Events: Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life

Albert Louis Zambone, Charlottesville, VA, is the author of Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life, scheduled for publication on December 12, 2018.

He has scheduled the following events for his book:

January 12, 2019, 2:00 PM: Book talk and signing at the Winchester Book Gallery, Winchester, VA

January 19-20, 2019: Book talk and signing at the Cowpens National Battlefield, as part of the annual anniversary commemoration 

May 23, 2019, Noon: Banner Lecture at the Virginia Historical Society

His book is available through Amazon: 
https://www.amazon.com/Daniel-Morgan-Albert-Louis-Zambone/dp/1594163154/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1537300647&sr=8-1&keywords=zambone+Daniel+morgan&dpID=51m%2BzQsxYtL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

Book List: Origins of the American Revolution

I just finished reading An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America (2014) by Nick Bunker. In his afterword, Bunker offered a listing of what he considered the ten most useful books on the origin of the American Revolution. I know we all have our favorites--here is his list in order of relevance:

1. Jensen, Merrill, The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution, 1763-1776 (1968).
   
2. Greene, Jack P., The Constitutional Origins of the American Revolution (2011).
   
3. Marshall, P. J., The Making and Unmaking of Empires: Britain, India, and America, c.1750-1783 (2005).
   
4. Wood, Gordon S., The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1991).
   
5. Breen, T. H., American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People (2010).
   
6. Anderson, Fred, Crucible of War (2000).
   
7. O’Shaughnessy, Andrew Jackson, The Men Who Lost America (2013).
   
8. Black, Jeremy, George III: America’s Last King (2006).
   
9. Bailyn, Bernard, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (1974).
   
10. Boswell, James, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791).

Interview with Mark Lender

Visit the Mount Vernon website for an interview with our own Mark Lender about his new book Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle, the new Monmouth standard.  http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/fatal-sunday-george-washington-and-the-monmouth-campaign-of-1778/  Mark and Garry’s book has been nominated for the George Washington Award.  Congratulations!

"George Washington's Secret Spy War," John Nagy

George Washington’s Secret Spy War is the untold story of how George Washington took a disorderly, ill-equipped rabble and defeated the best trained and best equipped army of its day in the Revolutionary War. Using George Washington’s diary as the primary source, author John A. Nagy reveals a surprising chapter in George Washington's life, one spent steeped in espionage. Before passing away in 2016, Nagy had become the nation’s leading expert on the subject, discovering hundreds of spies who went behind enemy lines to gather intelligence during the American Revolution, many of whom are completely unknown to most historians. George Washington's Secret Spy War will be published September 20th from St. Martin's Press.

"March to Victory" Booklet

Attached is a link to the booklet, "March to Victory: Washington, Rochambeau, and the Yorktown Campaign of 1781," authored by Bob Selig.

http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/rochambeau/CMH_70-104-1.pdf

Interview with Alexander Rose

Attached is a link to a conversation between Dr. Scott Stephenson, VP of Exhibitions, Museum of the American Revolution, and Alexander Rose, historian and author of Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring. Their discussion centers on the intricacies of translating history into TV drama and the portrayal of women in the AMC TV series, "Washington's Spies." 

https://www.facebook.com/AmRevMuseum/videos/1045628185523751/

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.

"Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume, 2015"

Todd Andrlik’s book, Journal of the American Revolution Annual Volume 2015, is now available. http://allthingsliberty.com/annual-volume-2015/ and http://www.amazon.com/Journal-American-Revolution-Annual-2015/dp/159416228X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433115411&sr=1-1&keywords=journal+of+the+american+revolution 

The book is offered by Westholme Publishing.  http://westholmepublishing.com/   Bruce Franklin has become the premier publisher of American Revolution books and deserves your patronage.  

