Thursday, September 5, at 7:00 PM

Book talk and signing

‘Remember New London!’ was General Lafayette’s battle cry to Connecticut troops at the siege of Yorktown. Lafayette was of course referring to Benedict Arnold’s burning of the city’s waterfront earlier that year, on September 6, 1781.

On Thursday, September 5, author Matt Reardon will present and sign copies of his latest book The Traitor’s Homecoming at the Custom House. As space is limited, registration is required. Please sign up online. Admission is by donation.

By 1781, the war in North America had reached a stalemate. That changed during the summer when the combined Franco-American armies of Generals

George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau deceived British General Sir Henry Clinton into believing they were about to lay siege to New York City. In fact, they were moving south toward Yorktown, Virginia, in a bid to trap Lord Cornwallis’s British army against the sea.

Clinton fell for the deception and dispatched former American general Benedict Arnold to attack New London. Clinton hoped to destroy the privateers operating out of its harbor and derail militia reinforcements and supplies heading from Connecticut to the allied armies outside New York City.

New London was the center of the state’s wartime naval activities. State and Continental naval vessels operated out of its harbor, which doubled as a haven for American privateers. Arnold landed on September 6 (on a beach just south of New London Harbor Light) and, in a textbook operation, defeated local militia, took possession of the town, harbor, and forts, and set New London’s waterfront ablaze. But that is not how it is remembered. The Connecticut governor’s vicious propaganda campaign against the British and Arnold, who was already infamous for his treachery, created a narrative of partial truths and embellishments that persist to this day. As such, most of the attention remains on the bloody fighting and supposed ‘massacre’ at Fort Griswold. There is much more to the story.

The Traitor’s Homecoming uses dozens of newly discovered British and American primary sources to weave a balanced military study of an often forgotten and misunderstood campaign. Indeed, Reardon achieves a major reinterpretation of the battle while dismantling its myths. Thirteen original maps and numerous illustrations and modern photographs flesh out this provocative and groundbreaking study.

You can find Matt’s book in the museum’s gift shop.