BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Price of Freedom -- Independence (American Revolution, War of 1812)

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Price of Freedom -- Independence (American Revolution, War of 1812):

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIPRIN_150717_001.JPG: Rivalry in North America: Wars erupted frequently in North America in the 1600s and 1700s as rival empires clashed with each other and with resident Indians. Spain, France, and Britain established colonies around the world to enrich their economies, enhance their prestige, and increase their power. All three countries laid claim to portions of North America already settled by Indians. They waged war with Indian nations to establish footholds in America. And they fought with each other to advance colonial interests or to gain the upper hand in European-centered power struggles.
2. SIPRIN_150717_003.JPG: Colonial Military Forces: British colonies raised provincial regiments and called out citizen militias to advance their interests -- often against neighboring Indians. These local forces also saved Britain the trouble of dispatching large numbers of its own troops to the colonies. Provincial units were comprised of long-term regional volunteers equipped by each colony. Militias were comprised of local white men, and sometimes free black men, between the ages of sixteen and sixty who trained irregularly and were mustered, or called out, only as needed. They provided their own weapons. Citizen-soldiers were highly valued by the colonists.
3. SIPRIN_150717_005.JPG: Loyal colonists advanced the interests of the British Empire against Indians and imperial rivals France and Spain.
4. SIPRIN_150717_006.JPG: French and Indian War: In 1754, the global rivalry between Britain and France led the war in America. Britain won, expanding its empire. Britain went to war to prevent French expansion into British-claimed territory in the Ohio River valley. Provincial troops and citizen militias in the colonies took up arms. British soldiers were dispatched to America. Indians joined the fighting on both sides. War soon broke out in Europe as well, and raged for seven years. Britain won, adding Canada, Florida, and the Great Lakes region to its global holdings. France lost nearly all of its North American empire.
5. SIPRIN_150717_009.JPG: Indians at War, 1754-1763: Various Indian groups joined the battle, most for the French but many for the British. Others remained neutral. American Indians had complex interrelationships with European powers. The Iroquois were staunch British allies. Their rivals, the Huron and Algonquin, allied themselves with the French. Indians saw the alliances as a way to play the Europeans against each other and against rival Indians in order to protect their own interests and autonomy.
6. SIPRIN_150717_013.JPG: Disdained Provincials: The British military had little respect for provincial troops or local militia. Colonial provincial troops and local militia fought the opening battles of the war against the French and other Indian allies. Colonials continued to fight when regular British soldiers under the command of General Edward Braddock were dispatched from England to conduct the war. After initial setbacks, including a British rout in which Braddock was killed, combined British forces successfully ousted the French from the Ohio River valley in 1758. Throughout the war, the British disparaged colonial forces: Braddock's aide labeled them "languid, spiritless, and unsoldierlike in appearance."
7. SIPRIN_150717_016.JPG: Spain, Britain, and France competed with each other -- and with American Indians -- for control of North America.
8. SIPRIN_150717_017.JPG: American Indians: Hundreds of thousands of Indians occupied North America. Their relationship with each other, and with Europeans, were based variously on trade, alliance, rivalry, and warfare.
9. SIPRIN_150717_019.JPG: Spanish Empire, 1754: The Spanish were the first to colonize North America. Since the 1500s, they had established settlements in the Caribbean, in Mexico, and from Florida to California.
10. SIPRIN_150717_021.JPG: British Empire, 1754: British settlements were scattered along the Atlantic seaboard. They were tied to the mother country by trade. And they patterned their social, political, and economic structures on British models.
11. SIPRIN_150717_023.JPG: French Empire, 1754: The French occupied eastern Canada and watersheds from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi River. They sought to tap the riches of the North American fur trade and to contain British expansion.
12. SIPRIN_150717_029.JPG: Britain began to bypass colonial governments and exert its imperial authority over local affairs.
13. SIPRIN_150717_031.JPG: Acts of Parliament: Britain imposed taxes on the colonists to defray the ever-increasing expensive of securing its empire. Following its victory in the French and Indian War, Britain looked anew at its imperial responsibilities. Parliament decided to secure its expanded American empire with British troops. English commoners paid taxes to support Britain's powerful army and navy and finance its war debt; it seemed that colonists should pay too. When Parliament started taxing colonial trade, many colonists objects. They argued that the taxes were unjust because they were enacted by a parliament where the colonists had no representation, and enforced by royal courts which had no local juries.
14. SIPRIN_150717_034.JPG: Tea Party: In this 1774 British cartoon, Prime Minister Lord North wields a teapot and forces a figure representing America to swallow a "bitter draught" -- the laws and taxes that Parliament imposed on the colonies.
15. SIPRIN_150717_038.JPG: King George III: The king and his government reversed a long-standing hands-off approach to administering the colonies in America. For years the colonies had flourished in a state of "salutary neglect." Britain had been content to leave the day-to-day administration of local government to its royal governors and to the colonies' own English-style representative legislatures, common-law jury courts, and local militias. Colonists bristled when the British government began to enact and execute taxes and other binding laws without deference to colonial governments or popular consent.
16. SIPRIN_150717_049.JPG: Acts of Protest: From Boston to Charleston, about 40 percent of the colonists protested British policies. As Parliament continued to bypass local legislatures, juries, and militias to enact and enforce laws and taxes, colonial resentment turned to open resistance. Colonists issued statements of their rights, appealed to the king and people of Britain, and petitioned Parliament. They boycotted British goods and harassed royal officials. Some protests turned violent. Different economic interests, regional and ethnic identities, and religious beliefs divided the colonists. But as they began to communicate and coordinate insurgencies, they came to realize that they shared a common understanding of their rights and liberties.
17. SIPRIN_150717_051.JPG: The Boston Massacre: The use of British soldiers to maintain order in the colonies resulted in a fatal encounter. When Britain stationed troops in Boston, many colonists feared that the king intended to rule by force of arms. Scuffles between soldiers and protestors became commonplace. On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd that had been pelting them with insults and snowballs. Five colonists were killed. John Adams, who defended the soldiers in court, portrayed the victims as "a motley rabble of saucy boys... and outlandish jack tars." Others saw them as patriots. Popular leaders pointed to the "massacre" as evidence that a standing army threatened American liberty -- and American lives.
