Revolution 250 Podcast
Revolution 250 Podcast
John Trumbull & Portraits of Patriots with Damien Cregeau
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John Trumbull's paintings have done more to etch the key events of the American Revolution into America's memory than perhaps anyone else. The son of the Governor of Connecticut and the brother of a Governor of Connecticut, Trumbull served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He knew many of the key figures of these events, and when he painted them, he painted them as he knew them. We talk with Damien M. Cregeau, author of "Portraits of Patriots: Colonel John Trumbull and Five Fellow Patriots From Connecticut in the American Revolution" as we delve into the life and times of John Trumbull.
Portraits of Patriots at Amazon.com
WEBVTT
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Because it is, yes.
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We're on now with Damian Krugo.
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This is the Revolution Two-Fifty podcast.
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Welcome, everyone.
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I'm Bob Allison.
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I chair the Rev Two-Fifty Advisory Group,
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also teach history at Suffolk University.
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And Rev Two-Fifty is a
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consortium of about
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seventy-five groups in
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Massachusetts planning ways
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to commemorate the
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beginnings of American independence.
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And our guest today is Damian Krugo,
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who is an historian.
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He writes often in the
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Journal of American History.
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He's written in Financial History Magazine,
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American Spirit,
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recipient of the National
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Society of the Daughters of
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the American Revolution
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History Medal for his work in history.
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And we're going to talk
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about your new book,
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which is Portraits of Patriots,
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the Revolutionary Lives of
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Five Patriots from Connecticut.
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the Trumbles of Lebanon,
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the Huntingtons of Norwich,
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and the Webs of Wethersfield,
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as well as Captain Seth Harding,
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who was originally from East Ham,
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Massachusetts.
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Interesting group.
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So, Damian,
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thanks so much for joining us again.
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Well, thank you for having me back, Bob.
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I do have a copy of the book
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here so that we can flash
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the image of the cover in
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the back as well.
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Great.
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Yeah, it looks good.
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What drew you to these
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particular people to write about?
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You broke up.
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Can you repeat that again?
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What drew you to these particular people,
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the Trumbles, the Huntingtons, the Webbs?
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How did you choose this
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particular gallery?
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So it starts with where I'm sitting.
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I'm in the dining room of
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the General Jedediah and
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Faith Trumbull Huntington House, and
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here in Norwich, Connecticut,
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an example of her artwork behind me,
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which we'll get to later.
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When we bought this house
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ten years ago in the spring
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of twenty fifteen, I realized, oh,
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my goodness,
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no one's written a biography
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of the Huntingtons and all
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their important,
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interesting contributions
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to the American Revolution,
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along with her artistic
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talents and how she inspired her younger,
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famous, later to be famous brother,
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John Trumbull.
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as someone who had taught
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art history that no one had
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gone in any depth into John
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Trumbull's military service
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in the American Revolution.
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They focused, of course,
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on his painting career.
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And as a resident of Wethersfield,
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where we have another house
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from seventeen sixty five,
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I felt it was important to
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also shed some light on Samuel Webb,
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a colonel in the American
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Revolution who serves as
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aide to General Washington
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and is grazed by a bullet at Bunker Hill.
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So I thought,
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No one had taken six people of this level,
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this strata of society.
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I guess you could say they
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were all comfortable upper
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middle class and who were officers,
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basically majors,
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colonels and brigadier
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generals in the American
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Revolution and taken a slice,
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a lateral slice.
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When we look at the
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literature out there for
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the American Revolution,
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it tends to be biographies of Washington,
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Arnold, Lafayette,
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or it's a battle study,
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or it's a study of the entire war.
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And I thought,
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what if I take a slice and I
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connect the dots,
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and I pick six people who
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all knew each other through
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their military service,
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and in the case of Faith
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Trumbull Huntington,
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she's the spouse of Jedediah,
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and what is her story?
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So this book is five men and a woman,
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a general's wife.
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And it's interesting,
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the relationships among them.
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And Faith is a fascinating character.
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As you said, you have an image,
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one of her embroideries,
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an image of behind you.
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Tragic story.
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And she's the older sister
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of John Trumbull,
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the artist whom we know about.
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Do you want to talk a little
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bit more about Faith and
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her role in this?
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Yes.
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is the daughter of Governor
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Jonathan Trumbull Sr.
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and his wife, Faith Robinson Trumbull,
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obviously her namesake,
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and that's where the
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Mayflower line comes in
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through Faith Robinson of
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the Boston area.
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Jonathan is not yet governor
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when Faith marries Jedediah
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in seventeen sixty six here
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in this house.
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He's the deputy governor and
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then he takes office as
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governor in seventeen sixty nine.
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He's the only governor
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Uh, who was colonial governor,
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but also Patriot governor
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and then governor after the
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American revolution for any
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of the thirteen colonies turned states.
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And it's a reflection of his
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patriotism and the fact
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that he had a grassroots public support.
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So the family is prominent.
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Jonathan is not doing well as a merchant,
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but he's politically astute.
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and the sons of liberty are
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strong here in connecticut
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overshadowed by boston
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understandably but but
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there's strong support here
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led by the likes of john
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durkee and jedediah
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huntington the merger of
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the two families the
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trumbles and the
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huntingtons represents a
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merger of two of arguably
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the most prominent families
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in connecticut at the time
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certainly eastern connecticut and uh
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political power in the
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Trumbulls and some political power,
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but more financial power
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from the Huntington side
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because Jedediah's father, Jabez,
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is a prominent merchant and
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a member of the General Assembly.
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So that's how Jedediah and
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Faith were introduced by their dads,
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basically.
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Faith is not the first
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person to suffer from
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depression in her family.
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She had a male relative,
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I believe it was an uncle,
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who apparently also
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committed suicide by
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drowning himself in a pond
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in rural bucolic Lebanon,
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Connecticut years prior back in the,
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I think it was the
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seventeen forties or fifties.
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And then along she comes
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born in the seventeen
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forties and has her depression.
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We don't know when it started.
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And my wife is a
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psychologist who
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specializes in this sort of thing,
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but she's manic depressive
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and exhibits depression.
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I think the first example is
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the Boston Tea Party
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embroidery that she made in
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seventeen seventy one, not Tea Party,
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Boston Massacre.
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So the Massacre, as we know,
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is December of seventy.
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And in seventy one,
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she did a black silk
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embroidery that was beautiful.
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I don't have an example to show right now,
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but it's in my book as one
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of the illustrations.
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It's at the Lyman Allen Art Museum.
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For many decades,
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it was misattributed to her mom,
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Faith Robinson Trumbull,
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but it was actually the daughter Faith's.
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And then the embroidery is
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like the one behind my head.
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That's a reproduction.
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These were over mantles that
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were done to hang in her parents' house,
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her childhood home that
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where she grew up with her
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famous later famous brother,
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John and other siblings.
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And it's clear that she's very talented,
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very intelligent.
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And the depression really is
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not manifest other than
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that black silk embroidery.
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We don't have any evidence
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of her depression.
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until war breaks out in
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seventeen seventy five.
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That's what exacerbates.
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That's what worsens her concern.
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She's a very religious person.
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And seventeen seventy five,
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once Jedediah is going to
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be part of the Continental
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Army and her brothers are as well,
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that is a. Perfect storm, if you will,
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coming together,
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a blending of three brothers,
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two brothers in law and a
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husband who are all going
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to be in service one way or the other.
00:07:52.141 --> 00:07:53.423
during the siege of Boston
00:07:53.463 --> 00:08:00.648
in seventy-five following Bunker Hill.
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And so she comes,
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they bring her to Boston
00:08:05.872 --> 00:08:06.892
thinking it would help her
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if she were around her brothers,
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but that turns out to be
00:08:10.555 --> 00:08:12.276
really a disaster for her
00:08:13.016 --> 00:08:13.918
because she arrives just
00:08:14.057 --> 00:08:17.600
after the Battle of Bunker Hill.
00:08:17.641 --> 00:08:18.060
Yes.
00:08:18.321 --> 00:08:20.483
So there were several times where
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jedediah is in communication
00:08:23.221 --> 00:08:24.762
with his father and his
00:08:24.802 --> 00:08:25.983
father-in-law you know
00:08:26.043 --> 00:08:27.625
faith's face father the
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governor and other
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relatives saying okay what
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can we do for faithy as
00:08:32.769 --> 00:08:33.469
they called her in the
00:08:33.528 --> 00:08:36.890
family and they tried a
00:08:36.951 --> 00:08:39.092
couple different ways like
00:08:39.673 --> 00:08:40.614
one was to take her up to
00:08:40.653 --> 00:08:41.995
weddisfield to socialize
00:08:42.014 --> 00:08:44.056
with in-laws there and that
00:08:44.096 --> 00:08:45.616
went okay but you know
00:08:45.636 --> 00:08:46.538
there were days where she
00:08:46.557 --> 00:08:49.940
was gloomy this was like may into june
00:08:50.562 --> 00:08:51.602
And then, as you point out,
00:08:51.663 --> 00:08:52.964
right after Bunker Hill
00:08:53.323 --> 00:08:55.144
just happens to be the day they arrived.
00:08:55.184 --> 00:08:56.085
They had trouble on their
00:08:56.125 --> 00:08:57.525
way there in Providence
00:08:57.546 --> 00:08:58.927
with a broken wagon wheel.
00:08:59.326 --> 00:09:00.466
But they eventually get there.
00:09:01.668 --> 00:09:03.148
And unfortunately,
00:09:03.168 --> 00:09:04.589
she's there to paint a picture of it.
00:09:04.688 --> 00:09:06.929
It's a little bit like the
00:09:06.950 --> 00:09:08.610
scene in Gone with the Wind
00:09:08.671 --> 00:09:09.750
in the Civil War scene
00:09:09.770 --> 00:09:11.711
where you have hundreds of
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people scattered across
00:09:13.852 --> 00:09:14.692
nursing their various
00:09:14.773 --> 00:09:16.293
injuries in the Army hospital.
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That's likely the scene that
00:09:17.888 --> 00:09:19.469
she saw when she arrived at
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Roxbury to the military camp.
