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Looking for General Monk or Somebody Like Him
By Park Ranger Joe Craig Rangers love “kid mail”. School programs are quite a workout, but getting a bundle of thank you notes from students can make it all worthwhile. Often, there is a formula to the notes, probably dictated by their assignment: “Thank you for teaching us about the Revolutionary War and Battles of…
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La Belle Dame Sans Merci
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger Visitors to Saratoga National Historical Park seem to have a variety of reactions to the resources of the site and stories it tells. The views from the visitor center (when not obscured by summertime haze) elicit appreciative gasps over the beauty of the valley. Newborn fawns in the spring bring…
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Jekyll or Hyde?
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger 20th [August 1777]. Our landlady had a child, 9 months old, that she was carefully hiding. I was curious to know the reason and asked Captain O’Connell [a captured English speaking Irishman serving with the German general staff] to question the woman as to the cause. I was very much humiliated…
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How Rank Can You Get?
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger Americans highly regard the people who won our Independence during the Revolutionary War. Considering the accomplishment of surviving a war against the top power of its day, it’s understandable that when our first national myths were created the “Founding Fathers” would be in for a good deal of admiration. By…
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Honour Among Gentlemen
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger In the middle of nowhere, far from centers of power and gentility, two gentlemen conferred and the results would set off shock waves throughout the globe. Amid the remote, near wilderness American General Horatio Gates accepted the capitulation of British General John Burgoyne’s trapped army at Saratoga. Burgoyne’s invading force had come to…
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Hard Times
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger It is almost a commonplace observation that Americans do not know their Revolutionary War history. This is vigorously noted through many media outlets by pundits of varying political leanings (and often muttered by park rangers between clenched teeth). The pundits in their pronouncements seem to have a fixation upon the…
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Gone for a Soldier
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger “…The burial was located outside the redoubt wall, at the northernmost end of the fortification. The burial pit was basin shaped, but very shallow, such that both the head and feet were just below the surface. The individual was buried, face up, but both the skull and the feet were…
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George Foresees the Future
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger American historians have proven to be harsh judges of the British during the War for Independence. Certainly such animosity can be understood by writers in the first generation of an independent United States. The wounds of that long conflict were quite fresh in mind, and the US was rather insecure…
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From Fightin’ Words to Friends Again
By Joe Craig, Park Ranger It has been noted that starting wars is relatively easy, but getting the ensuing mayhem to cease can be extremely difficult. This is especially so if the party who is trying to get the shooting halted is considered the aggressor, like General John Burgoyne. Of course, the British hadn’t come…
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Forebears
“There is no problem about changing the course of history the course of history does not change because it all fits together like a jigsaw [puzzle]. All the important changes have happened before the things they were supposed to change and it all sorts itself out in the end.” The Restaurant at the End of the Universe…
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