Round Tablers enjoyed a special treat in our final meeting of the spring — a packed house listened to Charles Rappleye tell how he wrote his extraordinary book, Sons of Providence, which the Board of Governors voted the best book on the Revolutionary era in 2006. The book deals with John and Moses Brown, two very different brothers, the first (John) a tough, even brutal realist, who was a slave trader and proud of it, the second (Moses) an idealist who was one of the first to call for the abolition of slavery in Rhode Island, and eventually in America. The book also won the annual Thomas Fleming Award from the Philadelphia American Revolution Round Table. These kudos, plus a glowing review by Tom Fleming a few months earlier, were more than enough to make everyone anticipate a fascinating talk — and we were not disappointed. But if we had known what was percolating elsewhere, we would have been even more mesmerized. Not long after Mr. Rappleye's appearance at the Williams Club, he won the George Washington Prize, which carries a cash award of $50,000. It's the biggest history award in the nation. Not bad for an author's first book, wouldn't you say? As for the RT's Board of Governors, they are all chortling with justifiable satisfaction. They were the first to spot the book's quality and call it the best of 2006. Maybe we're bragging a little, here, but why not? We try very hard to get quality speakers for every evening and this time we hit the jackpot. When you get to the last page of this bulletin, you'll see another reason for some "quality" bragging. We're talking about the October speaker. But enough said on this point. Mr. Rappleye went home to Los Angeles with our applause ringing in his ears and he obviously deserved every clap of it. Before he left, he did a brisk business signing copies of his book. We're sure by now the buyers are in full agreement with the prize awarders
Our good friend and ARRT member Joseph Rubinfine recently sent us a copy of his latest catalogue. It is packed with the usual fascinating finds. Our favorite is a letter from General Washington to Gouverneur Morris, who became Washington's chief defender in Congress during the harrowing days of Valley Forge. The letter is dated November 27, 1778, and is especially valuable because it is written entirely by GW. Most of his wartime letters were written by aides and Washington only added his signature. It was an indication of how important he considered his relationship Morris.
The New Yorker had recently become head of a committee charged with supervising the army's quartermaster and commissary operations, both of which had malfunctioned badly at Valley Forge. Because there did not seem to be enough supplies at any one place to keep the army together, Morris had written to GW on November 11 proposing to scatter the troops from Connecticut to Virginia. Washington meanwhile had made his own plans, which called for far less decentralization. His confidence in winning Morris's agreement with his plan was visible in his remarks. His plan was "not so sparse" as Morris's plan. There would only be a modest dispersion, mostly in New Jersey. Too great a dispersion of the troops might lead to "many inconveniences," Washington wrote. The general might have added it would be a good way to lose the war. But why ruffle the feathers of a friend? Mr. Rubenfine rightly considers this letter an historic treasure and is asking $110,000 for it.
Using ground penetrating radar, Connecticut's state archeologist, Nicholas Bellantoni, recently began searching for the mass grave of 46 prisoners of war who had been captured in the fighting in New York in 1776 and shipped back to Connecticut in 1777. They numbered about 200 and were all in various stages of smallpox. The sickest were put into a temporary hospital in Milford's Town Hall, where 46 died. The rest apparently struggled to get home. Many died enroute. Mr. Bellantoni says sending the sick men back was a British attempt to start a smallpox epidemic. "It was an early form of germ warfare." This is a very dubious charge. The British had other strong motives to send the smallpox sufferers home —chiefly the fear of infecting their own troops, who were guarding them. It echoes a charge that the British tried to start a smallpox epidemic during Pontiac's War in 1763 as a way of stopping the rampaging Indians. They supposedly sent smallpox infected blankets into the villages of various tribes. As several historians have pointed out, the flaw in that argument was the strong probability that the British might have ended up infecting their own troops. This disagreement aside, we wish Mr. Bellantoni the best of luck in his search for the grave. He wants to make sure the site does not fall into the hands of developers.
Here's a story that is almost as strange as the classic man bites dog case. A man found a strand of George Washington's hair attached to an old baseball card — and now stands to be about $10,000 richer. There story unveiled a veritable industry in buying and selling the great man's locks, with no less than 1,000 pieces in circulation, reasonably well authenticated. The Topps Company, makers of baseball trading cards and bubble gum, is responsible for this phenomenon making news. They attached three strands of the Great Man's hair to three George Washington "relic" cards which they inserted into packages of their Allen and Ginter line of trading cards, which are designed to resemble the first cards relating to the grand old game. Topps bought the strands from the world's leading historic hair collector, a gentleman named John Reznikoff. One of the hair cards fell into the hands of a knowledgeable buyer who promptly put it on ebay, where bidding rapidly soared toward the $10,000 level.
Not everyone thinks this was or is a marvelous idea. Some people wonder if there will now be an attempt to clone George, using his DNA. At Mount Vernon, a spokesperson thought it bordered on disrespect. These particular strands were originally owned by Martha Washington's granddaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis, who was raised by George and Martha after her father's death at Yorktown and her mother's subsequent remarriage. She later gave it to Colonel Levin Powell, who is described as a "Revolutionary War hero" and friend of the founder.