00:09:22.272 --> 00:09:23.172
And that sends her into a
00:09:23.211 --> 00:09:24.092
deeper depression.
00:09:24.373 --> 00:09:26.235
So she stays for a couple of
00:09:26.254 --> 00:09:27.515
days and then realize that
00:09:27.576 --> 00:09:28.817
everyone realizes, okay,
00:09:29.336 --> 00:09:30.958
having her a dead of mass
00:09:31.918 --> 00:09:33.360
is maybe not the best idea.
00:09:33.380 --> 00:09:34.400
Let's bring her back home.
00:09:35.361 --> 00:09:36.623
She recovers a little bit,
00:09:37.063 --> 00:09:38.384
but then she lapses again.
00:09:38.445 --> 00:09:40.826
So Jedediah and the brothers agree.
00:09:40.966 --> 00:09:42.908
Okay, let's bring her back to Dedham.
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Dedham is a,
00:09:44.298 --> 00:09:45.379
town where they had some
00:09:45.418 --> 00:09:46.639
family connections through
00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:48.261
Jedidah's time at Harvard,
00:09:48.682 --> 00:09:50.583
class of seventeen sixty three.
00:09:51.384 --> 00:09:52.826
And she'll live at this
00:09:52.865 --> 00:09:54.727
beautiful mansion and
00:09:54.768 --> 00:09:56.249
hopefully get the cure that
00:09:56.288 --> 00:09:58.331
she needs from one or two doctors.
00:09:59.032 --> 00:10:00.493
It doesn't prove efficacious.
00:10:00.552 --> 00:10:01.573
It's not effective.
00:10:01.953 --> 00:10:03.296
They're trying different things.
00:10:03.916 --> 00:10:05.356
And she unfortunately
00:10:05.918 --> 00:10:07.298
becomes more depressed.
00:10:07.499 --> 00:10:09.181
And the ultimate
00:10:09.576 --> 00:10:10.658
depression occurs right
00:10:10.677 --> 00:10:14.961
around thanksgiving of so
00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:19.024
years ago this fall if you
00:10:19.083 --> 00:10:20.585
want I can talk more about
00:10:20.644 --> 00:10:26.187
yeah we're talking with
00:10:26.229 --> 00:10:28.110
damien krugo author of
00:10:28.269 --> 00:10:29.510
portraits of patriots the
00:10:29.530 --> 00:10:30.991
revolutionary lives of five
00:10:31.032 --> 00:10:32.513
patriots from connecticut
00:10:33.347 --> 00:10:35.590
And her brother John, of course,
00:10:36.049 --> 00:10:37.009
it's actually through John
00:10:37.029 --> 00:10:38.390
Trumbull that we know about a lot,
00:10:38.510 --> 00:10:39.792
what a lot of things looked like.
00:10:39.812 --> 00:10:41.933
He does the painting of the
00:10:41.974 --> 00:10:43.914
death of Joseph Warren at Bunker Hill.
00:10:43.955 --> 00:10:47.697
He does paintings of Washington and other,
00:10:47.797 --> 00:10:50.239
and of course,
00:10:50.278 --> 00:10:50.899
the signing of the
00:10:50.918 --> 00:10:52.179
Declaration of Independence
00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:53.360
or the presentation of the
00:10:53.400 --> 00:10:54.782
Declaration of Independence.
00:10:54.822 --> 00:10:56.342
So how does John Trumbull go
00:10:56.383 --> 00:10:58.965
from being a colonel, he's in the army,
00:10:59.365 --> 00:11:01.145
to being the artist who
00:11:01.186 --> 00:11:02.687
then depicts the war?
00:11:07.802 --> 00:11:11.865
I think the fact that he had
00:11:11.904 --> 00:11:13.105
a relationship with
00:11:13.186 --> 00:11:15.628
Washington and other officers,
00:11:16.708 --> 00:11:19.071
John is only serve serves
00:11:19.230 --> 00:11:21.732
as Washington's aide for nineteen days.
00:11:21.773 --> 00:11:23.033
So he has the shortest stint
00:11:23.073 --> 00:11:24.514
of any of the thirty two aides.
00:11:24.875 --> 00:11:27.177
That being said, his brother,
00:11:27.278 --> 00:11:29.158
Jonathan Trumbull Jr.,
00:11:29.278 --> 00:11:30.779
is secretary to Washington
00:11:30.820 --> 00:11:32.081
during the Yorktown siege
00:11:32.642 --> 00:11:34.082
and then the last two years of the war,
00:11:34.202 --> 00:11:35.283
eighty two and eighty three.
00:11:35.986 --> 00:11:37.388
And I think it's through his brother,
00:11:37.427 --> 00:11:40.168
frankly, who becomes a U.S.
00:11:40.188 --> 00:11:43.130
Congressman, Speaker of the House, Senator,
00:11:43.230 --> 00:11:44.652
and then Governor of Connecticut.
00:11:45.091 --> 00:11:46.472
And their father, Jonathan,
00:11:46.613 --> 00:11:48.094
had some three hundred plus
00:11:48.153 --> 00:11:50.014
letters between himself and
00:11:50.095 --> 00:11:51.635
Washington throughout the war.
00:11:52.515 --> 00:11:54.496
So I think there was a good
00:11:54.557 --> 00:11:55.738
foundation through the
00:11:55.778 --> 00:11:57.578
father and the brother to
00:11:57.639 --> 00:12:01.681
allow John Entree, if you will, through
00:12:03.390 --> 00:12:04.331
the New York capital and
00:12:04.351 --> 00:12:05.412
geographic proximity.
00:12:05.432 --> 00:12:06.773
And then it continues when
00:12:06.812 --> 00:12:07.994
they moved to Philadelphia,
00:12:08.033 --> 00:12:09.315
but in New York city,
00:12:09.375 --> 00:12:11.135
John will paint George
00:12:11.176 --> 00:12:14.457
Washington from life several times.
00:12:15.258 --> 00:12:18.440
And it takes a while.
00:12:18.500 --> 00:12:20.360
My book begins that story,
00:12:20.380 --> 00:12:21.381
but it's really more in the
00:12:21.422 --> 00:12:22.403
sequel that will come out
00:12:22.442 --> 00:12:25.083
in a couple of years that John struggles.
00:12:25.684 --> 00:12:26.825
It's not automatic.
00:12:26.845 --> 00:12:27.044
You know,
00:12:27.065 --> 00:12:29.667
his father famously says to his son,
00:12:30.736 --> 00:12:31.876
So you want to be a painter.
00:12:31.976 --> 00:12:34.258
Well, you know, Connecticut is in Athens.
00:12:35.298 --> 00:12:36.937
And if Connecticut is in Athens,
00:12:36.957 --> 00:12:38.099
then how is John going to
00:12:38.119 --> 00:12:39.438
make a career of this?
00:12:40.099 --> 00:12:41.058
And it is a challenge.
00:12:41.099 --> 00:12:42.779
He's painting family members.
00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:44.080
He's painting neighbors.
00:12:44.120 --> 00:12:45.440
He's painting some other
00:12:45.480 --> 00:12:46.200
prominent people in
00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:47.880
Connecticut throughout the
00:12:47.921 --> 00:12:49.020
seventeen seventies in the
00:12:49.041 --> 00:12:49.841
American Revolution.
00:12:49.880 --> 00:12:52.062
But just because he studies
00:12:52.121 --> 00:12:53.381
under Benjamin West and his
00:12:53.422 --> 00:12:54.302
roommates with Gilbert
00:12:54.322 --> 00:12:55.341
Stewart doesn't mean it's
00:12:55.461 --> 00:12:56.863
automatically going to be a
00:12:56.923 --> 00:12:58.082
professional career for him.
00:12:58.515 --> 00:12:59.576
That really doesn't happen
00:12:59.657 --> 00:13:00.856
until the federal era in
00:13:00.876 --> 00:13:02.258
the seventeen nineties.
00:13:02.998 --> 00:13:05.558
And it comes in fits and spurts.
00:13:05.578 --> 00:13:08.399
So like any artist, he has struggled,
00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:08.700
you know,
00:13:08.740 --> 00:13:10.260
struggling times even in the
00:13:10.301 --> 00:13:12.282
seventeen nineties.
00:13:13.081 --> 00:13:13.643
Yeah, he does.
00:13:13.822 --> 00:13:15.182
So how does he wind up
00:13:15.243 --> 00:13:17.244
studying with Benjamin West?
00:13:17.264 --> 00:13:18.245
I mean, he was in London.
00:13:18.585 --> 00:13:19.924
Can you tell us a bit about
00:13:19.985 --> 00:13:20.806
that connection?
00:13:23.307 --> 00:13:25.648
Yeah, my memory is because
00:13:26.557 --> 00:13:28.697
I wrote about this three years ago,
00:13:28.839 --> 00:13:30.480
so it's not fresh in my head.
00:13:30.500 --> 00:13:31.500
And it's in my second book.
00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:34.642
My recollection is that his
00:13:34.721 --> 00:13:36.462
father wrote a letter of introduction,
00:13:37.104 --> 00:13:38.423
as did a couple others.
00:13:38.504 --> 00:13:39.745
It could have been Washington.
00:13:39.784 --> 00:13:41.605
There were several prominent people,
00:13:42.206 --> 00:13:43.246
John Adams perhaps,
00:13:43.287 --> 00:13:44.168
who wrote letters of
00:13:44.227 --> 00:13:46.229
introduction so that when
00:13:46.448 --> 00:13:47.769
he arrived at Benjamin
00:13:47.850 --> 00:13:50.392
West's studio in London,
00:13:50.991 --> 00:13:52.572
he would have received
00:13:54.807 --> 00:13:55.889
a warm introduction,
00:13:55.929 --> 00:13:57.892
a warm welcome from Benjamin West.
00:14:00.434 --> 00:14:02.158
The other aspect, by the way,
00:14:02.278 --> 00:14:03.479
that people forget is that
00:14:03.899 --> 00:14:05.861
Trumbull is also at times
00:14:05.922 --> 00:14:07.825
working for his father as
00:14:07.865 --> 00:14:09.086
an agent of his father's
00:14:09.166 --> 00:14:10.408
mercantile business until
00:14:10.427 --> 00:14:11.568
his dad passes away.
