There we were, contentedly sipping our coffee and tea after enjoying another superb meal at the Williams Club. Suddenly in the front doorway appeared a swaggering figure in a scarlet uniform. Simultaneously, there loomed in our rear two more figures in scarlet, menacingly hefting murderous looking muskets. "Cease and desist this seditious assembly, ye ungrateful rebels" boomed the first apparition. "You're all in the King's custody!"
It was our mystery guest! He grimly introduced himself as The Rt. Hon. Peter Lowell Ford, colonel of the Royal Welch Fusileers. We gradually reassembled our wits and realized it was also Peter Ford, the genial longtime member of the Round Table, with whom we have hoisted many a glass and exchanged lively stories of Revolutionary days. But our old friend made no allusions to his 21st Century self. He remained firmly in the persona of Colonel Ford, commander of the finest regiment in the Royal Army of His Majesty, George III.
Colonel Ford said he had come to make us realize the sort of challenge we American rebels had undertaken when we revolted against the benevolent rule of the best of kings. He was going to tell us just how formidable the British Army of 1776 was; before he left, we would realize that the men who wore royal scarlet were the toughest, most highly trained and courageous fighting force on the planet -- and the Welch Fusileers were the best of the best.
That is exactly what Colonel Ford did, after denouncing us for several minutes for destroying private property and refusing to pay our fair share of the empire's taxes. He described what the Americans confronted when Paul Revere or some other alarm rider summoned them from their homes to confront British regulars. We were soon visualizing the Royal Welch's battlefield tactics -- the grim determination of the advance, with every man in the front rank who fell instantly replaced by the man behind him, maintaining a seemingly unbreakable scarlet wall until the moment when they halted, fired, and then came roaring through the gunsmoke with bayonets lowered. That oncoming wave of bellowing killers sent gyrations of terror through the bellies of their antagonists. For those who chose to make a stand, on came the fearsome triangular bayonets, which could tear out a man's intestines with a single thrust.
Colonel Ford also discussed the muskets his men carried -- and the terrible impact of the three quarters of an ounce lead balls they fired -- the way they flattened and broke apart, after tearing through flesh and smashing bones. He described the careful makeup of the regiment, from the tall grenadiers to the shorter agile "light troops" who moved swiftly to an enemy's flanks. By the time he finished, every Round Tabler in the room had more respect for George Washington's men -- and maybe some (grudging) respect for these soldiers of George III, at least when they were commanded by an officer as formidable as Colonel Ford!
The huzzahs were long and loud.
Fred Cookinham reviewed America Declares Independence by Alan Dershowitz. Its great virtue, he said, was its brevity -- because most of the text is boring eyewash. It is only tangentially about the Declaration we all have studied. Most of it deals with Dershowitz's disagreement with today's religious right. The author goes back to 1776 only to argue the founders were Deists and that proves the United States is not a Christian nation. Fred said the correct title should be: DERSHOWITZ DECLARES HIS OPINIONS. Mr. D. also attacks natural law theory in a boring argument better suited for a Harvard Law School seminar. He finishes the book with an attack on Thomas Jefferson's inconsistent views on slavery. Fred declined to recommend the book to anyone who wants to think seriously about the history of the Declaration of Independence
Mark Domowne gave us his considered opinion of An Empire Divided by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy. The author makes much of the indubitable fact that only 13 of the 26 colonies in the British North American empire rebelled in 1776. He argues that this threw a serious curve into the British war effort. They spent much time, men and money defending the valuable sugar islands of the West Indies, which had large slave populations and were totally dependent on Great Britain. This policy was emphasized even more after France joined the war in 1778, and sent a fleet and armies to the West Indies. The road to Yorktown, Mr. O'Shaughnessy argues, ran through Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados and the other islands. King George's men retained them -- but lost a continent. Mark commended the book as an offbeat view of the Revolution.
