Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Thats good. Thank you all for being here. My name is kirk brandt, were delighted to have you here for the four evening book talks and i begin by thanking the Ford Motor Company for their partnership, and theyve done a lot for us including endowing this book talk series. Im personally able to welcome back nathaniel philbrick. And i asked to introduce him because whenever i do that, im struck by his bona fides as a true renaissance man. A ba from brown university, and he was a james duke fellow and a worked as an editor at sailing World Magazine and wrote and edited several sailing books, the yachting wind, and the parody. And hes the author of mayflower, as well as a book heart of the sea, National Book award for nonfiction. In 2010 he published a book called the last stand, it was New York Times best seller. It was a New York Times notable book and ala notable book and attempted into a 10 part tv series and adapted as we speak into a 10part series and a consultant on the pbs film custers last stand, the good news for everyone here this evening at the moment he turns these talents to the American Revolution and he published in 2013 bunker hill, a city, a teenager, a revolution and he came to speak about a couple of years ago and it, too, is a New York Times best seller and the 2013 book award for nonfiction, the 2014 distinguished book award for the society of colonial wars. And the rights to book by warner brothers, a film adaptation that ben affleck may direct. Not saying he will, but stay tuned on that one. He has written for vanity fair, the New York Times books review, the wall street journal, the l. A. Times and the boston globe. And hes appeared on the today show, on dateline, on pbss american experience, on cspan, npr and leads me to say were delighted to have cspan this evening to film nats lecture. Like another great historian, he credits his history teacher by recognizing his nascent talent and encouraging him to right and we welcome Nat Philbrick on his new book, and copies are here for signing. George washington, Benedict Arnold and the fate of the American Revolution. Please help me welcome Nat Philbrick. Thank you, curt and its great to be here at mt. Vernon. This is such a special place if youve been researching and writing george washington. Yachting with parody and yachting with spelled with two as and no c, explains why its a parody. But to be here in mt. Vernon after writing this book, it begins with washington at in new york after a as a huge armada of british war ships and transports arrives in new york harbor. More than 400 ships, more than 40,000 sailors and soldiers. Thats more people than in philadelphia, than the largest urban center in america. Its like the war of the worlds in which this amazing force arrives at your doorstep. Washington had been there at the siege of boston, which i write about in my earlier book, bunker hill. But this is dinner. King george had responded with a real will and washington was had never led a big army in a big battle before. This was new for him and it would test his talent and it was after finishing bunker hill i realized i have to follow this guy into where hell lead me in the revolution because i was so fascinated with washington and hes not a statue. He was in his 40s with red hair and you know, we think of him as the careful pragmatist, the person that we see on the dollar bill, but early on in his military career he was wired to be aggressive in boston, time and time again, he wanted to attack the british that were then in boston, and his counsel of war repeatedly would say, no, its just too risky, but he wanted that bold stroke to try to finish this war because he realized this was america was hardly a country at all, especially in 1775, even with the declaration of independence in july of 1776. It was now supposedly independent, but it was barely held together and washington was well aware how tentative his army was, it was didnt have enough armaments or gun powder, all of these things and now in new york, its completely different. Hes up against it. It would not go well for him in new york. The battle of long island, he would be out generaled by william howe, forced retreat from the high grounds in brook len heights. Across the east river to new york. Eventually forced to retreat from new york, into the harlem heights, and this gave the british a toehold on the base of the hudson river. And much of my book is about is set on water believe it or not, because as the hudson river, it was part of what i would call water a corridor of water. If you took the hudson river to the south and the riverlike, spans of Lake Champlain, you had water all the way to canada. We drive around in our multilane highway and you see a fort position by a river or a lake, and you wonder why . Whats the strategic importance . The fact of the matter was, in the 18th century you couldnt transport people or provisions with speed or regularity unless it was by water. The road system was not there and so, whoever possessed this corridor of water would be in a position to cut off new england from the rest of the states. And so, it was absolutely critical that america maintained some control of this or the war would be over. And with the loss of new york, the british now had the toehold on this corridor of water. And by september 15, with the america americans evacuating from new york, there was one group of soldiers that stood between the british and taking Lake Champlain to the north and that was Benedict Arnold. But my interest in Benedict Arnold goes way back. It began with my mother. When i was growing up in the 60s. My mother was a renegade. For one thing, she smoked a pipe. [laughter] as a teenager it was tough