The son of a British soldier, William Hunter accompanied his father, a non-commissioned officer in the British army’s 26th Regiment of Foot, while on campaign during the American Revolution. Throughout the war, Hunter witnessed the first-hand terrors of combat, was captured twice, and produced the only surviving account written by a child of a British soldier. Drawing from Hunter’s recently discovered journal, which will be on display at the lecture, historian Euguene Procknow discusses his experiences during the Revolution and how they influenced him to become a prominent citizen of the United States in the early years of the republic.
About the Speaker
Gene Procknow is an independent historian of the American Revolution. Since 2013, he has authored twenty scholarly articles for the Journal of the American Revolution. From 2015 through 2022, Mr. Procknow’s articles have been selected and published in the print edition of the Annual Volume of the Journal of the American Revolution. In 2022, he published his first book, William Hunter – Finding Free Speech: A British Soldier’s Son Who Became an American. He also hosts and curates a website, www.researchingtheamericanrevolution.com, that assists researchers in locating primary source materials pertaining to the Revolutionary War.