Your continued scholarship and skill bring to life moments in time that we would not be able to experience were it not for your books.
I found your book “The Fort’ to be particularly enlightening. I, like many other Americans, had never heard of this event in our history. Reading it prompted me to take a trip across my country to Castine, Maine to stand in the ambiance of this event. I wanted to see the peninsula, the terrain, the bay and the river. I found the opportunity to view this story, from that environment, even more impressive. Of particular interest was “the other” Fort Knox and it’s history and the Maine Maritime Academy, now standing in this town. From my perspective, I don’t think even the loss of our naval forces at Pearl Harbor was as devastating to our nation as the loss of not only our proto-navy but also so many merchant marine vessels at Penobscot. At least, Pearl Harbor generated a massive national positive response. Penobscot ended with us running away and trying to forget rather than remember.
I have read many of your books and enjoy the characters and the historical settings, but this one changed the way I view them and your work. The tapestry of a historical moment is made of many threads. Your skill in clearly identifying critical ones to reveal the underlying import of what lead up to that event, continues to engage my thoughts long after the reading. You have also pulled loose some threads of history to lead us into the future of this event. This particular story has caused me to review what I believe are many results subsequent in a new light.
In a trip across Scotland many years ago, a grove of trees was pointed out to me by a guide. Supposedly this grove was planted in the same configuration as Wellington’s Army at Waterloo. I wonder if the planter had any idea of the military significance of Sir John Moore to that event. So many of America’s, and maybe England’s, military underpinnings may derive from this single event in history. Sometimes we forget, at best, or cover up, at worst, the events that impact us the most.
Moore, and Wadsworth certainly took more away from this event than we may ever know, but your story brings each of them to life again. It allows us to learn with them and experience with them life in a different time and place.
Thank you,
Bryan Luttrell