"Richard Montgomery—who was this man whose name today identifies our county?" (In-Person)

Richard Montgomery—who was this man whose name today identifies our county and 15 others in the United States? Join Robert Plumb as he presents the life of General Richard Montgomery, the first general officer killed in the Revolutionary War and what, if any, connections he has with Montgomery County, Maryland. Plumb will discuss Montgomery’s arrival in the American Colonies, his role in the American Revolution and the ill-fated American Northern Expedition into Canada. The speaker will also cover Montgomery’s relationship to slavery as practiced in 18th century New York.

Robert Plumb is a resident of Montgomery County, Maryland and a long-time member of the Historical Society and its Speakers Bureau.  After a career with GE and Fannie Mae, he wrote Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey.  Published by the University of Missouri Press in 2011 it was released again in 2013 in softcover format.  His current work, The Better Angels, was published by Potomac Books, an imprint of The University of Nebraska Press, on March 1, 2020. Plumb’s writing has appeared in The Montgomery County Story, Hallowed Ground, the magazine of the American Battlefield Trust, and the Washington Post, and Washington Post Magazine.  He holds a BA in history from the State University of New York at Buffalo and an MA from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. From 2014 to 2017 and in 2019 and in 2022 he attended the Yale University Summer Writers’ Workshop in residence.  He is a member of the Montgomery County Civil War Round Table, the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia, and the Society of Civil War Historians.