Image courtesy of Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown.

Friday, September 21, 2012

2013 Meeting Dates and Speakers Announced

For your advanced planning, the list of our 2013 meeting dates, speakers, and topics has been posted. Please click on the link at the top of the page.

Next Meeting: November 14, 2012

"John Barry: An American Naval Hero of the Revolutionary War," Tim McGrath

The meeting will be held in the Westhampton Room, Heilman Center (dining hall--building 34 on the campus map), University of Richmond, at 6:30 p.m. with dinner available for purchase in the dining hall beginning at 5:30 p.m.

University of Richmond campus map:
http://www.richmond.edu/about/directions/campusmap.pdf

Meeting Notes: September 19, 2012

"From Cuckoo to Charlottesville: Jack Jouett's Ride," Rick Britton

Upstate (SC) Revolutionary War Weekend: October 5-7, 2012

To celebrate South Carolina’s vital role in the independence of our country, Kings Mountain National Military Park, Cowpens National Battlefield, the Overmountain Victory Trail, and Walnut Grove Plantation are teaming up to present An Upstate Revolutionary War Weekend from Friday, October 5 to Sunday, October 7, 2012.

An Upstate Revolutionary War Weekend begins with the 20th Annual FestiFall at Walnut Grove Plantation in Roebuck, SC.  Relive America’s struggle for independence and be transported back to colonial days at this living history festival that features 200 reenactors and artisans who camp for the weekend and present military reenactments and dozens of demonstrations of colonial era crafts and trades.  FestiFall begins at 6:00pm on Friday, October 5, with a family-friendly lantern tour to the plantation’s cemetery past vignettes telling different stories of the Revolutionary period.  Lantern tours cost $5 per person.  The family fun continues from 10:00am to 5:00pm on Saturday, October 6, with the re-enactment of a Revolutionary War skirmish taking place at Noon and a general 18th century battle demonstration taking place at 2:00pm.  Admission to FestiFall on Saturday is $9 for adults, $5 for ages 6-17, and free for ages 5 and under.

At 6:00pm on Saturday, October 6, the action moves to Cowpens National Battlefield near Chesnee, SC for “The Night before Kings Mountain.”  The Overmountain Victory Trail Association, which annually retraces the 330-mile march that patriot militia took from East Tennessee to join the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, will present a special program about the events that took place in the days leading up to the battle.  Learn about the exploits of backcountry heroes such as John Sevier, Isaac Shelby, and Benjamin Cleveland.  “The Night before Kings Mountain” is a free program.

Then, to wrap up An Upstate Revolutionary War Weekend, Kings Mountain National Military Park in Blacksburg, SC, will present a day of activities and commemorative events on Sunday, October 7, to mark the 232nd anniversary of the Battle of Kings Mountain.  Considered by many to be the turning point of the Revolutionary War in the South, a commemorative wreath laying ceremony will be held at 11:00am.  Overmountain Victory Trail Marchers will arrive at 3:00pm followed by a keynote address.  A variety of activities will be held throughout the day, including musket and rifle demonstrations along with children's militia drills.  All activities at Kings Mountain are free.

For more information about any of the activities during An Upstate Revolutionary War Weekend, visit
http://www.nps.gov/cowp/specialevents.htm or contact Zac Cunningham at 864-576-6546 or walnutgrove@spartanburghistory.org.

"Women Who Risked Their Necks: Backcountry Women in the American Revolution," September 27, 2012

Jonathan Riner, Cowpens National Battlefield, is formally inviting our members to be their honored guests September 27, 2012 from 7-8pm at Cowpens National Battlefield. Dr. Melissa Walker, a very talented local professional and scholar, is leading a one-hour program titled, "Women Who Risked their Necks: Backcountry Women in the American Revolution."

Their intent is to develop and provide free scholar-led programs in a comfortable environment for communities like ours, and to promote good will and reward for exceptional service and civic organizations. There is no charge for this event. 

Feel free to contact Jonathan Riner directly.
jonathan_riner@nps.gov and 864-461-2828

Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution's Conference on Light Horse Harry Lee: April 26-28, 2013

Mark your calendars now for this upcoming conference in Charlotte, NC. Details will follow.

Annual Francis Marion Symposium: October 12-13, 2012

You're invited to register & participate in the October 12-13, 2012 Symposium:

Francis Marion and the Southern Campaign

Immerse yourself in Francis Marion's world and the significance of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution. Gen. Francis Marion played a major role in the American Revolution. Many of these engagements took place in the Clarendon County area. According to Professor Henry Lumpkin about a third of all battles were fought in SC and Marion had a hand in roughly a third of those.

