Madison Historical Society Presents 'The General and Mrs. Washington: The Untold Story of a Marriage'

By David Luber

On Tuesday, September 15th, the Madison Historical Society will host author, lecturer, and historian Dr. Bruce Chadwick of New Jersey City University, who will discuss “The General and Mrs. Washington: The Untold Story of a Marriage.” Dr. Chadwick’s presentation will take place in the Chase Room of the Madison Public Library beginning at 7:15 PM. Light refreshments will be available from 7:00. The presentation is open to the public, and there is no admission charge.

“This will be our first meeting and presentation for the 2015 – 2016 program year,” stated Society Vice President and Programs Chairman Jim Malcolm. “George Washington played an important role in Madison’s early history.

Troops under his command were encamped in the Morristown area during the early months of 1777 following his victories at Trenton and Princeton. Most were located in the Loantaka Valley near what is now the intersection of Woodland Rd and Treadwell Ave. The better known Morristown encampment took place at Jockey Hollow three years later during the bitter winter of 1779 – 1780.

Tradition has it that General ‘Mad’ Anthony Wayne was billeted at the Sayre House on Ridgedale Ave in what was then Bottle Hill during the Loantaka encampment and that Washington was often a guest at Major Luke Miller’s house down the road.”

“We all know the story of George Washington, but few of us know the story of his marriage to Martha Custis,” stated Dr. Chadwick. “It was a union full of triumph and tragedy, but most of all a marriage of two people in a turbulent time in U.S. history. They were rich, they lived in a big mansion and led the high society parade. Yet, they risked all of it for the cause of freedom in the American Revolution.

The talk describes their married life, the kids, the mother in law, the ‘other woman,’ how they clung to each other in the harrowing days of the war, the ‘first family,’ the start of the U.S. government, breakups and make ups. Hand in hand, George and Martha made this country.”

A prolific writer and university professor, Dr. Bruce Chadwick has an incredibly varied background. He spent 23 years as a journalist with the New York Daily News before earning a doctorate in American history in 1999 from Rutgers University.

He is now a professor of journalism and history at New Jersey City University and is also a part-time lecturer in American Studies at Rutgers. While in the field of journalism, Dr. Chadwick developed interests in a variety of fields – football, sports memorabilia, film, crime and forensics, and of course, American History.

Dr. Chadwick has written more than 150 freelance articles for magazines such as Sports Illustrated, House Beautiful, McCall’s, The Sporting News, Town and Country and Cosmopolitan. He is the author of 29 books that reflect his many interests including Travelling the Underground Railroad, 1858: Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and the War They Failed to See, When the Game Was Black and White: The Illustrated History of Baseball’s Negro Leagues, and I am Murdered: George Wythe, Thomas Jefferson, and the Killing that Shocked a New Nation. His most recent book, James and Dolly Madison: America’s First Power Couple, was published in March 2014. Most appropriate for his September 13th presentation to the Madison Historical Society is his 2007 book, The General and Mrs. Washington.