to take in a restaurant when mom would light up after dinner and she had no problem telling someone what she believed, even if she knew they didnt want to hear it. And one of her heroes was Benedict Arnold. Mom being many mo mom being mom, i kind of dismissed that in my teenage years. After i finished bunker hill, i realized, i wanted to get to a part of the war of independence that i knew relatively little about. I write these books not because im an expert in the field, but because im curious about the subject. I wanted to know i knew there was a story there that i hadnt really learned in High School Even though miss wilk, my ap u. S. History teacher was a wonderful wo womben woman and ignited my interest. We thought of them as banding together to defeat british tyranny and we think of the inevitable victory at yorktown. The fact is the revolution went on for eight long years and instead of this seemingly relentless course to victory, it stagnated terribly even after the french came into it, even after the victory at saratoga, things wound down. There wasnt the money to pay for the army. Congress was highly suspicious of the military because in every previous revolution in which the republic was the hoped for end result, the military had ultimately cooperated the civil government and either a dictator or an emporer would take over, so they were rightly concerned about the military. So the Continental Congress was had real control over washington. I think we think of him as, you know, operating being the one whos controlling this revolution, but in fact, he had to report to the congress. And i hate to say it, but a Dysfunctional Congress is nothing new. [laughter] and washington had to deal with this. And so and one of the things that happened during this eight year slog was instead of fighting the british, we americans began to fight among ourselves. It was under the it was patriot versus loyalist to a certain extent, but in large swaths the Hudson River Valley to the north of british occupied new york, the Long Island Sound and the coastal new jersey, it devolved into this ugly cat and dog fight. Former neighbor going after neighbor. And it just was it was just something that was horrible to live through and afterwards people really didnt want to remember it in those terms. And so i wanted to get at this, but how to how to find a way to dramatize it. How to find personality to get at what i felt was the dark side of the revolution, that i hadnt appreciated. Enter mom with Benedict Arnold because i grew up thinking, to be called a Benedict Arnold, oh, my gosh, that was the worst possible thing you could be. And hes like many historical figures, hes become a caricature. And how hes just the worst thing on earth as far as americans can think of, but the fact of the matter is, in the beginning of our revolution, he was our best general. And washington really respected him for that and its interesting, washington was wired, had an aggressive temperament by nature and he would learn to tame it for the good of his country, but in Benedict Arnold, i think he saw a Kindred Spirit to a certain extent, that if washington had been ten years younger and not saddled with the crushing responsibilities of command, he could have been on the battle field and winning the kinds of victories that was Benedict Arnold was wracking up. Because it was amazing. At lexington and concord, and hes been an apothecary and seagoing merchantman. Hes got a small fleet of ships that go down to the caribbean, up the coast to the st. Lawrence river, to quebec and montreal and he knows all about this corridor of water and he says, you know what . We need to take ticonderoga and its a key to this vital portion of our country. And it turns out ethan alan and some of the others have the same ideas, Benedict Arnold and ethan alan that stormed fort ticonderoga. Washington is mired in what will be a ninemonth siege in boston. He send Benedict Arnold on a over a crazy overland expedition to try to get to quebec because the british have been caught kind of unaware by the outbreak of the revolution. They have very small force the in montreal and quebec. We can take those two cities early before reinforcements arrive, well have canada and be in a much better position. So montgomery is sent up Lake Champlain and takes montreal. Its up to Benedict Arnold to lead this ragtag band up the penobscot river, up the penobscot river, not down, in the fall. Its getting very cold and the river is a virtual torrent and ive followed Benedict Arnolds trail into the interior maine to quebec, up north theres still nothing up there. [laughter] if theres a street name, it says arnold and he led his men up there. Its just an incredible story on its own, and hes there with daniel morgan, the great virion rifleman. Aaron burr. Its an amazing cast and they make it, they get to quebec, after that amazing feat he would be known as the american hannibal, he was a hero. They finally would storm quebec, at the end of the year in a snowstorm. Montgomery, who had teamed up with him by that point, would be killed in the early going. Benedict arnold would be badly injured when a bullet ricochet got his left leg and it would not succeed, but it was still an amazing, amazing feat. He would eventually be reassigned in montreal and be a vital element in leading the retreat from canada back down Lake Champlain and chapter two of valiant ambition takes us 360 miles north of new york to the Lake Champlain near the Canadian Border where its Benedict Arnold with a fleet of about 15 vessels, many of them hacked from the trees surrounding the southern end of Lake Champlain, galleys and gondolas, basically floating platforms for canons and hes put this fleet together in record time and