"The Battle of Hubberdton," Bruce Venter

At the last meeting, Bruce Venter’s new book was mentioned: The Battle of Hubberdton.  It comes highly recommended.  It’s here http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hubbardton-Military-Bruce-Venter/dp/1626193258/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1433114960&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=hubberdton

Two Books on Peter Harrison

John Millar, a member of ARRT-Richmond, has been working since 1962 on the life of Peter Harrison (1716-1775), who died a few days after Lexington & Concord, essentially from the shock of it. He was arguably the greatest architect ever to have worked in America. John's work is now published in two books. The more expensive one is published by McFarland & Company, and is mostly text with only a few illustrations (The Buildings of Peter Harrison: Cataloguing the Work of the First Global Architect, 1716-1775, McFarland & Co., 2014). The less expensive one is mostly illustrations with only basic text, and is available from Thirteen Colonies Press (Peter Harrison, 1716-1775, Drawings). Either or both can be ordered from your favorite bookseller or Amazon. 

Bruce Venter's Book Now Available

Our own Bruce Venter’s book, The Battle of Hubberton, is now available and is highly recommended. Bruce will be speaking on this topic at our September meeting.

http://www.amazon.com/Battle-Hubbardton-Military-Bruce-Venter/dp/1626193258/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429833187&sr=1-1&keywords=hubbardton

Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's War for Independence, by Jack Kelly

Rachel Lodi has written to notify us of an upcoming book, BAND OF GIANTS: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's Independence by Jack Kelly, which comes out September 9^th. Jack is a journalist, novelist, and historian who has written for places like American Heritage and American Legacy, and has appeared on The History Channel.

The book delves into the peculiar backgrounds of the generals, officers and soldiers who won America’s independence in the Revolutionary War. Far from the career officers and ROTC recruits in today’s military, most of these men were inexperienced fighters, often learning to fire a canon from a diagram in a book the day before a battle.   Kelly details their varied backgrounds as merchants, mechanics, fisherman, farmers, and even drunkards.  He takes the reader through the war as these soldiers experienced it, facing immense odds and setback after setback.   The narrative features characters like Nathanael Greene, Henry Knox, Richard Montgomery, Daniel Morgan and Anthony Wayne, detailing their often unexpected backgrounds as civilians.  Jack Kelly is local to the Hudson River Valley, where many of the pivotal Revolutionary War battles took place, and his book provides fascinating new insight into the conditions of the war, and the men who actually fought in it.

Journal of the American Revolution to Continue Annual Hardcover Volumes

The Journal of the American Revolution has just signed a multi-year agreement with Westholme Publishing for the publication of annual hardcover volumes, starting May 2015. 

Unlike last year's volume, the new books will be more traditional in size and design with comprehensive indexes and a companion digital edition for each volume. The target length is 55 to 75 articles per volume.

Similar to the last volume, they aim to capture the best original research and perspective from the previous calendar year. Since the cut-off point for the previous book was summer of 2013, they will consider all works published from August 2013 through early December 2014 for the inaugural Westholme edition. And they want to continue offering a limited amount of space for exclusive submissions, so if you have any new ideas incubating and think they merit a reservation for the print edition, please send them a synopsis.

http://westholmepublishing.com/ 

Book News

Here are two reviews for recently released books from Westholme Publishing. A number of our members had the pleasure of meeting Westholme’s Bruce Franklin at the recent Third Conference on the American Revolution. Dr. Benjamin Church, Spy by John Nagy and Kidnapping the Enemy by Christian McBurney. Many Revolutionary War books that Westholme has published come highly recommended.  Check the site.

Dave Riggs of Yorktown NP informed us that Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s The Men Who Lost America is a finalist for Washington College’s George Washington Book Prize.  His book has garnered many well deserved kudos. Good luck, Andrew.

Glenn Williams reports that Mrs. Frances Kennedy has written a new book, The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook, which will be released on May 13 by Oxford University Press. 

http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-american-revolution-9780199324224?q=Frances%20H.%20Kennedy&lang=en&cc=us

The book should prove an excellent guide for planning visits to sites associated with the American Revolution. 