Proposed agenda:
Carl Borick: SC Patriots as Prisoners of War Patriot Prisoners who Fought with Marion
Dick Watkins: Land Genealogy 102: “Mounts” on the Coastal Plain: Revolutionary War-era plantations along the Congaree and Santee Rivers
David Reuwer: Myth-busting: Fact & Fiction Southern Campaign
Doug MacIntyre: The Battle of Sullivan’s Island: Thomson, Marion & Moultrie
Christine Swager: A Vicious Militia: This is Southern Hospitality?
Bryan Brown & Ricky Roberts: “Every Insult and Indignity: the Life, Genius and Legacy of Major Patrick Ferguson” and Ferguson rifle with Demo
Col. Scott Aiken: Marion’s Partisan Campaign – Irregular Warfare
Karen MacNutt: Eyes and Ears of the Army with Marion
Mike Coker: Prisoners, Patriots & the Provost with Isaac Hayne
Our Historian: Joe Stukes as Light Horse Harry Lee

The site for the Symposium is the DuBose Campus, CCT College, Sign-in will be at 2 pm on Friday, October 12.

Explore the Southern Campaign with General Francis Marion, the vital South Carolina campaigns led by General Francis Marion (“The Swamp Fox”) and other Revolutionary War heroes. The Swamp Fox Murals Society will host this two-day gathering of Marion enthusiasts. Historical presentations and discussions are on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning & afternoon, plus a Friday evening dinner and a Saturday “Evening in History” dinner theater; and the registration fee includes all through the Saturday dinner finale.

Discounts for early registration before September 19, 2012 and for couples.
Site: DuBose Campus / Central Carolina Tech College, Manning, SC
(located just off I-95 (Exit 122) on US 521, 1/2 mile East of I-95).
Swamp Fox Murals Trail Society, PO Box 667, Manning, SC 29102
Details & registration form are posted: http://www.francismarionsymposium.com

2012 Revolutionary War Lecture Series

2012 REVOLUTIONARY WAR LECTURE SERIES
FEATURES FOUR SPEAKERS IN SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER

YORKTOWN, Va., August 2012 – History professors and authors Fred Anderson of the University of Colorado, Abner (Woody) Linwood Holton III of the University of Richmond and John Tilley of East Carolina University will join Yorktown Victory Center Senior Curator Sarah Meschutt in presenting this year’s Revolutionary War lecture series on Saturday evenings, September 22 and 29 and October 6 and 27, at the Yorktown Victory Center’s Richard S. Reynolds Foundation Theater.

The free public 7 p.m. lectures are supported with private donations, including a grant from Dominion Resources for the Anderson lecture. Advance reservations are recommended by calling (757) 253-4572 or e-mailing rsvp@jyf.virginia.gov. The Yorktown Victory Center, a museum of the American Revolution, is located at State Route 1020 and the Colonial Parkway.

Sarah Meschutt starts the series on September 22 with “Patriots Claim a New Destiny; Loyalists Defend Their Heritage in the United States of America.” Framing the American Revolution as a watershed period that shaped lives in new ways and offered immense opportunities for those with powerful networking skills and ingenuity, Dr. Meschutt explores the causes for which Loyalists and Patriots fought and died and their lives in the aftermath of the war.

On September 29, Fred Anderson presents “‘Like the peace of God, it passeth all understanding’: The Peace of Paris (1763) and the Unforeseeable American Revolution.” Looking through the prism of a futurist novel published in 1763 that envisions ongoing 19th- and 20th-century wars with France, and later Russia, along with a slow decline of British power, Dr. Anderson explains why, at what is often understood as the dawn of the Revolutionary era, even the most pessimistic of English political writers assumed that the future of the North American colonies would be distinguished by perpetual peace and loyalty to the empire.

John Tilley will speak October 6 on the “Battle of the Capes,” which was critical to Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and the collapse of the British commitment to the war. Dr. Tilley will explore factors that impacted the battle, including personal relationships between key British commanders and communications problems that helped force Cornwallis’ surrender.

