The American Revolution Round Table of New York

New York's Revolutionaries
Sybil Ludington
Sybil Ludington (1761-1839), at the age of 16, rode alone through an April night, from her home in Putnam County, NY, to warn local militia of a British advance upon the Continental Army's supply depot in Danbury, CT.

Next Meeting

Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Time: 7:30 pm

Where: On-line via Zoom

Speaker: Kevin J. Weddle

Subject: The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution

In the late summer and fall of 1777, after two years of indecisive fighting on both sides, the outcome of the American War of Independence hung in the balance. Having successfully expelled the Americans from Canada in 1776, the British were determined to end the rebellion the following year and devised what they believed a war-winning strategy, sending General John Burgoyne south to rout the Americans and take Albany. When British forces captured Fort Ticonderoga with unexpected ease in July of 1777, it looked as if it was a matter of time before they would break the rebellion in the North. Less than three and a half months later, however, a combination of the Continental Army and Militia forces, commanded by Major General Horatio Gates and inspired by the heroics of Benedict Arnold, forced Burgoyne to surrender his entire army. The American victory stunned the world and changed the course of the war.

Kevin J. Weddle offers the most authoritative history of the Battle of Saratoga to date, explaining with verve and clarity why events unfolded the way they did. In the end, British plans were undone by a combination of distance, geography, logistics, and an underestimation of American leadership and fighting ability. Taking Ticonderoga had misled Burgoyne and his army into thinking victory was assured. Saratoga, which began as a British foraging expedition, turned into a rout. The outcome forced the British to rethink their strategy, inflamed public opinion in England against the war, boosted Patriot morale, and, perhaps most critical of all, led directly to the Franco-American alliance. Weddle unravels the web of contingencies and the play of personalities that ultimately led to what one American general called "the Compleat Victory."

The Compleat Victory

Kevin J. Weddle

Kevin J. Weddle is a Distinguished Fellow and a military historian at the US Army War College. He is a graduate of the US Military Academy, a combat veteran, and served over 28 years on active duty in the US Army before retiring as a colonel. He is a multiple award-winning author of critically acclaimed and best-selling books and articles and is an accomplished public speaker. His book, "The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution" (Oxford University Press, 2021) was awarded the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History for the best book on military history published in English, the most prestigious book award in the field. He specializes in the American Revolution, the American Civil War, the Second World War, general military history, and military technology.

Cost: As long as ARRT-NY is meeting "virtually," our Board of Governors has decided to forego all charges. ARRT-NY's meetings are currently free and open to all.

Instructions for connecting to each Zoom meeting will be e-mailed to all members, together with their newsletters, approximately two weeks before the event. Non-members and former members are welcome, but requested to register 24 hours in advance of the meeting by e-mailing Board Member and Meeting Co-Host Andrea Meyer.

Future ARRT-NY Meetings

Dr. Joanne Grasso, Program Chairman, has arranged for the following scholars to address our 2024-2025 season:
  • April 1, 2025 -- William Hogeland, Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding
  • June 3, 2025 -- Jack Warren, Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution

    • About ARRT-NY Meetings

    The Coffee House

    For ten years (2011-2020), ARRT-NY met at The Coffee House in mid-Manhattan which, notwithstanding its name, is a private business-persons' luncheon club that has been in existence over a century. It was dedicated exclusively to ARRT-NY for five evenings each year. Unfortunately, that situation has not survived, and ARRT-NY is searching for new arrangements for future social gatherings.

    Take a look at our photo gallery of a recent meeting!

