Calendar of Historical Programs

By October 1777, British forces occupied Philadelphia. Yet an elaborate American defense of the Delaware River crippled the British supply lines and threatened their ability to hold the city.  Historian Jim Mc Intyre discusses the massive effort by the Crown forces to gain control of the strategic waterway. He highlights the British occupation of Philadelphia, the American defense of the river, and several often-neglected engagements such as the successful repulse of a Hessian attack on Fort Mercer in New Jersey,…

Charles Cornwallis was a leading figure in late eighteenth-century Great Britain. His career spanned the American War of Independence, Irish Union, the French Revolutionary Wars and the building of the second British Empire in India. Focusing on the first part of his new book, Richard Middleton offers insight into Cornwallis’ time in America  and shows that Cornwallis' legacy during the Revolutionary War is significantly more complex than the shortcomings he is most often associated with. The talk will last approximately…

In 1775, the British army seethed within Boston as the Continental Army besieged the city, compelling thousands of civilians to flee to the surrounding countryside. General George Washington and the Massachusetts Provincial Congress coordinated efforts to support the influx of displaced persons while attempting to protect the Continental Army from smallpox flaring in Boston. Many refugees—including infirm, ill and elderly individuals as well as mothers and children—were removed and relocated to towns across Massachusetts. Katie Turner Getty discusses the plight…