Image courtesy of Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Meeting Notes: January 27, 2021

ARRT-Richmond 1/27/21 Meeting Notes

Pre-Guest Speaker Notes:

ARRT-R’s next meeting is scheduled for 3/17/21 at 6:30 p.m. This is a Zoom meeting!  Sign-in details will be provided in the March newsletter. Thanks again to Peggy Watson for allowing us to utilize the Osher network.

ARRT-R’s featured speaker on 3/17/21 will be Gary Ecelbarger. Mr. Ecelbarger will be speaking on “George Washington During the First Month of the Philadelphia Campaign: Old Challenges and New Discoveries, August 24 – September 23, 1777”.

Mr. Ecelbarger is the author of seven books on the Civil War and Lincoln. He is an experienced tour guide of Revolutionary War and Civil War sites and is authoring a campaign biography of Washington during the struggle for Philadelphia. He’s also an ARRT-Richmond member and a long-time friend.

Jack Kelly will be our May 19 speaker, presenting virtually on his new book “Valcour: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty”.

 

Guest Speaker – Ed Lengel – “New Thoughts on Valley Forge”

Dr. Lengel was a historian in residence at Colonial Williamsburg and previously served as Chief Historian of the White House Historical Association. Before that, Lengel was Editor-in-Chief of the Papers of George Washington and Professor at the University of Virginia. He is currently chief historian at the new Museum of the Medal of Honor.

Dr. Lengel is the author most recently of Never in Finer Company: The Men of the Great War’s Lost Battalion (2018). He is also author of Thunder and Flames: Americans in the Crucible of Combat, 1917-1918 (2015), To Conquer Hell: The Meuse-Argonne, 1918 (2008), and This Glorious Struggle: George Washington’s Revolutionary War Letters (2007). His book General George Washington: A Military Life was a finalist for the 2006 George Washington Book Prize.

Ed offered up multiple questions to provoke viewer discussion:

Should the Army have gone to York, PA or Lancaster, PA instead of Valley Forge?

How bad was Valley Forge? Did George Washington manufacture a crisis?

Did the army operate for economic reasons?

Did Baron von Steuben make a difference?

Did Valley Forge change the army’s relationship with Washington?

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