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.
Posted by: Bill Turnier | October 09, 2014 at 11:44 AM
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.
Posted by: Alfred L. Brophy | October 09, 2014 at 02:29 PM