The 28th Annual James Monroe Lecture, to be held on Monday, Nov. 9, will feature an examination of the fifth president and the U.S. Army Officer Corps.
Samuel Watson, professor of history at the United States Military Academy at West Point, will present “Working toward Stability and Subordination: President James Monroe and the U.S. Army Officer Corps.” The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7 p.m. in the Digital Auditorium of the Hurley Convergence Center on the University of Mary Washington’s Fredericksburg campus.
According to Watson, James Monroe was the only president between Washington and Jackson to have served in the army. He also was the only president before the Civil War who served as secretary of war, during which time he secured a long-term secretary of war and appointed Sylvanus Thayer as superintendent at West Point, one of the first major military decisions of his presidency.
“Monroe’s term as commander-in-chief was not without difficulty or controversy,” said Watson. “Yet Monroe proved the most effective commander-in-chief since Washington, helping to set the army on a path of professional development and growing capability.”
The James Monroe Lecture and other public programs of the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library are made possible by support from the Fredericksburg Savings Charitable Foundation; H. Stewart Charitable Jones Trust; James Monroe Memorial Foundation; Paul and Jane Jones Trust (Walter Jervis Sheffield, Trustee) and the Friends of the James Monroe Museum.
The James Monroe Museum is a National Historic Landmark owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia and administered by the University of Mary Washington. Founded in 1927, it is the nation’s largest repository of artifacts and documents related to the fifth President of the United States.
The lecture is sponsored by UMW’s Center for Historic Preservation and Department of History and American Studies.
For more information about the museum, call 540-654-1043 or visit www.jamesmonroemuseum.org.
