Author sheds new light on third president’s life

By David Maurer

Published: August 3, 2008

Dedicated sleuthing through the dusty pages of history can turn up colorful bits of minutia that serve to animate otherwise tinder-dry dates and basic facts.

For example, it’s widely known that on June 4, 1781, a British military force under the command of Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton raided Charlottesville with the hope of capturing Thomas Jefferson and other governing officials. Not generally known is the role a forgotten walking sword played in the event.

This obscure historical nugget, as well as many others concerning Albemarle County’s favorite son, can be found in Rick Britton’s new book, “Jefferson, A Monticello Sampler.”

Each of the 13 chapters in the book addresses an interesting event or person in Jefferson’s life. While many weighty tomes have been written about Jefferson, the new work offers readers more in-depth looks at topics such as his friendships with Italian vintner Filippo Mazzei and the Marquis de Lafayette.

“What I think is different about my book is that it takes various aspects of Jefferson’s life and analyzes them in detail,” Britton said. “You can read about Jefferson and science in Dumas Malone’s books on Jefferson. But you’re not going to read one 20-page treatment of his involvement in all the sciences in one place like my book offers.

“In a straight narrative you might get a couple pages about Jefferson founding the University of Virginia. What I offer is a detailed story with all the different twists and turns that the founder of UVa went through. The chapter on Tarleton’s Raid is also a detailed analysis of that event.”

The raid on that warm Monday in early June 1781 happened in large part because Charlottesville had become the acting state capital after the British occupied Richmond. Tarleton, with a force of 180 green-jacketed dragoons and 70 mounted infantrymen, was bent on capturing Jefferson and a good part of the state’s government.

Jefferson received his first warning of the raid at 4:30 a.m. when John “Jack” Jouett reached Monticello. Jouett had been at the Cuckoo Tavern in Louisa the previous night when he saw the British ride by, and quickly deduced their intent.

As a captain in the Virginia militia, Jouett was clear as to what his duty was. He saddled up his horse and started on a 40-mile headlong dash to Monticello.

Riding with abandon along narrow trails and over cross-country routes, Jouett managed to beat the raiding party to Monticello by several hours. The brave rider must have presented quite a sight in the glow of lamps and candlelight as he warned the future president of the dire situation.

Branches and brambles, unseen in the darkness, had flailed Jouett’s face and opened wounds so deep that he would carry the scars for the rest of his life. Britton notes that Jefferson, ever the gracious host, did not forget his manners despite the gravity of the moment.

Before Jouett departed to warn others, “Jefferson stepped out onto the east portico and handed [Jouett] a fortifying glass of his best Madeira.” After Jefferson sent his immediate family to a friend’s estate where they would be safe, he spent the next few hours packing up his most important papers.

Jefferson then hurried to nearby Carter’s Mountain, where he had set up a 4-foot-long telescope. When he scanned the streets of Charlottesville he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

The statesman-turned-fugitive had started back to Monticello when he realized he had left his walking sword next to the telescope. When he went back to retrieve it he took another look through the telescope, and this time saw the streets teeming with mounted British soldiers.

Jefferson immediately realized he was rapidly running out of time. He quickly returned to Monticello, and had his blacksmith bring his horse. Moments later, as he spurred his mount up Carter’s Mountain, British troops were just 10 minutes from his front door.

Britton’s account of the well-known raid provides insights that reveal why it was considered a day of “terror and confusion.” Frank E. Grizzard Jr. wrote the foreword for Britton’s new book, and credits the author’s extensive research for the rich details.

High praise for book

“I think it’s a wonderful book that’s scholarly based, but very accessible for any reader,” said Grizzard, former senior editor of the Papers of George Washington project at the University of Virginia and current director of the Lee Family Digital Archive at Washington and Lee University.

“I don’t know that anyone has written about the Freeman and Custis Expedition in detail like Rick has done. Or Jefferson’s involvement with the search for the bones of mammoth.

“Rick is a very accomplished historian and writer. His new book is one that people will enjoy reading, as well as learn a lot from.”

The chapter dedicated to Jefferson’s launching of the Freeman and Custis Expedition in 1806 fills in a piece of American history that has been largely overlooked. The expedition explored 600 miles of the Red River in Texas, but was all but eclipsed by the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The new book also provides a fascinating story about the founding of UVa, and how Jefferson managed to win approval to have it built in his hometown. That achievement was certainly not a given in the summer of 1818 when the Rockfish Gap Commission gathered in a tavern on Afton Mountain to decide on the school’s location.

“Jefferson called the creation of UVa the hobby of his old age,” said Britton, whose first book was “Albemarle and Charlottesville: An Illustrated History of the First 150 Years.”

“Most people don’t realize that getting the state’s university built here in Charlottesville was only accomplished with a lot of debate. Washington College in Lexington was just one of the schools vying for it, and William and Mary thought they were already the university of Virginia.

“Of course, Jefferson was one of the commissioners who met at the tavern at Rockfish Gap to decide where the university was going to be built. He was very crafty, and had put together maps that he laid out on a wooden table in the tavern’s dining hall.

“Using the maps he was able to prove that Charlottesville was closer to the geographic center of the state than the other locales that wanted to host the state’s university. He was also able to show that it was closest to the population center of the state, as well.”

Britton has been interested in Virginia history since he was a young boy growing up in Richmond. His grandmother got him hooked by giving him books on the Civil War.

As a freelance writer living in Albemarle County, Britton has published more than 200 articles having to do with Virginia history in magazines and newspapers. The success of these stories inspired the new book.

‘Interesting articles’

“The first idea the publisher had was to take some of the most interesting articles I’ve done on Jefferson and put them in the book as is,” said Britton, who is also an accomplished cartographer who illustrates maps for history books. He also serves as UVa’s official cartographer for the Papers of George Washington Proj-ect, as well as the Papers of Jefferson for the Retirement Series.

“But some of the articles had been written 10 years ago, and I had learned additional things about the subjects since then. And they all had to be longer to make up a chapter.

“So in addition to writing several completely new stories, all the others have been reworked and beefed up. The one thing that is not in the book is Jefferson the politician, because I wanted to concentrate on other aspects of his life.”

Britton has studied Jefferson for years, and he continues to be fascinated by the man. His search for the little gems that help show his human side is ongoing.

“One of my favorite Jefferson quotes is, ‘No blade of grass grows uninterestingly to me,’” Britton said. “He was into everything.

“But what really fascinates me about him is that the more I learn, the more I want to learn about him. And the more I learn about him, the less he becomes just an icon or a statue.

“He starts to become a human being.”

Britton will be discussing and signing copies of his new book at noon Wednesday at New Dominion Bookshop, 404 E. Main St., on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.