00:14:12.375 --> 00:14:13.515
in the seventeen eighties.
00:14:13.716 --> 00:14:15.057
I'm talking during the revolution.
00:14:15.076 --> 00:14:15.297
Right.
00:14:15.357 --> 00:14:16.357
Right.
00:14:16.378 --> 00:14:17.418
There was also the rumor
00:14:17.458 --> 00:14:18.500
that Trumbull might have
00:14:19.061 --> 00:14:20.961
served as an intelligence officer.
00:14:21.442 --> 00:14:23.024
There's no proof of that.
00:14:23.884 --> 00:14:24.904
It's circumstantial,
00:14:25.044 --> 00:14:26.466
but it's one of the reasons
00:14:26.506 --> 00:14:28.227
when when John Andre is
00:14:28.388 --> 00:14:31.850
captured by the Patriots and then hanged,
00:14:33.613 --> 00:14:34.813
that's why the British went
00:14:34.854 --> 00:14:36.174
and arrested John Trumbull
00:14:36.215 --> 00:14:38.176
at his house in London and
00:14:38.235 --> 00:14:40.158
tried to establish that the
00:14:40.197 --> 00:14:41.339
papers found on him
00:14:42.273 --> 00:14:43.714
made him suspicious of being
00:14:43.754 --> 00:14:45.693
a spy but there was no
00:14:45.754 --> 00:14:46.934
proof so they they put him
00:14:46.975 --> 00:14:48.936
under house arrest since he
00:14:48.956 --> 00:14:50.176
was an officer and a
00:14:50.235 --> 00:14:52.616
gentleman but um he that's
00:14:52.657 --> 00:14:54.038
when he starts to resume
00:14:54.057 --> 00:14:54.998
his painting and that's
00:14:55.018 --> 00:14:57.298
when he paints the famous I
00:14:57.339 --> 00:14:59.779
think it's in he paints uh
00:15:00.220 --> 00:15:01.000
his first portrait of
00:15:01.059 --> 00:15:03.260
washington from memory with
00:15:03.380 --> 00:15:04.841
william otherwise known as
00:15:04.902 --> 00:15:07.302
billy lee and the scene is west point
00:15:16.982 --> 00:15:18.784
And if I continue, um,
00:15:18.825 --> 00:15:21.667
since we may have lost Bob temporarily,
00:15:22.467 --> 00:15:23.769
uh, let me know when you're back on, I'll,
00:15:23.828 --> 00:15:27.312
I'll just say that, um,
00:15:27.351 --> 00:15:30.735
the book sets up the
00:15:30.754 --> 00:15:32.256
importance of the officers
00:15:32.456 --> 00:15:33.738
in the continental army,
00:15:33.857 --> 00:15:34.798
whether it's Jedediah
00:15:34.839 --> 00:15:36.620
Huntington or Ebenezer Huntington,
00:15:36.660 --> 00:15:37.782
his younger half brother.
00:15:38.282 --> 00:15:39.363
That's one of the key themes
00:15:39.383 --> 00:15:40.484
is the concern they have
00:15:40.524 --> 00:15:42.365
for the soldiers that
00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:44.662
They weren't just officers
00:15:44.702 --> 00:15:45.823
who were comfortable born
00:15:45.844 --> 00:15:47.024
with silver spoons in their mouths.
00:15:47.044 --> 00:15:47.264
Yes,
00:15:47.284 --> 00:15:48.586
they had nice houses and nice
00:15:48.645 --> 00:15:50.868
upbringings and could speak, you know,
00:15:50.927 --> 00:15:52.448
some French or Latin, but,
00:15:52.909 --> 00:15:53.529
and most of them had
00:15:53.549 --> 00:15:54.510
graduated from college,
00:15:55.172 --> 00:15:56.552
but they had a deep concern.
00:15:56.572 --> 00:15:57.734
One of the things I found in
00:15:57.774 --> 00:15:58.794
my research over the last
00:15:58.815 --> 00:16:00.355
six years is they had a
00:16:00.395 --> 00:16:01.236
deep concern for the
00:16:01.277 --> 00:16:02.437
welfare of their soldiers.
00:16:02.498 --> 00:16:03.798
And that's something I bring
00:16:03.839 --> 00:16:05.461
to light in the book, for example,
00:16:05.880 --> 00:16:09.043
at Valley Forge, you know,
00:16:09.692 --> 00:16:11.014
repeatedly jedediah
00:16:11.053 --> 00:16:12.554
huntington is saying we
00:16:12.595 --> 00:16:14.075
need more we need more and
00:16:14.115 --> 00:16:15.316
his letters back to home
00:16:15.956 --> 00:16:17.616
and the initial time at
00:16:17.636 --> 00:16:18.498
valley forge was the
00:16:18.557 --> 00:16:19.578
toughest december of
00:16:19.619 --> 00:16:20.818
seventy seven to january
00:16:20.859 --> 00:16:22.120
seventy eight by february
00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:23.740
seventy eight based on the
00:16:23.760 --> 00:16:24.921
letters of huntington and
00:16:25.361 --> 00:16:26.741
the memoirs of joseph plum
00:16:26.782 --> 00:16:28.383
martin you know the famous
00:16:28.523 --> 00:16:30.163
private turn sergeant from
00:16:30.264 --> 00:16:31.264
connecticut and maine
00:16:32.168 --> 00:16:33.629
We know that Connecticut did
00:16:33.668 --> 00:16:34.408
become known as the
00:16:34.448 --> 00:16:35.690
provision state and that
00:16:35.830 --> 00:16:36.831
Jonathan Trumbull as
00:16:36.890 --> 00:16:38.231
governor was coordinating
00:16:38.251 --> 00:16:39.413
with the Champion family
00:16:39.432 --> 00:16:40.613
and others to bring the
00:16:40.653 --> 00:16:42.355
beef and other supplies down.
00:16:42.995 --> 00:16:44.995
But initially it was rough
00:16:45.436 --> 00:16:46.557
and Valley Forge was
00:16:46.836 --> 00:16:48.398
definitely a difficult time.
00:16:48.859 --> 00:16:49.818
So that's one of the themes
00:16:49.859 --> 00:16:51.100
is concern for the soldiers.
00:16:51.440 --> 00:16:52.081
Right.
00:16:52.140 --> 00:16:53.081
Where do you think that comes from?
00:16:53.100 --> 00:16:54.182
Is that from the ethic,
00:16:54.221 --> 00:16:55.702
the New England ethic or is
00:16:55.722 --> 00:16:57.203
it sort of just?
00:17:00.307 --> 00:17:02.028
compassionate and interested
00:17:02.067 --> 00:17:06.549
in the welfare of the men who served.
00:17:06.890 --> 00:17:07.911
It's a good question, Bob.
00:17:07.931 --> 00:17:09.090
Something I've never considered,
00:17:09.310 --> 00:17:10.612
but my initial thought is
00:17:11.392 --> 00:17:13.093
their strong New England
00:17:13.133 --> 00:17:15.233
congregational faith that as Christians,
00:17:15.253 --> 00:17:16.153
they felt a moral
00:17:16.193 --> 00:17:18.634
responsibility to help others.
00:17:19.036 --> 00:17:21.356
I know they said that about faith in her.
00:17:22.196 --> 00:17:23.617
After she, I never mentioned it,
00:17:23.637 --> 00:17:24.778
but she hangs herself.
00:17:24.798 --> 00:17:26.439
She hanged herself with a rope.
00:17:27.576 --> 00:17:28.277
That Thanksgiving is
00:17:28.297 --> 00:17:29.577
seventeen seventy five.
00:17:29.597 --> 00:17:30.898
And the reason is she's
00:17:30.939 --> 00:17:32.980
despondent that her husband, Jedediah,
00:17:33.980 --> 00:17:35.441
her three brothers, Joseph,
00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:36.602
John and Jonathan Junior,
00:17:36.902 --> 00:17:38.102
and two brother in laws,
00:17:38.241 --> 00:17:39.423
Joshua and another.
00:17:39.462 --> 00:17:39.982
I can't think of.
00:17:40.423 --> 00:17:41.483
We're all not going to
00:17:41.544 --> 00:17:43.305
attend the family dinner
00:17:43.444 --> 00:17:45.205
for Thanksgiving in Dedham.
00:17:46.507 --> 00:17:47.846
So she couldn't take it.
00:17:47.886 --> 00:17:48.667
She said, oh, my God,
00:17:48.708 --> 00:17:49.508
that that means they're
00:17:49.607 --> 00:17:50.588
going to die there.
00:17:50.669 --> 00:17:52.250
And she wound up being the one who dies.
00:17:53.950 --> 00:17:55.111
So I.
00:17:55.588 --> 00:17:56.548
I think one of the things
00:17:56.568 --> 00:17:59.029
that came out in her eulogy
00:17:59.049 --> 00:18:00.191
from the minister here back
00:18:00.230 --> 00:18:01.131
in Connecticut was her
00:18:01.191 --> 00:18:02.790
concern for the welfare of
00:18:02.830 --> 00:18:03.771
the common person.
00:18:04.711 --> 00:18:06.393
And I think that comes from
00:18:06.472 --> 00:18:09.614
her very spiritual, very religious family,
00:18:10.134 --> 00:18:12.414
the Trumbulls, Jonathan Sr.
00:18:12.494 --> 00:18:13.795
and Faith Robinson.
00:18:14.075 --> 00:18:16.316
And I think it's part of
00:18:16.336 --> 00:18:19.297
that New England ethic in my sense.
00:18:19.730 --> 00:18:20.471
similar to what we have
00:18:20.510 --> 00:18:22.031
today with churches looking
00:18:22.092 --> 00:18:23.153
out for the welfare of others.
00:18:23.173 --> 00:18:24.153
Yeah.
00:18:24.233 --> 00:18:25.755
Also, I wonder if we can talk a little bit,
00:18:26.035 --> 00:18:26.355
Damian,
00:18:26.375 --> 00:18:28.277
about then these communities that form.
