Revolutionary War Facts They Never Taught In School

1. There was a plot to kill or kidnap George Washington early in the Revolutionary War - the traitors were from Washington's Life Guards, similar to today's Secret Service. One of the traitors was the first person to be put to death for treason, Thomas Hickey, in front of 20,000 people. -u/ForthWorldTraveler

2. William Hull was an esteemed veteran of the Revolutionary War. Tarnished his reputation by surrendering the entirety of the territory of Michigan to the British in the war of 1812. -u/itsahumanoid

3. Baron Friedrich von Steuben was known for his bravery and the discipline and grit he brought to the American troops during The Revolutionary War and was openly gay -u/RusticRumrunner

4. The character’s name Bruce Wayne a/k/a Batman was based on history’s war heroes Robert the Bruce and "Mad" Anthony Wayne (General of Continental Army during Revolutionary War). -u/aim179

5. In 1775 Colonel Henry Knox and his men dragged 60 tons of artillery from upstate New York to Boston at the beginning of the revolutionary war -u/not_blmpkingiver

6. Nicholas Vedeer was the last surviving revolutionary war soldier in New York State when he died in 1862. He was photographed in his uniform sometime before his death giving an extraordinary picture of an actual American Patriot. -u/mstone72

7. Fourteen American Revolutionary War Veterans Lived Long Enough to Have Their Photos Taken. Most Were Over a Hundred Years Old By Then. -u/Unleashtheducks

8. Lafayette, the French officer who aided the U.S. Revolutionary War, gifted a pair of pistols to Washington in 1778. Eventually, they came into Andrew Jackson's possession, and Lafayette identified them while visiting Jackson in 1825. In his will, Jackson bequeathed them back to Lafayette's son. -u/SojourningCPA

9. The US Army has historical protocols associated with using a sword to cut cake. Traditionally, the oldest and youngest soldiers are chosen to cut the cake in some ceremonies as a way of linking the past with the future. Swords dating from the Revolutionary War are often used at such events. -u/KimCureAll

10. Deborah Sampson managed to join the Revolutionary war in 1782 by disguising herself as a man -u/Jazzlike-Bullfrog-55

11. Paul Revere III, the great-great-great-great-grandson of the American Revolutionary War hero of the same name, currently serves as legal counsel for a copper manufacturing company that was founded by the original Paul Revere in 1801. -u/DudeAbides101

12. The Colonial Continental Army was at most 48,000 men at any given time during the Revolutionary War -u/Jomsviking

13. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's father descended from Black Loyalists, who escaped to Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War on the promise of British emancipation. -u/JoeCos47

14. The Turtle, a submarine used in the revolutionary war period, used luminescent fungus to illuminate things such as its depth gauge in a time before the widespread use of electricity -u/Lykos23

15. After the Boston Tea Party, many Americans switched to drinking coffee during the Revolutionary War because drinking tea had become unpatriotic. -u/Glass_Force

16. Thousands more German troops died in the American Revolutionary War than British soldiers -u/LOLWutOK-

17. Future US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was once an aspiring screenwriter. In 1923 he submitted a film screenplay about American Revolutionary War naval captain John Paul Jones to Paramount Pictures that was rejected -u/joe727

18. The key to American victory in the Revolutionary War was the 75-ton “Great Chain” that stretched across the Hudson River to prevent the British from moving inland. It was such an obstacle, they paid Benedict Arnold £20,000 for the plans to the Chain’s main defenses, at Fort West Point -u/EssoEssex

19. One of the first American spies was a woman during the Revolutionary War. To this day, her identity is not known and is referred to only as Agent 355. -u/Voyager_AU

20. Massachusetts Hall is the oldest surviving Harvard building, built between 1718 and 1720. When 640 members of Gen. George Washington’s army took up residence during the Revolutionary War, the damage they caused resulted in some of the earliest recorded renovations to the building -u/yaboodooect

21. George Washington ordered a ceasefire during the Revolutionary War to return a lost dog to its owner, Sir William Howe, a British general. The dog was found wandering the battlefield and was fed and cleaned before being returned to Howe. -u/Swpalmer7

22. In the early 17th century, the royal standard of France became a plain white flag, which was intended to symbolize purity rather than surrender. The French troops fighting in the American Revolutionary War fought under the white flag. -u/sober_disposition

23. Paul Revere was one of America's first orthodontists and used walrus teeth as dental implants. The walrus teeth were later helpful for identifying the corpses of his patients that were killed in the Revolutionary war. -u/al666in

24. During the American Revolutionary War, the British offered freedom to any slave who fought for them under the badge 'Liberty to Slaves'. Despite the British defeat, the promise was kept. -deleted user

25. Lafayette was a Frenchman from the Revolutionary War who later toasted "to the perpetual union of the united states. it has always served us in times of storm. one day it will save the world". American troops sent to France in World War 1 visited the grave and said "Lafayette, we are here" -u/calvicstaff