18. SIPRIN_150717_057.JPG: The Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, British soldiers fired into a crowd that had been pelting them with insults and snowballs. Five colonists were killed. Paul Revere's portrayal of the event -- with a line of soldiers firing when an officer gave the order -- was intentionally inaccurate, designed to arouse public outrage. Popular leaders pointed to the "massacre" as evidence that a standing army threatened American liberty -- and American lives.
19. SIPRIN_150717_061.JPG: Boston Tea Party
20. SIPRIN_150717_063.JPG: British cartoon depicting the fate of Boston customs officer John Malcomb, who was tarred and feathered and forced to drink tea, 1774
21. SIPRIN_150717_068.JPG: The Stamp Act: The Stamp Act imposed a tax on legal documents, playing cards, and newspapers, requiring that each item be marked with a royal emblem, or stamp. Colonists protested! What were they objecting to?
22. SIPRIN_150717_072.JPG: A Standing Army: Following the French and Indian War, Britain stationed about one-fifth of its army in the colonies. British troops were stationed in port cities and assigned to frontier outposts from Florida to Nova Scotia. Many colonists viewed these paid professionals with awe and pride. Many others distrusted the red-coasted soldiers -- derisively called lobsterbacks -- fearing that they would carry out the king's bidding even against the opposition of the colonists. "The Troops of George the Third have cross'd the wide altantick not to engage an enemy," complained John Hancock, but to trample "on the rights and liberties of his most loyal subjects."
23. SIPRIN_150717_075.JPG: British Rampage: During their panicked retreat, redcoats looted and set fire to houses along the road to Boston. "In Lexington the enemy set fire to Deacon Joseph Loring's house and barn, Mrs. Mullikin's house and shop, and Mr. Joshua Bond's house and shop, which were all consumed," reported the Salem Gazette on April 25, 1775. "They pillaged almost every house they passed by, breaking and destroying doors, windows, [looking] glasses, etc., and carrying off clothing and other valuable effects." One resident reported that the king's troops had even carried off "one rich brocade gown, called a negligee" and a "pair of brocade shoes."
24. SIPRIN_150717_078.JPG: April 19, 1775: By day's end, 49 colonists were dead, 39 were wounded. British troops reached Boston with 73 dead and 174 wounded. "Whoever looks upon them as an irregular mob will find himself much mistaken," wrote a British commander about the colonists; "they have men amongst them who know very well what they are about." Amos Doolittle engraving of the British retreat, 1775
25. SIPRIN_150717_082.JPG: British soldiers fighting their way back to Boston left a wake of death and destruction.
26. SIPRIN_150717_084.JPG: The Flames of War: When British soldiers attacked their homes, residents rallied to protect themselves and their families. Gathering militiamen fired on British troops from behind trees and stone walls, even from the windows of their houses. Exhausted and panicked British soldiers lashed out, killing civilians, ransacking and looting houses, and setting fires. "Our all is at stake," declared a call to arms issued the next day; the British were going "to ravage this devoted country with fire and sword." Some colonists recoiled from the notion of taking up arms. Others joined the fight resolved to save themselves and their children from lives of "perpetual slavery" under British rule.
27. SIPRIN_150717_088.JPG: Battle of Lexington: The militia members called to the green in Lexington, Massachusetts, were neighbors, fathers and sons, cousins; at least one was a slave; some were old men, some were teens. They had come only to defend their "just rights and liberties" as English subjects. Instead, they began a war for independence from Britain.
28. SIPRIN_150717_092.JPG: A Day of Fighting: From Lexington, British troops marched to Concord, where they destroyed a few supplies the militia had not hidden. After a fierce skirmish with militia, they started back to Boston. Hundreds of militiamen joined the counterattack, forcing the British to make a desperate retreat through a gauntlet of musket fire.
29. SIPRIN_150717_094.JPG: "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" Nobody on the green in Lexington could tell where the first shot came from; nobody would ever know If you had been there, would you have fired the first shot? What happened when someone did?
30. SIPRIN_150717_096.JPG: A War Begins: Fighting at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts started the war for independence. On April 19, 1775, British troops in Boston marched in darkness toward nearby Concord to seize the local militia's cache of arms and gunpowder. Patriots from Boston alerted the countryside. At dawn, the British confronted a militia unit gathered on the green in Lexington. During the standoff, a shot was fired. In a brief melee, eight colonists were killed and ten wounded. Militiamen rushed to arms, and fierce skirmishes continued throughout the day. News of the fighting rallied "Friends of American Liberty" in all the colonies, and caused Britain to declare war.
31. SIPRIN_150717_100.JPG: My View: Philadelphia Patriot: "I tremble at the thought of war; but of all wars, a civil one; our all is at stake; and we are called upon by every tie that is dear and sacred to exert the spirit that Heaven has given us in this righteous struggle for liberty." -- From a letter to a British officer friend in Boston, after April 19, 1775 [the date of the battles at Lexington and Concord]
32. SIPRIN_150717_103.JPG: My View: Lieutenant Frederick Mackenzie: "Many houses were plundered by the soldiers.... I have no doubt this inflamed the Rebels, and made many of them follow us farther than they would otherwise have done... some soldiers who staid too long in the houses were killed in the very act of plundering by those who lay concealed in them." -- British soldier Frederick Mackenzie, diary entry, April 1775
33. SIPRIN_150717_104.JPG: The Declaration of Independence explained to the world why Americans went to war and proclaimed their ideals of liberty.
34. SIPRIN_150717_107.JPG: In June 1775, Congress established a Continental army and selected George Washington as its commander.
35. SIPRIN_150717_109.JPG: Continental Forces: The Continental Congress established a unified colonial military "for the Defense of American Liberty." Just weeks after the outbreak of fighting at Lexington and Concord, delegates from every colony gathered in Philadelphia. In May, they resolved to unite the troops of the several colonies into a single Continental army under the "pay and service" of the Congress. In June, the Congress unanimously elected George Washington general and commander in chief. They authorized a Continental navy in October and a contingent of marines in November. Most colonists harbored a deep distrust of a standing army but, ironically, the establishment of such a force proved a necessary step toward creating a nation.