Tom Fleming reviewed The Flockey by Gavin K. Watt, a Canadian historian who specializes in loyalism in New York state. The book expands a shorter book by John Hayes on an American cavalry attack on a group of loyalists who had laid an ambush in the Flockey, a wetlands in the Scoharie Valley. Watt portrays many other aspects of this loyalist revolt, which was tied into St. Leger's invasion in 1777 and the siege of Fort Stanwix. Tom found the book almost as incoherent as the uprising, with bits of pieces of violence exploding all over the map. Most of the fighting fell to local militia, who were frequently intimidated or outnumbered. Swirling through the chaos was Joseph Brant and his Indian raiders. Eventually, the revolt fizzled, along with St. Leger's siege and Burgoyne's invasion. But it was tumultuous while it lasted, full of vivid confrontations in which neighbors warned neighbors to clear out or else and got warned in return when enough militia from one side or the other were a temporary majority.
Tom also reported on General Washington's Christmas Farewell by Stanley Weintraub. This is an in depth narrative of Washington's final months as the Continental Army's leader in 1783. It describes his march into New York as the British depart to their ships, the farewell at Fraunces Tavern, and festive receptions in other cities, notably Philadelphia, on the way to Annapolis to surrender his commission to the Congress. The General reached Mount Vernon on Christmas eve, fervently hoping he would never leave its vicinity again. Little did he know. Tom praised the book highly. Mr. Weintraub, a veteran historian from Penn State, has turned up lots of fascinating details about the journey. He recommended it as a perfect Christmas gift for Round Tablers.
The minutemen are a highly regarded patriotic group, right? Anyone would be proud to be called a minuteman, right? Wrong if you go to the University of Massachusetts. There, faculty members have pressured the administration to dump the minuteman as the school's athletic symbol. They claim it raises "gender, firearms and ethnicity issues." In other words, the minuteman has become a dead white male carrying a gun -- a veritable paradigm of incorrectness. So far the administration is resisting the pressure. But many people are predicting an eventual cave-in. One angry commentator urged them to stand their ground and declare the minuteman a "mini-history lesson." Right on!
Believe it or not, George Washington has become a candidate for public office -- in Jersey City. The news was leaked to us by Tom Fleming, who keeps in touch with the doings of his home town. It seems that Abraham Petz, proprietor of "Honest Abe's Pawnshop," held a press conference to announce that Neville Kevins, a "world renowned British psychic and channeler" has been in touch with our first president and he has agreed to become a candidate for a yet undetermined office. When a reporter asked if it was legal for a dead person to be a candidate, the father of the country replied: "Why not? For generations the dead have been voting here in Jersey City
On June 9, a loud noise was heard from the general direction of Rhode Island. A group of citizens in Warwick held a celebration that declared their predecessors in the little town fought the first battle of the American Revolution -- and they never get any credit for it. Forget Lexington and Concord, these fervent boosters insist. As for the Boston Tea Party -- what got damaged besides some tea? In Warwick, the citizens showed they meant business by burning a British warship, three years before bullets started to fly in Massachusetts.
They are talking about the attack on the British schooner HMS Gaspee, which had made itself obnoxious to Rhode Islanders by cruising off their coast seizing ships that were trying to evade imperial import duties on various items in their holds. When the Gaspee ran aground on June 9, 1772, some 60 Warwickers stormed the ship, shot the captain in the groin, and torched the vessel. The descendants of Joseph Bucklin, the man who shot the captain, are very much in the picture, complaining more loudly than most that it's an evil Massachusetts conspiracy to deprive their hero of firing the shot that launched the Revolution, even if it wasn't heard around the world.
The descendant of another raider, Nathan Salisbury, dresses in colonial duds and lectures on the event in Indiana schools. He reports students keep confusing the Gaspee with the Great Gatbsy. We fear these Rhode Islanders have an uphill fight on their hands. But they claim to be undiscouraged by the almost universal lack of appreciation for their daring exploit.
PS: They never mention the word smuggling. That, of course, was the heart of the matter. Rhode Island was a smuggler's paradise, until HMS Gaspee tried to bring a little law and order to the scene. But what the heck, John Hancock did a little smuggling too.
This time our series turns its lens on Richard Clough Anderson of Hanover County, Virginia. Born in 1750, he was 25 when the Revolution began in 1775. On March 16, 1776, he became a captain in the Virginia Continental Line, and fought in the battles of White Plains, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, Savannah, Charleston and Yorktown. He also endured the hard winter at Valley Forge, making him a veritable walking talking history of the Revolution.
