Research Forum

We are excited to announce the launch of our new research forum. We plan to hold research forums bimonthly through the fall and winter. All are welcome: reenactors, Park personnel, local historians, and anyone with an interest in Colonial America. Please spread the word to anyone you think might be interested.

Upcoming research forums:

Past research forums:

2009: Sept. 17: J. L. Bell on tracking down deserters, Nov. 12: Don Hagist on the garrison in Boston, focusing on His Majesty's 22nd Regiment of Foot

Gary Gregory, Print media in pre-Revolutionary Boston, Thursday, January 21 — 7:30pm, Minute Man National Historic Park Visitor Center (Lincoln); check back later to confirm time and location

Stay tuned for more information...

Don Hagist, The garrison in Boston, Thursday, November 12 — 7:30pm, Minute Man National Historic Park Visitor Center (Lincoln)

Don Hagist, author of the British Soldiers, American Revolution blog, will offer a detailed look at the demographics of the garrison in Boston, focusing on His Majesty's 22nd Regiment of Foot. How old was the average British soldier during the Revolution? Where in society did those men come from, geographically and economically? We don't have many personal accounts from redcoat soldiers, and many descriptions of them are, well, less than sympathetic. Exploring a solid sample of those men through primary sources seems like the best way to get solid information and bust some myths.

J. L. Bell, Tracking Down Deserters, Thursday, September 17 — 7:30pm, Minute Man National Historic Park Visitor Center (Lincoln)

Men who deserted from the British Army to the Continentals (or vice versa) are among the most intriguing characters of the Revolutionary War. Researching them is especially knotty because sources on their lives are often far apart in perspective, not to mention distance. Furthermore, those men had good reasons to conceal their pasts—so well in some cases that our standard histories still tell their cover stories. In this presentation, Boston 1775 blogger J. L. Bell describes some of the deserters he's tracking, including a prominent captain in the Continental artillery.