235 years ago today the cause of freedom suffered a defeat in our war against Great Britain. Here’s a reconstructed earthwork put up a few years back to commemorate that battle. Any guesses on where this was? (And once we get this settled I want to talk a little bit about the memorializiation at that battlefield — I quite like it.)
In related news, today is also the publication date of Lea VanderVelde’s Redemption Songs, which is a book I’m very excited to read.
Siege of Savannah. Pulaski is mortally wounded on this day during d'Estaing's attack which fails.
You got it exactly right, Bill. Nicely done! The park where they've reconstructed this fort has a really nice interpretation of the battle. It commemorates the participation of a lot of people in the battle — including some free people from Haiti (fighting on behalf of France). Some of the people at this battle went on to lead the Revolution in Haiti, apparently — which provides a concrete connection between our Revolution and theirs, which I had never heard of before. About 800 people died on our side — and they have 800 or so stone markers arranged in front of this reconstructed fort. It gives a very useful representation of the human costs of that battle. Tragically, like so many of the battles of the Revolution, it didn't go well for our side.