AMERICAN REVOLUTION ROUND TABLE of RICHMOND
Lafayette? Of course. But how about the other men and actions of France and Spain that helped us win the revolution. Please join us on Wednesday, July 18, when Dr. Larrie Ferreiro will present “Brothers in Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It.” The presentation is based on Larrie’s Pulitzer Prize Finalist book of the same title. https://smile.amazon.com/Brothers-Arms-American-Independence-France/dp/1101910305/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1529854527&sr=1-1&keywords=brothers+at+arms
We meet for dinner at 5 PM (our summer schedule) in the Heilman Dining Center (#34) at the University of Richmond, with the meeting commencing at 6 PM. A campus map is here. https://www.richmond.edu/visit/maps/print/campus.pdf
It’s time to select our Preservation Partner for 2018. To date, there are three nominations: Battersea Foundation http://batterseafound.org/; the St. John’s Church Foundation https://www.historicstjohnschurch.org/; and the Revolutionary War Trust, specifically for the Yorktown Campaign https://www.battlefields.org/give/save-battlefields/save-yorktown. Please send along other nominations or make them at the July meeting. As a reminder, $5.00 of every membership goes to our Partner. Only members are eligible to vote in the selection. So join!
Art Ritter forwarded the summer schedule - The Parsons’ Cause Foundation, Inc. is pleased to present its Summer 2018 program of free performances
at the Historic Hanover Courthouse. Go to www.parsonscause.org for further information.
Lafayette
June 30 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
Alexander Hamilton
July 7 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. Meriwether Lewis
July 14 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
Gowan Pamphlet
July 21 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
Thomas Jefferson
July 28 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
John Adams
August 4 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
Patrick Henry
August 11 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
Martha Washington
August 18 at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
The Parsons’ Cause – Prelude to Revolution
August 26 at 11:00 a.m.
Here’s an important item – a new beer based on Washington’s personal recipe. http://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/2018/05/01/budweiser-releases-new-beer-based-on-george-washingtons-handwritten-recipe.html Please give us a review if you’ve sampled it.
This Society of the Cincinnati lecture “George Washington’s Farewell Address” by John Avlon is excellent, as is his book Washington’s Farewell, which I highly recommend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtQxKRhzBP4
As most know, Campaign 1776 is now the Revolutionary War Trust, part of the American Battlefield Trust. A question was raised at our last meeting as to our donations. Here’s the answer.
What if I wish to exclusively support efforts related to one conflict?
Our organization has a long history of providing contributors with opportunities to donate toward projects that speak most deeply to them. Civil War buffs, for instance, could choose to give just to their favorite battlefield, just to western theatre sites or to all battlefields. Members could also give toward our Civil War educational programs. With the addition of the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 to our mission, supporters could donate toward those battlefields and programs as well. In keeping with this tradition, when you renew as a member of the American Battlefield Trust, you can choose to give for Civil War projects only, Revolutionary War projects only, or where your gift is needed most. We have also worked closely with our auditors and financial institutions to create infrastructure to support your ability to customize your gifts — so you can be confident that your money goes where you want it to go.
Also from the Trust. Some of our donation dollars helped make this possible.
Today, we closed on the purchase of the 15-acre Washington’s Charge site on the Princeton Battlefield. It is officially ours!
Acquiring this property was no easy feat. Not long after we added Revolutionary War and War of 1812 sites to our battlefield preservation mission, we found ourselves involved in a controversy over the fate of this iconic landscape, which was slated for faculty housing. Fortunately, in December 2016, we were able to reach a landmark agreement with the Institute for Advanced Study to preserve 15 critical acres of the property.
Then came the next hurdle: The Trust needed to raise $4 million in just 14 months to save this hallowed ground. Fortunately, thanks to your generosity and enthusiasm for history, we succeeded in meeting this ambitious goal.
The January 3, 1777, Battle of Princeton showed our budding nation — and the world — that Americans could defeat the most experienced soldiers in Great Britain’s formidable army. More than 240 years later, you and I stood shoulder to shoulder once again, preserving one of the most important pieces of Revolutionary War history and accomplishing one of the most ambitious land-preservation goals in the Trust’s history.