Anderson and his company fired the first shots at the Battle of Trenton, routing a 15 man Hessian outpost. A few days later, when Washington recrossed the Delaware and fighting began with the British army under Cornwallis at Assunpink Creek, Anderson was wounded in both thighs by a "yager ball" a bullet from the large bore rifles carried by Hessian jagers. A friend put him on a horsedrawn gun carriage and he followed the American army to Princeton. Beside him on the gun carriage lay another wounded Virginia officer, Lt. James Monroe. While recovering in a Philadelphia hospital, Anderson contracted smallpox but survived to accept an appointment as major in the First Virginia Line.
At the 1779 siege of Savannah, Anderson led a charge on an enemy redoubt and was badly wounded by a blow from a British officer's sword which knocked him off the parapet. Carried back to camp, he met the dying Casimir Pulaski, who gave Anderson his sword. It became a family treasure. Anderson was still convalescing in a Charleston hospital when the city surrendered to the British in 1780. After nine months of not very severe imprisonment, he was exchanged in February 1781 and became aide de camp to the Marquis de Lafayette. He played a key role in advising the Marquis in the complicated fighting against Cornwallis's invasion of Virginia. When Cornwallis retreated to Yorktown, and Washington arrived to begin the historic siege, he appointed Anderson adjutant general, with the temporary rank of colonel. After the British surrender, the rank was confirmed and Anderson was given command of the Third Virginia Line. He stayed in the army until 1783, departing after seven and a half years of service. A portrait of him at this time conveys his tough, defiant, savvy spirit.
In 1784, Anderson migrated to Kentucky, where he soon acquired a 500 acre plantation in Jefferson County. His mansion, which he called Soldiers Retreat, became famous for its hospitality. Andrew Jackson and Aaron Burr were among his celebrity guests. He accompanied Lafayette throughout Kentucky when the Marquis returned for his triumphant tour of the nation in 1824-5. Anderson married Elizabeth Clark, sister of George Rogers Clark, by whom he had five children. When she died, he married a cousin of John Marshall and produced another 12 children. Among his sons was Major Robert Anderson, who was in command of Fort Sumter when the Confederates opened fire on it. A later descendant, Larz Anderson, built the palatial mansion in Washington DC that serves as the national headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati.
HistoryAmerica has done it again! Led by Ed Bearss, this time traveler has followed General Arnold from Quebec to West Point. Not content to discuss the fight in the old town of Quebec, Bearss took us on Arnold's entire route from Cambridge, MA through Maine's Kennebec River Valley, ending on the banks of the St. Lawrence. At Newburyport, where Arnold's expedition sailed to Maine, a plaque lists his name. This struck a New Yorker as strange. We are used to seeing the General's name and image blotted out. In the early 1900s, local Maine chapters of the DAR marked out the expedition's trail with frequent references to Arnold.
Colburn House in Pittston, Maine, is the home of the Arnold Expedition Historical Society. We toured the home of the man hired to build 200 batteaux in 15 days. The boats were made with untreated green pine and they leaked from day one. Food spoiled, men became ill, the Kennebec was too shallow, requiring lengthy portages. We visited several forts (notably Fort Western in Augusta) where Arnold stopped to rest his men. He finally arrived at Quebec on Nov. 8, 1775, 28 days late, with 675 of his original 1100 men. Richard Montgomery's ragtag little army joined them seven weeks later and the two commanders led a two-pronged December 31 attack on the walled city in a driving snowstorm. Arnold was wounded almost immediately and Daniel Morgan took over but made little headway. Montgomery was killed by a lone cannon covering the path up the cliff on the opposite flank and the assault collapsed. Ed Bearss did a wonderful job of describing the battle, including a succinct comparison to General Wolfe's successful 1759 assault. We then traced Arnold's escape from Canada up the St. Lawrence and Richlieu rivers, pausing at Fort Lennox, an 1819 Canadian fort with a wonderful interpretive presentation on British army life, before we reached Lake Champlain.
And what of Valcour Island, Ft. Ticonderoga, Saratoga, and West Point? See you in December!
Lynne Saginaw, Betty Zinn and Lee Wittenberg all correctly identified the original names of Princeton (College of New Jersey) Columbia (King's College) Brown (College of Rhode Island) and Rutgers (Queens College)
My grandson led New York's Excelsior Brigade at the battle of Chancellorsville, and my great, great grandson won an academy award. Who am I?