Dear Sir,

I am much interested in the early years of the American Republic and of course, of the Revolution, yet I’d never heard of the Battle of Penobscot Bay or of Majabigwaduce (I struggle with the pronunciation) for that matter.  After reading “The Fort” I find my knowledge of the war improved.  I wonder if you’d ever considered the Battle of Machias as fit fodder for your talents.

I think the reason for my interest in this phase of history is George Washington.  Certainly there is plenty of mythology surrounding the man yet history somehow gives his personality a miss, witnessed by the absence of extensive biographies (although that by Joseph Ellis is quite good) or by films that concentrate on him as a character.  You have described him, in “Redcoat,” as “Fat George” and through Brigadier McLean as a “formidable man” in “The Fort.”  I can see how both would fit, considering the 1772 rendering of him by Charles Peale, but the man remains an enigma.  That’s all.  Just a comment.

Keith Biesiada