Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site is set to celebrate General George Washington’s 288th birthday on February 15th, 16th and 17th. Events will include demonstrations, topical talks, historical presentations, take-home crafts, and more. [Read more…] about Washington’s Birthday At Washington’s Headquarters
George Washington
Book Talk: Memory of the First President
Acting Director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History, Matthew R. Costello’s new book The Property of the Nation: George Washington’s Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President (University Press of Kansas, 2019) looks at the life of George Washington, and how he has been viewed throughout history. [Read more…] about Book Talk: Memory of the First President
New Windsor Cantonment Celebrating Washington’s Birthday
Following the capture of British forces by the allied armies of France and America, at Yorktown, Virginia, in the fall of 1781, the Continental Northern Army returned to the Hudson Highlands. The destruction of the principal British army in the field in the South broke England’s will to continue the struggle.
In the fall of 1782, near New Windsor, 7,500 Continental Army soldiers built a city of 600 log huts. Along with some of their family members, they braved the winter and kept a wary eye on the 12,000 British troops in New York City, just 60 miles away. [Read more…] about New Windsor Cantonment Celebrating Washington’s Birthday
Knox’s Headquarters Celebrating Washington’s Birthday
Over the winter of 1780-81 at this headquarters, General Henry Knox organized the artillery for the projected attack on New York City. Soldiers, at the nearby encampment, repaired and trained on the guns, howitzers and mortars.
“Mount Ellison,” the genteel combination English and Dutch-style stone house was built for prominent local merchant Thomas Ellison by an unknown number of skilled artisans and laborers between April and September 1754 under the direction of stonemason William Bull. [Read more…] about Knox’s Headquarters Celebrating Washington’s Birthday
Hudson River Chain, Anthony’s Nose, and the American Revolution
General George Washington, Governor George Clinton and Lord Stirling all knew about Anthony’s Nose. Not because it was part of someone’s anatomy, but because it was a prominent feature along the Hudson River, the highest place in Westchester County. Anthony’s Nose resembles a person’s nose when viewed in profile from the Hudson River, and so was a well known landmark.
Anthony’s Nose was also strategically important. [Read more…] about Hudson River Chain, Anthony’s Nose, and the American Revolution
New Book On Young George Washington
Peter Stark’s new book Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father (Ecco, 2018) recounts the wilderness trials, controversial battles, and emotional entanglements that transformed George Washington from a temperamental striver into a mature leader.
Two decades before he helped lead the colonies to independence, George Washington was a flailing young soldier serving the British Empire in the Ohio Valley. The author portrays him as a naïve and self-absorbed twenty-two-year-old officer, when he accidentally ignited the French and Indian War — a conflict that helped open colonists to the possibility of an American Revolution. [Read more…] about New Book On Young George Washington
Boscobel’s Military Reenactment Day; Washington on the Hudson
The Boscobel House and Gardens in partnership with The Living History Education Foundation are set to present General Washington on the Hudson: The Battle of Stony Point, on Sunday, August 25 from 10 am to 4 pm.
Visited can see General George Washington inspect his troops, hear President Abraham Lincoln address his army, and experience a Parrott rifled cannon — originally forged in Cold Spring at the West Point Foundry — shooting across the Hudson River.
[Read more…] about Boscobel’s Military Reenactment Day; Washington on the Hudson
July 4th and History Events in Manhattan
The Lower Manhattan Historical Association (LMHA) is set to hold the fifth annual Independence Day march through Lower Manhattan on Thursday July 4, at 12 pm and a 3 pm ceremonial reading of George Washington’s “Newport Letter.”
Starting behind Castle Clinton in Battery Park, with an opening ceremony at 11:45 am. the LMHA march will then step off at noon at the conclusion of the Veteran Corps of Artillery-State of New York’s Salute to the Nation, a fifty round firing from 75mm Pack Howitzers. [Read more…] about July 4th and History Events in Manhattan
Musicians of Ma’alwyck Performance in Schoharie
On April 30, 1789, George Washington was sworn in as the first president of the United States of America.
The Schoharie County Historical Society will celebrate the 230th Anniversary of that inauguration with a special performance by the Musicians of Ma’alwyck, on Saturday, June 15 at 7 pm at the Schoharie Presbyterian Church. [Read more…] about Musicians of Ma’alwyck Performance in Schoharie
Bruce Chadwick: The General and Mrs. Washington
This week on The Historians Podcast with Bob Cudmore, Bruce Chadwick, author of The General and Mrs. Washington: The Untold Story of a Marriage and a Revolution talks about joy and tragedy in the lives of George and Martha Washington. Chadwick was a featured speaker at the George Washington Symposium organized earlier this year by the Fort Plain Museum. [Read more…] about Bruce Chadwick: The General and Mrs. Washington