00:18:28.297 --> 00:18:30.838
I mean, these military companies, I mean,
00:18:30.858 --> 00:18:31.460
it's referred to as
00:18:31.500 --> 00:18:32.480
Huntington's Regiment.
00:18:32.540 --> 00:18:34.481
I mean, you have this very personal thing,
00:18:34.602 --> 00:18:35.884
and the men, of course,
00:18:35.903 --> 00:18:37.884
are recruited from the immediate area,
00:18:37.964 --> 00:18:40.666
so the militias would have been together,
00:18:40.788 --> 00:18:41.067
and then
00:18:41.549 --> 00:18:42.951
When they become part of the
00:18:42.990 --> 00:18:43.912
Continental Army,
00:18:43.951 --> 00:18:46.394
they still have this connection,
00:18:46.413 --> 00:18:48.695
this community connection that persists,
00:18:48.776 --> 00:18:49.797
even as they become part of
00:18:49.817 --> 00:18:54.921
this larger organization.
00:18:54.961 --> 00:18:56.082
Well, yes and no.
00:18:56.143 --> 00:18:57.304
In other words, yes,
00:18:57.364 --> 00:18:58.724
the longer you had served
00:18:58.805 --> 00:18:59.826
under Huntington's, let's say,
00:18:59.865 --> 00:19:01.186
let's take his early ones,
00:19:01.227 --> 00:19:02.508
like the twentieth or
00:19:02.567 --> 00:19:03.648
seventeenth regiments.
00:19:04.855 --> 00:19:05.757
early on, yeah,
00:19:05.797 --> 00:19:06.636
they are definitely going
00:19:06.656 --> 00:19:09.299
to tend to be Norwich and
00:19:09.319 --> 00:19:10.221
surrounding communities,
00:19:10.300 --> 00:19:11.583
basically in London County
00:19:11.623 --> 00:19:13.163
here in Southeastern Connecticut.
00:19:13.924 --> 00:19:15.286
Once it's Continental Army,
00:19:16.166 --> 00:19:17.208
what's interesting when you
00:19:17.248 --> 00:19:18.690
look at the muster rolls
00:19:18.730 --> 00:19:19.971
that are available through
00:19:20.652 --> 00:19:21.833
colonial revival,
00:19:21.932 --> 00:19:25.676
turn of the century transcribed books,
00:19:26.258 --> 00:19:26.518
like
00:19:27.130 --> 00:19:28.010
the Connecticut men in the
00:19:28.030 --> 00:19:28.871
American Revolution,
00:19:29.211 --> 00:19:31.534
you see a wide swath of towns.
00:19:31.794 --> 00:19:32.894
It's not any one county.
00:19:32.914 --> 00:19:34.695
It doesn't even have to be any one state.
00:19:35.156 --> 00:19:36.238
You could draw from Rhode
00:19:36.298 --> 00:19:37.858
Island if you happen to have,
00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:40.681
and in Butler's regiment, they did that.
00:19:40.721 --> 00:19:42.482
It straddled Connecticut and Rhode Island.
00:19:42.962 --> 00:19:45.265
In Huntington's case, he and Durkee,
00:19:45.766 --> 00:19:47.866
each being commanders at that point,
00:19:48.007 --> 00:19:50.789
circa early-Seventy-Seven of regiments,
00:19:51.569 --> 00:19:52.250
they were basically
00:19:52.270 --> 00:19:53.372
competing from the same bull.
00:19:54.368 --> 00:19:55.128
And it was a struggle.
00:19:55.169 --> 00:19:56.309
And I talk about this in my
00:19:56.369 --> 00:19:57.910
seventeen seventy seven chapter.
00:19:58.810 --> 00:19:58.971
Now,
00:19:59.250 --> 00:20:01.392
once Jedediah is a brigadier general
00:20:01.471 --> 00:20:03.092
following the Battle of Richfield,
00:20:04.313 --> 00:20:05.413
apparently George
00:20:05.452 --> 00:20:06.733
Washington's request and
00:20:06.773 --> 00:20:07.854
Roger Sherman is the
00:20:07.933 --> 00:20:09.334
facilitator with Congress
00:20:09.354 --> 00:20:11.075
to to make that promotion.
00:20:12.695 --> 00:20:15.497
Huntington's swath widens so
00:20:15.537 --> 00:20:17.336
that you have I think it's the first,
00:20:17.376 --> 00:20:19.097
third, fifth and seventh brigades.
00:20:19.938 --> 00:20:22.019
at Valley Forge, and then, of course,
00:20:22.219 --> 00:20:24.200
at the Balamamath in the
00:20:24.280 --> 00:20:25.340
summer of seventy eight.
00:20:26.281 --> 00:20:27.261
And when you look at the
00:20:27.301 --> 00:20:28.663
composition of those regiments,
00:20:28.682 --> 00:20:29.763
you're you're looking at at
00:20:29.824 --> 00:20:34.205
least six counties in Connecticut.
00:20:34.246 --> 00:20:38.989
We're talking with the communities.
00:20:39.028 --> 00:20:39.868
I'll just mention one more
00:20:39.888 --> 00:20:41.971
thing in terms of a sense of community.
00:20:42.490 --> 00:20:43.791
We'll mention the diversity.
00:20:43.892 --> 00:20:45.792
It's not just the white Christians,
00:20:45.853 --> 00:20:47.653
but also and I created this
00:20:48.826 --> 00:20:49.605
handle if you will
00:20:49.645 --> 00:20:50.926
expression partnership and
00:20:50.987 --> 00:20:52.548
patriotism I came up with
00:20:52.567 --> 00:20:54.189
that several years ago when
00:20:54.209 --> 00:20:55.169
I was doing research with
00:20:55.229 --> 00:20:56.349
my colleague dane rue on
00:20:56.369 --> 00:20:58.471
the uss confederacy because
00:20:58.510 --> 00:20:59.550
what I encountered were you
00:20:59.570 --> 00:21:01.172
know native americans
00:21:01.291 --> 00:21:02.313
african americans what have
00:21:02.333 --> 00:21:03.553
you and there were a
00:21:03.713 --> 00:21:05.914
sizable number of soldiers
00:21:05.954 --> 00:21:07.174
who were people of color
00:21:07.695 --> 00:21:09.757
serving in jerky's regiment
00:21:09.797 --> 00:21:10.856
or huntington's regiment
00:21:10.936 --> 00:21:12.857
including several from the
00:21:12.877 --> 00:21:14.318
mohegan tribe and several from the
00:21:15.560 --> 00:21:17.743
nashatucket pequot uh tribe
00:21:17.763 --> 00:21:19.546
as well and then araganzas
00:21:19.566 --> 00:21:21.769
and others and so when
00:21:21.788 --> 00:21:22.309
you're thinking of
00:21:22.369 --> 00:21:25.073
communities it's it's um
00:21:25.153 --> 00:21:26.815
it's some soldiers who are
00:21:26.875 --> 00:21:29.378
from native american communities as well
00:21:30.825 --> 00:21:31.144
Interesting.
00:21:31.164 --> 00:21:32.685
We're talking with Damon Krugo,
00:21:32.705 --> 00:21:33.946
who is the author of
00:21:34.126 --> 00:21:35.347
Portraits of Patriots,
00:21:35.367 --> 00:21:36.667
the Revolutionary Lives of
00:21:36.728 --> 00:21:38.429
Five Patriots from Connecticut.
00:21:39.309 --> 00:21:41.431
I think you mentioned the
00:21:41.490 --> 00:21:43.172
Mohegans and the USS Confederacy.
00:21:43.231 --> 00:21:43.991
I wonder if we can talk a
00:21:44.011 --> 00:21:45.853
little bit about that ship
00:21:46.253 --> 00:21:48.315
and the connection of the
00:21:48.335 --> 00:21:50.296
Mohegans with the building of the ship.
00:21:53.758 --> 00:21:55.097
So in my introduction,
00:21:55.198 --> 00:21:57.880
I mentioned the harrowing time.
00:21:58.400 --> 00:21:59.721
It was harrowing at the time, and it's
00:22:00.232 --> 00:22:01.233
amazing to look back.
00:22:01.693 --> 00:22:03.015
It was March of twenty twenty.
00:22:04.135 --> 00:22:05.317
We didn't know how bad the
00:22:05.356 --> 00:22:06.698
COVID pandemic would get,
00:22:07.377 --> 00:22:08.159
but I had made an
00:22:08.199 --> 00:22:11.300
appointment in February for Friday,
00:22:11.361 --> 00:22:12.182
March thirteenth,
00:22:12.221 --> 00:22:13.603
Friday the thirteenth to go
00:22:13.623 --> 00:22:15.364
to Philadelphia with my wife, Pam,
00:22:16.085 --> 00:22:17.286
and to look at the USS
00:22:17.306 --> 00:22:18.527
Confederacy papers.
00:22:19.988 --> 00:22:24.691
And the appointment was respected.
00:22:24.790 --> 00:22:25.612
I could show up,
00:22:25.811 --> 00:22:27.192
but it was really the last
00:22:27.232 --> 00:22:28.253
day that the public were
00:22:28.294 --> 00:22:29.535
allowed to come in.
00:22:30.413 --> 00:22:31.294
know people were already
00:22:31.334 --> 00:22:32.193
shutting down in
00:22:32.474 --> 00:22:33.355
philadelphia and other
00:22:33.414 --> 00:22:34.476
places because of what was
00:22:34.516 --> 00:22:35.517
going on in europe and the
00:22:35.576 --> 00:22:36.376
middle east at the time
00:22:37.617 --> 00:22:38.979
that saturday so we got in
00:22:38.999 --> 00:22:39.920
there and we looked at the
00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:40.820
papers of the uss
00:22:40.861 --> 00:22:41.820
confederacy and we found
00:22:41.861 --> 00:22:43.442
the pay stubs I wanted that
00:22:43.502 --> 00:22:44.844
were the originals that
00:22:44.923 --> 00:22:46.865
proved that blacks and
00:22:46.904 --> 00:22:47.905
native americans had been
00:22:48.286 --> 00:22:51.648
paid by um the naval agent
00:22:51.689 --> 00:22:52.769
joshua huntington living
00:22:52.788 --> 00:22:53.849
next door brother of
00:22:53.910 --> 00:22:56.791
jedediah on sunday we were
00:22:56.811 --> 00:22:57.673
at valley forge
00:22:58.088 --> 00:22:59.410
famous for losing more
00:22:59.470 --> 00:23:01.269
people to disease than any
00:23:01.329 --> 00:23:02.951
battle in the American Revolution.
