Latest news with #RevolutionaryWar
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Trump suggests bringing back secretary of war. Why did the title get dropped?
President Donald Trump said he wants to bring back a long-retired title: secretary of war. Why was it dropped in the first place? Trump brought up the idea of a name change while introducing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a June 25 press conference in the Netherlands, which hosted this year's NATO summit. 'You know, it used to be called secretary of war,' the president said. 'Maybe for a couple of weeks we'll call it that because we feel like warriors.' 'In fact, if you look at the old building next to the White House, you can see where it used to be secretary of war,' Trump added. 'Then we became politically correct and they called it secretary of defense. Maybe we'll have to start thinking about changing it.' Here's why the secretary of war came to be known as the secretary of defense. Secretary of war The title of secretary of war dates back to the founding of the United States. In 1789, shortly after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, President George Washington signed legislation establishing the War Department, according to the Department of Defense. The new department was tasked with overseeing and maintaining the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, all of which were set up three years earlier. Washington chose Henry Knox, one of his aides during the Revolutionary War — and the namesake of Fort Knox — to serve as its first secretary. Then, less than a decade later, in 1798, the scope of the department shrank, when management of the Navy was handed over to the newly formed Navy Department. And, in 1834, the Marine Corps was moved under the Navy Department, leaving just the Army under the War Department. In 1879, following the Civil War, the War Department took up headquarters in the newly built Eisenhower Executive Office Building. It was then referred to as the State-War-Navy Building — as Trump referenced in his recent press conference. In 1947, during the aftermath of World War II, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, which combined the War and Navy Departments, as well as the newly formed Air Force, into one organization known as the National Military Establishment. This new organization was renamed the Department of Defense in 1949, according to Dartmouth University records. James Forrestal, who had previously served as the secretary of the Navy, then became the nation's first secretary of defense. This title has remained in use ever since then, with Hegseth being the country's 29th secretary of defense.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Fighting for Freedom on Raritan Bay by John Schneider Provides a Rarely-Told Story of the Revolutionary War's Struggle on the Waters of New Jersey and New York
KEYPORT, N.J., June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In his new book, acclaimed historian John Schneider revisits a moment when independence was still a fragile idea, and Monmouth County's shores were on the verge of war. Published by CreateAVision Media, the book tells a rarely—if ever—told story of America's war on the water: the brutal and daring conflict waged across Raritan Bay, New York Harbor, the Atlantic Ocean, the Long Island Sound, and the many associated rivers, creeks, and marshes. This forgotten maritime theater was a crucial front in the struggle for independence—yet most Americans have never heard its full story. "History didn't just happen on battlefields," Schneider says. "It happened in rowboats, in the dead of night, on wind-swept bays and bloodied beaches. I wrote this book to immerse readers in the emotional struggles of the people who lived it—to make them feel what it meant to risk everything for freedom." Through vivid storytelling, Schneider captures the imagination of readers and brings them into the minds and hearts of patriots, loyalists, militia leaders, and spies. Readers will discover figures like Joshua Huddy, Colonel Tye, and Nathaniel Scudder, alongside George Washington, General Sir Henry Clinton, and other major players—both celebrated and unknown. With an innovative blend of narrative history and original research, the book explores covert raids, midnight crossings, British naval blockades, and harrowing escapes across the waterways that divided and defined the colonies. The Deadliest Place in the American Revolution One of the most sobering truths revealed in the book is that these same waterways led directly to what became the deadliest place in the American Revolution: the British prison ships anchored in New York Harbor. More than 11,000 Americans perished in squalid, inhumane conditions — more than twice the number of battlefield deaths in the entire war. Many were captured in or near the very coastal regions in the Tri-State Area, making this story one of both strategic action and tragic consequences. Schneider includes an extensive addendum featuring: A compelling account of how the Declaration of Independence was developed Biographies of "unknown patriots" who played vital roles Maps, rare documents, and firsthand perspectives that ground the narrative in real-life sacrifice and resistance As a complement to the book, he has also produced a series of historical video segments, available at: About the Author John Schneider is a historian, television host, educator, and the founder of CreateAVision Media. He was recently honored as one of Monmouth County's Top 50 Historians of the Last 50 Years for his contributions to preserving and promoting Revolutionary War history in New Jersey. He has produced hundreds of historical documentaries for his weekly 30-minute television program on Comcast, making history personal and accessible to audiences throughout the region. A former executive with ABC, Mutual Broadcasting, and AT&T, Schneider blends storytelling with scholarship to bring history to life. His published works include: Fighting for Freedom on Raritan Bay A Historical Journey Across Raritan Bay History of Sandy Hook History of Highlands, NJ Embracing Life's Journey He lives in Keyport, NJ, just steps from the waters that once served as both barrier and battleground in America's earliest fight for liberty. Availability Fighting for Freedom on Raritan Bay is available now at on and through select bookstores and historical organizations. Video content available at View original content: SOURCE CreateAVision Media LLC Errore nel recupero dei dati Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati Errore nel recupero dei dati
New York Post
3 days ago
- General
- New York Post
Revolutionary War-era boat buried in Manhattan for over 200 years is being painstakingly rebuilt
