5 May 1999, "James Monore and the American Revolution". The speaker was Mr. John N. Pearce, director of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA. Mr. Pearce reminded the audience that Monroe and George Washington were the only US Presidents who fought as soldiers in the Revolution. As a young officer in the Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army, Monore participated in many of the early battles of the Revolution, and was seriously wounded at Trenton in 1776. He later served as an aid to General 'Lord Stirling'. Eventually he became the Governor of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson's Military Commissioner. Monroe's outstanding military performance placed him well after the war, as he rose quickly in Virginia and National political spheres, where he 'made history' with his roll in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase (1803) as Minister to France, and declaring the 'Monroe Doctrine' (1823) during his second term as President of the United States. More can be learned at the website of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library.

7 April 1999, "ARRT's Annual Banquet". It was an evening listening to the enjoyable sounds of eighteenth-century colonial music provided by Gregory Grant and James Stinson.

3 March 1999, "The Care and Feeding of Armies and Fleets". The speaker was Mr. David Bongard, the ARRT's Program Chairman and military historian, who has authored many articles for military encyclopedias and dictionaries, as well as co-authored works covering different eras of military history. His presentation addressed the complexities, many not even thought of today, in the care and feeding of armies and fleets in the eighteenth century. Not only were the methods of preparing food for storage a challenge, but the use of private contractors for all but a few, rare weapons or naval items, led to considerable speculation, bribery and other forms of corruption.

3 February 1999, "George Washington and a Merchant of Cork". The speaker was Dr. Edward A. Miller Jr., graduate of Virginia Military Institute, retired US Air Force officer, and author of several published works on nineteenth century and American Civil War subjects. Dr. Miller recounted a most interesting review of the contitions of American prisoners held in British prisons at Portsmouth and Plymouth, in England, and at Cork, in Ireland. As 'rebels' the Americans were not granted 'prisoner-of-war status'. While these American prisoners did not enjoy the conditions granted to French, Dutch, and Spanish prisoners, the Americans in English prisons fared far better than those held in the ship hauls back in New York Harbor. The particular focus of Dr. Millier's story was how Ruben Harvey, a Quaker merchant in Cork Ireland, openly complained of, and sought to remedy the poor conditions American prisoners encoutered in 'Desmond's Castle' at Kinsale, County Cork. Mr. Harvey's role was acknowledged by the US Congress and by a letter from George Washington.

6 January 1999, "Major Robert Rogers in the French and Indian War". The speaker was Mark M. Helba, a military analyst who has served with the Central Intelligence Agency and various US Defense organizations. He is a member of the ARRT, and a re-enactor in both the Flood's Virginia Company/Jaeger's Battalion of Rogers' Rangers and the 1st Virginia Regiment. Mark's talk covered the military career of Robert Rogers, who became a hero leading an independent ranger company during the French and Indian War. The 1765 publication of Rogers' Journals in England contributed to his fame. However, his personal life was surrounded in debt and financial scandal. At the beginning of the American Revolution, George Washington refused Rogers' services, and in 1776 Rogers briefly command the Queen's Rangers (a Loyalist force that later became famous under Simcoe). At this time, Rogers military career became as dismal as his personal fortunes, and he returned to England in 1780, where he died in 1795. Mark Helba's presentation emphasized how the tradition of 'Roger's Rangers', and 'rules' for his special force influenced the modern US Army Rangers.

2 December 1998, "Origins of American Military Engineering: Army Engineers in the Revolutionary War". The speaker was Dr. Paul K. Walker, Chief of the Office of History in Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; and author of Engineers of Independence: A Documentary History of the Army Engineers in the American Revolution, 1775-1783 (1981). Dr. Walker's presentation covered the founding of the American military engineers as part of the very beginnings of the Revolution. Seriously short of trained engineers, the Americans accepted a number of French-trained military engineers. Many of these men served the American cause with high distinction: Duportail, Kosciuszko, Fleury, de Genton, and de Villefranche to name but a few. Their contributions were crucial in many of the campaigns from the defense of the Hudson Highlands to the final siege at Yorktown.