00:23:03.391 --> 00:23:04.711
Thousands of soldiers died
00:23:04.730 --> 00:23:05.932
there of disease and
00:23:05.991 --> 00:23:06.991
complications from it.
00:23:07.673 --> 00:23:10.394
And we're there on Sunday the fifteenth,
00:23:10.453 --> 00:23:11.713
and then the country shuts
00:23:11.733 --> 00:23:13.595
down completely on Monday and Tuesday,
00:23:13.634 --> 00:23:14.654
the sixteenth and seventeenth.
00:23:15.214 --> 00:23:16.556
So that was really interesting.
00:23:17.016 --> 00:23:20.196
So I brought on my colleague, Dane Rue.
00:23:20.257 --> 00:23:21.337
We wrote an article for
00:23:21.377 --> 00:23:22.518
Connecticut History Review,
00:23:22.557 --> 00:23:23.778
a scholarly article about
00:23:23.817 --> 00:23:25.138
the USS Confederacy.
00:23:25.669 --> 00:23:26.569
And it's fascinating story
00:23:26.589 --> 00:23:27.330
because most people don't
00:23:27.431 --> 00:23:28.332
know that a U.S.
00:23:28.352 --> 00:23:29.673
Navy frigate had been built here.
00:23:29.692 --> 00:23:31.334
There's so much about the
00:23:31.394 --> 00:23:32.895
privateering aspect when it
00:23:32.935 --> 00:23:34.457
comes to Connecticut, and rightly so.
00:23:34.517 --> 00:23:35.377
The privateering was
00:23:35.397 --> 00:23:37.140
successful with ships like
00:23:37.200 --> 00:23:39.561
the Oliver Cromwell out of Essex.
00:23:40.482 --> 00:23:42.644
Seth Harding was actually in
00:23:42.684 --> 00:23:43.546
charge of the Oliver
00:23:43.566 --> 00:23:44.707
Cromwell early in the war.
00:23:45.047 --> 00:23:45.968
He will take command.
00:23:45.988 --> 00:23:48.430
He's from here in Norwich in
00:23:48.470 --> 00:23:49.230
his adult life.
00:23:51.521 --> 00:23:54.423
the ship sails from Norwich
00:23:54.443 --> 00:23:55.204
down to New London.
00:23:55.224 --> 00:23:55.484
Well,
00:23:55.545 --> 00:23:56.945
it's towed down to New London for
00:23:57.066 --> 00:23:57.527
outfitting.
00:23:58.207 --> 00:23:59.307
And the interesting thing is
00:23:59.327 --> 00:24:00.990
that it's the last chapter of my book.
00:24:01.069 --> 00:24:02.171
I decided that I would,
00:24:02.770 --> 00:24:03.771
I had two hundred thousand
00:24:03.852 --> 00:24:06.013
words at the end of my
00:24:06.054 --> 00:24:07.775
manuscript as of September
00:24:07.795 --> 00:24:08.315
of twenty three.
00:24:08.335 --> 00:24:09.296
And I realized, oh, my goodness,
00:24:09.316 --> 00:24:10.596
I have to cut my book in half.
00:24:10.938 --> 00:24:12.798
So I cut it at seventeen seventy nine,
00:24:12.878 --> 00:24:15.300
just as the ship is finally
00:24:16.082 --> 00:24:17.021
heading out to sea.
00:24:17.482 --> 00:24:20.065
But the letters between the naval agents
00:24:20.854 --> 00:24:22.835
and Seth Harding are
00:24:23.375 --> 00:24:25.276
entertaining because of
00:24:25.316 --> 00:24:26.375
some of the wording that
00:24:26.875 --> 00:24:29.317
what we take is modern and not quaint.
00:24:29.596 --> 00:24:31.938
For example, one of the naval agents says,
00:24:32.478 --> 00:24:34.259
this ship has been here so long,
00:24:34.358 --> 00:24:36.638
get this eyesore out of the harbor,
00:24:37.500 --> 00:24:38.799
and quotes like that.
00:24:38.839 --> 00:24:39.901
And so those are in the last
00:24:39.921 --> 00:24:40.820
chapter of my book,
00:24:41.181 --> 00:24:41.861
and I leave it as a
00:24:41.901 --> 00:24:43.402
cliffhanger as to what
00:24:43.461 --> 00:24:44.521
happens with the ship.
00:24:44.801 --> 00:24:46.623
Okay, so it sets out to sea finally,
00:24:47.442 --> 00:24:49.743
may of and then the sequel
00:24:49.824 --> 00:24:51.544
opens up with it going to
00:24:51.604 --> 00:24:52.744
philadelphia where it picks
00:24:52.805 --> 00:24:54.464
up founding father john jay
00:24:54.484 --> 00:24:57.925
right and the french
00:24:57.986 --> 00:24:59.086
ministers your heart who
00:24:59.146 --> 00:25:01.606
are bound back yet uh back
00:25:01.666 --> 00:25:03.327
to yes yes and it's a
00:25:03.387 --> 00:25:04.768
beautiful ship I I also
00:25:04.788 --> 00:25:05.868
want to mention that the
00:25:05.909 --> 00:25:07.169
chapter near the end of my
00:25:07.209 --> 00:25:09.470
book explains what a
00:25:09.529 --> 00:25:11.190
beautiful design unusual
00:25:11.230 --> 00:25:12.510
design it is in the ship
00:25:12.550 --> 00:25:15.050
modeling in uh hobby it's
00:25:15.090 --> 00:25:16.571
considered the best looking
00:25:17.332 --> 00:25:19.673
Continental Navy frigate for
00:25:19.692 --> 00:25:20.573
the American Revolution,
00:25:20.932 --> 00:25:21.894
even though it's not famous,
00:25:22.213 --> 00:25:23.094
even though it's not the
00:25:23.134 --> 00:25:24.794
Constitution of years later
00:25:24.934 --> 00:25:27.434
or one of the more successful ships.
00:25:28.155 --> 00:25:32.076
Who designed it, do we know?
00:25:32.096 --> 00:25:32.916
Good question, Bob.
00:25:32.977 --> 00:25:34.218
We don't really know.
00:25:34.597 --> 00:25:35.597
There had been a naval
00:25:35.617 --> 00:25:36.357
architect down in
00:25:36.417 --> 00:25:39.098
Philadelphia for the hub, if you will,
00:25:39.159 --> 00:25:40.319
of the Continental Navy.
00:25:40.960 --> 00:25:41.579
And at one point,
00:25:41.619 --> 00:25:42.960
Joshua writes a letter to
00:25:42.980 --> 00:25:44.621
the Department of the Navy saying,
00:25:45.365 --> 00:25:46.326
what do you want me to do as
00:25:46.365 --> 00:25:47.125
far as the design?
00:25:47.185 --> 00:25:49.087
And they write back and they said,
00:25:49.127 --> 00:25:51.368
see to it as you wish and
00:25:51.429 --> 00:25:52.609
go with whatever design you want.
00:25:52.630 --> 00:25:53.971
And that's why the design's quirky.
00:25:54.010 --> 00:25:54.570
The length,
00:25:54.951 --> 00:25:57.393
it's longer than most ships and
00:25:57.472 --> 00:25:59.234
it has features to its bow
00:25:59.275 --> 00:26:00.776
that make it unusual and
00:26:00.836 --> 00:26:02.696
rather some would say dated.
00:26:02.977 --> 00:26:03.897
You know,
00:26:03.938 --> 00:26:05.138
if you're talking to people who
00:26:05.199 --> 00:26:06.319
are in the modeling hobby
00:26:06.420 --> 00:26:07.740
or work at Mystic Seaport
00:26:07.780 --> 00:26:08.621
where Dane and I have
00:26:08.681 --> 00:26:10.182
spoken years ago on the ship.
00:26:12.153 --> 00:26:14.173
So it turns out it's built
00:26:14.434 --> 00:26:15.815
on the Thames River just
00:26:15.855 --> 00:26:16.516
across from where
00:26:16.576 --> 00:26:18.017
modern-day Mohegan Sun is
00:26:18.057 --> 00:26:20.097
located on what became
00:26:20.137 --> 00:26:21.598
known as Confederacy Cove
00:26:21.638 --> 00:26:23.079
because that's the most
00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:24.320
famous ship ever built at
00:26:24.340 --> 00:26:25.422
this small shipyard.
00:26:25.821 --> 00:26:27.103
The shipyard is
00:26:28.104 --> 00:26:29.204
owned the land and the
00:26:29.244 --> 00:26:31.026
tavern where they will all
00:26:31.326 --> 00:26:33.508
operate out of is Ebenezer Story.
00:26:33.907 --> 00:26:35.809
It's an archaeological site that's intact,
00:26:35.869 --> 00:26:36.349
thankfully.
00:26:36.869 --> 00:26:37.651
And they've done a couple
00:26:38.030 --> 00:26:39.332
successful digs there.
00:26:39.913 --> 00:26:41.493
And the actual shipwright is
00:26:41.534 --> 00:26:43.154
someone named Jedediah Willett.