ALBANY — Workers digging at Manhattan's World Trade Center site 15 years ago made an improbable discovery: sodden timbers from a boat built during the Revolutionary War that had been buried more than two centuries earlier. Now, over 600 pieces from the 50-foot (15-meter) vessel are being painstakingly put back together at the New York State Museum. After years on the water and centuries underground, the boat is becoming a museum exhibit. Advertisement 5 A conservator cleans a piece of wood from a Revolutionary War gunboat using steam. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images Arrayed like giant puzzle pieces on the museum floor, research assistants and volunteers recently spent weeks cleaning the timbers with picks and brushes before reconstruction could even begin. Though researchers believe the ship was a gunboat built in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, they still don't know all the places it traveled to or why it ended up apparently neglected along the Manhattan shore before ending up in a landfill around the 1790s. Advertisement 'The public can come and contemplate the mysteries around this ship,' said Michael Lucas, the museum's curator of historical archaeology. 'Because like anything from the past, we have pieces of information. We don't have the whole story.' From landfill to museum piece The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 when a section of the boat was found 22 feet (7 meters) below street level. Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. A previously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet (9 meters) of its rear and middle sections were carefully recovered. Advertisement Part of the bow was recovered the next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. 5 Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. AP The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) to Texas A&M's Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Then they were wrapped in more than a mile of foam and shipped to the state museum in Albany. Advertisement While the museum is 130 miles (209 kilometers) up the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, it boasts enough space to display the ship. The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibition space, so visitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly take the form of a partially reconstructed boat. Work is expected to finish around the end of the month, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientist at the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation who is overseeing the rebuilding. 5 The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. AP On a recent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found. Explaining the work taking place behind him, he told one group: 'Who would have thought in a million years, 'someday, this is going to be in a museum?'' A nautical mystery remains Researchers knew they found a boat under the streets of Manhattan. But what kind? Analysis of the timbers showed they came from trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in the early 1770s, pointing to the ship being built in a yard near the city. 5 Archaeologists excavating 18th-century ship at World Trade Center site. AP Advertisement 5 Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Houston Chronicle via Getty Images It was probably built hastily. The wood is knotty, and timbers were fastened with iron spikes. That allowed for faster construction, though the metal corrodes over time in seawater. Researchers now hypothesize the boat was built in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, months after the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Thirteen gunboats were built that summer to protect Philadelphia from potential hostile forces coming up the Delaware River. The gunboats featured cannons pointing from their bows and could carry 30 or more men. 'They were really pushing, pushing, pushing to get these boats out there to stop any British that might start coming up the Delaware,' Fix said. Advertisement Historical records indicate at least one of those 13 gunboats was later taken by the British. And there is some evidence that the boat now being restored was used by the British, including a pewter button with '52' inscribed on it. That likely came from the uniform of soldier with the British Army's 52nd Regiment of Foot, which was active in the war. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! It's also possible that the vessel headed south to the Caribbean, where the British redirected thousands of troops during the war. Its timbers show signs of damage from mollusks known as shipworms, which are native to warmer waters. Still, it's unclear how the boat ended up in Manhattan and why it apparently spent years partially in the water along shore. Advertisement By the 1790s, it was out of commission and then covered over as part of a project to expand Manhattan farther out into the Hudson River. By that time, the mast and other parts of the Revolutionary War ship had apparently been stripped. 'It's an important piece of history,' Lucas said. 'It's also a nice artifact that you can really build a lot of stories around.'
The Independent
3 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Workers digging at the World Trade Center site found a mystery boat. Now they're rebuilding it
A remarkable piece of American history, a Revolutionary War-era boat, is slowly being reassembled at the New York State Museum, 15 years after its improbable discovery beneath Manhattan's World Trade Center site. Workers excavating the site stumbled upon the sodden timbers of the 50-foot vessel, which had lain buried for over two centuries, a relic from the nation's formative years. After years submerged and centuries underground, the boat is now being transformed into a museum exhibit. More than 600 pieces of the vessel are undergoing painstaking reconstruction at the museum. Research assistants and volunteers have spent weeks meticulously cleaning the timbers with picks and brushes, arraying them like giant puzzle pieces on the museum floor before the reassembly process could even begin. Believed to be a gunboat constructed in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, the vessel's full history remains shrouded in mystery. Researchers are still piecing together its travels and the reasons for its apparent abandonment along the Manhattan shore, before it ultimately became part of a landfill around the 1790s. 'The public can come and contemplate the mysteries around this ship,' said Michael Lucas, the museum's curator of historical archaeology. 'Because like anything from the past, we have pieces of information. We don't have the whole story.' From landfill to museum piece The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 when a section of the boat was found 22 feet (7 meters) below street level. Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. A previously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet (9 meters) of its rear and middle sections were carefully recovered. Part of the bow was recovered the next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) to Texas A&M's Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Then they were wrapped in more than a mile of foam and shipped to the state museum in Albany. While the museum is 130 miles (209 kilometers) up the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, it boasts enough space to display the ship. The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibition space, so visitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly take the form of a partially reconstructed boat. Work is expected to finish around the end of the month, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientist at the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation who is overseeing the rebuilding. On a recent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found. Explaining the work taking place behind him, he told one group: 'Who would have thought in a million years, 'someday, this is going to be in a museum?'' A nautical mystery remains Researchers knew they found a boat under the streets of Manhattan. But what kind? Analysis of the timbers showed they came from trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in the early 1770s, pointing to the ship being built in a yard near the city. It was probably built hastily. The wood is knotty, and timbers were fastened with iron spikes. That allowed for faster construction, though the metal corrodes over time in seawater. Researchers now hypothesize the boat was built in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, months after the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Thirteen gunboats were built that summer to protect Philadelphia from potential hostile forces coming up the Delaware River. The gunboats featured cannons pointing from their bows and could carry 30 or more men. 'They were really pushing, pushing, pushing to get these boats out there to stop any British that might start coming up the Delaware," Fix said. Historical records indicate at least one of those 13 gunboats was later taken by the British. And there is some evidence that the boat now being restored was used by the British, including a pewter button with '52' inscribed on it. That likely came from the uniform of soldier with the British Army 's 52nd Regiment of Foot, which was active in the war. It's also possible that the vessel headed south to the Caribbean, where the British redirected thousands of troops during the war. Its timbers show signs of damage from mollusks known as shipworms, which are native to warmer waters. Still, it's unclear how the boat ended up in Manhattan and why it apparently spent years partially in the water along shore. By the 1790s, it was out of commission and then covered over as part of a project to expand Manhattan farther out into the Hudson River. By that time, the mast and other parts of the Revolutionary War ship had apparently been stripped. 'It's an important piece of history,' Lucas said. 'It's also a nice artifact that you can really build a lot of stories around.'
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
A Revolutionary War-era boat is being painstakingly rebuilt after centuries buried beneath Manhattan
Workers digging at Manhattan's World Trade Center site 15 years ago made an improbable discovery: sodden timbers from a boat built during the Revolutionary War that had been buried more than two centuries earlier. Now, over 600 pieces from the 50-foot (15-meter) vessel are being painstakingly put back together at the New York State Museum. After years on the water and centuries underground, the boat is becoming a museum exhibit. Arrayed like giant puzzle pieces on the museum floor, research assistants and volunteers recently spent weeks cleaning the timbers with picks and brushes before reconstruction could even begin. Though researchers believe the ship was a gunboat built in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, they still don't know all the places it traveled to or why it ended up apparently neglected along the Manhattan shore before ending up in a landfill around the 1790s. 'The public can come and contemplate the mysteries around this ship,' said Michael Lucas, the museum's curator of historical archaeology. 'Because, like anything from the past, we have pieces of information. We don't have the whole story.' From landfill to museum piece: The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 when a section of the boat was found 22 feet (7 meters) below street level. Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. The wood was muddy but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. A previously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet (9 meters) of its rear and middle sections were carefully recovered. Part of the bow was recovered the next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) to Texas A&M's Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Then they were wrapped in more than a mile of foam and shipped to the state museum in Albany. While the museum is 130 miles (209 kilometers) up the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, it boasts enough space to display the ship. The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibition space so visitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly take the form of a partially reconstructed boat. Work is expected to finish around the end of the month, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientist at the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation, who is overseeing the rebuilding. On a recent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found. Explaining the work taking place behind him, he told one group: 'Who would have thought in a million years someday this is going to be in a museum?' A nautical mystery remains: Researchers knew they found a boat under the streets of Manhattan. But what kind? Analysis of the timbers showed they came from trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in the early 1770s, pointing to the ship being built in a yard near the city. It was probably built hastily. The wood is knotty, and timbers were fastened with iron spikes. That allowed for faster construction, though the metal corrodes over time in seawater. Researchers now hypothesize the boat was built in Philadelphia in the summer of 1775, months after the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. Thirteen gunboats were built that summer to protect Philadelphia from potential hostile forces coming up the Delaware River. The gunboats featured cannons pointing from their bows and could carry 30 or more men. 'They were really pushing, pushing, pushing to get these boats out there to stop any British that might start coming up the Delaware,' Fix said. Historical records indicate at least one of those 13 gunboats was later taken by the British. And there is some evidence that the boat now being restored was used by the British, including a pewter button with '52' inscribed on it. That likely came from the uniform of a soldier with the British Army's 52nd Regiment of Foot, which was active in the war. It's also possible that the vessel headed south to the Caribbean, where the British redirected thousands of troops during the war. Its timbers show signs of damage from mollusks known as shipworms, which are native to warmer waters. Still, it's unclear how the boat ended up in Manhattan and why it apparently spent years partially in the water along shore. By the 1790s, it was out of commission and then covered over as part of a project to expand Manhattan farther out into the Hudson River. By that time, the mast and other parts of the Revolutionary War ship had apparently been stripped. 'It's an important piece of history,' Lucas said. 'It's also a nice artifact that you can really build a lot of stories around.'
