News
October 20, 2023Saratoga National Historical Park Offering Fall Lecture Series
Saratoga National Historical Park, in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield, will host a series of five lectures this fall. The talks are free, but reservations are required as space is limited. More information on each program and links to make reservations are available at go.nps.gov/saraevents or email SARA_info@nps.gov. The schedule is:
Dr. Myra Young Armstead, Ph.D. presents “The Loango Connection: Slavery and Slaveholding at Saratoga House and Its Environs”
Wednesday, October 25, 6:30 pm
Saratoga National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
Taking the perspective of enslaved Africans and their descendants attached to General Philip Schuyler’s country estate, we will explore their work, family, and leisure experiences with a primary focus on the early eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century.
Myra Young Armstead is a tenured, senior faculty member in the History Department at Bard College where she has taught for 38 years and she holds an endowed chair. She received her doctorate in History from the University of Chicago and has published widely on topics relating to African-American social and cultural life.
This program is part of Saratoga NHP’s Fall Lecture Series, brought to you in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield. Reservations are required by visiting go.nps.gov/saraevents or emailing SARA_info@nps.gov.
A Tale of Two Generals: The Later History of the Benedict Arnold Monument at Saratoga Battlefield
Thursday, November 9, 6:30 pm
Saratoga National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
Benedict Arnold is a figure well-known to Americans and aficionados of the Battles of Saratoga. Less well known is General John Watts de Peyster, a resident of Dutchess County, New York, who paid for a special inscription to be added to the Arnold Monument on the battlefield. Join us to hear the colorful tale of this eccentric and scandalous nineteenth-century New York personality, who, like Arnold, found himself at the receiving end of nearly everyone’s ire.
This program is part of Saratoga NHP’s Fall Lecture Series, brought to you in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield. Reservations are required by visiting go.nps.gov/saraevents or emailing SARA_info@nps.gov.
Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War
Thursday, November 16, 6:30 pm
Saratoga National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
Between 1776 and 1783, Britain hired more than thirty thousand German soldiers to fight in its war against the rebels in North America. Collectively known as Hessians, the soldiers as well as accompanying civilians produced a large volume of records that provide detailed accounts of the American war, land, and people. Drawing from this rich material, the presentation will highlight some of the key experiences of these participants in a war on a distant continent against a people that had done them no harm.
Dr. Friederike Baer is Associate Professor of History and Division Head for Arts and Humanities at Penn State Abington College. She is the author of Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War (Oxford UP, 2022), winner of the 2023 Society of the Cincinnati Prize.
This program is part of Saratoga NHP’s Fall Lecture Series, brought to you in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield. Reservations are required by visiting go.nps.gov/saraevents or emailing SARA_info@nps.gov.
“Perticulars that I have Been eye & ear witness to”: How Nathaniel Bacheller Changed History
Thursday, November 30, 6:30 pm
Saratoga National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
Almost all media covering the 1777 Battles of Saratoga tell a story of American Generals Benedict Arnold and Horatio Gates embroiled in a nasty conflict of personalities which peaked when Gates stripped Arnold from command. Nevertheless, Arnold famously defied Gates and participated in the decisive October 7 Battle of Bemus Heights anyway. But, come to find out, it’s a lie and we’ve all been tricked! Join Park Ranger Eric Schnitzer as he forensically reviews the evidence which proves how most of the story is false and he reveals who it was that deceived us in the first place.
This program is part of Saratoga NHP’s Fall Lecture Series, brought to you in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield. Reservations are required by visiting go.nps.gov/saraevents or emailing SARA_info@nps.gov.
Retracing Our Steps: the French-American Joint Reconnaissance Tour in the Winter of 1780-1781
Thursday, December 7, 6:30 pm
Saratoga National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
Studying the terrain to analyze how the action unfolded on Revolutionary War battlefields isn’t just a modern pursuit. It was the first order of business when the French Army arrived on American soil, seeking to understand the war they had just joined. Contrary to popular belief, French and American officers did not sit idle over the winter of 1780–81. Rather, the French organized a joint reconnaissance mission to previous battlefields of the American Revolution under the initiative of François-Jean de Chastellux, an overlooked figure who played a crucial role as a liaison officer between the French and Americans, and in the logistical and strategic planning of the allied army. Dr de Rode’s discovery of his unpublished private papers, in the ancestral château of the Chastellux family in Burgundy, reveals numerous details about his role, especially on this forgotten reconnaissance mission, including an in depth study of the battlefield of Saratoga.
Dr de Rode, who is originally from the Netherlands, received her doctorate from the Université de Paris in November 2019. Her dissertation was based on her discovery of the private papers of François-Jean de Chastellux, one of the French generals who served at Yorktown. She published a biography on Chastellux in 2022 for which she won the 2023 Prix Guizot of the Académie Française for “best history book of the year”. Iris is currently working on a new English book titled En route for Revolution that will be published by the University of Virginia Press next year. She has received 20 fellowships for her work, including from George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the Society of the Cincinnati and the American Philosophical Society.
This program is part of Saratoga NHP’s Fall Lecture Series, brought to you in partnership with the Friends of Saratoga Battlefield. Reservations are required by visiting go.nps.gov/saraevents or emailing SARA_info@nps.gov.
For more information about Saratoga National Historical Park, please call the Visitor Center at (518) 670-2985, visit www.nps.gov/sara or find the park on Facebook or Twitter @SaratogaNHP.