36. SIPRIN_150717_112.JPG: George Washington came to personify the revolutionary cause -- the preservation of American liberty.
37. SIPRIN_150717_114.JPG: George Washington's Uniform Date: 1789 This blue wool coat is part of a suit of regimentals made for George Washington in 1789. It has a buff wool rise and fall collar, buff cuffs and lapels, and buff lining; there is a row of yellow metal buttons on each lapel, as well as on each cuff. The waistcoat and breeches are matching buff wool, with gilt buttons. Specific History This uniform consisting of uniform coat, waistcoat, and pair of knee breeches was initially donated to the Columbian Institute; in 1841, it was transferred to the National Institute and was housed in the Patent Office. It came to the Smithsonian in 1883 from the Patent Office collection, and has been on display almost continuously. During the years 1942 - 1944, during World War II, the Smithsonian packed up many of its treasured artifacts and sent them to the Shenandoah Valley for safekeeping. This uniform was worn by George Washington from 1789 until his death in 1799; the small clothes or breeches and waistcoat, date from the revolutionary period. In paintings of Washington during this period, he often posed for life portraits and was often depicted wearing this uniform. An example of this would be the watercolor portrait on ivory painted by artist John Ramage in 1789; it is the first known depiction of this uniform in a portrait of Washington. In December 1798, Washington was recorded wearing this uniform when he visited Philadelphia on Provisional Army duty. He wore a similar uniform when he was commissioned by the Continental Congress as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. None of his uniforms from the Revolutionary War period are known to have survived. General History When George Washington was an aide to General Edward Braddock he paid special attention to the way the British General maintained his rank and deportment. Washington believed that in order to command effectively, an officer must convey character and leadership through appearance as well as action. As the leader of the Continental Army, Washington wanted this troop to present themselves as a professional military organization and a proper uniform was one way of presenting this unified front. In commemoration of Washington's attention to detail, the colors of blue and buff remained the accepted pattern for U. S. Army uniforms until the beginning of the Civil War. The above was from http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=763
38. SIPRIN_150717_122.JPG: Commanding Presence: George Washington stood tall when he accepted his commission to lead the Continental army on June 15, 1775 -- more than six feet, in fact. And he cut an impressive figure in his uniform: "His frame is padded with well-developed muscles, indicating great strength," wrote a friend in 1760. He has "rather long arms and legs," large hands and feet, a head that is "well-shaped, though not large" with "blue gray penetrating eyes," and "dark brown hair which he wears in a que [braid]." His "movements and gestures are graceful, his walk majestic, and he is a splendid horseman."
39. SIPRIN_150717_124.JPG: General Washington at Princeton Painting Date: 1790 Charles Peale Polk (Artist) George Washington made two memorable visits to Princeton. In 1777, only ten days after crossing the Delaware on Christmas night and defeating the British at Trenton, he drove the British from Nassau Hall and sent them retreating from Princeton. The second visit was in 1783 during the closing days of the war when he appeared at the Continental Congress which was meeting in Nassau Hall. The above was from http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=537&back=1
40. SIPRIN_150717_134.JPG: My View: Benjamin Rush "He has so much martial dignity in his deportment that you would distinguish him to be a general and a soldier from among ten thousand people.... There is not a king in Europe that would not look like a valet de chambre by his side." -- Benjamin Rush, physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, in a letter to Thomas Rushton, October 29, 1775
41. SIPRIN_150717_135.JPG: On July 4, 1776, Washington's army was encamped on Long Island; British warships and transports floated offshore.
42. SIPRIN_150717_137.JPG: My View: Thomas Paine: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." -- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, December 1776
43. SIPRIN_150717_139.JPG: Life In Camp: Washington sought to subject life in camp to strict military protocols and daily orders, but was constantly frustrated. Camp was disrupted by all manner of irregularities and discomforts. Each day civilians in every imaginable capacity were drawn to the camps, militiamen came and went, soldiers deserted, and many succumbed to illness. The weather seemed always too hot or too wet. Flies and mosquitoes were ever-present. Rations were inadequate, and promised supplies and equipment never materialized. And once British forces began their attacks in late August, American troops were constantly on the run, retreating from Long Island to Manhattan to White Plains, then all the way across New Jersey.
44. SIPRIN_150717_141.JPG: Every mess -- six to eight men -- was issued a camp pot. They supplemented rations with bought or foraged good.
45. SIPRIN_150717_146.JPG: Exercising the Troops: George Washington wanted his troops well-drilled, able to load and fire their muskets "not only with quickness, but with calmness." Washington repeatedly ordered his officers to train their men in the "manual exercise," the precise sequence of steps involved in loading and firing their muskets. He was also adamant that they practice moving in formation. Because muskets were inaccurate weapons -- balls seldom flew straight from their smoothbore barrels -- troops stood shoulder-to-shoulder and fired simultaneously at close range in order to hit their targets. They maintained these long lines in the midst of battle, whether moving forward or turning left or right.
46. SIPRIN_150717_149.JPG: Preparing for Battle: Washington knew that discipline was key to transforming newly recruited and freshly trained civilians into soldiers. Troops facing each other in battle stood in linear formations 50 to 100 yards apart. They exchanged repeated volleys of musket fire, as well as artillery salvos, in an effort to break up the opposing line, then charged with bayonets affixed to their muskets. Washington made sure that his troops trained for battle using "systems of Discipline" from various English military manuals. Discipline ensured the coordinated handling of weaponry, taught individuals to act as one, and kept scared soldiers marching forward when those beside them exploded in blood.
47. SIPRIN_150717_152.JPG: Wounds: Soft lead musket balls flattened on impact. They tore gaping wounds and shattered bones. Bouncing iron cannonballs caught limbs, tearing them from sockets. Bayonets, twisted as they were pulled from abdomens, destroyed vital organs. Most of the wounded were bandaged to staunch their bleeding and left to hope for the best. Those with shattered limbs underwent surgery that was little more than meat cutting, losing arms and legs to amputation.
48. SIPRIN_150717_154.JPG: Ordnance: Washington ordered that as many men as possible be employed each day in making musket balls and cartridges -- rolled paper wrappers that held a ball and enough black powder to prime and load a musket. Marble-sized musket balls were cast from lead melted over a fire and ladled into brass molds. Iron foundries cast shot for artillery in various sizes.
