Public Programs

January 21, 2021

7:00pm-8:00pm EST

Join the National Museum of the  United States Army for a special online event with Mark Maloy, author of Victory or Death: The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, December 25, 1776-January 3, 1777. 

In December 1776, just six months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, General George Washington and the Continental Army sat on the verge of utter destruction by the banks of the Delaware River at the hands of their British enemy. The despondent and demoralized group of American soldiers had endured repeated defeats and now were on the edge of giving up hope. Washington feared "the game is pretty near up." But rather than submit to defeat, Washington and his small band of soldiers crossed the ice-choked Delaware River and attacked the Hessian garrison at Trenton, New Jersey on the day after Christmas. He followed up the surprise attack with successful actions along the Assunpink Creek and at Princeton. In a stunning military campaign, Washington had turned the tables, and breathed life into the dying cause for liberty during the Revolutionary War, which was one of the most significant military campaigns in American history.

Mark Maloy is a historian in the National Park Service in Virginia. He holds an undergraduate degree in History from the College of William and Mary and a graduate degree in History from George Mason University. He has worked at numerous public historic sites and archaeological digs for the past ten years, and is a regular contributor to the blog Emerging Revolutionary War, emergingrevolutionarywar.org. He resides in Alexandria, Virginia.

Moderator John Maass is an education staff member at the new National Museum of the United States Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Dr. Maass received a B.A. in History from Washington and Lee University and a PhD in Early American History at The Ohio State University. He was an officer in the US Army Reserves and was a historian for ten years at the US Army Center of Military History in Washington, DC. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on early U.S. military history.

Program Date Options:

February 2nd, 2021 at 7pm EST

February 9th, 2021 at 12pm EST

Join the National Museum of the  United States Army for the first in its series of one-hour virtual tours of American battlefields, forts, and other sites related to the Army's extensive history. The first tour will focus on the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War. There on a cold, damp afternoon in North Carolina's piedmont region, American forced under Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene fought Lt. Gen. Charles, Lord Cornwallis's British army in a decisive two-hour battle that resulted in a Pyrrhic British victory, but was also a strategic triumph for Greene and the cause of Independence in the South.

Hosted by Museum historian, John Maass, this program will combine the narrative of events of the campaign and battle, along with historic images, Soliders' stories, maps, and pictures of the battleground today. Please note: the same program will be offered on both 2 February at 7pm and 9 February at 12pm.

Join the National Museum of the US Army on 18 February at 7PM EST for a discussion with Jeffrey Matthews, author of Colin Powell: Imperfect Patriot.

For the past three decades, Colin Powell has been among America's most trusted and admired leaders. This biography demonstrates that Powell's decades-long development as an exemplary subordinate is crucial to understanding his astonishing rise from a working-class immigrant neighborhood to the highest echelons of military and political power.

Powell became an extraordinarily effective and staunchly loyal subordinate to many powerful superiors who, in turn, helped to advance his career. By the time Powell became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he had developed into the consummate follower-motivated, competent, composed, honorable, and independent.