Lunch & Learn: Saint George’s Island, 1776: Historical, Archaeological and Landscape Analysis of an Overlooked Battle of the American Revolution

Registration not required, but encouraged. Please register for the event here.

Learn about the largest Revolutionary War battle fought in Maryland, when British troops under the governor of Virginia, John Murray, Lord Dunmore, landed on Saint George’s Island in the Potomac River in St. Mary’s County on July 17, 1776. 

New work reveals that it was a larger and more protracted battle than previously thought, involving American regular troops and militiamen facing off against regular British soldiers and Loyalist militia soldiers, as well as over 70 British naval vessels. 

Washington College archaeologists have worked with Kennon Williams Landscape Studio, under contract to Preservation Maryland, to prepare a battlefield and landscape assessment of the island. Dr. John L. Seidel and Charles Fithian will describe the historical research, GIS mapping, and a detailed battlefield analysis that has revealed a far more complex and important episode in the American War for Independence. It is a surprising and little-known story, with unrealized potential for future archaeological research.

Dr. John L. Seidel is the CEO of Historic St. Mary’s City. He has led investigations of the ancient and modern Maya (Guatemala and Belize), conducted marine research for the National Park Service as well as terrestrial and marine archaeology throughout the eastern United States. He has taught at Rutgers University, the University of Maryland College Park, Washington College, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Despite Dr. Seidel’s wide-ranging geographic experience, his real passion is the Chesapeake region during the 17th and 18th. His current position allows him to explore that interest at one of the country’s premier historic seventeenth-century sites, the location of Maryland’s first capital (1634-1695). 

Dr. Seidel received a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, after completing his undergraduate studies at Drew University. He has published more than 80 articles, book chapters, and research monographs, and actively lectures to public and professional groups.

Charles Fithian is a historical archaeologist. From 1986-2014, he was the Curator of Archaeology for the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, where he managed the state’s 4+ million artifact collection and participated in many archaeological projects. From 2013-2023, he was affiliated with Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland as a professor of anthropology and staff archaeologist. 

Fithian holds a master’s degree in History from Salisbury University, with a concentration in Colonial and Revolutionary America. He is the author of “‘Master Pope’s Fort’: Archaeological Investigations of a Fortification of the English Civil Wars in St. Mary’s City,” published in 2021. He is currently at work on a social history of the Delaware Regiment during the American Revolution, and the documentation of Delaware’s military and logistical landscape during the American Revolution, as well as a project entitled “‘A System, concise, easy and efficient’: John Dickinson and the Defense of the Delaware State, 1781-1782.” He lives in Dover, with his wife Diane and Tiki the Wonder Cat.

ASL interpretation will be available for attendees.

Presented in partnership with The Maryland State Archives and The Maryland Four Centuries Project.