"Place is of very little consequence," Mary Sewall of Marblehead wrote to her sister in Nova Scotia in 1799," except as it brings you near to those whom by nature you are most nearly allied." The Sewall sisters had been separated by war, yet family ties endured and complicated their relationships in the post-Revolutionary world. Patrick O'Brien of the University of Tampa, writing about the divided families of Marblehead, joins us to talk about the ties sundered by the Revolution and those that remained.

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As word spread of the British march to Lexington and Concord, communities from all over Massachusetts and greater New England responded. Historian Alan Foulds tells us about the Lynn End (now Lynnfield) militia, who were warned by medical student Martin Herrick, and their march to Menotomy, where they fought the British at the Jason Russell House. The Lynnfield Historical Society has told these stories in a series of videos, and will re-enact these events, and will put on a play, "Shadows of 1775," in which the men and women in the town of 1775 will tell their stories to their townsfolk and visitors today.

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Acting on intelligence that the Provincial militia had cannon in a Salem blacksmith shop, Beneral Thomas Gage sent Lt. Colonel Alexander Leslie and the 64th Regiment of Foot to Marblehead and then to Salem to find the weapons. We talk with Charlie Newhall and Jonathan Streff about this expedition, known as "Leslie's Retreat," which is re-enacted in Salem every February. Leslie did not get the cannon, but he and the people of Salem avoided war.

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The Boston Town Watch kept order on the streets of Boston, particularly at night. When soldiers of the Crown arrived in 1768 their overlapping authorities came into conflict, which deepened as Crown and colony careened towards war. We talk with Nicole Breault of the University of Texas, El Paso, who is writing a book on the Boston Town Watch.

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Few things shocked American patriots as the betrayal of General Benedict Arnold. After attempting to surrender West Point to the British, Arnold led a series of raids, first in Virginia, and then in his native state of Connecticut. Matthew E. Reardon has written a new account of Arnold's raid on New London and attack on Fort Griswold, The Traitor's Homecoming; Benedict Arnold's Raid on New London September 4-13, 1781.

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The first engagement against the Crown forces that involved soldiers from multiple provinces operating under a unified command. The first use of field artillery by the Provincial forces. The destruction of the HMS Diana, whose mainmast was to be used to hoist the "Grand Union Flag" atop Prospect Hill on January 1, 1776. Few engagements can boast so much, and yet the engagement that has become known locally as "The Battle of Chelsea Creek" has all of those stories and so much more. We talk with local author, journalist and historian Jeff Pearlman about the engagement on Noddle's and Hog Islands and the loss of the HMS Diana on the 27th of May 1775.

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Few men were as highly esteemed and just a decade later despised beyond measure as Timothy Ruggles. Ruggles was a hero of the French & Indian War, a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress from Massachusetts, a land owner, legislator and community leader who had a large and prosperous family. His daughter Bathsheba married a Boston man, Joshua Spooner, and their marriage was once described as "inharmonious." Imagine then the country gossip when Joshua was found in March 1778 beaten and murdered and stuffed into his own well, and that two British prisoners of war and a young man from Topsfield were found in possession of his personal property. Join Professor Robert Allison in conversation with Andrew Noone, author of ‘Bathsheba Spooner, A Revolutionary Murder Conspiracy.'

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Founded in 1923 through the gift of William Lawrence Clements, the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan is a fount of historical manuscripts, maps and rare books, particularly on the American Revolution. Their collections include the papers of General Thomas Gage, and General Henry Clinton, two of the leading British military leaders during the American Revolution, as well as Lord George Germain, a cabinet minister and Hessian General von Jungkenn. The Clements library is currently engaged digitizing the Gage and Clinton papers, making these resources available to scholars world-wide, and an exhibit on April 19, 1775, which will open on April 18, 2025. We talk with Paul J. Erickson, the Randolph G. Adams Director of the Clements Library, and Cheney Schopieray, Curator of Manuscripts, about the treasures the Clements hold, how scholars and students can access them, and what are their favorite things (today) in this tremendous archive.

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