00:26:43.755 --> 00:26:44.976
And Jedediah Willett had
00:26:45.016 --> 00:26:46.257
previous experience with
00:26:46.376 --> 00:26:48.358
other smaller floating
00:26:48.398 --> 00:26:50.059
vessels that were built in
00:26:50.119 --> 00:26:52.342
the proper harbor of Norwich,
00:26:52.622 --> 00:26:53.521
just upstream,
00:26:54.522 --> 00:26:55.943
what we call Chelsea Harbor,
00:26:56.044 --> 00:26:56.924
where downtown
00:26:57.315 --> 00:26:59.056
norwich is nowadays they
00:26:59.115 --> 00:27:01.076
built at least one uh along
00:27:01.096 --> 00:27:02.457
with some others uh there
00:27:02.477 --> 00:27:04.597
was a lester I know also
00:27:04.637 --> 00:27:06.659
helped this it was a uh one
00:27:06.679 --> 00:27:08.119
of the galleys and then
00:27:08.180 --> 00:27:09.420
later on they're going to
00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:10.881
uh and and that galley
00:27:10.921 --> 00:27:12.300
course had been captured it
00:27:12.320 --> 00:27:13.501
was called the uss trumbull
00:27:13.521 --> 00:27:15.282
and was captured during the
00:27:15.563 --> 00:27:17.523
new york uh battle campaign
00:27:17.564 --> 00:27:21.265
in and then later on a u.s
00:27:21.325 --> 00:27:22.945
continental navy frigate is built
00:27:23.740 --> 00:27:24.500
in Connecticut,
00:27:24.580 --> 00:27:26.221
but that's not until the
00:27:26.261 --> 00:27:27.383
seventeen ninety-eighth
00:27:27.482 --> 00:27:29.265
period for a quasi-war with France.
00:27:29.684 --> 00:27:32.386
Okay, interesting.
00:27:32.406 --> 00:27:33.827
We're talking with Damien Crouville,
00:27:33.867 --> 00:27:35.630
historian from Connecticut,
00:27:35.789 --> 00:27:37.791
author of Portraits of Patriots,
00:27:37.811 --> 00:27:39.113
The Revolutionary Lives of
00:27:39.173 --> 00:27:41.154
Pied Patriots from Connecticut.
00:27:41.815 --> 00:27:44.537
And Samuel Huntington was
00:27:44.737 --> 00:27:46.518
also from Norwich.
00:27:46.557 --> 00:27:47.638
He was the president of the
00:27:47.679 --> 00:27:51.261
Continental Congress and he
00:27:51.301 --> 00:27:52.122
lived across the street
00:27:52.142 --> 00:27:54.044
from where you are now, I think.
00:27:55.104 --> 00:27:55.345
Yeah,
00:27:55.384 --> 00:27:56.846
so sitting here at Jedediah
00:27:56.885 --> 00:27:58.547
Huntington's house built in
00:27:58.567 --> 00:27:59.587
the seventeen sixties,
00:27:59.728 --> 00:28:01.108
another house will be built
00:28:01.128 --> 00:28:02.589
a couple of years later
00:28:02.690 --> 00:28:04.590
diagonally across the street from ours.
00:28:04.671 --> 00:28:06.992
It's currently owned by UCFS,
00:28:07.932 --> 00:28:09.674
which is basically a
00:28:09.734 --> 00:28:11.536
medical organization here in Norwich.
00:28:12.272 --> 00:28:14.374
And it's a prominent home.
00:28:16.174 --> 00:28:17.815
Samuel Huntington comes from Scotland,
00:28:17.835 --> 00:28:18.315
Connecticut,
00:28:18.335 --> 00:28:19.756
about twenty minutes north of here,
00:28:19.796 --> 00:28:20.516
driving time.
00:28:21.455 --> 00:28:22.576
He becomes a successful
00:28:22.636 --> 00:28:23.717
lawyer here in Norwich.
00:28:23.777 --> 00:28:25.557
Norwich is flourishing as a
00:28:25.617 --> 00:28:26.939
merchant community because
00:28:26.979 --> 00:28:28.719
of its location on an
00:28:28.858 --> 00:28:31.960
inland port location at the
00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:33.621
headwaters of the Thames River,
00:28:33.901 --> 00:28:34.901
kind of a miniature version
00:28:34.942 --> 00:28:36.122
of the city of Pittsburgh,
00:28:36.521 --> 00:28:38.623
where the Shetucket and other river,
00:28:39.942 --> 00:28:41.584
Yantick formed the third river.
00:28:42.065 --> 00:28:43.865
So Samuel lives across the
00:28:43.885 --> 00:28:45.086
street and he becomes best
00:28:45.126 --> 00:28:46.007
friends with his,
00:28:46.366 --> 00:28:48.407
what we believe is third cousin,
00:28:48.907 --> 00:28:51.549
Jedediah Huntington.
00:28:51.630 --> 00:28:52.829
And what does Jedediah do
00:28:52.849 --> 00:28:54.891
then during the war and after the war?
00:28:54.932 --> 00:28:57.192
What's his life like?
00:28:57.212 --> 00:28:58.472
I mean, he loses his wife.
00:28:58.512 --> 00:28:59.493
Does he ever remarry?
00:29:01.934 --> 00:29:03.895
He does remarry.
00:29:03.955 --> 00:29:06.436
He finds a woman named Ann Moore,
00:29:06.497 --> 00:29:08.538
who in the family is named Nancy.
00:29:09.199 --> 00:29:10.338
She's lovely.
00:29:10.479 --> 00:29:11.740
Her family is prominent.
00:29:12.267 --> 00:29:14.269
with loyalist leanings and
00:29:14.368 --> 00:29:16.230
connections out of New York
00:29:16.289 --> 00:29:18.511
City and also of the Hudson River Valley.
00:29:19.153 --> 00:29:20.574
One of her uncles owns the
00:29:20.614 --> 00:29:22.335
land that becomes known as
00:29:22.375 --> 00:29:25.458
West Point and the US Military Academy.
00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:28.000
He falls in love with her.
00:29:28.060 --> 00:29:29.221
They get married during the
00:29:29.240 --> 00:29:30.201
American Revolution,
00:29:30.521 --> 00:29:32.843
and they're able to have,
00:29:32.962 --> 00:29:34.163
I think it's six children.
00:29:34.943 --> 00:29:36.144
And by the way,
00:29:36.203 --> 00:29:38.865
Jedediah and Faith had one son, Jabez,
00:29:39.066 --> 00:29:40.685
and he became an army major
00:29:40.726 --> 00:29:42.247
in the Quasi-War of France.
00:29:42.487 --> 00:29:44.188
And it was painted by Ralph Earl.
00:29:44.667 --> 00:29:48.710
But back to Nancy Moore, she
00:29:49.861 --> 00:29:52.040
is a prominent woman and her
00:29:52.241 --> 00:29:54.122
father is buried at trinity
00:29:54.521 --> 00:29:56.021
her parent her father maybe
00:29:56.041 --> 00:29:56.902
her mom and definitely her
00:29:56.922 --> 00:29:57.942
grandparents are buried at
00:29:58.442 --> 00:30:00.063
trinity church in new york
00:30:00.163 --> 00:30:01.323
city where alexander
00:30:01.343 --> 00:30:02.242
hamilton and others are
00:30:02.282 --> 00:30:05.723
buried jedediah will
00:30:05.763 --> 00:30:06.743
continue as a brigadier
00:30:06.804 --> 00:30:07.845
general all the way to the
00:30:07.924 --> 00:30:09.585
end of the war uh so the
00:30:09.625 --> 00:30:12.224
fall of he's running the
00:30:12.345 --> 00:30:14.726
first third fifth and seventh regiments
00:30:16.339 --> 00:30:18.601
His most important battle is Monmouth.
00:30:18.641 --> 00:30:20.060
That's the biggest battle
00:30:20.121 --> 00:30:21.721
for him in terms of the
00:30:21.820 --> 00:30:24.061
scale of it and the success of it.
00:30:25.082 --> 00:30:28.083
And he famously is part of
00:30:28.103 --> 00:30:30.722
this weigh-in at West Point
00:30:30.782 --> 00:30:31.383
later in the war.
00:30:31.663 --> 00:30:33.203
I want to say it's seventeen eighty two.
00:30:33.784 --> 00:30:35.423
Washington gets weighed, say,
00:30:35.503 --> 00:30:36.325
two hundred and ten,
00:30:36.384 --> 00:30:37.325
two hundred twenty pounds.
00:30:37.365 --> 00:30:39.065
Knox famously two hundred and eighty.
00:30:39.644 --> 00:30:42.405
Jedediah Huntington, one thirty five.
00:30:42.506 --> 00:30:42.925
Interesting.
00:30:43.657 --> 00:30:44.898
The latest indication is
00:30:44.919 --> 00:30:46.339
that because he had
00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:47.540
suffered from malaria
00:30:47.580 --> 00:30:48.701
during the Battle of New York,
00:30:49.221 --> 00:30:50.061
in which he had to sit out
00:30:50.082 --> 00:30:51.103
the battle because he was
00:30:51.522 --> 00:30:53.545
hospitalized and he was sick in bed,
00:30:54.125 --> 00:30:55.945
that might have caused the weight loss.
00:30:56.227 --> 00:30:57.847
We don't know for sure.
00:30:57.988 --> 00:30:59.409
I don't think he was particularly short.
00:30:59.449 --> 00:31:00.670
I don't think he was five three,
00:31:00.710 --> 00:31:02.691
but let's say he was five
00:31:02.750 --> 00:31:05.093
seven or so and he had the weight loss.
00:31:05.133 --> 00:31:06.294
That might explain that low
00:31:06.334 --> 00:31:08.714
weight that was half of Henry Knox's.
00:31:08.755 --> 00:31:08.875
Now,
00:31:08.914 --> 00:31:10.576
the interesting thing about Knox and
00:31:10.635 --> 00:31:12.758
Jedediah is they are housemates.
00:31:13.230 --> 00:31:16.553
living in Nancy Moore's uncle's house,
00:31:17.452 --> 00:31:19.294
located at modern day West Point,
00:31:19.334 --> 00:31:21.694
where the tennis courts are
00:31:21.714 --> 00:31:22.734
at the north end of the
00:31:22.755 --> 00:31:23.955
Cadet campus there.
00:31:24.855 --> 00:31:27.178
And that house long gone,
00:31:27.417 --> 00:31:28.458
probably burned down,
00:31:28.698 --> 00:31:30.199
eighteen thirties or forties.
00:31:30.239 --> 00:31:30.959
It was a large home.
00:31:31.440 --> 00:31:33.780
So Henry and Lucy Knox are there.
