McB Mar 2020

McBurney Recommendation: A Visit to the Museum of the American Revolution and a Saturday in Philadelphia

I am embarrassed to say that I finally visited the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. I drove up from Kensington, Maryland, with my wife, Margaret, and we met our friends there from New York City. It took a bit more than two hours to drive for both parties. No problem.

I am not going to give a blow-by-blow account of my visit. I will say that I had heard that there were not enough military exhibits in the museum. If that comment was ever accurate, it is not now. There are plenty of military exhibits, and very good ones at that. I found the exhibits to be well done and the captions informative. My wife and our friends liked how the displays were in chronological order, giving them a better understanding of how the American Revolution developed. The museum is practically brand new and it shows. It was clean and sharp. My friends and I really enjoyed it. Other than me, no one else was as devoted to studying the American Revolution. One of my favorite exhibits was the recreated privateer. It was smaller than I had expected. The kids will love this too. There are also plenty of exhibits on the British armed forces, including on their German allies. There are a number of short films. There was a special presentation in an auditorium on General Washington’s headquarters field tent. I understand that at Valley Forge years ago, the tent was displayed as open and one could walk right up to it. Now it is displayed closed and it is behind Plexiglas. But it is very impressive nonetheless. There are special programs throughout the day, including by reenactors who are aspiring actors. The gift and book shop is bright and new and well stocked.

There is an outstanding special exhibit about to close on March 17, called Cost of Revolution: The Life and Death of an Irish Soldier. This is the story of Richard St. George, an Anglo-Irish British officer. The exhibit is described as: “Follow the untold story of Irish soldier and artist Richard St. George, whose personal trauma and untimely death provide a window into the entangled histories of the American Revolution of 1776 and the Irish Revolution of 1798. The art he created and commissioned visualizes a unique perspective of the physical and emotional costs of these revolutionary moments. In 1776, Richard St. George joined the British Army and donned a red coat to fight against the American ‘rebels.’ Over the next twenty years, St. George survived a severe head wound at the Battle of Germantown, mourned over the tragic death of his wife, and saw the rule of kings and of gentlemen like himself violently challenged on two continents. Along the way, he made sketches, published cartoons, and commissioned portraits and paintings to document his experiences and emotions. In 1798, he stood in opposition to the growing Irish Revolution and was killed by his tenants.” The art work is outstanding, including two well-known battle scenes from the Paoli Massacre and Germantown. It appears that St. George’s traumatic head wound caused him to suffer from a mental disability throughout the remainder of his life. Don’t’ miss the wine-opener looking instrument used to perform “trephination:” making a hole in the patient’s skull to expose and relieve brain swelling!

I also walked over to Christ Church, a few blocks away. I wanted to show the group the marker outside the church honoring Charles Lee. Lee died in Philadelphia in 1782 and had an impressive funeral at Christ Church. But within a short time, with no marker, people were unknowingly walking over his burial site. His remains were removed during the Civil War, to make room for a road, perhaps to the area of where the marker is now (on the long-side of the outside wall facing Market Street). Given my latest book, George Washington’s Nemesis: The Outrageous Treason and Unfair Court-Martial of Major General Charles Lee during the Revolutionary War, and previous book, Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Major Generals Charles Lee & Richard Prescott, I felt it was important to show it to my wife and friends. Other Patriots are buried there too. To view the marker, the church needs to be open, so you can get through the gate, so keep an eye on the hours the church is open. The inside is impressive too.

At night we supped at historic City Tavern, the location where most all of the Founders frequented. Unfortunately, the famous tavern burned down in the nineteenth century. But the recreation is very well done. The staff is dressed in colonial garb, as in Williamsburg. The fare is intended to be based on eighteenth century food and is quite good. We may have dined in the room where Major General Prescott and other British officers were kept during their imprisonment in Philadelphia the first time Prescott was captured in 1776.

Weekend hotel deals in Philadelphia can make a hotel stay in the city very reasonable. Of course, the next day, you can visit Independence Hall, Carpenter’s Hall, Franklin’s locations, etc.!

- Christian McBurney