Wednesday, July 22 (7:30pm) – Saturday, July 25 (5 pm)

Led by James Kirby Martin and Bruce Venter

HQ: Meriden, CT

Reserve a room at the Holiday Inn Express by June 22 for special rates

Conference Package: $495

Perhaps no American historical figure evokes more controversy than Benedict Arnold. He was the hero of the Revolutionary War’s greatest battle, Saratoga and three years later America’s first and most famous traitor. Indeed, he was an intricate character.

We have designed this unique America’s History tour to be able to show you two sides of this enigmatic personality. By focusing on Connecticut, we will be able to reveal Benedict Arnold as a merchant and budding military leader, a patriot who fought the British during the Danbury raid and, finally, as a traitor who in a red-coated uniform led Crown forces in a mean-spirited raid on New London. We are fortunate to have the country’s foremost Arnold biographer leading our tour.

Our first day will focus on Benedict Arnold as a patriot home on leave visiting his family in New Haven, who joined forces with Brig. Gen. David Wooster and local Connecticut militia men to fight a British raiding party bent on destroying rebel stockpiles in Danbury in April 1777. We will follow the British landing at Compo Beach in Westport to the first engagement between Williams Tryon’s 1,800 Crown troops and patriot militia. We will pass Christ Church along the British route, then make a stop at Putnam Memorial Park, a 1778 American winter encampment named for Connecticut’s other famous Revolutionary War general. We will stop at three sites of engagement near Ridgefield where patriot forces confronted Tryon’s men making their way back to the coast from Danbury. During these fights, Wooster was mortally wounded and Arnold had a horse shot from under him. Arnold tried to block the British retreat at Ridgefield, but Tryon managed to sidestep the American position and escape back to their waiting ships.

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Friday, September 25, 8am to 5pm

Leaving from Fort Ticonderoga, NY

Our Tour Leaders: James Kirby Martin and Bruce Venter

Registration Fee: $145

Fort Ticonderoga and America’s History will partner again this year to offer a one-day Revolutionary War tour in connection with the Fort’s Twelfth Annual American Revolution Seminar. Led by James Kirby Martin and Bruce Venter, the tour departs from Fort Ticonderoga’s parking lot at 8 a.m. and includes the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, a boat ride thru the Narrows of Lake Champlain, Valcour Island, and a ferry ride across Lake Champlain.

This tour takes place on the Friday of Fort Ticonderoga’s American Revolution Seminar. Please see www.fortticonderoga.org for the seminar program and details. You may take the Valcour Island tour without attending the seminar.

This tour will demonstrate Benedict Arnold’s skill as a naval commander and hero of the Patriot cause as we visit land and “on the water” sites. We will see Valcour Island from the New York shore, take a ferry ride across Lake Champlain near the site of the battle, visit the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum which has special exhibits related to Valcour Island, board the reconstructed gunboat, Philadelphia II and take a boat ride thru the Lake Champlain Narrows where Arnold fought a delaying battle with the British. We will also have the additional benefit of a marine archeologist/historian during our time at the Maritime Museum and on the boat ride. [Read more…]