00:31:34.101 --> 00:31:36.122
And then Jedediah and Nancy
00:31:36.182 --> 00:31:37.382
Moore and the four of them
00:31:37.402 --> 00:31:38.843
get to know each other really well.
00:31:39.423 --> 00:31:41.044
And they propose in letters
00:31:41.769 --> 00:31:42.651
to Washington,
00:31:42.750 --> 00:31:44.211
and it's one of the things I found,
00:31:45.311 --> 00:31:45.752
two things.
00:31:45.932 --> 00:31:46.853
One, that there'd be a U.S.
00:31:46.893 --> 00:31:48.453
Military Academy at West Point.
00:31:49.414 --> 00:31:50.996
They both felt that was a
00:31:51.175 --> 00:31:52.297
very important idea.
00:31:52.376 --> 00:31:53.037
And also,
00:31:53.196 --> 00:31:54.557
they both should get credit for
00:31:54.657 --> 00:31:55.479
creating what is known as
00:31:55.519 --> 00:31:56.839
the Society of Cincinnati.
00:31:57.420 --> 00:31:58.740
Too much focus is on simply
00:31:58.780 --> 00:32:00.781
Henry Knox and Baron von Steuben.
00:32:01.162 --> 00:32:01.702
But actually,
00:32:01.803 --> 00:32:03.443
in the correspondence between
00:32:03.503 --> 00:32:04.924
themselves and Washington,
00:32:06.144 --> 00:32:06.986
Jedediah Huntington
00:32:07.006 --> 00:32:08.446
deserves co-credit as well,
00:32:08.487 --> 00:32:09.407
because he writes a letter
00:32:09.448 --> 00:32:10.048
in which he says,
00:32:11.057 --> 00:32:12.878
Your Excellency, you know, dear George,
00:32:13.179 --> 00:32:14.640
we really should have a
00:32:14.700 --> 00:32:16.602
fraternity like this, you know,
00:32:16.642 --> 00:32:17.561
so he and Henry should
00:32:17.602 --> 00:32:19.163
deserve credit for proposing that.
00:32:19.222 --> 00:32:20.044
And the idea, of course,
00:32:20.064 --> 00:32:21.625
was accepted by Washington
00:32:21.664 --> 00:32:23.665
and they add the French in
00:32:23.726 --> 00:32:24.767
seventeen eighty three.
00:32:28.429 --> 00:32:29.569
And then Ebenezer,
00:32:30.191 --> 00:32:32.352
what's Ebenezer's role in the revolution?
00:32:34.587 --> 00:32:35.988
So his younger half-brother
00:32:36.167 --> 00:32:37.249
is a student at Yale,
00:32:37.689 --> 00:32:39.388
gets word of Battle Road,
00:32:39.469 --> 00:32:42.650
Lexington and Concord, and skips town.
00:32:43.470 --> 00:32:43.931
Nowadays,
00:32:43.951 --> 00:32:45.090
you'd hop in your car without
00:32:45.211 --> 00:32:46.931
asking your professor or
00:32:46.990 --> 00:32:48.451
your advisor if you could
00:32:48.531 --> 00:32:51.212
have time off and go AWOL.
00:32:51.432 --> 00:32:52.432
So he goes AWOL.
00:32:52.472 --> 00:32:54.413
He leaves campus before graduation.
00:32:55.054 --> 00:32:56.374
He's about twenty-one years old,
00:32:56.574 --> 00:32:58.375
and he heads off on his
00:32:58.414 --> 00:32:59.994
horse and gallops up to Boston,
00:33:00.055 --> 00:33:01.414
and he's in the siege of Boston.
00:33:01.816 --> 00:33:03.115
He's in the New York campaign.
00:33:03.913 --> 00:33:07.634
He eventually is in charge effectively,
00:33:07.815 --> 00:33:09.435
actively running the
00:33:09.476 --> 00:33:11.876
regiment that Samuel Webb had.
00:33:12.257 --> 00:33:13.436
Webb's Ninth Regiment was
00:33:13.477 --> 00:33:15.577
created in seventeen seventy seven,
00:33:16.018 --> 00:33:17.459
but Webb is captured on a
00:33:17.558 --> 00:33:18.479
raid on Long Island.
00:33:19.298 --> 00:33:21.240
And because the second in command,
00:33:22.660 --> 00:33:26.102
Colonel Livingston out of out of Union,
00:33:26.582 --> 00:33:29.383
New Jersey area, apparently has PTSD.
00:33:31.055 --> 00:33:32.036
Flakes out or whatever the
00:33:32.076 --> 00:33:32.935
right term might be.
00:33:32.955 --> 00:33:33.576
He has PTSD.
00:33:33.596 --> 00:33:33.957
He says,
00:33:34.076 --> 00:33:35.538
I can't serve in battles any longer.
00:33:35.919 --> 00:33:36.980
So Ebenezer Huntington at
00:33:37.000 --> 00:33:38.361
that point in major becomes
00:33:38.401 --> 00:33:39.421
the effective commander of
00:33:39.461 --> 00:33:40.342
Webb's Ninth Regiment
00:33:40.803 --> 00:33:42.804
during the battle of the
00:33:42.923 --> 00:33:43.944
Rhode Island campaign,
00:33:44.365 --> 00:33:45.625
which is basically Portsmouth,
00:33:45.665 --> 00:33:48.367
Rhode Island, just north of Newport.
00:33:48.607 --> 00:33:49.808
And they are effective.
00:33:50.529 --> 00:33:51.730
The letters indicate from
00:33:51.750 --> 00:33:53.632
eyewitnesses as well as from Ebenezer.
00:33:54.032 --> 00:33:54.673
They assist.
00:33:55.173 --> 00:33:56.334
And who else is at the battle?
00:33:56.374 --> 00:33:57.915
But John Trumbull on a horse
00:33:58.096 --> 00:34:00.116
as aid to General Sullivan
00:34:00.196 --> 00:34:00.938
of New Hampshire.
00:34:01.840 --> 00:34:03.663
And Ebenezer will serve at
00:34:03.702 --> 00:34:06.184
the Battle of Springfield, New Jersey.
00:34:07.086 --> 00:34:08.806
I think that's summer of,
00:34:08.847 --> 00:34:11.829
he's at Jockey Hollow.
00:34:11.889 --> 00:34:12.891
That's when he writes these
00:34:12.931 --> 00:34:14.092
very colorful letters where
00:34:14.112 --> 00:34:15.293
he sounds like Benedict Arnold.
00:34:15.313 --> 00:34:15.532
He says,
00:34:15.634 --> 00:34:17.574
I despise my fellow countrymen for
00:34:17.594 --> 00:34:20.458
their ignorance in the plight,
00:34:20.518 --> 00:34:21.998
the suffering of our soldiers.
00:34:22.619 --> 00:34:24.201
And so that makes for a
00:34:24.300 --> 00:34:26.643
colorful reading later in my book.
00:34:26.724 --> 00:34:27.423
Yeah, it does.
00:34:28.621 --> 00:34:29.963
He also serves, by the way,
00:34:30.003 --> 00:34:32.686
through the end, you know, fall of .
00:34:31.945 --> 00:34:32.445
Interesting.
00:34:34.148 --> 00:34:35.971
So we're talking with Damien Krugo,
00:34:36.172 --> 00:34:37.914
author of Portraits of Patriots,
00:34:37.954 --> 00:34:39.295
The Revolutionary Lives of
00:34:39.335 --> 00:34:41.259
Five Patriots from Connecticut.
00:34:42.164 --> 00:34:44.626
And I'm wondering, Damien,
00:34:44.766 --> 00:34:45.827
if we can talk then a
00:34:45.867 --> 00:34:46.809
little bit about where you
00:34:46.849 --> 00:34:47.710
find the sources.
00:34:47.809 --> 00:34:48.230
I mean,
00:34:48.250 --> 00:34:49.190
you have great letters you're
00:34:49.210 --> 00:34:50.492
quoting from, great stories.
00:34:50.512 --> 00:34:52.414
I wonder where you go to do your research.
00:34:52.454 --> 00:34:55.456
You've mentioned some things,
00:34:56.396 --> 00:34:57.498
but are there caches of
00:34:57.538 --> 00:34:58.539
letters in Connecticut or
00:34:58.559 --> 00:34:59.960
have you traveled further afield?
00:35:02.759 --> 00:35:03.099
Yes.
00:35:03.179 --> 00:35:05.619
So if I take it in chronological order,
00:35:05.679 --> 00:35:07.260
the things I was most proud
00:35:07.360 --> 00:35:08.922
of were discovering the
00:35:08.981 --> 00:35:10.282
seventeen seventy five
00:35:10.362 --> 00:35:11.382
letters that had not been
00:35:11.422 --> 00:35:13.483
transcribed of Faith
00:35:13.523 --> 00:35:14.864
Trumbull Huntington writing
00:35:15.164 --> 00:35:16.025
in the summer of seventy
00:35:16.085 --> 00:35:17.326
five to Jedidiah.
00:35:17.766 --> 00:35:18.885
There were six letters that
00:35:18.965 --> 00:35:21.007
no one had taken the time to transcribe,
00:35:21.067 --> 00:35:21.586
and they are at the
00:35:21.628 --> 00:35:23.768
Connecticut State Library in Hartford.
00:35:24.429 --> 00:35:26.309
I looked at those in, I think,
00:35:26.349 --> 00:35:27.050
twenty twenty two.
00:35:28.172 --> 00:35:29.512
I had a colleague, Maggie Neal,
00:35:29.532 --> 00:35:30.652
who I'm co-presenting with
00:35:30.693 --> 00:35:31.913
next week here in Connecticut.
00:35:32.052 --> 00:35:34.713
She had a stash that she had
00:35:34.753 --> 00:35:36.293
transcribed from the John
00:35:36.333 --> 00:35:37.713
Trumbull collection at Yale,
00:35:37.853 --> 00:35:38.733
so we made a trade,
00:35:39.614 --> 00:35:40.815
and she had done a lot of
00:35:41.074 --> 00:35:44.096
scholarly research on faiths, depression,
00:35:44.115 --> 00:35:44.795
and suicide,
00:35:45.016 --> 00:35:45.956
and wrote an article about
00:35:45.996 --> 00:35:47.436
that for Connecticut History Review.
