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Thomas Balch
1821–1877
Best known for a major study of the American Revolution, he was a 19th-century historian and lawyer whose work helped highlight France’s role in the fight for U.S. independence. He was also remembered later as an early advocate of international arbitration.
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About the author
Born in Leesburg, Virginia, on July 23, 1821, he later lived in Maryland and Philadelphia. He trained as a lawyer, but he was also deeply devoted to history and became known as a careful student of the American Revolutionary era.
His best-known work was a study first written in French and later published in English as The French in America during the War of Independence of the United States, 1777-1783. That book helped bring wider attention to the French contribution to the American cause.
He died in Philadelphia on March 29, 1877. His reputation endured strongly enough that the Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg was later established as a memorial to him, and local history sources also remember him as the “Father of International Arbitration” for his role in shaping ideas behind the settlement of the Alabama Claims.