 a Valley Table interview Issue 45 (March-May 09) [Copyright © 2009, The Valley Table] He's a bit of a paradox. Historian Jim Johnson, a retired Army colonel whose service began at West Point (class of 1969) and included command of artillery batteries in Korea and Germany, advanced studies at the U.S. Naval War College and a stint at the Pentagon writing speeches for the Army Chief of Staff, has the presence and stature you'd expect of a career officer. But a PhD in history from Duke University and 15 years teaching military history at the Point have convinced him of one thing: History is not the study of events, it's the study of people. Retired Colonel Dr. James Johnson is, above all, a humanist. Jim Johnson: We learn who we are through history, and if you understand who you are, what your context is, once you try to come to grips with yourself, then you understand how important people can be. You don't have to be a great man or a great woman to have had that happen. History is about people. I have become convinced, even as historiography has gone in a different direction, that individual people can make a difference. My specialty is the American Revolution, even though, as a military historian, I teach the whole spectrum of military history. The book I wrote, Militia Men Rangers and Red Coats [Mercer University Press, 1993; $25 paperback], is about the early revolutionary history of Georgia. People, generally, when they think of the American Revolution, think of Massachusetts and Virginia because they say, wow, everything started up there in Boston and then there was this battle in Yorktown, Virginia. I say the cockpit of the American Revolution throughout the war was New York: The British show up here in late June/early July of 1776 and they don't leave until November 25, 1783, so the place that the British are always present--despite the campaigns that go on in the south, despite things that will happen in New Jersey and Pennsylvania--everything always comes back to New York. Washington maintained his army in the Hudson River Valley, centered on West Point. It becomes a pivotal spot for the American Revolution. We all tend to think of what happened in 1860 to 1865 as the Civil War. Most people never think about the fact that the American Revolution was probably our first civil war. You really see it played out here in New York because a very large percentage of the New York population in 1776 said, "We're loyal to the king," or at least they weren't willing to take a stand with the wigs (as the patriots called themselves). An historian of New York in the early twentieth century estimated that 40 percent of New Yorkers would have considered themselves loyalists in 1776. I would say that was part of the British strategy--they thought that New York was a colony/state they could control. They also had another concern--they had a strong sense of their need to maintain their affiliation with the Iroquois Confederacy, and New York gave them the ability to do that. By November 1783, starting in the summer and fall, some 35,000 loyalists fled through New York to Canada, to the Caribbean, back to the home country. That shows you the dimension of the civil war that took place here. The line was the Croton River. Westchester was a heavily contested area throughout the war. The British army was trying to find supplies--you'll hear the terms "skinners" and "cowboys." I think most historians are prepared to believe those are designations of British irregular troops (loyalist units) that are fighting against the Americans in Westchester County. So, if you look at the near reaches of New Jersey, Staten Island, Manhattan and Westchester up to the Croton River, the British had pretty much control of that area throughout the war. A transplanted southerner, Johnson has developed a contagious enthusiasm for the Hudson Valley. This year marks the quadricentennial of Hudson's discovery of the river, but that's just for starters--the river has been historically important since Day 1. On the other hand, does anyone really care? JJ: We Americans are present-future types; we don't dwell on our history. So I think we have to almost force Americans to pause and think about our history--I think it's useful to understand our roots, and [the quadricentennial] gives us a way to do this. We need to remember that Henry Hudson sailed up this river 400 years ago, and from that the Empire State grew. New York is one of the most important states in the Union, one of the most populous, richest. We ought to look back and see how we got to where we are. I say that history needs to be about people, events, experiences--I'm hoping we're going to energize people this year to think about their history and, hopefully, as they think of three individuals who made a difference in our country and our valley, that maybe that will inspire them. Champlain "discovered" the lake that would bear his name--along with Native Americans, who already discovered it, obviously. Henry Hudson explored the Hudson River, which would ultimately bear his name (for many years--into the time of the American Revolution--the Hudson River was called the North river; it's only later that it will get his name). The third is Robert Fulton, who, for some reason, in 1909 the state decided to remember his centennial innovation, which was to make a viable steamboat. (He didn't invent the steamboat, but he made a productive vessel that used steam power on the river.) I would say the Hudson was one of the most important rivers for both sides in the American Revolution. Washington recognized its importance based on a couple of trips that he made during the French and Indian Wars. When