Tories, Terror, and Tea

With the sesquicentennial of the American Revolution on the horizon, Tories, Terror, and Tea delves deeply into contemporary accounts of the times that so severely tried the souls of Rebels and Tories alike. Author John L. Moore paints a surprisingly fresh picture of the era. His true stories range from the eastern cities to the rustic frontier.

There’s a common misconception that the American Revolutionary War pretty much ended when the British surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781. Not true. More than eight months later, a force of Indians and British burned the western Pennsylvania settlement of Hannastown, then the Westmoreland County seat. The town was never rebuilt.

Everybody knows that American soldiers suffered terribly during the winter the Continental Army spent at Valley Forge. Few recall that Brigadier General Anthony Wayne couldn’t get Pennsylvania political officials to provide suitable clothing for the troops of the Pennsylvania Line although he repeatedly documented that hundreds of men lacked even a single rag of a shirt.

Did you know that when the Continental Congress fled Philadelphia as the British army approached, its members went first to Bethlehem and sought to make the Moravian town the U.S. capital for the duration of the war? Or that the wagon hauling the Liberty Bell away from the British broke down on the street in Bethlehem?