The series concludes October 27 with “Origins of the Constitution,” presented by Woody Holton. Drawing from his book “Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution,” Dr. Holton finds present-day parallels in the crisis that led to the U.S. Constitution, pointing out that a deepening recession, skittish investors, an insurmountable federal debt, anti-tax protests and falling real estate values were the very challenges that led to the ratification of the Constitution 224 years ago.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Fred Anderson’s (September 29) extensive writings about the Seven Years’ War include the books “The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War” (2005) and “Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766” (2000). He is co-author, with Andrew Cayton, of “The Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America,” 1500-2000 (2005). Dr. Anderson earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has worked since 1983 at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is Professor of Distinction and Director of Honors in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Woody Holton’s (October 27) “Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution” (2007), was a finalist for the National Book Award. A two-time winner of the Virginia Literary Award for Non-Fiction, Dr. Holton also is author of “Abigail Adams” (2009), winner of the Bancroft Prize, and “Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia” (1999). Dr. Holton received a Ph.D. from Duke University and is professor of history and American Studies at the University of Richmond.

Sarah Meschutt (September 22) has worked as senior curator at the Yorktown Victory Center since 2008, with a key role in planning new permanent gallery exhibits. She previously was chief curator of art collections at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, consulting curator for the collections at Kykuit House in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., and keeper of edged weapons at the Royal Armouries Museum, H.M. Tower of London She has a Ph.D. from Oxford University.

John Tilley (October 6) is author of “The British Navy and the American Revolution” (1985) and “The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary: A History” (1992). He joined the faculty of East Carolina University, where he is associate professor of history, in 1983. He previously was assistant curator of collections at The Mariners’ Museum in Newport News and earned a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

ABOUT THE YORKTOWN VICTORY CENTER
The Yorktown Victory Center chronicles the American Revolution, from colonial unrest to the formation of the new nation, through gallery exhibits and historical interpretation at re-creations of a Continental Army encampment and 1780s farm. Under the administration of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a Virginia state agency, the museum is undergoing a transformation with a new facility and expanded exhibits and will be known at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown when the project is complete. The Yorktown Victory Center remains open to visitors daily while work is under way. For more information, visit www.historyisfun.org or call (888) 593-4682 toll-free or (757) 253-4838.

LibraryThing Has Catalogued the Libraries of Nineteen Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Did you know that in addition to the libraries of more than 1.5 million members from around the world, LibraryThing is also home to the libraries of (so far) 19 Signers of the Declaration of Independence? The Legacy Libraries project started with a Signer (Thomas Jefferson), and they've continued to add to their “collection” over the past few years. You can see the status and source notes they've found so far for all 56 Signers.

For more information: http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2012/07/signers-libraries-on-librarything/

Waterways Heritage Festival, October 13-14, 2012

Enjoy two days of cultural heritage, fine arts, and music in Great Bridge Lock Park, located on the Intracoastal Waterways.  Visit the many guilds and learn firsthand how things are made! 

Exhibitors and vendors from throughout the Commonwealth will display and sell their unique crafts ranging from: weaving, woodworking, basket-making, pottery, quilters, gardening, photography, silversmith jewelry artistry, glass blowing, sheep-shearing, and more.   Local musicians will be featured throughout the weekend, and a variety of food vendors will be present. There will also be a historic Batteau (a flat boat used during colonial times for transport) on display at the Waterways Heritage Festival.

For more information: http://gbbattlefield.org/waterwaysheritagefestival.html

Second Annual Conference on the American Revolution: March 22-24, 2013

America’s History, LLC
presents
2nd Annual Conference on the American Revolution
March 22-24, 2013
Williamsburg, Virginia

 Edward G. Lengel, Head of Faculty: "Revolutionary Rivals: Horatio Gates and George Washington"
Douglas Cubbison: “Man on a Mission: John Burgoyne and the Campaign of 1777”
 Joshua Howard: “The Swamp Fox: Francis Marion, Revolutionary War Hero of South Carolina”
James Kirby Martin: “Benedict Arnold: Revolutionary America’s Heroic General”
Andrew O’Shaughnessy: “Fighting with Friends and Enemies Simultaneously: Sir Henry Clinton”
Jim Piecuch: “Frustrated Ambitions: “Light Horse Harry Lee's Conflicts On and Off the Battlefield"
John V. Quarstein: “Closing the Door on Cornwallis: The Battle of the Capes September 1781”
Glenn F. Williams: “Lord Dunmore’s War: Training Ground for Continental Officers”

Two Panel Discussions:
 “The Best and Worst Military Commanders of the Revolutionary War” and
“A Revolutionary War Bookshelf: What You Should Own and What Books will be Published Soon”

Optional Friday Bus Tour to Petersburg, Green Spring and Spencer’s Ordinary (includes lunch) led by William Welsch
**************************************************************************************************************************
 Conference Package includes lunch, two continental breakfasts and refreshment breaks:  $225
Friday Bus Tour (not included in Conference Package): $95
For more information: http://americashistoryllc.com/category/tours/spring-2013/