he served on a committee of the Continental Congress in May 1775, they decided to put fortifications in the Hudson River. Sir Henry Clinton had lived in New York--his father had been the governor at some point earlier in the colonial period, and he understood how important [the river] was. The Generals understood that for commerce, for military logistical/transportation needs, the Hudson River was very important. Washington saw West Point on the Hudson as the "key of America." For him, making sure that Americans controlled the Hudson was the key to victory in the revolution (roads were terrible--you had to depend on the river). Later, with the Delaware & Hudson Canal, and then the Erie Canal, the commerce and resources of the Midwest and coal from Pennsylvania flowed into the Hudson down to New York City--[at that time] one of the key centers of commerce in the world, which it still is. So, what Washington identified in the colonial and revolutionary periods still holds true. He would not recognize the way commerce is done today--electronically--but he would understand the power that still exists here. I think that New York, despite all the current economic ills, is still the financial engine of the world. If you look at history, you'll see how important New York's always been: -- The economic engine of New York was important in the victory of the Union in the Civil War. I think the state probably provided more troops in the Civil War than perhaps any other state. And then you go up and up and up. -- Some people have called this one of the first "Silicon Valleys." You had the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, one of the really dynamic iron foundries; up in the Troy/Cohoes region, there were ironworks, textiles, bleacheries; Wappingers Falls had a bleachery, for example. -- And I think we are a cultural center: The Hudson River School of painters, the Knickerbocker Writers, landscape architects (like here in Newburgh--Andrew Jackson Downing, Calvert Vaux), on and on and on. We in the Hudson River Valley have led in so many areas. I think one of the most important has been the environment, with the famous Storm King case, when Franny Reese and others were able, over 18 or 19 years, to finally persuade ConEdison to give up on idea of a hydroelectric pumping plant at Storm King. We have a riverkeeper, we have an Institute at Beacon, we have the Clearwater, we have Scenic Hudson, we have the Open Space Institute--we really have a lot of claims to fame in the environmental world. I don't know if the Hudson will ever get back to where it was. Governor Pataki made it his goal that by the end of his term he wanted you to be able to swim in the Hudson--and you can actually swim in the Hudson. I think New York State has done a pretty good job of cleaning up the Hudson and, of course, the long-term health in terms of removal of PCBs. All those things are ongoing. But the Hudson is a much different river than when Pete Seeger named his boat the Clearwater in 1969. I'm optimistic. I think we're doing a lot of the right things. I don't know what we need to do to make people say, "All right, there are four places in America that you want to go and one of those is the Hudson River Valley." I think our challenge is to make people who go to New York City decide to come up the river. I think we need to get entrepreneurs to put money into boats--much like they did in the nineteenth century--to bring the population of New York City upriver for health and beauty and culture and all the other kinds of things, to health resorts, to get away from the irritants of the metropolitan area. People have worked on this longer than I have--you've been a part of that, too. We've got the national media in New York City, we have the television networks, we have cable, we have major newspapers, but somehow we just don't seem to be able to do the kind of things in their eyes to convince them that there are important stories in the valley. I do hope that if we can do the right thing by this quadricentennial, and we can excite the world--not just the country--with what we're doing, then maybe we can engage the world in what we have to offer here. But there also is "Be careful what you ask for..." If, suddenly, the entire world shows up in the Hudson River Valley, those of us who live here may not be that happy. Johnson has directed his boundless enthusiasm for the valley toward the establishment of the Hudson River Valley Institute (which he cofounded and now heads), an extensive repository of information about the valley, its history, resources, literature, art and politics. (Oh, did we mention people?) JJ: Success stories have many fathers; failures tend to be orphans. If I were trying to put my finger on the founders, my boss, Tom Weremuth, the academic vice president at Marist, and I collaborated on this. But we had great help from fellow board member of the former Friends of the Hudson Valley, Peter Bienstock. He had originally formed the Hudson River Study Center at New Paltz. We're a small operation. We see ourselves as the hub of the things that are happening in the Hudson River Valley. If it's cultural, historical, environmental, then we hope that people will come to our resources. We're about promoting and helping people learn about the valley. It's called the Hudson River Valley Institute. We have two really premier things--a digital library and the review. The issue that we're going to do in the spring is going to be a quadricentennial commemorative issue. We'll have articles on Hudson, Samuel Champlain and Fulton. We have a very rich resource with this digital library. It sounds like a lot of private initiatives