    ARRT-NY's Recent Featured Speakers

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    October 2024 Robert P. Watson George Washington’s Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City and a Nation
    June 2024 Jack Kelly God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America's Most Hated Man
    April 2024 Brooke Barbier King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father
    February 2024 Richard Melnick Long Island City in 1776: The Revolution Comes to Queens
    December 2023 Ricardo A. Herrea Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778
    October 2023 George Kotlik East Florida in the Revolutionary Era, 1763-1785
    June 2023 Christopher F. Minty Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City
    April 2023 Benjamin L. Carp The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution
    February 2023 Ann M. Becker Smallpox in Washington's Army: Disease, War, and Society During the Revolutionary War
    December 2022 John Buchanan The Battle of Musgrove's Mill, 1780
    October 2022 Andrew Porwancher The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
    June 2022 Christian McBurney Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade
    April 2022 Per-Olof Hasselgren Revolutionary Surgeons: Patriots and Loyalists on the Cutting Edge
    February 2022 Michael C. Harris Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777
    December 2021 Steven Elliott Surviving the Winters: Housing Washington's Army during the American Revolution
    October 2021 Norman Desmarais The Road to Yorktown: The French Campaigns in the American Revolution, 1780-1783
    June 2021 John Buchanan "The Southern Campaign"
    April 2021 Mark Edward Lender "The Middle Atlantic Campaign"
    February 2021 Dr. Glenn Williams "The Northern Campaign"
    December 2020 Christian McBurney George Washington's Nemesis: The Outrageous Treason and Unfair Court-Martial of Major General Charles Lee during the Revolutionary War
    October 2020 John Gilbert McCurdy Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution
    February 2020 Michael C. Harris
    Jonathan Carriel    		 Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777
    "The Battle of Golden Hill, New York City, January 19, 1770"
    December 2019 D.A.B. Ronald The Life of John André: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold
    October 2019 Mary Stockwell Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America
    June 2019 Kevin Gutzman Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America
    April 2019 John Buchanan The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution
    February 2019 Christian Di Spigna Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
    December 2018 Mark Edward Lender Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle
    October 2018 Dr. Joanne Grasso George Washington's 1790 Grand Tour of Long Island
    June 2018 Christian McBurney Abductions in the American Revolution: Attempts to Kidnap George Washington, Benedict Arnold and Other Military and Civilian Leaders
    April 2018 Brooke Barbier Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire
    February 2018 Peter Lubrecht New Jersey Hessians: Truth and Lore in the American Revolution
    December 2017 Robert Ernest Hubbard Major General Israel Putnam: Hero of the American Revolution
    October 2017 Tom Shachtman How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI and the Success of a Revolution
    June 2017 Arthur Lefkowitz Eyewitness Images from the American Revolution
    April 2017 George C. Daughan Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence
    February 2017 Bruce M. Venter The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America
    December 2016 John Oller The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution
    October 2016 Dr. Joanne Grasso The American Revolution on Long Island
    June 2016 Todd W. Braisted Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City
    April 2016 Patrick K. O'Donnell Washington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution
    February 2016 John Steele Gordon Washington's Monument: And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk
    December 2015 Kathleen DuVal Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
    October 2015 Christian McBurney Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott
    June 2015 Jonathan Carriel "The Stamp Act Crisis in New York City, 1765"
    April 2015 Thomas Fleming The Great Divide: The Conflict between Washington and Jefferson that Defined a Nation
    February 2015 Tim McGrath Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea
    December 2014 Richard Welch General Washington's Commando: Benjamin Tallmadge in the Revolutionary War
    October 2014 David Young "Cliveden and the Battle of Germantown"
    June 2014 Maureen Taylor The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation
    April 2014 Phillip Papas Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee
    February 2014 Andréw O'Shaughnessy The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire
    December 2013 Richard Radune Sound Rising: Long Island Sound in the Forefront of America's Struggle for Independence
    October 2013 John Nagy Benjamin Church: Spy
    June 2013 Kevin Phillips 1775: A Good Year for Revolution
    April 2013 Stephen H. Case Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen
    February 2013 Christian McBurney The Rhode Island Campaign
    December 2012 Todd Andrlik Reporting the Revolutionary War
    October 2012 Arthur Lefkowitz Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes
    June 2012 Thomas Schaeper Edward Bancroft: Scientist, Author, Spy
    April 2012 Joseph Smith "Philip Freneau"
    February 2012 Richard Berleth Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier
    December 2011 Maya Jasanoff Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
    October 2011 John Nagy Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution