What: Augusta County Historical Society program by Bill Wellington about Jack Jouett – Virginia’s own Paul Revere. The hour-long program, “Poetic Justice” will include a presentation, music, and poem composed by Wellington about Jouett.
When: Saturday, Dec. 7, 11 a.m.-noon.
Where: R.R. Smith Center for History & Art, second floor lecture room, 20 S. New St., Staunton
Cost: Free and open to the public. Program will be enjoyed by anyone age 9 and above.
For more information: www.augustacountyhs.org; [email protected]; 540-248-4151.
Wellington provides ‘poetic justice’ for Revolutionary War hero
Come listen my children who love to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
For I’ll tell you, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet
Till you’ve heard about the ride of Jack Jouett!
In 1861 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” was published in the Atlantic Monthly. This thrilling narrative electrified the country on the eve of the Civil War and made Paul Revere a household name, even to our day. Yet there was another heroic ride during the Revolutionary War that deserves at least as much attention as that of Paul Revere. It happened in Virginia and had a profound effect on Augusta County. In June of 1781 Virginia patriot Jack Jouett rode 40 miles from Louisa County to Charlottesville to warn Governor Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature that the British were coming. Jefferson headed south and the lawmakers came to Staunton where they set up the temporary capital of the state and continued the business of the state. Just a few months later the British surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown.
On Saturday, Dec. 7 from 11 a.m. until noon, the Augusta County Historical Society is sponsoring Staunton storyteller and folk musician Bill Wellington in a program on the second floor of the R.R. Smith Center for History & Art. Wellington is hoping that his program, “Poetic Justice,” will finally give this Revolutionary patriot his just due.
Jouett’s amazing ride through the countryside to warn of 250 British dragoons headed to Charlottesville to capture Jefferson and the rest of the Virginia state government has never gotten the attention it deserved. Some historians, particularly Virginia historians, have attempted to set the record straight and give Jouett his due, but to little avail. Today, his amazing feat remains an obscure footnote to history, little known by the vast majority of Americans.
The problem was that Jack Jouett did not have a poem. But that has now changed thanks to Wellington.
Well-suited for this task, Wellington was born in Massachusetts where, as a boy, he was steeped in the lore of Paul Revere’s midnight ride. One of Bill’s ancestors fought at Lexington Green on April 19, 1775. Yet when Bill moved to Virginia in 1985, and heard the story of Jouett’s ride, he realized that what Jouett did was indeed at least as heroic, if not more so, than what Paul Revere did. And, unlike Revere, Jouett did not get captured by the British. Using his skills as a storyteller and wordsmith, Wellington set out to give Jack his due. His inspiration is Longfellow, whose wonderful poem Bill will also recite at his program.
The program is free and open to the public. For those in downtown Staunton for holiday shopping, this program will provide a welcome respite. At the end of the program, however, a selection of Wellington’s CDs and the historical society’s books will be available for holiday gift giving purchases. And the Gallery Shop at the Smith Center and Art for Gifts will both be open on the first floor of the Smith Center.
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