49. SIPRIN_150717_157.JPG: Civilians to Soldiers: With the British poised to attack Long Island and Manhattan in 1776, thousands of men flocked to New York to join the Continental army. The men who joined Washington's army were young and mostly poor farmers, fishermen, and artisans; some were Africans. All were volunteers and many joined for the cash bounty. Some were veterans of the French and Indian War, but most had no idea what they were getting into. Many deserted; others died in disease-ravaged camps. When the British attacked Long Island in August, Washington's troops faced heavy volleys of musket fire, fusillades of artillery, and charges with fixed bayonets. Many were killed; others retreated before superior British forces. But gradually they were learning to be soldiers.
50. SIPRIN_150717_161.JPG: Camp Fevers: Disease caused more deaths than wounds from battle, not only in the summer of 1776, but throughout the war. Undernourished and exhausted soldiers often suffered from scurvy and dysentery. Massed together "as thick as hasty pudding," they were also vulnerable to quickly spreading contagious diseases, such as diphtheria, typhus, mumps, measles, and smallpox.
51. SIPRIN_150717_163.JPG: The Daily Beat: Drummers communicated orders to the troops in battle and in camp. Drums signaled the routines of the day, from reveille -- beat at sunrise -- to tattoo -- beat as a signal for lights out. "As there is a necessity for the Army to rise and turn out every morning at Reville-beating [sic] -- they ought to go to rest early," ordered George Washington. "All lights must be out at 9 o'clock in the evening, and every man to his tent."
52. SIPRIN_150717_165.JPG: Of the 20,000 men in Washington's army in the summer of 1776, nearly 25 percent were sick at any given time.
53. SIPRIN_150717_167.JPG: My View: James Tilton: "All manner of excrementitious matter was scattered indiscriminately throughout the camp... A putrid diarrhea was the consequence. Many died, melting as it were, and running off at the bowels. Medicine answered little or not purpose." -- James Tilton, regimental surgeon, around 1776
54. SIPRIN_150717_169.JPG: Gansevoort at Fort Stanwix: In the summer of 1777, American forces repulsed British, loyalist, and Indian troops invading western New York. Continental forces under the command of Colonel Peter Gansevoort occupied Fort Stanwix, a refurbished log-and-earthen fortification midway across New York State. A British army that included nearly a thousand Mohawk Indians under Joseph Brant attacked the garrison, but it help fast during a twenty-day siege, stalling the invasion. Fierce fighting with local militia and rumors that a huge relief force of Continental troops was on its way to break the siege caused the British to abandon the invasion and retreat toward Canada.
55. SIPRIN_150717_172.JPG: Regimental Uniform Coat of Colonel Peter Gansevoort, Jr. at Fort Stanwix, 1777.
56. SIPRIN_150717_176.JPG: Indians and Alliances: The people of the Iroquois Confederacy fought on both sides during the northern campaign. At the outset of the war, the six Iroquois nations pledged their neutrality: "We are unwilling to join on either side of such a contest," declared the Oneida in 1775, "for we love you both -- old England and new." But shortly afterward, the Mohawk and most other Indians sided with Britain; the Oneida and Tuscarora sided with the patriots. The Iroquois were politically, militarily, and diplomatically savvy. Both the British and the Americans considered the Iroquois "unreliable allies, recognizing that Indian nations entered their alliances to protect their own people, territory, and autonomy.
57. SIPRIN_150717_181.JPG: The Northern Campaign: In the fall of 1777, American troops frustrated British plans to isolate New England. The British planned a three-pronged attack to divide and conquer the northern colonies. One force of British regulars, Iroquois allies, and loyalist militia (colonists who remained loyal to Britain) would march south from Canada toward Albany. A second army would push north from British-occupied New York City to meet them. A diversionary force would invade western New York. But in August, the western invasion was repulsed at Fort Stanwix. In September, British troops in Manhattan were sent south to Philadelphia. And in October, Continental troops -- reinforced with large numbers of local militia and Indian allies -- stopped the British advance at Saratoga.
58. SIPRIN_150717_184.JPG: Having failed to crush the rebellion in 1776, the British resolved to split the colonies along the Hudson River.
59. SIPRIN_150717_185.JPG: Valley Forge: In December of 1777, the Continental army established winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. Some 10,000 soldiers endured miserable conditions. Prussian drillmaster Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben maintained order and discipline. An estimated 2,500 died of disease.
60. SIPRIN_150717_187.JPG: The Real Revolution: Long before the outbreak of fighting, Americans started to view the idea of sovereignty differently than the British. The American War of Independence was the means by which colonists broke free from Britain. But the war was part of a much larger revolution of ideas. No longer would a king hold supreme power over the people. Instead, the people themselves would be sovereign.
61. SIPRIN_150717_189.JPG: Victory at Saratoga: In the fall of 1777, the Americans stood fast and achieved a decisive victory. At Saratoga, New York, combined American forces were strong enough to defeat a major British army -- with formidable fortifications, volleys of musket fire, disciplined bayonet charges, and expert artillery salvos. At least 1,000 British coalition forces were killed in two days of horrific fighting; nearly 5,000 surrendered and most were held as prisoners of war until 1783. Previously, outmatched American troops had engaged the British in brief battles and quickly retreated, enduring many defeats and celebrating a few small successes. At Saratoga, the Americans held their ground and won a stunning victory.
62. SIPRIN_150717_192.JPG: 4-pound French cannon a gift to Americans from the marquis de Lafayette
63. SIPRIN_150717_196.JPG: Benjamin Franklin: Benjamin Franklin was America's liaison with overseas allies. After hostilities erupted in 1775, Franklin won support from France and Spain. They secretly supplied the Continental army with gold, arms, gunpowder, uniforms, and medicine as well as cattle and horses, some from Spain's colonies in America. Following the stunning American victory at Saratoga, Franklin negotiated a treaty in which France openly declared its support and recognized American independence. Holland, Spain, and France provided troops and warships and challenged Britain worldwide, transforming the war for American independence into a war that Britain could not win.
64. SIPRIN_150717_198.JPG: Continental troops and backcountry fighters frustrated British attempts to conquer Georgia and the Carolinas.