The July, August and September edition of the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution is now posted as an Adobe (pdf) file. The edition includes regular news features and columns as well as three very good articles: Jeff Dennis on the 1776 Cherokee Indian war, Don Gara on Lord Dunmore's attempt to recapture Virginia, Toby Turner on a 1775 incident between South Caroline militiamen Capt. Polk and Lieutenant Watson showing the choices backcountry folks made between Whig and Tory. To access the current and all past issues, go to http://www.southerncampaign.org If you don't have an Adobe Acrobat Reader, you can get one free from http://www.adobe.com/
On June 12, the Common Sense Society of Fort Lee met and elected a slate of officers. Their goal is to erect a statue of Tom Paine in Fort Lee's Monument Park. They have commissioned sculptor David Frech of New York to create the statue. It will be only the sixth statue of Tom in the world and the fourth in America. For many years, Fort Lee has celebrated the American retreat from Fort Lee in 1776 and the withdrawal across New Jersey as a "retreat to victory." They point to the near miraculous reversal of the war's momentum with the triumphs at Trenton and Princeton — and maintain that not a little of this determination to rescue the situation came from Tom Paine's visit to the retreating army. The ragged soldiers inspired him to write his essay, The Crisis, which begins: "These are the the times that try men's souls." Tom Fleming has played in active role in encouraging this statue. Fort Lee has already asked him to speak at the unveiling in November 2008. "Paine became a controversial figure later in his life. But what he accomplished in 1776 is beyond controversy. He deserves a monument and I can't think of a better place to build one." Those interested in helping to pay for the statue can send donations to Fort Lee Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs, 309 Main Street, Fort Lee NJ 07024. Att: Tom Meyers. A check for $100 will make you a "winter soldier" on their donors list.
Thanks to Chairman Dave Jacobs who is one of the leading experts on David Bushnell's Turtle, the world's first submarine, most of us are aware of the pioneering craft's perilous career in New York harbor in 1776. We were thus uniquely qualified to be amused 'or appalled ' by the reappearance of The Turtle in our home waters in early August. The tale of artistic daring — and sheer folly — began when a 35-year-old "heavily tattooed" artist named Duke Riley, who specializes in "waterborne performance projects" around New York, decided to build a replica of the Turtle. His goal was to stage a repeat of the original sub's attack on the flagship of the British fleet; Mr. Riley's target would be the Queen Mary 2. Riley spent several months hammering together his replica. He used plywood; Bushnell used oak. Riley coated the plywood with fiberglass and bought portholes and a hatch from a marine salvage company. Pumps in the bottom enabled him to remove or add water. Several thousand pounds of lead and rocks were haphazardly dumped into the bottom to make Turtle 2 submersible. The result was a poor man's version of the original ship. Riley admitted as much, telling a reporter: "I'm not really a very technical kind of guy." The artist waited until the Queen Mary 2 docked at Pier 41, then called a reporter and persuaded two friends, Jesse Bushnell and Mike Cushing, to tow him from the shore of Red Hook to launch the foray. Along the route, Turtle 2 kept filling with water but never really submerged. Bushnell, who runs a bicycle shop in Providence, spent hours sloshing around inside it in his underwear trying to fix things before giving up. As the rowers and their creation approached the Queen Mary, am NYC detective on the ship spotted them and sounded a terrorist alert. All three ended up in custody. They were soon released without being charged with a crime. Mr. Bushnell fled back to Providence, where he told a reporter he "might be" descended from the original inventor, but didn't really know. He ended his interview with: "I'm super-drunk—I want to stop talking."
This is a call to arms for the NY Round Table and other RT's around the country as well as to all lovers of American History. The Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton, one of the supposedly most venerated scholarly organiza5ions on the globe, is about to obtain permission to building housing on 22 acres of the Princeton Battlefield on which as many as 75% of Washington's troops fought and died. The IAS is ignoring its own survey report, in which an archaeologist found dozens of musket balls, broken musket parts and dropped grapeshot, and estimated that there were probably 1000 more artifacts waiting to be found! Concerned New Jerseyans, led by Jerry Hurwitz, former president of the Brigade of the American Revolution, have formed the Princeton Battlefield Society and are soliciting support to stop this brazen desecration of historical soil. Go on the web at www.SavePrincetonBattlefield.org to find out where to send your protests and maybe some money. Google the Institute and bombard them with letters!
The Blue and Gray Education Society of Danville, Virginia (BGES) has for several years been recording the Civil War tours of Ed Bearss, America's champion battlefield interpreter. The tours have been transcribed and published by the National Geographic Society (NGS) in the best-selling "Fields of Honor." The NGS now wants a book of Ed's tours of American Revolution battlefields, which the BGES is presently recording. The tour covering the military campaigns from Philadelphia to the Hudson Highlands was scheduled for late June. And herein lies a tale. This writer received a phone call from the Executive Director of the BGES (Len Riedel) in May, wondering if I was planning to take the tour. I responded in the affirmative, since some sites I had never seen, and others only many years ago. Len said this was good news, since Ed Bearss wanted me to pick the sites and coordinate the travel when we studied the Battles for New York City.
I was stunned at Ed's request, and further shocked when Len told me that the plan was to start the day breakfasting in Monmouth, NJ, do a hit-and-run tour of highlights of both the Battle of Brooklyn and the fighting in Manhattan, and end the day in Newburgh, NY!!! In one day?? In NYC?? Should I accept the assignment? Or is it truly a Mission Impossible? Well, I said yes!! What sites did I pick, and how did BGES do it? See you in December!!
The New-York Historical Society has announced that the exhibit "French Founding Father: Lafayette's Return to Washington's America" will open on November 16th, 2007 (through August 10th, 2008). But this is NOT the date you should remember!! It is Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 6:30 PM when the NYHS hosts David A. Clary, Harlow Giles Unger, and Thomas Fleming in a conversation "Lafayette and Washington: The Friendship That Won the War." Visit http://www.nyhistory.org/ or call (212) 873-3400 for details.
As we all know, GW, while in command of the Continental Army, slept in many homes. Two of these buildings are significant benchmarks in historic preservation. What are these two sites, and what is their importance to the history of this field?
All members who correctly answer by phone, email or snail mail will receive a free dinner.