00:35:48.115 --> 00:35:50.436
Then I found a stash of
00:35:50.476 --> 00:35:51.956
Jedediah Huntington letters
00:35:52.137 --> 00:35:53.617
in Morristown in the small
00:35:53.657 --> 00:35:54.577
archives at the
00:35:55.362 --> 00:35:56.682
National Park Visitor Center
00:35:56.722 --> 00:35:58.043
there in Morristown for the
00:35:58.083 --> 00:35:59.063
Jockey Hollowing Gammon.
00:35:59.503 --> 00:36:00.443
So I looked at those and
00:36:00.463 --> 00:36:01.623
transcribed a few of those.
00:36:01.804 --> 00:36:03.105
I found a few letters at
00:36:03.184 --> 00:36:04.545
Valley Forge that had never
00:36:04.565 --> 00:36:06.545
been used before of Jedediah's.
00:36:07.947 --> 00:36:11.788
Most of his letters are at the Connecticut,
00:36:12.009 --> 00:36:12.909
what was then called,
00:36:13.048 --> 00:36:14.329
as I was writing the book,
00:36:14.349 --> 00:36:14.889
it was called the
00:36:14.929 --> 00:36:16.309
Connecticut Historical Society.
00:36:16.730 --> 00:36:19.150
It has since changed its name as of,
00:36:19.210 --> 00:36:19.632
I think,
00:36:19.652 --> 00:36:20.931
to the Connecticut Museum of
00:36:20.992 --> 00:36:21.851
Culture and History.
00:36:22.632 --> 00:36:23.273
They're in Hartford.
00:36:23.994 --> 00:36:25.954
And that's where I spent most of my time.
00:36:26.414 --> 00:36:28.775
And then in addition to that, you know,
00:36:29.036 --> 00:36:31.036
how was I going to do this during COVID?
00:36:31.056 --> 00:36:31.958
How could I do it without
00:36:32.018 --> 00:36:33.117
having direct access if
00:36:33.157 --> 00:36:34.318
these places were closed?
00:36:35.018 --> 00:36:35.920
Fortunately,
00:36:36.699 --> 00:36:39.561
most of the stuff that had had
00:36:39.601 --> 00:36:40.681
been transcribed was
00:36:40.722 --> 00:36:41.862
available digitally through
00:36:41.902 --> 00:36:43.523
the website archive.org.
00:36:43.943 --> 00:36:44.443
And then of course,
00:36:44.463 --> 00:36:46.284
you have the George Washington papers,
00:36:46.744 --> 00:36:48.585
and the George Washington papers include
00:36:49.431 --> 00:36:51.293
any time that Jedediah and
00:36:51.313 --> 00:36:52.554
George were writing to each
00:36:52.614 --> 00:36:54.494
other or others such as Sam
00:36:54.554 --> 00:36:55.615
Webb or Seth Harding.
00:36:55.635 --> 00:36:58.717
Good.
00:36:58.737 --> 00:37:00.717
We've been talking with Damien Krugo,
00:37:00.918 --> 00:37:02.880
author of Portraits of Patriots,
00:37:02.900 --> 00:37:04.199
The Revolutionary Lives of
00:37:04.239 --> 00:37:06.221
Five Patriots from Connecticut.
00:37:06.240 --> 00:37:10.903
The book just came out, so it's available,
00:37:11.164 --> 00:37:13.025
and I don't want to give it all away,
00:37:13.065 --> 00:37:14.005
but is there anything else
00:37:14.025 --> 00:37:15.646
we should talk about before we let you go,
00:37:15.706 --> 00:37:16.007
Damien?
00:37:18.972 --> 00:37:20.954
I think the most important things are,
00:37:21.474 --> 00:37:21.914
like I said,
00:37:21.934 --> 00:37:23.056
the welfare of the common
00:37:23.115 --> 00:37:25.438
soldier that these officers
00:37:25.478 --> 00:37:26.617
were looking after them.
00:37:27.398 --> 00:37:29.300
The fact that Connecticut's
00:37:29.340 --> 00:37:30.340
contributions to the
00:37:30.360 --> 00:37:31.481
American Revolution often
00:37:31.521 --> 00:37:32.722
get overshadowed.
00:37:32.762 --> 00:37:33.983
We didn't have any famous
00:37:34.023 --> 00:37:35.864
battles like Saratoga or
00:37:36.364 --> 00:37:37.826
Bunker Hill in Connecticut,
00:37:37.925 --> 00:37:39.967
and yet we're at these battles,
00:37:40.307 --> 00:37:41.409
including Bunker Hill,
00:37:41.929 --> 00:37:42.949
and we should be proud of
00:37:43.010 --> 00:37:44.570
our contributions.
00:37:45.170 --> 00:37:46.271
And I think it's important
00:37:46.311 --> 00:37:47.713
that people realize that
00:37:48.237 --> 00:37:50.777
the officers were under a lot of stress.
00:37:51.318 --> 00:37:52.579
Not only did Jedediah lose
00:37:52.639 --> 00:37:53.679
his wife and have to deal
00:37:53.699 --> 00:37:57.302
with that grief and rebuilding of himself,
00:37:57.362 --> 00:37:59.023
but the responsibilities
00:37:59.043 --> 00:38:00.463
they had as officers when
00:38:00.503 --> 00:38:02.445
they ran these regiments and brigades.
00:38:02.505 --> 00:38:04.326
And I tried to shine a light
00:38:04.425 --> 00:38:05.827
on this sort of second tier
00:38:05.907 --> 00:38:07.186
that instead of the most
00:38:07.226 --> 00:38:08.148
famous people all the time,
00:38:08.168 --> 00:38:09.728
like Washington or Lafayette,
00:38:10.289 --> 00:38:11.530
that Jedediah Huntington,
00:38:11.610 --> 00:38:12.429
Ebenezer Huntington,
00:38:12.469 --> 00:38:14.431
Samuel Webb deserved a book
00:38:14.471 --> 00:38:15.672
like this that would show
00:38:15.692 --> 00:38:17.572
that these officers were important
00:38:18.114 --> 00:38:21.217
uh contributors and that the
00:38:21.257 --> 00:38:22.298
writings of people like
00:38:22.338 --> 00:38:24.041
joseph plum martin or the
00:38:24.101 --> 00:38:25.704
reverend uh surgeon rather
00:38:25.963 --> 00:38:27.045
albigens waldo of
00:38:27.085 --> 00:38:28.927
connecticut helped sort of
00:38:28.987 --> 00:38:30.170
round out the whole
00:38:30.210 --> 00:38:31.811
experience in my book I
00:38:32.112 --> 00:38:35.175
also tied in their writings
00:38:35.275 --> 00:38:36.458
and memoirs and letters
00:38:36.914 --> 00:38:39.855
so that people come away with a, I feel,
00:38:40.335 --> 00:38:42.094
as a comprehensive
00:38:42.135 --> 00:38:43.436
understanding of how
00:38:43.516 --> 00:38:44.635
officers contributed.
00:38:44.695 --> 00:38:45.956
Very good.
00:38:46.235 --> 00:38:47.376
And you certainly do that.
00:38:47.436 --> 00:38:48.637
So I want to thank you for
00:38:48.777 --> 00:38:49.896
writing the book and for
00:38:49.976 --> 00:38:50.896
joining us again.
00:38:51.237 --> 00:38:52.498
So thank you so much, Damian.
00:38:54.717 --> 00:38:55.918
It's great to be back, Bob.
00:38:55.958 --> 00:38:57.619
Thanks again for having me back.
00:38:57.699 --> 00:38:59.920
And it's wonderful to share
00:38:59.960 --> 00:39:01.840
this and a positive
00:39:02.726 --> 00:39:04.907
message as we go deeper now
00:39:04.967 --> 00:39:05.786
into the two hundred and
00:39:05.827 --> 00:39:07.228
fiftieth anniversary cycle.
00:39:07.927 --> 00:39:08.588
Right, right.
00:39:09.168 --> 00:39:10.728
And thank you to Jonathan Lane,
00:39:10.768 --> 00:39:11.489
our producer,
00:39:11.608 --> 00:39:13.369
and our listeners around the country,
00:39:13.389 --> 00:39:14.030
around the world.
00:39:14.090 --> 00:39:15.130
Every week we thank some
00:39:15.170 --> 00:39:16.590
folks who are steady listeners.
00:39:16.630 --> 00:39:17.692
And if you're in one of
00:39:17.731 --> 00:39:18.711
these places and want to
00:39:18.751 --> 00:39:20.072
send Jonathan an email,
00:39:20.132 --> 00:39:22.793
jlane at revolution two five zero dot org,
00:39:23.114 --> 00:39:23.994
they'll send you some of
00:39:24.034 --> 00:39:25.635
our Rev two fifty swag.
00:39:26.275 --> 00:39:27.335
And this week,
00:39:27.355 --> 00:39:27.994
I want to thank our
00:39:28.034 --> 00:39:29.596
listeners actually in Boston and
00:39:29.835 --> 00:39:31.996
particularly in Jamaica Plain, Alston,
00:39:32.097 --> 00:39:34.418
and the South End, in Newport News,
00:39:34.438 --> 00:39:37.079
Virginia, Portland, Oregon, Binghamton,
00:39:37.119 --> 00:39:37.679
New York,
00:39:37.938 --> 00:39:40.701
Nuremberg and Nantes in Germany
00:39:40.820 --> 00:39:43.961
and France, Charlestown, and Huntington,
00:39:44.021 --> 00:39:44.862
West Virginia.
00:39:46.902 --> 00:39:49.244
Huntington's moved out to the Ohio River,
00:39:49.764 --> 00:39:51.385
and Federal Way, Washington,
00:39:51.445 --> 00:39:53.226
and all places between and beyond.
00:39:53.266 --> 00:39:54.266
Thanks for joining us,
00:39:54.286 --> 00:39:55.987
and now we'll be piped out on the