"When Fate Summons," Harry Ward

Harry Ward's new biography of General Richard Butler, When Fate Summons, is now available. I'm sure he'd be happy to sign your copy at our next meeting.

http://www.amazon.com/WHEN-FATE-SUMMONS-Biography-General/dp/1936320843/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1391974425&sr=1-1&keywords=when+fate+summons

New Book Alert: "Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee & Richard Prescott"

Glenn Williams forwarded the following announcement:

Christian McBurney is excited to announce that his new book, Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee & Richard Prescott (Westholme), has been released and is now available on Amazon.com. Here is a summary of the book:

On the night of December 12, 1776, while on a reconnaissance mission in New Jersey, Lieutenant Colonel William Harcourt and Cornet Banastre Tarleton of the British 16th Light Dragoons learned from Loyalist informers that Major General Charles Lee, the second-in-command in the Continental army behind only George Washington, was staying at a tavern at nearby Basking Ridge. Gaining valuable information as they rode, by threatening captured American soldiers with death if Lee'’s whereabouts was not revealed, Harcourt and Tarleton surrounded the tavern, and after a short but violent struggle, captured him. The dragoons returned through a hostile country by a different route, arriving safely at their British post at Pennington with their quarry in hand. With Lee’'s capture, the British were confident the rebellion would soon be over. But in fact, Lee’'s capture made the great American victory at Trenton possible.

Stung by Lee’'s kidnapping, the Americans decided to respond with their own special operation. On the dark night of July 10, 1777, Lieutenant Colonel William Barton led a handpicked party in whaleboats across Narragansett Bay, —carefully avoiding British navy ships,— to an isolated beach north of Newport, Rhode Island. Although the town was occupied by more than 3,000 enemy soldiers, after landing Barton led his men up a hidden path and stealthily hurried to a farmhouse where General Richard Prescott had taken to spending nights. Surrounding the house, they forced open the doors and seized the sleeping Prescott, as well as his aide-de- camp and a sentry, and then quickly returned to their waiting boats. Despite British artillerymen firing rockets and cannon to alert the British vessels in the bay, the bold band of Americans reached the mainland safely. Not only had Barton kidnapped a British major general who could be exchanged for Lee, he had removed from action a man who had gained a reputation for his harsh treatment of American Patriots. Barton’'s raid was perhaps the outstanding special operation of the Revolutionary War, and still ranks as one of the greatest in American military history.

The book also addresses other related matters, including the evolution of British treatment of American captive officers. The British evolved from at first threatening to hang them as criminal “rebels” to eventually treating them with the same respect Americans treated British captive officers. At the time of his capture, General Lee thought he could supplant Washington as commander-in-chief. William Barton, after the war, spent thirteen years in debtor’s' prison; did the pride he earned from his outstanding mission lead to his ignoble period in his life?

Britons prominent in the book include William Harcourt, Banastre Tarleton, Archibald Campbell, William Howe, George Germain, and King George III. Americans prominent in the book include Charles Lee, Ethan Allen, John Sullivan, Richard Henry Lee, and George Washington. William Barton is not well known, but he should be.

In order to:

• obtain more information on the book
• keep informed of future book lectures (I plan to do several in Rhode Island in March and April (and others later in the Washington, D.C., NYC and Philadelphia areas)
• learn where to purchase the book at independent bookstores in Rhode Island and New Jersey (see Book Availability)
• learn about my prior book, The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Special Operation of the Revolutionary War (Westholme, 2011)

please see my book website: www.christianmcburney.com

Here is the link to the publisher’s website for the book: http://www.westholmepublishing.com/kidnapping-the-enemy.php

Book Review: "Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution," by Nathaniel Philbrick

http://www.miwsr.com/2013-091.aspx

New Book by Todd Andrlik

Most of you reading this are familiar with Todd Andrlik, whose wonderful book Reporting the Revolutionary War was published last fall. http://www.amazon.com/Reporting-Revolutionary-War-Before-History/dp/1402269676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381688229&sr=1-1&keywords=reporting+the+revolutionary+war 

Todd's articles also appeared in David Reuwer's "American Revolution Magazine." He's the editor of the online "Journal of the American Revolution." Many of you know about this and some of us have had articles posted. http://allthingsliberty.com/  Highly recommended.

