The dates for our 2022 meetings are now listed under the Meetings tab above. Speakers and topics will be posted as they are received.
Image courtesy of Colonial National Historical Park, Yorktown.
Saturday, December 11, 2021
2022 Dues Information
We will begin collecting 2022 dues at our January 19, 2022 meeting. Dues will remain at $20.00 per annum with $5.00 of that going towards preservation.
For more information, click on the Dues tab above.
Next Meeting: January 19, 2022
For our next meeting we are pleased to have our own Bert Dunkerly to present "Decision at Brandywine: The Battle on Birmingham Hill," based on his latest book of the same name.
The Battle of Brandywine, fought on September 11, 1777, along its namesake creek in the bucolic Pennsylvania countryside, was one of the largest engagements of the Revolutionary War. To those who participated in this massive battle, spread out over ten square miles and lasting from late afternoon until dark, it was unforgettable. Soon after the action, Major Joseph Bloomfield of the 3rd New Jersey recorded that it was “the grandest scene I ever saw, a sight beyond description.” Brandywine was the first major battle for the recently reorganized Continental Army. Units had fought in small engagements, but not until Brandywine did the army fight as a whole against the British. As the two armies clashed, a ferocious and desperate action developed on a hill at the heart of the battlefield, and it was here where the battle’s outcome was determined.
Despite its size and significance—Brandywine was the third bloodiest engagement of the war, with 1,300 American and 581 British casualties—the battle has been the subject of very few studies. In Decision at Brandywine: The Battle on Birmingham Hill, historian Robert M. Dunkerly analyzes the fighting near the Birmingham Meeting House where the battle turned. By dissecting the struggle on Birmingham Hill in detail, he offers a case study in weapons, tactics, and terrain analysis critical to a holistic understanding of the entire battle and what it would mean for the future of the Continental Army. In the process he not only explains how the Continental Army’s lack of uniformed training and inexperience in large open-field battles played a major role in their defeat, but also provides important information about Revolutionary War combat in general. (Source: Amazon.com)
Robert
M. (Bert) Dunkerly is a historian, award-winning author, and speaker who is
actively involved in historic preservation and research. He holds a degree in History from St. Vincent
College and a Masters in Historic Preservation from Middle Tennessee State
University. He has worked at fourteen historic
sites, written over a dozen books, and numerous scholarly articles. His research includes archaeology, colonial
life, military history, and historic commemoration. He is a past President of the Richmond Civil
War Round Table and serves on the Preservation Commission for the American
Revolution Round Table of Richmond. He
has taught courses at Central Virginia Community College, the University of
Richmond, and the Virginia Historical Society.
Dunkerly is currently a Park Ranger at Richmond National Battlefield
Park. He has visited over 500 battlefields
and over 1000 historic sites worldwide. He
enjoys exploring local bookstores, battlefields, and breweries, not necessarily
in that order.
Our meeting will be held in-person only, beginning at 6:30 p.m., at the Gayton Branch of the Henrico County Library (about ten minutes from the University of Richmond):
10600 Gayton Road
Henrico, VA 23238
At this time, masks are still required inside the library. This may change between now and our meeting.
Monday, December 6, 2021
Parker's Ferry Preservation
Thanks to John Maass for forwarding the following article on the preservation of the Parker's Ferry battleground:
2021 Harry M. Ward Book Prize Winner
The Harry M. Ward Book Prize committee is pleased to announce the winner of the 2021 competition: Donald F Johnson, Occupied America: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020).
Johnson’s work is an original and novel contribution to the literature of the Revolution. At one time or another during the long years of the War for Independence, the British occupied all of America’s major populations centers. These included the important port cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Charleston, Savannah, and Wilmington. In Occupied America, Johnson carefully describes the “everyday experience of ordinary people living under military occupation . . . .[and] recounts how men and women from a variety of backgrounds navigated harsh conditions, mitigated threats to their families and livelihoods, took advantage of new opportunities, and balanced precariously between revolutionary and royal attempts to secure their allegiance.” Other historians have touched on these subjects, but not in any comprehensive way; nor have they matched Johnson’s convincing explanation of why most Americas living under long periods of occupation did not return to British allegiance. Harsh living conditions, military rule, and the Crown’s failure to crush the rebellion all gradually eroded popular faith in Britain’s ability to restore peace and social and economic prosperity. Occupied America is deeply researched and clearly written, and the volume is well worth the attention of all readers interested in how colonial city-dwellers from all walks of life bore-up under the tribulations of war.
The committee also is pleased to announce the following titles as this year's Honorable Mentions:
Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2020).
Arthur S. Lefkowitz, Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Burr: The Revolutionary War Lives of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr (Lanham, MD: Stackpole Books, 2020).
--Mark Lender, Chairman, Book Prize Committee
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