Greetings. Our next meeting is to be a hybrid meeting on Tuesday, April 15. We will be meeting in person at the Mount Vernon Inn at 6 p.m. (social hour) and 6:40 p.m. (dinner). Please let Richard Rankin know by completing and mailing in the attached reservation sheet or by responding to this email (brandywinecreek@aol.com). We need to give the Mount Vernon Inn the dinner count by Friday, April 11. You can also pay at the door. Either way please let us know if you would like meatloaf or salmon dish for dinner. Payment checks should be made out to "ARRT" (just write as shown and don't spell out the group name.)
For those attending remotely, the Zoom meeting will start at bit after 7 p.m. If you can only attend by Zoom, I will email you a Zoom link to the meeting the day of the meeting. Feel free to share this email with a friend who or family member whom you think may be interested.
Our next speaker will be Professor Cassandra Good, of nearby Marymount University, who will be speaking on her recent book, First Family: George Washington's Heirs and the Making of America. While it's widely known that George and Martha Washington never had children of their own, few are aware that they raised children together. In First Family, we see Washington as a father figure and are introduced to the children he helped raise, tracing their complicated roles in American history. The children of Martha Washington's son by her first marriage--Eliza, Patty, Nelly and Wash Custis--were born into life in the public eye, well-known as George Washington's family and keepers of his legacy. By turns petty and powerful, glamorous and cruel, the Custises used Washington as a means to enhance their own power and status. As enslavers committed to the American empire, the Custis family embodied the failures of the American experiment that finally exploded into civil war--all the while being celebrities in a soap opera of their own making.
Cassandra Good is an associate professor of history at Marymount University. She has a BA and MA from George Washington University and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Good is the author of two books, Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men and Women in the Early American Republic (Oxford, 2015) and First Family: George Washington's Heirs and the Making of America (Hanover Square, 2023). Her work has been supported with fellowships from numerous institutions, including Mount Vernon, the Smithsonian, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
To purchase this book prior to our meeting, here is a link to the online Fort Plains Museum Bookstore: https://fortplainmuseum.square.site/s/search?q=cassandra https://fortplainmuseum.square.site/product/from-trenton-to-yorktown-turning-points-of-the-revolutionary-war/1297?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=true. The sale price is $25.99. Professor Good will also bring books to sell and for signing.
Don't forget, your income tax returns (or an extension) are due April 15!
Fort Plain American Revolution 250 Conference – May 29-June 1, 2025
The annual Fort Plain American Revolution Conference will again be held at the Fulton-Montgomery Community College's Theater in Johnstown, New York, from May 29-June 1. Rick Atkinson is scheduled to appear at one of his first appearances after the release of his second book of his planned trilogy!
Speakers and Topics Include:
Pulitzer Prize Winner Rick Atkinson - The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Major General Jason Q. Bohm USMC (Ret) - The Birth and Early Operations of the Marine Corps: 250 Years in the Making
Alexander R. Cain - We Stood Our Ground: 250th of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775
Abby Chandler - Choosing Sides: North Carolina's Regulator Rebellion and the American Revolution
Gary Ecelbarger - The Mammoth of Monmouth: George Washington's 1778 Campaign in New Jersey
Michael P. Gabriel - Richard Montgomery and the Other Invasion of Canada
Shirley L. Green - Integrating Enslaved and Free: Rhode Island’s Revolutionary Black Regiment
Don N. Hagist - Marching from Peace into War: British Soldiers in 1775 America
Patrick H. Hannum - The Virginia Campaign of 1775-76: Kemp's Landing & Great Bridge
Wayne Lenig - The Mohawk Valley's Committee of Safety in 1775
James L. Nelson - Bunker Hill: The First Battle of the American Revolution
Eric H. Schnitzer - Breaking Convention: How a Fussy Detail about British Uniforms Doomed Burgoyne’s Army to Captivity
The James F. Morrison Mohawk Valley Resident Historian - William P. Tatum III, Ph.D. - “To Quell, Suppress, and Bring Them to Reason by Force:” Combatting the Loyalist Threat in New York during 1775
Bruce M. Venter - "It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones": Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys Take Fort Ticonderoga
Bus Tour - We Stood Our Ground: Touring the Battles of Lexington & Concord 250 Years Later - Led by Alexander R. Cain - Thursday, May 29, 2025 - Lunch and a Copy of Cain's Book are Included.
Click here to register online: https://fortplainmuseum.square.site/conference
Click here to register by mail: https://fortplainmuseum.org/content/2025%20Conference%20Registration%20Form1.pdf
Click here for lodging information: https://fortplainmuseum.org/content/2025%20Hotel-Lodging%20Information.pdf
New George Washington American Revolution Round Table of the District of Columbia Book Award!
Doug Bonforte, Gene Procknow and Gary Ecelbarger
at the beginning of last year started a book award committee to select the best
book on the American Revolution for 2024. The committee has selected a
winner and a runner-up. The awards will be announced Sunday morning, at
8:15 a.m., at the American Revolution Conference at Glen Allen on March 29 (we
hope to see you there!). The information is highly confidential, but I can say
the winners are worthy indeed. (FYI, no one associated with our ARRT is
eligible to win. Sorry Glenn, etc.) After the announcement, the winners will be
posted on our DC ARRT website, which is maintained by Doug Bonforte (the link
to which is after my name below).
Thanks!
Christian McBurney
President, George Washington American Revolution Round Table of the District of Columbia