While more than 8,000 individuals all around the world donated generously to this project, we would like to extend a special thank-you to Mr. Richard Gilder of New York, who, through his foundation, gave $1.1 million, and without whom we would not have been able to achieve this historic preservation victory.
Get to Fort Ticonderoga to see this. http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/06/14/priceless-revolutionary-war-medal-goes-on-display.html
Ready for a close-to-home field trip? This from our friend Christian McBurney of the George Washington ARRT.
McBurney Recommendation: Visiting the Nearby Former Homes of Major Generals Charles Lee, Horatio Gates, and Adam Stephen
Remarkably, near Shepherdstown, West Virginia, are three former homes of major generals: Charles Lee (Prato Rio), Horatio Gates (Traveller’s Rest), and Adam Stephen (The Bower), less than about a one and one-half hour drive for many of us. All three fought in the French and Indian War and had their high points in the American Revolutionary War, but ended the war in disgrace. The image below is one I took of Charles Lee’s former house, Prato Rio, in Leetown, Jefferson County, West Virginia, about nine miles from Shepherdstown on Leetown Road (Route 1), a bit past the Leetown Science Center, on the right. Leetown was named after the mercurial general. While Lee, at the urging of Gates, purchased the “estate” in 1775 in what was then Virginia, in his lifetime (he dies in 1782) he lived only on the first floor of the back of what you see below. The rest was added on later. And a friend of his who visited said that Lee’s house at the time had no interior walls, only lines where walls should be. I took this photo below one from my cell phone camera, from a church parking lot next to the property.
Adam Stephens’s hunting lodge The Bower is located one mile west of Leetown along Opequon Creek. It was remodeled after a fire in 1892. His house, built around 1772, is at 309 E. John Street, Martinsburg, WV 25401 in Berkeley County and is open as a museum. Horatio Gates, the victor of Saratoga and goat of Camden, lived four miles north of Leetown on Bowers Road (near the intersection of Leetown Road or Route WV 48) near Kearneysville at Traveller’s Rest, built around 1773. If you do visit the other two or three houses, please email me the photos and I will circulate them. It makes for a nice day trip: the countryside is pretty, and we spent part of the day walking around the pleasant town of Shepherdstown and having lunch there. All of the houses are privately owned, except for the Stephen house in Martinsburg.
During John Millar’s May presentation on Benedict Arnold, John mentioned his ongoing Colonial Navy effort. Here’s more information from John.
“During the Arnold talk, I guess I should have mentioned that my tax-exempt Colonial Navy Inc. is trying to raise the money to build a copy of the 12-gun sloop ENTERPRISE that Arnold turned into the first purpose-built warship in Continental service on Lake Champlain, many months before there was a Continental Navy, and even a few days before the founding of the Continental Army. The purpose of the ship is to operate a year-round sail-training program, and some of the participants will be “at risk” youth. Since the new US Navy aircraft carrier of that name is already under construction, there will obviously be some synergy between them, but in the mean time we still have to raise the money to build her. A typical one-off wooden construction in Maine has been costed out at $6.5 million and could be expected to last 15 years before an expensive major rebuilding, but we have found a shipyard in North Carolina that can build it of wood-epoxy laminate (expected to last hundreds of years) for only just $1 million. Sounds like a win-win proposition. I would greatly appreciate it if you would kindly spread that around the next time you do an e-mailing to the membership. Thanks.”
John also sent a short essay on the Enterprise and her sail plan, which I have not included. Please email me if you wish a copy. Attachments don’t work well on the distribution list.
This welcome information from our Dave Riggs. Be prepared to spend some time at this site.
I have some welcome news for everyone interested in research that involves an NPS site. A large quantity of NPS reports, maps, etc. that are available online for employee use are now open on a public website via eTIC. (TIC is Technical Information Center; the "e" before TIC means that it's electronic, or online.). I have not checked the site yet to determine if there's anything that's still unavailable - I'm guessing that some sensitive material that concerns archeological sites remains restricted - but everything else will be helpful. https://pubs.etic.nps.gov. There are a few selections to choose from rather than going directly to the website if you don’t include the https:// in the address.
And finally, also from Dave – so don’t blame me- this scholarly bit of revolutionary information. “Did you know that the French Admiral DeGrasse had a brother? His name was Moe.” Your comments will enlighten me as to how many read this to the end.
See you on July 18.
Bill
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