Todd's latest project is another book, featuring some of his new research, entitled Journal of the American Revolution. http://www.amazon.com/Journal-American-Revolution-Todd-Andrlik/dp/0966075188/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381688681&sr=1-1&keywords=journal+of+the+american+revolution.  Publication date is scheduled for November 2013.

Spanning 250 full-color pages, each article is accompanied by high definition images, including some that are appearing in print for the first time ever. The book's content debunks many common myths. The origins of "no taxation without representation," the true start of the Revolution, the real first Declaration of Independence, and the truth about British soldiers are all covered. The famous 1776 recruiting poster that pops up at every Revolutionary War reenactment event and in numerous textbooks will be identified as not-so-1776 for the first time ever.

Plus, there are dozens of groundbreaking story lines that are traced and lingering questions that finally get addressed, such as:

• Were the Founding Fathers young enough to be called Founding Teenagers or Twenty-somethings?
• What role did dogs play in the war?
• How did news about America's independence go viral in 1776?
• How did Washington's army actually cross the Delaware River?
• At what moment did Washington become a politician as well as a general?
• What was it really like to walk the colonial streets of Boston, Philadelphia, or New York?
• What was the treatment for a scalped head or an arrow wound?
• Was the most hated Loyalist in America really a Patriot spy?

 The book will delight casual readers, novice historians and expert scholars equally.

Embattled Farmers, by Richard C. Wiggin

Embattled Farmers: Campaigns and Profiles of Revolutionary Soldiers from Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1775-1783

By Richard C. Wiggin

They were ordinary farmers, laborers, merchants, tradesmen, slaves, and former slaves, the cross-section of a typical eighteenth-century New England farming community. But when faced with the loss of their cherished liberties and long-standing tradition of self-government, they were swept up in an epic struggle against long odds. These are the forgotten men who fought the American Revolution.

 Meticulously researched, Embattled Farmers traces the footsteps of 252 individual men—all connected with the Lincoln, Massachusetts, but with family and economic ties throughout New England—who served as Patriot soldiers. Through repeated enlistments, they served at Lexington and Concord, at the Siege of Boston, and during the campaigns to Ticonderoga, Canada, New York, Saratoga, the Hudson Valley, The Jerseys, Valley Forge, and Yorktown.

Embattled Farmers is the only known work that identifies and profiles all known Revolutionary soldiers from any given community in the nation. It examines the Revolutionary War from the ground up—from individual records, rather than aggregate data.  It brings to light many stories for the first time, enriching and humanizing our overall understanding of the Revolutionary War with specific details and biographical data. 

Robert  Gross, author of The Minutemen and Their World, writes “Thanks to Wiggin, the American Revolution in Massachusetts stands out as a triumph of popular mobilization and as a symbol of what citizens can accomplish in common when motivated by a willing spirit of self-sacrifice.”  Mel Bernstein, moderator of  the minute man ARRT, believes that Embattled Farmers may be  a prototype for future investigations of the Revolution as it played out in other communities throughout colonial America. 

We all recommend this new book to you, as does our Minute Man ARRT friend Mel Bernstein.  It’s available through the Lincoln Historical Society http://lincolnhistoricalsociety.org/Pages/Embattled%20Farmers%20flier.pdf, as well as Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Embattled-Farmers-Campaigns-Revolutionary-Massachusetts/dp/0944856101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368477425&sr=1-1&keywords=embattled+farmers

Todd Andrik's "Reporting the Revolution"

At our last meeting, Todd Andrik’s Reporting the Revolution was the raffle book. For all of those who coveted the book but didn’t win, Art Ritter reports that it has now appeared in local Barnes and Noble stores at a 50% discount. There were signed copies in the Williamsburg B&N. Now’s your chance to pick up this excellent new tome.