Confederate General Robert E. Lee retreated into Virginia, ending his first invasion of the North. The commander of the Army of the Potomac, Major General George McClellan, chose not to pursue Lee’s retreating Army of Northern Virginia, prompting President Abraham Lincoln to issue an executive … Read more
Early Life Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was born on September 8, 1828, in Brewer, Maine. He was the first of five children of Joshua and Sarah (Brastow) Chamberlain. Chamberlain came from a distinguished military ancestry; his great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War; his grandfather fought in the War of 1812; and his father served in the … Read more
Early Life Lewis Addison Armistead was born on February 18, 1817, in New Bern, North Carolina. His parents were Walker Keith Armistead and Elizabeth Stanly Armistead. Armistead’s father and his father’s five brothers served in the War of 1812. His uncle, George, commanded Fort McHenry during the British attack that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner during … Read more
Pickett’s Charge History and Overview During the first two days of the Battle of Gettysburg — July 1 and 2, 1863 — Robert E. Lee and his Confederate forces tried unsuccessfully to flank each end of the Union line. Believing that Major General George Meade had weakened the middle of the federal line to defend … Read more
Summary of the Olive Branch Petition Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Dickinson, the letter was approved by Congress on July 8, 1775. Despite the fact that English and American blood had already been shed at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill, the letter was conciliatory in nature, assuring the King that American colonists … Read more
At the urging of King George III, the British Parliament enacted five laws in 1774, in response to colonial actions flaunting British authority, particularly the Boston Tea Party. The British referred to the legislation collectively as the Coercive Acts or the Restraining Acts. In the American Colonies, they were called the “Intolerable Acts.” In September … Read more
Biography of Joseph Warren Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1741, and educated at Harvard, Warren was a prominent Boston physician. Despite his comfortable lifestyle, Warren began criticizing British rule in 1767, when he authored a series of essays published in the Boston Gazette. Joseph Warren was one of the first members selected to the Boston … Read more
Biography Pontiac was a chief of the Ottawa Indians who remains famous for his leadership role in Pontiac’s Rebellion (1763–1766). Pontiac subscribed to the religious beliefs of Neolin, a prophet among the Delaware Indians who encouraged his fellow Indians to forsake all English goods and customs. Along with other American Indian leaders, Pontiac urged tribes … Read more
Summary The winter of 1777–1778 may have been the low point of the Revolutionary War for George Washington and the Continental Army. After the Battles of Brandywine (September 11, 1777) and Germantown (October 4, 1777), the British Army occupied the American capital, Philadelphia, Congress was on the run, and the Army was in shambles. On … Read more
United States Constitutional Convention Summary By 1787, only four years after the official end of the Revolution, many Americans were convinced that the new nation could not survive under the weak central government established by the Articles of Confederation. Following two previous attempts to address growing concerns about the state of the nation (Mt.Vernon, 1785 … Read more
Summary of Treaty of Paris 1783 The 1783 Treaty of Paris was one of a series of treaties, collectively known as the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of Versailles of 1783, that established peace between Great Britain and the allied nations of France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The Treaty of Paris was negotiated as … Read more
XYZ Affair Summary The XYZ Affair was a diplomatic scandal between France and the United States that happened when French officials tried to bribe American diplomats. When the plot was exposed, anti-French sentiment rose in America, and the slogan “Millions for defense but not one cent for tribute” became popular. Congress re-established the United States … Read more
Summary of the Quebec Act of 1774 The Quebec Act received Royal Assent on June 22, 1774. Although it was not one of the punitive acts passed in retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, many colonists and historians consider it one of the Coercive Acts, which were called the Intolerable Acts in America. The official … Read more
Summary of the Currency Act Colonial America suffered from a lack of hard money due to the mercantile system. Under that economic, system colonies exported relatively cheap raw materials and imported relatively expensive manufactured goods. The system was good for merchants in the mother country, but bad for the colonies because it resulted in more … Read more
French and Indian War Summary The French and Indian War was the North American portion of a worldwide contest for empire between Britain, France, Spain, and other European nations. In Europe, the conflict is known as the Sever Years’ War. Most of the fighting in North America took place in Canada and in the Ohio … Read more