65. SIPRIN_150717_199.JPG: War in the South: The Continental army in the South was small. Backcountry militias harassed British troops and loyalist units. After devastating losses, the southern department of the Continental army relied heavily on local partisan militias. These irregular units were variously equipped and trained. They often ignored commands or the disciplined practices of conventional warfare, but they could "shout like hell and fight like devils." Partisan units were often deployed in combined operations with regular troops. More frequently, partisans acted on their own, independently besieging the enemy. They won few outright victories, yet kept the British from controlling Georgia and the Carolinas.
66. SIPRIN_150717_202.JPG: Sidearms: Both the Americans and British fielded cavalry and dragoons -- troops on galloping horses. They were well suited to the skirmishes that characterized much of the southern campaign. The soldiers used sabers the way line-fighting infantry used bayonets. By 1781, facing "the great force of the enemy, especially of cavalry," the British began to doubt that they could win in the South.
67. SIPRIN_150717_204.JPG: My View: Banastre Tarleton: "I am extremely fatigued with overtaking the Enemy and beating them -- they refused my terms -- I have cut 170 Off'rs [officers] and Men to pieces -- 2 six pounders, 2 pair culverin, 2 Royals and all their baggage have fallen into my hands." -- Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, the British "Green Dragoon"
68. SIPRIN_150717_208.JPG: Stymied in the South: Countless savage skirmishes with Continentals, provincial troops, and militia frustrated British efforts to control the South. British operations in the South were initially successful. In 1778, British troops captured Savannah, Georgia, and moved inland, taking "a stripe and a star from the rebel flag of Congress." In 1780 they captured Charleston, South Carolina, taking nearly 5,500 prisoners. But when British forces attempted to move beyond the coast, their progress was slowed by repeated clashes with Continental troops and backcountry fighters.
69. SIPRIN_150717_211.JPG: Death of Patrick Ferguson, King's Mountain: Ferguson, a British officer, was commander of loyalist forces defeated at the battle of King's Mountain, South Carolina. He was a Scot, but all his troops were Americans who opposed independence. No British troops were involved.
70. SIPRIN_150717_214.JPG: Neighbor Against Neighbor: Partisan units often fought against opposing loyalist militia comprised of their own neighbors. Much of the fighting in Georgia and the Carolinas took place between Americans. Many colonists there -- as in all the colonies -- remained fiercely loyal to the king. Some were wealthy aristocrats; most were farmers of tradesmen. Some took refuge in British strongholds in Charleston, South Carolina, or fled to Canada, the Caribbean, or England. At King's Mountain, South Carolina, in 1780, loyalists battled to the death neighbors who were dedicated to winning freedom from the Crown.
71. SIPRIN_150717_218.JPG: General Nathanael Greene: Greene commanded the southern department of the Continental army. In an often-tense partnership with partisan leaders Thomas Sumter ("the Gamecock"), Andrews Pickens ("the Fighting Elder"), and Francis Marion ("the Swamp Fox"), Greene continually frustrated the British even though he never won a major battle.
72. SIPRIN_150717_220.JPG: Smooth and Rifled barrels
73. SIPRIN_150717_223.JPG: Feel the difference between the barrels of a smoothbore and rifled musket. A ball fired from a smoothbore musket wobbles as it travels along the barrel and seldom flies accurately for any distance. The rifled barrel has two spiral grooves cut on the inside that impart a controlled spin on the ball. A spinning ball flies straighter and travels farther.
74. SIPRIN_150717_229.JPG: Backcountry Tactics: Southern partisans applied to combat the skills they had learned while fighting Indians, hunting, and exploring. Partisans knew the swamps, savannahs, and pine forests of South Carolina and Georgia. They fought from tree to tree and advanced under cover. Some had deadly accurate, long-range rifled muskets. They used hit-and-run ambushes and ruthless, take-no-prisoners combat, not the close-order volleys and bayonet charges of open-field linear warfare favored by the British.
75. SIPRIN_150717_234.JPG: The War of Independence was a coalition war, characterized by complex political and military alliances.
76. SIPRIN_150717_236.JPG: Allies and Enemies: Both the American colonies and Britain relied on allies to strengthen their strategic and tactical positions. American Continental troops, provincial regiments, and local militia joined forces with French troops, who were supported by French and Spanish seamen. Several Indian groups, notably the Oneida and Tuscarora, cast their lot with the Americans. British regulars and seamen were joined by Hessians and other German soldiers hired by the Crown. Most of the Iroquois Confederacy, including the Seneca, allied with the British, as did the Cherokee.
77. SIPRIN_150717_239.JPG: Iroquois Warriors: In 1777, the Iroquois abandoned their neutral stance toward the war and took sides. Most believed it was in their best interest to support the British. About 1,500 Iroquois warriors fought on behalf of the British; several hundred took up arms with the Americans.
78. SIPRIN_150717_241.JPG: French Troops: More than 5,000 white-coated French troops under the command of the comte de Rochambeau arrived in America in 1780, more than two years after the Treaty of Alliance. Another 3,000 troops from the French West Indies joined them during the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.
79. SIPRIN_150717_243.JPG: Continental Troops: Soldiers in the regular Continental army served long-term enlistments. Many signed on for the duration of the war or reenlisted several times. Most were infantry, armed with muskets and bayonets. They were trained and practiced in conventional open-field warfare. During the course of the war, about 100,000 men served in Washington's armies or in state militias.
80. SIPRIN_150717_245.JPG: British Troops: In 1775, 8,000 British troops were stationed in America; by war's end, there were 56,000 -- more than half the king's army. Persistent recruiting shortfalls meant that paupers and felons often filled the ranks; upper-class gentlemen served as officers. British regiments were drilled and beaten into disciplined fighting units. Grenadiers -- so named because they once lobbed hand grenades with lighted fuses -- were the regiment's elite, proud that they "knew no doubts or fears."
81. SIPRIN_150717_249.JPG: German Soldiers: Britain hired close to 30,000 German soldiers, many from the principality of Hesse-Cassel, to augment its forces in America. Infantry troops and elite fusilier units participated in almost every campaign of the war. Nearly 550 Germans were killed in action; another 6,500 succumbed to disease. More than 5,000 deserted and settled in America, joining many other Germans who had come as colonists.