4 November 1998, "The Last Battles of the American Revolution on the Other Side of the World". The speaker was Mr. Albert D. McJoynt, military historian and member of the ARRT. The presentation described the 1782-83 naval operations, in the Bay of Bengal, of the French admiral Pierre-Andr� de Suffren de Saint-Tropez. This campaign was part of the same war which included the Battle of Lexington and the Siege of Yorktown, though no American took part. Suffren's accomplishments were praised in Alfred T. Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783, and provide an excellent example of joint, theater-level military strategy. The topic illustrates a broader scope, chronologically and geographically, of the American War for Independence than is popularly perceived.

7 October 1998, "John Peter Zenger's Trial and Freedom of the Press in the Era of the American Revolution". The speaker was Mr. Robert Cassler, author and teacher of first amendment law at American University and the University of Maryland. Mr. Cassler explained the impact of Peter Zenger's 1735 trial upon the early tradition of 'Freedom of the Press' in the United States. After taking the audience through a maze of seditious libel laws and arguments that occurred in the formative stages of our Nation, Mr Cassler concluded that, in the end, the Zenger jury's decision to accept 'truth as a defense' gradually prevailed. The October program was a well focused and clear account of legal-political entanglements and contrasting views concerning Freedoms of Speech and of the Press in the US.

2 September 1998, "Field Artillery in the American Revolution". The speaker was Mr. John E. McConnell, Virginia Military Institute graduate, former U.S. Army Field Artillery Officer, and active member of the Artillery Section, First Virginia Regiment re-enactment group. Needless to say, the ARRT members and guests received a most authoritative coverage on the origins of artillery in North America prior to the war, how it was fielded by both sides during the war, and an analysis of field artillery's effectivness in the course of the war.

13 June 1998, Field Trip to Scotchtown, Virginia. ARRT members visited the historic home of Patrick Henry, and witnessed Revolutionary War encampment and battle re-enactment.

6 May 1998, "ARRT's Anual Banquet". It was a full evening of eighteenth-century colonial music provided by Gregory Grant and James Stinson. In a short business meeting, ARRT officers were elected for the following program year (1989-99).

1 April 1998, "Sunday, April 1, 1798 - Reflections on ..."The Course of Human Events"... Seventeen Years after Yorktown". Speaker was Mr. John Douglass Hall, in an interpretative role as a Virginia citizen farmer of the late eighteenth century. Mr. Hall gave a very well received, creative presentation that described the complex array of domestic and international factors affecting the young Nation seventeen years following the American Revolution. Many of the events and concerns of Americans in early April of 1798 were still linked to the Revolution, such as English troops remaining in the western outposts. Other factors introduced unusual twists to conditions since the Revolution, such as strained relations with new French revolutionary government. Mr Hall showed a mastery of his knowledge in fielding a variety of detailed questions, such as the intricate background of the Western Territories which were now [1798] being granted to the States by the U.S. Government. A little sly humor was injected with Mr Hall's expressed hope that the scandal surrounding Mr. Hamilton and a certain lady would hopefully be the last such gossip that this Government would have to endure.

4 March 1998, "The Forgotten Patriot and the American Revolution". Speaker was Mrs. Elisabeth Whitman Schmidt, an officer on the Executive Committee of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and member of several lineage societies. Her presentation cited individuals of varied ethnic backgrounds, by name and location, who joined the ranks. While the enlistment of African Americans, and more specifically of slaves, was debated, most all of the colonies eventually took such into their ranks. The practice was noted and reported by European observers. Records show that a considerable number of persons of mixed ethnic backgrounds served on both sides of the conflict. In some cases, the local society accepted free minorities living in the community and expected them to serve. The most significant impetus to the recruitment of minorities in the service was manpower shortages in the American army and naval contingents. There were several instances where the proven participation in military actions by women warranted their receiving veterans' military pensions. The speaker reminded the audience of the French and Spanish military forces who fought as allies of the American colonists, and that even their contingents included some ethnic diversity drawn from the American southeast and the West Indies.

