Noted Historian Speaking Thursday

In honor of America’s 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence this year, the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum is proud to present author and historian Ryan L. Cole to speak on his new book The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic. Fresh off his presentation in the Library of Congress, Cole will offer his program in Crawfordsville on Thursday, March 12 at 7 p.m. in the Carriage House Interpretive Center at the General Lew Wallace Study & Museum.

In 1824, Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette was invited to tour the nation he helped win independence nearly fifty years earlier. The 13 colonies he once knew had grown into 24 states stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. His triumphant journey through every state in the nation became the grandest celebration ever staged by the grateful young republic, honor the last living general of the American Revolutionary Army.

Cole, a former assistant to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, holds degrees in history and journalism from Indiana University.

He has written extensively about American history and literature for the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the New Criterion, Civil War Times, the American Interest and the Indianapolis Star. Additionally, he has written for Indiana University and the Lumina Foundation, and he served on the staff of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Other books by Cole include Tracing the Rise and Fall of Light-Horse Harry Lee andThe Soul of an American President: The Untold Story of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Faith.