82. SIPRIN_150717_252.JPG: British Seamen: In 1775, 15,000 men sailed aboard a royal fleet of 340 ships. By war's end, more than 100,000 men were at sea on 617 ships worldwide. Crews aboard British warships were often impressed into service against their will. They endured conditions that ranged from squalid to terrifying. In broadside engagements, they faced thundering cannon, sharpshooters firing from the rigging, and boarding parties wielding axes, cutlasses, pistols, pikes, and scattershot weapons.
83. SIPRIN_150717_258.JPG: Model of the Ship Rattlesnake Date: 1779 Alfred Brownell (Builder) The Revolutionary War privateer Rattlesnake was designed in 1779-80 by John Peck. She was built in Plymouth, Massachusetts in the style of a miniature frigate. She was armed with up to 20 guns and a complement of 85 men. While there is little history of this privateer, it is known that she was captured by the British in 1781. She was taken by the Royal Navy and sold soon afterwards. The above was from http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=687
84. SIPRIN_150717_260.JPG: Privateers: At the outset of the war, Congress authorized the owners of fishing and other commercial vessels to install guns on their ships and "to cruise on the enemies of these United Colonies." Privateers were licensed predators, allowed to sell at auction the ships they captured and to keep the resulting "prize." At times there were as many men abroad privateers as there were in the Continental army ashore. And because many privateers were inadequately armed, many more sailors than soldiers were taken prisoner by the British.
85. SIPRIN_150717_262.JPG: Privateers and the French and Spanish fleets augmented the fledgling Continental navy.
86. SIPRIN_150717_266.JPG: War at Sea: George Washington believed that ultimately the war would be won or lost at sea. The Continental navy fielded a tiny fleet and a corps of marines. Private vessels hired by Congress to harass enemy troop ships and disrupt commercial shipping provided the bulk of America's force at sea. With the navy, they sank or captured hundreds of enemy ships and took thousands of prisoners. But only after the alliance -- when French and Spanish warships joined the fight -- did the tide turn in favor of the Americans. The British suffered losses in the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, and even in their own coastal waters.
87. SIPRIN_150717_269.JPG: John Paul Jones; "I Have Not Yet Begun..." On September 23, 1779, John Paul Jones, commander of the Continental navy's Bon Homme Richard, defeated the royal warship Serapis. The Richard was badly crippled in the initial close-range exchange of cannon fire, but when the British commander asked if Jones was ready to surrender, Jones cried: "I have not yet begun to fight!"
88. SIPRIN_150717_272.JPG: Submerged Warfare: The Turtle, the first American submarine, was invented in 1776 by David Bushnell to deploy an underwater bomb without detection. A single individual moved it through the water by cranking a hand-operated propeller. It could remain submerged for only about thirty minutes. In September, the Turtle was deployed against a British warship in New York Harbor. The submarine operator failed to attach the bomb -- which exploded after it was released -- but succeeded in terrorizing the British, who repositioned their fleet.
89. SIPRIN_150717_280.JPG: Siege Warfare: Allied army engineers designed an elaborate series of trenches and battlements to attack British fortifications at Yorktown. Working under cover of darkness, allied troops dug approach trenches and emplacements for artillery. They hauled more than 100 siege guns, howitzers, and mortars into place, and readied iron balls, grapeshot, and projectiles that could be set aflame. Then they took aim at British fortifications surrounding Yorktown, houses in town, and ships at anchor. The bombardment was intense. At the height of the assault, French and American artillery crews fired 3,600 rounds in a single day. The cannonade was so noisy, recalled a witness, it seemed "as though the heavens should split."
90. SIPRIN_150717_282.JPG: Field Artillery: A five-man crew could load and fire this cannon every ninety seconds. After each shot, they covered the vent at the breech end, cleaned and sponged the brass barrel, loaded and rammed down a bag of black powder and a 4-pound iron ball, primed the vent with powder, covered their ears, opened their mouths, and lit the charge.
91. SIPRIN_150717_283.JPG: Artillery, munitions, and gunners' tools, 1798
92. SIPRIN_150717_286.JPG: Field Gun Captured at Saratoga This British field gun was captured at Saratoga. General History Fought in 1777 in northern New York state, the Battle of Saratoga was a major battle of the Revolutionary War. Benedict Arnold, who had not yet turned traitor, was a leader of the American offensive, which forced the surrender of British troops under General John Burgoyne. In the first battle at Saratoga the British lost two men for every one American casualty. In terms of ground gained, however, both sides fought to a draw. In the second battle, British losses were four to one. The rebels' victory was overwhelming. After many negotiations, Burgoyne officially surrendered on 17 October 1777. When news of the American victory reached Europe, France entered the war on the side of the patriots. Money and supplies flowed to the American cause, providing Washington's Continental Army with the support necessary to continue its fight against Great Britain. Britain's loss at Saratoga proved disastrous. It signaled to the European powers that the rebels were capable of defeating the English on their own. More than any other single event, the Battle of Saratoga proved decisive in determining the eventual outcome of the war. The above was from http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=103&back=1
93. SIPRIN_150717_296.JPG: My View: St. George Tucker: "Cornwallis may now tremble for his fate, for nothing but some extraordinary interposition of his guardian angels [is] capable of saving him and his whole army from captivity." -- Major St. George Tucker to his wife, September 15, 1781
94. SIPRIN_150717_300.JPG: Allied Leaders at Yorktown: From left; Lafayette, Washington, and Rochambeau surveying Yorktown following the British surrender. Despite language barriers, they coordinated complex siege operations involving the combined armies and navies of the alliance. After their success, the marquis de Lafayette remarked: "Liberty now has a country."
95. SIPRIN_150717_304.JPG: Decision at Sea: On September 4, 1781, the French fleet, commanded by Admiral Comte de Grasse, engaged Royal Navy warships at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Four days later, battered British ships quit the fight and limped toward New York, abandoning General Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown without supplies, reinforcements, or hope of rescue.
