In October 2013 Charleston’s Post and Courier ran a front-page story about my research on the “Horn Work,” a large tabby fortification that once straddled King Street and served as the gateway into the town.  As a result of that press coverage, we had a very large turnout for my 2013 “Horn Work” presentation at CCPL. In case you missed that event, we’re offering two ways to catch up on your knowledge of Charleston’s largest fortification. First, you can watch last year’s presentation at your leisure via the following YouTube link:

Second, I’m presenting an updated version of this lecture at CCPL on Wednesday, October 22nd at 6 p.m. What’s new for 2014? I’ve been tinkering with my three-dimensional model of the Horn Work in an effort to render its size and materials more accurately. I’ve also gathered some new information from the British Library about Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet‘s role in convincing the South Carolina General Assembly to fund the construction of this important fortification project. Bouquet arrived in Charleston in mid-June 1757 as commander of the first battalion of the newly-formed 60th Regiment of Foot, better known as the “Royal Americans.” Bouquet’s surviving correspondence also reveals that in August 1757 he sent an illustrated plan of Charleston’s new fortifications to his superior officer, John Campbell, the 4th Earl of Loudoun. Many of the earl’s papers from the era of the “French and Indian War” survive in scattered archives, so I’ve begun a search for this forgotten 1757 treasure.

Archival sources at the British Library also provide “new” information about Lieutenant Emanuel Hess, the young Swiss engineer who accompanied the “Royal Americans” to South Carolina in 1757. Within a period of less than six months, Lieutenant Hess designed a series of new fortifications for Charleston, James Island, and Beaufort. After supervising the initial stages of these construction projects, Lt. Hess and the rest of the Royal Americans sailed from Charleston to Philadelphia in the late spring of 1758. Lt. Col. Bouquet then marched his troops towards the French at Fort Duquesne, but Lt. Hess fell ill and was left behind in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There he died of tuberculosis and was buried on 22 February 1759.

If you’d like to learn more about Lieutenant’s Hess’s “Horn Work” in Charleston, and the other fortifications he designed for South Carolina, please join me for a program titled:

“The Horn Work: Charleston’s Tabby Fortress, 1757–1784”

Time: Wednesday, October 22nd 2014 at 6:00 p.m.

Place: Second Floor Classroom, Charleston County Public Library, 68 Calhoun St., 29401.