Ensign Ebenezer Denny calculated that he went from a green officer to a combat veteran in all of four minutes. Yet in those harsh two hundred and forty seconds he felt like anything but a leader of men in battle. Adrenaline alone was no match against hard marching amidst the brutal Virginia heat with a […]
THE TRIAL THAT GRIPPED THE NEW NATION The Grand Jury in Richmond determined that there was ample evidence of George Wythe Sweeney’s guilt. Virginia attorney general Philip Norborne Nicholas would be prosecuting the murder trial against Sweeney. The talented 31-year old prosecutor was the product of a highly influential family in Virginia who helped to […]
George Wythe was about the last person anybody would ever want to murder. At age 80, Wythe was an exceedingly kind and generous man who could be seen ambling down the streets of Richmond, Virginia in that year of 1806. The townspeople loved him, “His countenance was exceedingly benevolent and cheerful …”[1] and “He moved […]
In traveling upriver on his raid to Richmond in early January 1781, General Benedict Arnold disembarked his army at Westover on the James River where they confiscated enough horses for the advance party and set up camp. Westover was actually a large plantation owned by Mary Willing Byrd. She was the widow of William Byrd […]