96. SIPRIN_150717_306.JPG: Siege of Yorktown, October 1781: American and French forces trapped a British army at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced it to surrender. In the fall of 1781, American and French troops, together with the French fleet, trapped British forces at Yorktown, Virginia. While French warships blocked the Chesapeake and held the British fleet at bay, allied forces laid siege to Yorktown. They bombarded the town relentlessly and, in bold assaults, captured important outlying positions. Fierce British counterattacks proved fruitless. After eight days under fire, the British accepted a humiliating reality: their position was untenable. They had no choice but to surrender.
97. SIPRIN_150717_309.JPG: Decision to Land: In August of 1781, Washington was monitoring British activity in New York City when he learned that the French fleet was sailing to the Chesapeake Bay. A large British army had retreated from the southern interior, and now occupied Yorktown, Virginia. Washington and Rochambeau, commander of French forces in America, saw a fleeting opportunity to entrap them. They rushed south.
98. SIPRIN_150717_312.JPG: Washington's army, joined by French troops, relentlessly shelled and attacked British positions in Yorktown.
99. SIPRIN_150717_315.JPG: The French fleet blocked the Chesapeake Bay, preventing British warships from reinforcing Yorktown.
100. SIPRIN_150717_317.JPG: On October 17, an officer waving a white handkerchief appeared atop a parapet: the British were ready to surrender.
101. SIPRIN_150717_321.JPG: Surrender at Yorktown: General Charles Cornwallis was so mortified by his defeat that he dispatched his second in command, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, to surrender his forces. When O'Hara offered Cornwallis's sword to George Washington, Washington, in keeping with the rigid hierarchies of military protocol, asked his second in command, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, to accept it.
102. SIPRIN_150717_324.JPG: Cornwallis Concedes Defeat: "Sir, I propose a cessation of hostilities for twenty-four hours, and that two officers may be appointed by each side... to settle terms for the surrender of the posts at York and Gloucester." -- Cornwallis's letter to George Washington, October 17, 1781
103. SIPRIN_150717_326.JPG: "The World Turned Upside Down" The humiliating defeat at Yorktown sapped Britain's will to fight. The British surrender more than 8,000 troops at Yorktown. They remained in control of New York and Charleston, and continued limited fighting in the colonies and abroad for another year. But once news of the surrender reached London, popular support for the war vanished. This disaster, together with other setbacks at home and abroad, led to the downfall of Prime Minister Lord North. Britain opened peace talks with American diplomats in Paris.
104. SIPRIN_150717_330.JPG: Surrendered Colors: During surrender ceremonies, British and German troops (including more than 800 members of the Ansbach-Bayreuth Regiment) marched out of Yorktown between lines of American and French soldiers. Refusing to recognized the Americans as the victors, the vanquished soldiers fixed their gaze on the French troops. Recognizing the insult, the French played "Yankee Doodle."
105. SIPRIN_150717_333.JPG: Ansbach-Bayreuth Regimental Flag Date: 1775 This Ansbach-Bayreuth Regimental flag was surrendered at Yorktown, 19 October 1781. It was sent to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia as a trophy and is one of a few regimental trophy flags to survive. General History Defeated British and German troops refused to recognize the Americans as their victors, fixing their gaze on the French troops. When the French fife and drum corps played Yankee Doodle, the surrendering armies turned away and glared directly into the faces of the victorious Americans. The above from http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=234
106. SIPRIN_150717_335.JPG: British and German troops marched out of Yorktown and laid down their arms and regimental flags.
107. SIPRIN_150723_006.JPG: The Declaration of Independence explained to the world why Americans went to war and proclaimed their ideals of liberty.
108. SIPRIN_150723_010.JPG: We believe that... * All men created equal. * Government requires the consent of the governed. * Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are our rights.
109. SIPRIN_150723_013.JPG: We are fighting because... * Armies were kept among us. * We were taxed without representation. * The government was no longer protecting us.
110. SIPRIN_150723_016.JPG: We hereby... * Absolve ourselves from allegiance to the British Crown. * Declare our shared commitment to a common cause. * Assume the right to wage war and conclude peace.
111. SIPRIN_150723_020.JPG: Guidon (small unit flag) of the Second Continental Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment that fought at Saratoga.
112. SIPRIN_150723_033.JPG: The Iconic Washington: In 1784, the State of Virginia commissioned the renowned French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon to produce a statue of George Washington for the capitol in Richmond. Houdon visited Mount Vernon, where he made a plaster cast of Washington's face, capturing, he wrote, "the majesty and grandeur of Washington's form and features." Bust made by Clark Mills in 1853 using the original life cast of Washington's face taken by Jean-Antoine Houdon at Mount Vernon in 1785.
113. SIPRIN_150723_035.JPG: My View: King George III: King: What will he do now? West: He [Washington] will resign and return to private life. King: If he does that, sir, he will be the greatest man in the world. -- British monarch George III in conversation with painter Benjamin West, 1783
114. SIPRIN_150723_037.JPG: George Washington set an enduring precedent: America's military is subordinate to civilian authority.
115. SIPRIN_150723_040.JPG: The Newburgh Conspiracy: When some officers in the Continental army conspired to stage a mutiny against Congress, Washington prevented the uprising. In 1783, Washington's officers encamped in Newburgh, New York, became angry when the Continental Congress repeatedly delayed their pay and questioned plans for pensions. A small group conspired to stage a mutiny and march against Congress. Washington opposed them. He upbraided his officers, appealing to their sense of duty and reminding them that he himself had grown gray in their service. In averting any rebellion, Washington affirmed an enduring American principle: the military serves under civilian control.
116. SIPRIN_150723_043.JPG: Washington's Farewell: "Having now finished the work assigned to me, I retire from the great Theatre of Action; & bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August Body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my Commission, & take my leave of all the employments of public life." Washington's Bequest: Washington wore this battle sword during his years as general and commander in chief of the Continental army. He later bequeathed it to his nephew, admonishing him to draw it "only in self defense or in defense of [the] country and its rights."
117. SIPRIN_150723_048.JPG: George Washington's sword
118. SIPRIN_150723_054.JPG: Commander in Chief: President Washington commanded the military as a civilian, not a general. When Washington became president in 1789, he realized that there were no traditions or precedents for the office. "My station is new," he remarked, "I walk on untrodden ground." Under the newly ratified Constitution, the president was commander in chief of the army and navy. Washington initially saw his role as that of a general: he took to the field with troops when farmers in western Pennsylvania challenged a federal tax on whiskey. But ultimately he established the convention of commanding the military as a civilian.
