Guest blogger George Weghorst shares a deceptively familiar story from the earliest days of the American Revolution.
Kate shares an account of a stop on The Liberty Trail in New Jersey, centered around the dramatic capture of the British supply ship HMS Blue Mountain Valley during the American Revolution. After a grueling 13-week voyage, the ship limped into Sandy Hook, where Patriots seized its first mate and launched a surprise boarding operation. Expecting military supplies, they instead found a cargo of coal, porter, beans, potatoes, sauerkraut, and hogs—more fit for a feast than a fight.
Learn more about how The Liberty Trail is blazing paths across the east coast.
Visiting historical sites provides unrivaled experiences and education opportunities.
Uncovering History
We invite you to visit the preserved locations along the Liberty Trail and to immerse
yourself in the extraordinary events that determined the fate of a nation.
After the Siege of Charleston in 1780, the British established a headquarters at the Kershaw/Cornwallis House. Today the house and grounds are open to tours.
The Francis Marion is a forest literally steeped in history. Marion, dubbed the “Swamp Fox” by the British troops whose supply lines he disrupted with surprise attacks from the swamps.
One of the bloodiest sites during the Battle of Lexington and Concord, this house saw extensive combat and still bears the scars left behind by the engagement.
Owned and operated by German immigrants, this site once housed one of the largest ironworks in the colonies that supplied the Continental Army. Started in 1766, it was in operation for over a century.
At dawn on April 19, 1775, an unknown shot shattered the silence in Lexington. British Redcoats and colonial militia clashed, leaving blood on the field. In Concord, the patriots struck back, and as the British retreated, gunfire hounded them to Boston, thus sparking the American Revolution
In 1780, after the British occupied Charleston during the American Revolutionary War, the Brewton house was used as the British headquarters for Henry Clinton.
This parsonage was constructed in the 1750s and housed the reverend of the Dutch congregation in what is now modern-day Somerville.
A surprise Patriot attack on Loyalist recruits is a blow to the British
This tavern marked the turning point of Washington's advance against Henry Clinton's column. It was here that the order was given to Charles Lee to attack the next morning, June 28, 1778, thus commencing the Battle of Monmouth.
The site of the first known Colonist offensive attack during the Revolution, Meriam's Corner marks where the British column, retreating to Boston, was ambushed by local militias.
Nestled outside the traditional bounds of the South Carolina colony is the Presbyterian church where Andrew Pickens committed his time as an elder following the Revolution. In the adjacent cemetery lie the graves of several American soldiers who had fought by Pickens' side during the war.
The Berkeley County Museum is located in historic Moncks Corner, South Carolina and contains Revolutionary stories and artifacts from around the county.