This illustrated lecture will offer an overview of the current national and regional efforts for investigating and safeguarding Revolutionary War battlefields and military sites. Battlefields discussed will include Princeton, Brandywine, Red Bank, and Cooch’s Bridge. We will look at the history, archaeology, and preservation efforts at these important places, and discuss some of the new interpretations that the renewed interest in these sites has generated.
Join us on Monday, April 29th, as we proudly welcome noted historical archaeologist Wade Catts as he presents his talk on Archaeology and the Exploration and Preservation of Revolutionary War Battlefields. Our meeting place is now Scoogi’s Italian Resturant at 738 Bethlehem Pike in Flourtown. Feel free to arrive early and eat in the back room where our meetings are held. A short business meeting will start around 7:15pm. The presentation will start at 7:30pm. We encourage you to join our membership for the very small and reasonable tax deductible amount of $30. Don’t forget to our book raffle too. Each meeting we raffle off a number of American Revolutionary themed books. You can purchase tickets for the book raffle, $1 per ticket, or $5 for 6 tickets. They money raises goes to pay the room fee and speaker expenses.
Wade P. Catts, MA, RPA is the President of South River Heritage Consulting, LLC. He is an historical archaeologist specializing in history, archaeology, and historic preservation. He has more than 35 years of experience in the field of cultural resource management. Formerly a Director and Principal Archaeologist with John Milner Associates (1993-2014) and Regional Director with Commonwealth Heritage Group (2014-2017), his work experience also includes cultural resource management with academic and government agencies. He holds a graduate degree in American History from the University of Delaware (1988). A Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA), Wade is a member of Society for Historical Archaeology, the Council for Northeast Historical Archeology, the Company of Military Historians, and the Society of Military History. His research interests include the history of farmsteads and agricultural landscapes, military history and archaeology, environmental history, African-American studies, and Middle Atlantic regional history and historic preservation. His Revolutionary War site experience includes multiple projects in New Jersey (Raritan Landing, Beverwyck, Short Hills, Princeton, Fort Mercer), Pennsylvania
(Brandywine, Paoli, Valley Forge, Camp Security, French Creek Powder Works), Delaware (Cooch’s Bridge), New York (Schuylerville, Bennington), and Vermont (Hubbardton). He has extensive experience with Princeton Battlefield, co-authored of several ABPP-funded studies of the engagement, and has worked with the Civil War Trust in its preservation efforts at Princeton and Brandywine battlefields. He has authored or co-authored articles in Historical Archaeology, North American Archaeologist, Northeast Historical Archaeology, Delaware History, Advances in Archaeological Practice, and The Bulletin of the Archeological Society of Delaware. With the assistance of a McKinstry Award from the Delaware Heritage Commission, he is completing a book on the history and archaeology of the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware’s only Revolutionary War engagement. He has recently completed a chapter about the battle of Cooch’s Bridge to be included in a edited volume on the archaeology of asymmetrical warfare to be published in 2019 by The University of Alabama Press, and co-authored a chapter detailing the archaeology of a target range discovered at the Valley Forge Encampment, to be published by the University of Florida Press.