
The Dr. Strange of the American Revolution - dnetesn
http://nautil.us/blog/the-dr-strange-of-the-american-revolution
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jhbadger
On the other side of the American revolution there is the interesting case of
Benjamin Thompson, aka Count Rumford
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Thompson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Thompson))
after he became a nobleman in later life. Born in Massachusetts in 1753, he
became a Loyalist who opposed the American Revolution, and later moved to
Britain, and then to what is now Germany. But he was one of the earliest
scientists born in what is now the United States, and contributed a lot to the
early study of thermodynamics. But being on the "wrong side" of history he
doesn't get the recognition he deserves in America.

~~~
Mediterraneo10
A lot of people had to leave during the American Revolution. It saddens me how
American school textbooks and pop-history for adults depict the revolution as
a simple case of freedom-yearning colonists against the oppressive mother
country. The American Revolution was a true civil war: a substantial part of
the population wanted to remain under England, but the revolutionaries won
their cause by burning down loyalists’ houses, tarring and feathering them,
and forcing them to flee to Canada or the Caribbean.

~~~
adventured
> the revolutionaries won their cause by burning down loyalists’ houses,
> tarring and feathering them, and forcing them to flee to Canada or the
> Caribbean

They hardly needed help. The British and Hessians accomplished much of that
all on their own, as they brutally raped women and pillaged all across the
colonies wherever they went.

~~~
arcanus
> and Hessians

This is an important point and I wanted to give more context. Hessians were
German (admittedly pre-german unification) mercenaries employed by Britain to
control the territories.

They were famously involved in numerous human rights problems. One of the
original colonists greivences was the use of, "large armies of foreign
mercenaries".

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JackFr
I get it that this guy needs to sell books, but the reason why Benjamin Rush
isn't as well known as other founding fathers, is that he wasn't terribly
important.

As Surgeon General to the Continental Army, he undermined Washington and was
dismissed. (And after the war recanted.)

As a physician, he went to his grave favoring bloodletting and mercury tablets
as treatments.

