Image courtesy of Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The Revolutionary War Memoirs of Major General William Heath, Sean Heuvel

Sean Heuvel wanted to let us know about a book that he recently had published - The Revolutionary War Memoirs of Major General William Heath (McFarland, 2014).  As a distant relative of General Heath, he has long lamented that there was not a satisfactory version of his memoirs (first published in 1798 and re-released in 1901) in circulation.  For instance, the 1901 edition (which is the most common in print and online) has few annotations, hardly any illustrations, and provides no scholarly context that explores General Heath as a patriot leader and military commander.  However, working with McFarland, he was given the opportunity to produce an updated version of General Heath's memoirs that carries his story and legacy into the 21st century.  This updated edition includes some organizational tweaks to make the memoirs more readable (all outlined in the preface, of course), extensive annotations, about 30 vintage illustrations, and an extensive biographical introduction that incorporates some of the latest scholarship on General Heath.  Here is the link for the book on Amazon.com:

 http://www.amazon.com/Revolutionary-Memoirs-Major-General-William/dp/0786478810/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

While Sean thinks it is safe to say that General Heath was not one of the Continental Army's most brilliant combat commanders, he was a very effective military diplomat and administrator who contributed immensely to the war effort.  Also, even though he suffered some blows to his reputation during the war, he was a loyal Washington supporter throughout the conflict who always kept the faith. For those reasons, Sean hopes that this new book can help share his story with a new generation of Revolutionary War history enthusiasts.

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