But first, coffee: The drink that energized the American Revolution - A consequential act of defiance secured tea’s place as perhaps the most iconic beverage of America’s colonial era. The Boston Tea Party became an essential ingredient in the recipe for revolution in the following years. But tea wasn’t the only hot beverage with a prominent role in America’s fight for independence. Coffee was an important part of […]
The Fall of Vicksburg - When I was 19, I knew a much older man who’d grown up in 1930s Alabama. “We didn’t celebrate the Fourth of July,” he told me. “For us, it was the day Vicksburg fell.” Vicksburg, Mississippi, fell to Union troops on July 4, 1863. The Confederates surrendered, as was their habit. Long memories still mourn […]
News From Around the South, 6/29 to 7/6 - SOUTH CAROLINA: SC militias fought for America’s freedom – who fights for their battlegrounds? As a boy, Rick Wise was hooked on military history from the beginning. But he was never told he lived mere miles from the pivotal spot where the backcountry’s “Swamp Fox,” Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, first rallied his own brigade. […]
July 4, 2026 - “Which is better — to be ruled by one tyrant 3,000 miles away or by 3,000 tyrants one mile away?” — Rev. Mather Byles (1706-1788) Does it really matter if the instrument curtailing liberty is a monarch or a popularly elected legislature? This conundrum, along with the witty version of it put to a Boston […]
Nearly 250 years in the making, new Baton Rouge Revolutionary War marker vanished in 3 days - Three years of planning and fundraising to commemorate an obscure but major piece in America’s 250th celebration was wiped out in just three days. The story starts before the American Revolution. The British built Fort Bute at the confluence of Bayou Manchac and the Mississippi River in 1766, exactly 10 years before the signing of the […]