119. SIPRIN_150723_057.JPG: Washington Stands Down: A triumphant general in Washington's position might have tried to seize power, but Washington returned to private life. On December 23, 1783, Washington surrendered his commission as general and commander in chief. Like many Americans, he saw himself and his army as agents of the Continental Congress. During the war, he deferred to its directives even when he disagreed with them. At war's end, he appeared before the Congress meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, and resigned. Per order of Congress, he signaled his deference to the members by bowing; in return, they denoted their authority by only lifting their hats. Washington then bid them farewell and returned to his farm.
120. SIPRIN_150723_072.JPG: Unfinished Tribute: American peace commissioners (left to right) John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin posed for a painting to celebrate the conclusion of more than a year of grueling negotiations. When their British counterparts refused to pose, the artist abandoned the canvas.
121. SIPRIN_150723_074.JPG: The Treaty of Paris: In 1783, American and British negotiators signed a treaty ceasing hostilities and recognizing America's independence. The war formally ended in a Paris hotel room on the morning of September 3, 1783, when both sides signed a treaty pledging "to forget past Misunderstandings & Differences." The treaty recognized the colonies as the United States of America, established boundaries, and guaranteed that both nations would enjoy free passage on the Mississippi River.
122. SIPRIN_150723_080.JPG: Candlesticks: Peace commissioner John Jay took these candlesticks from the room where the treaty was signed as souvenirs. When news of the signing reached America, the British Army evacuated New York and Charleston. Washington resigned. And Congress abolished the Continental army, navy, and marines, retaining only eighty privates and a few officers to guard surplus arms and equipment.
123. SIPRIN_150723_087.JPG: Americans won their independence, but continued to debate the meanings of liberty.
124. SIPRIN_150723_090.JPG: 1783: Liberty's Country: The end of the War of Independence did not end the fight for equality and liberty in America. The United States won independence from Great Britain and pledged to join together as free and independent states where all men were equal and empowered to govern themselves. Men who owned no property, women, and Africans in America -- both enslaved and free -- were considered ineligible for these freedoms. But in the years that followed, all Americans would seek to appropriate the cause of liberty as their own.
125. SIPRIN_150723_092.JPG: 1789: The Constitution: The Constitution delineate structures and functions of a federal government, and strengthened the foundation for a government of law. Many proponents of a stronger national government believed that the loose union of states established by the Articles of Confederation in 1781 had proved to be, in Washington's words, a "half-starved, limping Government." They gathered in Philadelphia in May of 1787 and, in secret sessions, decided to abandon the Articles of Confederation and draft a constitution. After spiriting public debate, and an agreement to add amendments protecting individuals' liberties and states' rights, eleven states ratified the Constitution in 1787-88; the last two joined them in 1789 and 1790. On April 30, 1789, George Washington became the nation's first president.
126. SIPRIN_150723_095.JPG: Symbols of a New Nation: The first coins bearing the name United States of America were minted in 1787. Coinage was both a practical necessity and a symbolic gesture, representing the linking of many states into one nation.
127. SIPRIN_150723_103.JPG: The War of 1812 strengthened American sovereignty, inspired a national anthem, and gave the country a new hero. The War of 1812: The United States fought Britain in the War of 1812 to assert its rights as an independent, sovereign nation. During the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, the United States remained neutral and traded with both Britain and France. Ignoring this stance, Britain harassed American shipping and impressed American sailors, making them serve on British ships. In June 1812, the United States declared war and invaded Canada. American privateers and navy ships fought doggedly against British vessels. The English burned much of Washington, DC, including the White House, then tried, but failed, to seize Baltimore Harbor. The United States gave up efforts to occupy Canada. Both Britain and America were ready for peace in 1814.
128. SIPRIN_150723_108.JPG: Andrew Jackson: A New Hero: In the battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson led a diverse group of American soldiers to victory against a stronger British force. In the last major battle of the war, Britain brought some 10,000 of its best troops to seize New Orleans. To stop them, General Andrew Jackson had a force of 4,000, composed of soldiers, militia, Choctaw Indians, former slaves, and even pirates. By carefully choosing his ground, Jackson forced the British to make futile attacks on well-fortified positions, and defeated them in a lopsided victory. Added to his fame as an Indian fighter, this brilliant action propelled him to national prominence and ultimately to election as president in 1828.
129. SIPRIN_150723_112.JPG: Andrew Jackson's Uniform: Major General Andrew Jackson wore this uniform, sword, and scabbard during the battle of New Orleans. At the time, Jackson was commander of the Seventh Military District, which included Louisiana, Tennessee, and the Mississippi Territory.
130. SIPRIN_150723_121.JPG: Free Trade and Sailors' Rights: The slogans on this pitcher captures in brief what most Americans thought was at issue in the War of 1812: America's standing as a free and independent nation.
131. SIPRIN_150723_126.JPG: Andrew Jackson's uniform used to be here
132. SIPRIN_150723_138.JPG: Star-Spangled Banner: On September 13, 1814, British forces attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor. After twenty-five hours of bombardment, they failed to take the fort. Watching the battle while detained on a British ship, American lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that was set to music and eventually became the United States national anthem. Fragments of the Star-Spangled Banner cut as souvenirs in 1880
133. SIPRIN_150723_140.JPG: Burning of Washington, August 24, 1814: Seeking to humiliate the United States, Britain attacked its capital in August 1814. Meeting ineffective resistance, the British seized the city and burned public buildings. Heroic action by citizens such as first lady Dolley Madison saved some national treasures, including the Declaration of Independence.
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2015 photos: Equipment this year: I mostly used my Fuji XS-1 camera but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. I retired from the US Census Bureau in god-forsaken Suitland, Maryland on my 58th birthday in May. Yee ha! Trips this year: a quick trip to Florida. two Civil War Trust conferences (Raleigh, NC and Richmond, VA), and my 10th consecutive San Diego Comic-Con trip (including Los Angeles). Ego Strokes: Carolyn Cerbin used a Kevin Costner photo in her USA Today article. Miss DC pictures were used a few times in the Washington Post. Number of photos taken this year: just over 550,000.
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