ARRT of DC Meeting: March 4, 2015

Glenn Williams sent the following:

Those who live in, or plan to visit, the Washington, DC, area are cordially invited to the next program of the American Revolution Round Table of the District of Columbia on Wednesday evening, March 4, "A Sea Change: Naval Warfare in the American Revolution during the spring of 1778, presented by Dr. Dennis M.  Conrad, a historian at the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).

  

"A Sea Change: Naval Warfare in the American Revolution during the spring of 1778 " presents the spring of 1778 as a time when the naval war changed fundamentally and dramatically. Developments he will highlight include: the internationalization of the naval war, including the sailing of the fleet of the Comte d'Estaing to America and the British response; a re-direction in British strategy that included some retrenchment on the North American mainland; a new aggressiveness on the part of the Continental Navy that increasingly brought the war to European waters. This presentation will also address American naval successes along the periphery of North America, i.e., East Florida/Georgia, Spanish Louisiana/British West Florida and Nova Scotia in North America and Africa; an increase in the numbers and effectiveness of Loyalist privateers in American waters; the questioning of the reputation of the Continental Navy and its officers by fellow Americans; and questions of the allegiance and power of ordinary seamen in the Continental Navy. Many of these changes, although vitally important in understanding the American Revolution, have been virtually ignored in history books. This talk, will use material found in the newly-published "Naval Documents of the American Revolution," volume 12, that provides a fresh and exciting perspective to anyone interested in the Revolutionary War.

Dennis M. Conrad, Ph.D., is associate editor for the Naval Documents of the American Revolution series and has published an essay on John Paul Jones. He is currently the lead historian for an electronic documentary edition on the US Navy in the Spanish-American War and a book-length study of Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy during World War I. Prior to coming to the NHHC, Dr. Conrad was the principal editor and project director for volumes 7 through 12 of the award-winning Papers of General Nathanael Greene, published by the University of North Carolina Press. Those volumes covered Greene's time as Continental Army commander in the South. Dr. Conrad has published several essays concerning Greene's campaigns in the South, which were also the subject of his doctoral dissertation at Duke University.

 See: http://xenophongroup.com/patriot/arrt/arrt_web.htm for more information.

The ARRT of DC meets at the Fort Myer (Arlington, VA) Officers Club on the first Wednesday of September, November, March and May, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. For more information on attending the program, or the ARRT of DC in general, go to our web page at http://xenophongroup.com/patriot/arrt/arrtprgm.htm ; OR, send me an e-mail off-list to gfwilliams607@verizon.net; or call: (703) 360-9712; or write: ARRT DC, PO Box 137, Mount Vernon, VA 22121.