are working to make the quad' successful. Where's the state in all this? Has the political mess in Albany had any significant ramifications? JJ: You have to take these moments. You take the moments that you're given and you try to do the best you can with them to tell your story. I'm on the Dutchess County Quadricentennial Committee, for example, Dutchess County Tourism is trying to do all kinds of things to try and get people engaged. One of the projects right now is to put a web cam on the walkway, so around the world you can follow the progress of the work that's being done on the bridge. The dedication of the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge--it's now going to be called a Walkway over the Hudson--is to take place on the third of October. Fifteen million dollars was in last year's state budget. I think the state is still committed to another $15 million (but you'd have to ask the governor that). Scenic Hudson has put some money into it; the Dyson Foundation has put money in. I'll have to say, the current state of the economy and state government has probably dampened some of the state funding that could have been used to do this, although the governor has been committed to three legacy projects and has stuck to that, despite the budgetary woes. The one in our area is the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge, which will become the longest elevated walkway in the world--over a mile and a quarter--which will connect into the Greenway and rail trails on both sides of the river. That's our signature project. (The one in the Champlain area is the Crown Point Lighthouse, which features sculptures of Champlain, Huron and a Frenchman. The City of New York and the feds and others are supposed to do some sort of promenade down on Governor's Island.) Chip Reynolds, with the Half Moon, is going to be very important to this celebration--he is going to stop at cities along the way. He was at Newburgh with the ship in the fall, and thousands of people on a very terrible weekend from a weather standpoint came and saw anyway. I'm hoping the Half Moon will become a symbol for the world. He recreates the journey that Hudson made up the river and then back down the river that will call attention around that little ship to what a monumental achievement it was that Henry Hudson had done. In 1609. It's a small ship. It came all the way across the Atlantic--he thought he was going to China. There will be a Dutch-like ship called the En Roost on the river as part of the quadricentennial. In fact, June 6 is going to be "River Day": For three days, yacht clubs and other boating organizations are going to join the En Roost, the Half Moon, the Clearwater and other vessels as they make a procession up the Hudson River to draw attention to the river. This will culminate with the opening of the WalkWay Over the Hudson on October 3. You'll see events if you go to the website. Ultimately, it seems, while wars, catastrophes and disasters may be the sorts of things we label "history," the truly historic events--moments, really--don't often make the news. Yet, our lives may be profoundly changed because of the simple acts of a few. History is us, after all. JJ: If you analyze President Obama's inaugural address, the historical context was very much a part of his speech. I heard analysts say it was not a great speech, it was just a good speech. I thought it was great piece of rhetoric. Somebody said we Americans are into sound bytes and we're not used to having someone put together a coherent 18 minutes of elegance. This eloquent bit of history had a sense of here's where we are, here's why things are as bad as they are, but here's what we can do as Americans in terms of concepts and programs that will help us get there. My son and his wife went from Kentucky and were able to be there; they felt they had really been a part of history. I grew up in the South. To see this happen is an unbelievable culmination of what I observed as I was growing up in the '50s and '60s in Georgia. To see an African American become President is an incredible milestone in our history. My dad was the director of Rock Eagle 4H center--the largest 4H facility in the state--that did camping all year round for groups. My dad was on the payroll of the University of Georgia--this was a University of Georgia-owned site--and he was given the task of integrating the camping program at Rock Eagle. So I watched my dad in the '60s struggle in a context that was really bad--the KKK and others were not excited about having African American campers at Rock Eagle--and I watched my mom and dad deal with that and integrate Rock Eagle effectively. My parents even sent my brother to an integrated high school as many others in the county were sending their kids to a private school to escape the integration process. I thought my parents were heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, just in their own little lives. It really has been quite something to watch how this journey has played out, having been there and seen the kinds of things that had to be overcome by the black community to get to the point where they can really say, there really is hope. Remember, I said individuals can make a difference. My dad took the leadership of integrating a major facility in Georgia and took the heat and did it. Individuals make a difference in history. Hudson River Valley Institute, Marist College, 3399 North Road, Poughkeepsie (845) 575-3052 www.hudsonrivervalley.org The Hudson River Valley Review: A Journal of Regional Studies $20/year (2 issues); $35/2 years New York's 400 Years: A Quadricentennial Conference September 25-26, Hyde Park | 
