The great events and oft-told stories of the American Revolution are easy to find among the sprawling, reverent battlefields. National parks.
Topping the list are George Washington’s Mount Vernon in Virginia, Independence Hall in Pennsylvania, and Minuteman National Historical Park in Massachusetts, where the American Rebellion exploded into a deadly revolution 249 years ago today, April 19, 1775. highlights of the national struggle for independence.
But historical secrets, haunting reminders, and lingering traces of legend help tell a complete story of any event, even one as long and deeply chronicled as the the american revolution.
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Here are 5 often-overlooked sites that helped pave the way for American independence.
1. Bayley-Hazen Military Highway, Vermont
Colonial troops invaded Quebec, Canada during the first winter of the American Revolution, with Benedict Arnold among its leaders.
Hundreds of his men died during the arduous journey across the frozen wilderness of New England.
A new route was needed to bring men and supplies to Canada – a mission that ultimately failed.
The Bayley Hazen Road in Vermont was designed to deliver supplies to American troops fighting in Quebec during the American Revolution. It was never completed. The remains of the road today provide haunting reminders of the struggle for American independence. Connect in Peacham, Vermont. (Kindra Clineff/Alamy Stock Photo)
“Proposed and begun in 1776 by Colonel Jacob Bayley, continued in 1779 and then abandoned by General Moses Hazen, the road – and what remains of it – extends from Wells River in a northwesterly direction to what is now known as Hazen’s Notch,” reports the website CrossVermont.org.
“Small details, historical monuments, graves and monuments that still recall events from long ago can escape the eye when speeding in a car.”
The warpath carves a path through some of the most rural areas of the lower 48 states. It’s best explored by bike, the website adds.
“Small details, historical monuments, graves and monuments that still recall events from long ago may escape the eye when riding in a car, but cannot be missed on a bicycle.”
2. French Cemetery, Yorktown, Virginia
Fifty strangers soldiers of France who gave their lives for the American cause Ifreedom are buried near this Yorktown battlefield.
Among other lessons, the graves remember 50 French mothers – 50 French families – who never knew the fate of their son, father or brother when he was shipped overseas to fight the British in North America.
This is the French cemetery where 50 French soldiers who lost their lives during the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 are buried. Colonial National Historical Park, Historic Triangle, Virginia. (Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The 50 unknowns represent the 8,000 to 10,000 French who fought at Yorktown, the last American victory in the war that forged the new UNITED STATES.
These thousands of men, supported by 29 French warships and coupled with years of American determination, forced the British to surrender and admit defeat at Yorktown in October 1781.
Several other historic monuments are within walking distance, including those of the French Artillery Park and Washington’s Headquarters, as well as a tribute to the principal French military officer in Virginia, Count de Rochambeau.
3. Nathan Hale Execution Site, Manhattan, New York
“I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” Hale, just 21 years old, is said to have said with a stiff lip as he was hanged by the British for treason on September 22, 1776 in Manhattan.
Dense urban development paved over the very site of Hale’s death, but a bronze plaque visible from the sidewalk provides the only reminder of this founding moment of patriotic defiance.
It is located on Third Avenue, between East 65th and East 66th Streets, on the Upper East Side.
American patriot Nathan Hale reportedly said, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,” before the captured spy was hanged by the British on September 22, 1776, in Manhattan. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Little more than a photo stop, it offers an opportunity to explore some of the other interesting Revolutionary War sites in Manhattan, which were occupied by the British for most of the war.
These interesting sites include Alexander Hamilton Grange, a farmhouse amid the city’s concrete caverns that the founding father built just before he was killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.
“I only regret that I have only one life to lose for my country.”
It was also at Fraunces Tavern that George Washington delivered his farewell address to his officers after the final British departure from New York.
Today it is a real tavern which also serves as a museum on early American history.
4. Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, Brooklyn, New York
This powerful monument in a green park offers a chilling testimony that American independence was bought by patriots at the cost of horrible human suffering.
The 150-foot-tall Doric column at Fort Greene Park Dominates the footprint of a colonial garrison from the American Revolution.
The Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Brooklyn was dedicated on November 14, 1908, in a ceremony attended by President William Howard Taft. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
It is dedicated to the approximately 11,500 American soldiers, sailors and privateers who died in hellish conditions aboard British prison ships on the nearby East River during the struggle for citizenship.
A number of these patriots are buried in a crypt beneath the monument – the identities of many of them known only to God.
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“This is sacred ground,” Brooklyn native and self-described patriot Eddie Desmond told Fox News Digital.
“This is the original Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers in America.”
5. Swamp Fox Statue / Marion County Museum
Francis Marion, the legendary “Swamp Fox” of South Carolina, has fueled legends and tributes for nearly 250 years.
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More particularly recently, he is one of the inspirations for the film “The Patriot”. Mel Gibson stars as an American colonial father who fights the British from the foggy swamps of the American South.
Illustration of Francis Marion (1730-1795), an American military officer nicknamed Swamp Fox, seated, saluting a British officer, mid-to-late 18th century. (Archival montage/Getty Images)
“Using tactics he learned from the Cherokee while a soldier in the French and Indian War 20 years before, Marion and his men outmaneuvered countless British troops from the swamps along the Pee Dee and Santee rivers “, reports the Pee Dee Tourism Commission website.
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The best place to get a photo of the man behind the legend is at the South Carolina County Museum that bears his name.
The Marion County Museum includes a permanent Swamp Fox exhibit, while the highlight of a visit for many is a photo with the larger-than-life statue of the American war hero nearby.
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