Concert goers at Saratoga National Historical Park.
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November
CANCELED - A Tale of Two Generals: The Later History of the Benedict Arnold Monument at Saratoga Battlefield
Thursday, November 9, 7:00 pm
Saratoga National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
Due to illness, this program is canceled. We will try to reschedule but have no update at this time.
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. Who was J.W. de Peyster? Why did he feel a need to ally himself with a man still renowned as America's greatest traitor? 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. Stay tuned for more programs!
Reservations are required and the link can be found on this page: A Tale of Two Generals: The Later History of the Benedict Arnold Monument at Saratoga Battlefield (nps.gov) Make sure to mention which specific event you would like to reserve for and how many spots you want!
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. Across a vast terrain, they participated in all major military campaigns and spent extended periods of time in locations as dispersed and varied as Quebec and Nova Scotia in the north to West Florida and Jamaica in the south. 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. Stay tuned for more programs!
Reservations are required and the link can be found on this page: Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War (nps.gov) Make sure to mention which specific event you would like to reserve for and how many spots you want!
FULL- "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
This event is FULL and no further reservations will be accepted. It will be recorded and shared at a later date. Thank you for your interest!
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. Stay tuned for more programs!
December
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, rather than waiting for their respective leaders to dispatch more troops and supplies, the 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". In 2018, together with her PhD supervisor, Prof. Bertrand van, she co-authored a book on Mathieu Dumas, the aide de camp to Rochambeau, whose handwritten journal discovered in 2012 revealed interesting details about the March to Yorktown.
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, Iris has presented her research many times in Europe and the United States (130+ lectures!) Iris has been teaching American and Transatlantic history at two universities in Paris, and she is today working on public history initiatives with the National Park Service, the Washington Rochambeau Revolutionary Route Association, the Philadelphia Museum of the American Revolution, George Washington's Mount Vernon and the French Embassy in Washington DC.
(518) 670-2985
Saratoga National Historical Park information desk available daily from 9am - 5pm. If no one is available to take your call, please leave a message, and someone will return your call as soon as possible.