4 February 1998, "The Real Meaning of the American Revolution". Speaker was Mr. Henry J. Sage , professor of history at Northern Virginia Community College, Alexandria. Professor Sage gave a dynamic presentation of his views on how the American Revolution evolved and affected America's development. His theme noted that the 'seeds of Revolution' could be traced to beginnings of the conditions that brought the early settlers from Europe to the New World, and to the relative independence that evolved in the separate colonial settlements. His thesis also stated that the Revolution did not end, in terms of having a successful conclusion, until a workable government was finally defined in the Constitution.

7 January 1998, "Without a Respectable Navy, Alas America!". Speaker was Dr. William S. Dudley, Director of Naval History, US Naval Historical Office, a member of the Society for Military History, and a past president of the ARRT. Dr. Dudley discussed the evolution of naval thought, legislative action, and initial ship construction that formed the establishment of the Department of the Navy between 1783 and 1798. It was brought out that one of the main incentives for forming the American Navy was to protect the Nation's merchant shipping from threats in the Mediterranean. The US Navy's first real test was the successful and daring expedition against the Barbary pirates at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

3 December 1997, "Thomas Jefferson Revisited". Speaker was Dr. Thomas B. Worsley, a past president of the ARRT and member of a number of historical organizations in the Northern Virginia and District of Columbia area. An avid scholar on Thomas Jefferson since graduating from the University of Virginia, Dr. Worsley took this time to assess the large array of "recent electronic effusions on Jefferson" that we have seen on TV, in the movies, and in various publications. In such, Jefferson's legacy has been both lauded and attacked from varied perspectives, notably his record on rights, race, education, values, exploration and expansion of the American west, and his personal character. Dr. Worsley gave a brief tour de horizon of the more prominant authors on Jefferson. In response to the negative views of Jefferson expressed by some writers, Dr. Worsley found questionable bases for judging the past by today's standards. If anything, Jefferson's real legacy (as with that of the other Founding Fathers ­ many of whom were slave holders) was the creation of an institutional form of government that would eventually allow for the correction of social inequities of their own time.

5 Nobember 1997, "How the Continental Navy Frigate Queen of France Sailed to America in 1778". Speaker was Dr. Michael J. Crawford, Head of the Early History Branch of the Navy Historical Center, Washington, DC. He honored the members with the first public report of an incident that occurred on the eve of the alliance between the United States and France. The American Commissioners' in Paris purchased in 1778 of a French East India merchant ship, La Brune, renamed her Queen of France, and manned the ship with French seamen. The ship was sent by the Commissioners to America with a dual captaincy consisting of a French master and a Continental Navy captain. When the Queen of France arrived in Boston, the unusual match of crew and ship's nationality caught the attention of the captain a French frigate La Nymphe anchored in the harbor. The affair revealed many facets of conflicting priorities between the two allies. One important point brought out by the speaker, was the high demand for seamen at the time. Both England and France were forced to employ a considerable number of lesser-qualified 'landsmen' to make up for the shortage.

1 October 1997, "Indian Tribes and the American Revolution". Speaker was Dr. Virginia DeMarce, from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a past president of the ARRT. This presentation was the second of her presentations on the American Indians in the Revolution. In this talk, Dr. DeMarce addressed the complexity of the role of the Native Americans in the Revolution in what was a very multi-ethenic world. She explained that, contrary to the typical portrayal of the Indians in Western writings, the tribes were quite individualistic, and the their political alignment during the colonists' wars were influenced by factors unique to each tribe and community.

3 September 1997, "Getting Acquainted with Peter Francisco". Speaker was Mrs. Edith Francisco Buckley, a member of The Society of Descendants of Peter Francisco, and of The Providence Chapter (NSDAR). Her presentation on Peter Francisco (c.1760-1836), who won distinction in an array of battles of the Revolution, covered interesting points about his most unusual and partly legendary life.

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