Horatio Gates is his boss in this and he has sent arnold up there with his fleet and the british now have new york and now, there is a general the british general is leading this vast armada down Lake Champlain. Now, they have actual three masted ships with you know, they have scooners, they have shouse of soldiers, they have 20 gun boats and theyre all headed in arnolds direction. Its october. Its so cold, they can see snow in the Adirondack Mountains on one side and its the Green Mountains on the other. Theyre up there all alone, its only an schooner that goes back and forth, 100 miles at Lake Champlain. Its the 0 nl connection to tie conned ticonde ticonderoga. And i didnt know that Benedict Arnold was a mariner. It was a wonderful surprise and what made it more special, guess where i learned how to sail . Lake champlain and little did i know, that i was sailing on the other side of the lake and on the east side. On the west side, a few miles below whats now platsburg, new york is the island. It contained a little bay inside. And arnold knew that if he would take his little fleet and hide it inside the bay, and wait for the british to sail past, and then reveal himself, basically wave and say, here we are, the british would then have to sail against the wind to attack his small fleet now, a threemasted british ship with 18 cannons is an awesome for force. But it cant sail against the wind and it would work beautifully, the british with this huge armada would sail down and arnold would wave to them and theyd turn around saying, aha, weve got him. Were between him and his escape route and well destroy what the americans called the mosquito fleet, appropriately enou enough. And so what would unfold is a tremendous sea battle on Lake Champlain. Arnold lined up 15 vessels to what was called valcor bay. I was up there with my wife in a pontoon boat and circling it and working it out. In the museum they had the philadelphia, it was sunk in this battle and go down and see it, its amazing. The suite was all piled up. His vessels were all lined up. Arnold was in the center of his line and they waited for them. Sure enough the schooners had a hard time getting up. So the boats would line up and start whaling on one another, fires canons back and forth. Arnold was at the bow firing him and he even took a pot shot at general charltons flag ship and nearly took him out on the quarter deck. It was hours going at it. The philadelphia would get sunk. Eventually night would come and arnold had fought them to a draw. I mean, he had his his fleet was a mess. Many men had died, but it was a miracle, he had done it, but the british were confident once they had them trapped in this small bay. So what they did was create their own line below arnold so there was no way for him to escape and they were going to get him in the morning. Well, arnold has a, has a counsel with his officers and one of his officers says, look, the only way were going to get out of this is if we sail to the north, go around the top of the bay and the island. Its the safest thing to do. Now, arnold had a swashbuckling charisma to him that i think was both inspiring and could be infuriating if you were an officer. And he said no, were going to go through their fleet. Were going to sneak through them, theres enough of a gap on the short side of their line if we go one vessel after another, were going to get through. Okay, lets go for it. And so vessel after vessel would go by with a light in the stern that could be see and row with minimal sail up, one after another they went out. Every vessel got out and charlton awoke the next morning, there was fog on the lake and took a while to figure out there was no american fleet. He was apoplectic. According to one account, he ordered them, lets go after them without telling everyone else that he was leaving and then had to come back, okay, yeah, were all going after arnold. [laughter] by this time, the americans were many miles down the lake and the wind had switched to the south so they were sail against the wind. It was a, you know, became a battle for the british were chasing, chasing them. A day passes, arnold is desperately trying to get his fleet back to fort ticonderoga. Having sailed on Lake Champlain, the wind is not reliable. Arnolds fleet was becalmed as a wind line comes down the lake and the british are coming after them. So that great big british ship and two schooners were leading the way. Arnold basically says to his fleet, keep on going, although he tried to make one more stand at a place known as split rock, but his fleet sort of evaporated around him. And so, he decided to make a kind of stand and so that the rest of the vessels could escape to fort ticonderogs. So theres arnold surrounded by three british vessels fighting for hours. Eventually theyre beginning to sink and arnold realizes once again, this is it. He notices that the wind has changed to the east. He can row, they cant really do that so well, so they go for shore, make it to shore. They pull their vessels hes surrounding by a few gondolas and they pull their vessels up and orders his men up in the high ground around and he refuses to lower his flag, you know, so the flag is still up, but he orders them to blow up their ships because theres gun powder in there, and hes done the order and the british are approaching, theyve lit the fuse and he notices that one of his injured officer is has been left inadvertently on the deck of his vessel. Even though he had insisted that everybody get off. It blows up. And for arnold, it was crushing. Theres and its interesting. The only account we had of this episode was from a british surgeon who saw a body fly in the air and he claimed he used this to say how insensitive arnold was, this was years