Greetings! I hope each of you
is doing well. Our next meeting is to be an online Zoom meeting scheduled for
Wednesday, February 3, at 7 p.m. Our next speaker will be Don
N. Hagist and he will speak on his new book, Noble Volunteers: The British
Soldiers Who Fought in the American Revolution (Westholme, Nov.
2020). This book is the first full account of the British soldiers who
came to America to defend an empire. This book received a terrific review
in the Wall Street Journal. Rick Atkinson writes of it, “No one has studied the
British enlisted ranks in the Revolution with greater diligence and insight
than Don N. Hagist. Now he has given us a remarkable group portrait of these
men, illuminating who they were, why and how they fought, and what their lives
were like.”
Please let me know if you would like to attend the online Zoom meeting. I will then email you a Zoom link to the meeting on February 3, the day of the meeting.
DON N. HAGIST is managing editor of the Journal of the American Revolution at www.allthingsliberty.com. An expert on the British army in the American Revolution, he is the author of many books and articles, including British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution (Westholme 2012) and The Revolution’s Last Men: The Stories Behind the Photographs (Westholme 2015). He lives in Providence, Rhode Island. (Don and I also grew up about six miles from each other).
We had a great online lecture by Ed Lengel, who spoke on his book on the Battles of Connecticut Farms and Springfield. The lecture attracted a number of attendees from New Jersey who lived in the area of the battlefields. We had 65 attend, despite the incredible events that occurred yesterday. (I had previously postponed his lecture because it was the confusing day after the election; Ed thought his talk would be a good distraction yesterday, and it was).
American Philosophical Society on Benjamin Franklin
Here is a Zoom meeting that is not on many people’s radar. The American Philosophical Society is hosting a lecture on Benjamin Franklin, as they celebrate his 315th birthday. Benjamin Franklin was both an internationally renowned scientist and a statesman working on the world stage. Few, however, have connected these two important parts of Franklin’s life. How, then, did Franklin’s scientific experiments influence his political stature? In celebration of Franklin’s 315th birthday and the Society’s 2021 exhibition, Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist, join us for an enlightening conversation between Carla J. Mulford, a leading specialist on Franklin, and Patrick Spero, Librarian of the American Philosophical Society (who spoke to our group last year, I believe it was), as they try to answer this very question and, along the way, explore Franklin’s scientific and political life from his early roots in Philadelphia to his rise as perhaps the best known scientist and statesman in the Atlantic World. In advance of the conversation, consider taking a virtual tour of the Society’s exhibition,
Register here: https://amphilsoc-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qdLgkj76Rv-uCGkZHx899g
Museum of the American Revolution to Reopen Tomorrow
Road trip anyone? Here is a message I received from the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia: “We’re reopening our doors on Friday, January 8! Beginning Friday, the Museum will be open to the public from 10am – 5pm every Friday through Sunday and select holiday Mondays, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 and Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021. Tickets are limited due to reduced capacity, so be sure ahead of time to buy your tickets online.
McBurney Column: Yesterday’s Sacking of the U. S. Capitol and Revolutionary War Artifacts
Many words can be used to describe the assault and invasion of the U.S. Capitol yesterday. How about as a start: disgraceful, embarrassing, sad. This was the first time the U.S. Capitol has been invaded and sacked since British soldiers did it in 1814. This second time, it was by U.S. citizens.
A lot can be said of it, but since I am writing in my capacity as officer of the DC ARRT, I will keep my thoughts to the American Revolution.
I hope no American Revolution artifacts were destroyed or damaged yesterday. The rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, of course, has four amazing and large paintings by artist John Trumbull: The Declaration of Independence, the Surrender of General Burgoyne (at the Battle of Saratoga), the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (at Saratoga), and General George Washington Resigning His Commission to Congress. They are true national treasures. I did not see any damage to them and hope that was the case.
The Capitol Dome has a spectacular painting by Constantino Brumidi called The Apotheosis of Washington. I had the privilege of once being on a tour with a Senator and walking at the top of the dome, inside where I could see this painting close up, and outside as well, with a 360-degree view of Washington, D.C. It would have been difficult for rioters to have damaged this painting, but I did see some nutcases climbing walls.
The rotunda also has statues of George Washington, by Antoine Houdon, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as a sculpture of Alexander Hamilton.
Of course, the National Statutory Hall collection has statues of American Revolution heroes spread throughout the capitol building. Many are in the crypt and could easily have been damaged. They includes statues of: Sam Adams, Charles Carroll, Nathanael Greene, Caesar Rodney, Roger Sherman, and Jonathan Trumbull (John’s father, governor of Connecticut, and a true Patriot).
The U.S. Senate has a George Washington Memorial Window and a sketch of the Signing of the First Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, in Paris, again by Brumidi.
Of course, there is so much more. Two of my favorite places are the Old Supreme Court Chamber, where John Marshall once held sway, and the Old Senate Chamber, where Webster, Clay and Calhoun made their speeches.
The rioters did not seem particularly interested in damaging historical artifacts. Hopefully, they were too awed to do any damage (except for Russian agents who likely used the opportunity to rummage through top security files). Time will tell if there was any damage or destruction to our country’s priceless artifacts.
I fear that a large iron fence will have to be built now around the U. S. Capitol, as there is around the White House. This had been avoided in the past, but now there may be a call for it.
Best,
- Christian McBurney
Christian.McBurney@arentfox.com
Author of General Washington’s Nemesis: The Outrageous Treason and Unfair Court Martial of Major General Charles Lee during the Revolutionary War (Savas Beatie, 2020)
and other American Revolutionary War books at www.christianmcburney.com
