New book on Fort Ti featured at Seminar on American Revolution

Lohr McKinstry, The Press-Republican, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
·3 min read

Sep. 24—TICONDEROGA — The author of a new book on Fort Ticonderoga will headline the fort's upcoming 18th-annual Seminar on the American Revolution.

The event runs through Sunday at the fort and the keynote presenter is Dr. Mark Lender, author of the new book "Fort Ticonderoga, the Last Campaigns: The War in the North, 1777-1783."

He has written extensively on early American military and social history, with a special interest in the War for Independence. Lender holds a Ph.D. in American history from Rutgers University and is now professor emeritus at Kean University.

Seminar attendees and the general public are invited to the Seminar on the American Revolution author book signing from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 24 at Fort Ticonderoga's Museum Store located inside the Log House Welcome Center.

EVENT SPEAKERS

This is the fort's annual premier conference and is focused on the military, political, social, and material culture of the American Revolution.

It regularly features scholars from across North America and beyond, fort President Beth Hill said in a news release.

Besides Lender, the conference will feature:

Todd W. Braisted, author and Fellow in the Company of Military Historians and a member of the New Jersey 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution Advisory Commission; Matthew Cerjak, student at the University of Chicago; Katie Turner Getty, independent researcher and writer; Blake Grindon, doctoral candidate in history at Princeton University and the inaugural recipient of the Omohundro Institute-Fort Ticonderoga fellowship; Ricardo A. Herrera, author and Professor of Military History at the School of Advanced Military Studies, US Army Command and General Staff College; Stuart Lilie, Fort Ticonderoga president of public history; J. Patrick Mullins, author and associate professor of history and public history director at Marquette University; John William Nelson, assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University; Sarah Shepard, dual master's student at Simmons University; and Glenn F. Williams, P.h.D., retired military officer and author.

Grindon will speak on "Jane McCrea, Women, and War: Gender and Violence in the Revolution's Northern Front."

McCrea was a young woman engaged to a British officer at Fort Ticonderoga who was killed by Native Americans while enroute to see her fiancé. Accounts of the incident vary, but it was used to stir anti-British resentment in the Colonies at the time because the warriors who killed her were supposedly loyal to British forces.

Lender's book, "Fort Ticonderoga, the Last Campaigns" highlights the strategic importance of the fort as British, American, and regional forces, including those of an independent Vermont Republic, fought for control of the northern front at a critical point in the war, Hill said.

"The book tells the Ticonderoga story in all of its complexity and drama, correcting misconceptions embedded in many previous accounts, and sheds vital new light on this key chapter in America's struggle for independence," she said in the release.

The seminar is in the Mars Education Center and is open to the public, although pre-registration is required by going to the fort's web site. Attendees can participate in person or join the conference on video via the Fort Ticonderoga Center for Digital History.

Email: lmckinstry@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: @LohrMcKinstry