No one can say that we do not have interesting people who live here at Kendal.
Nat Brandt, an Adirondack resident at Kendal since December, has an impressive background --veteran journalist for CBS News and the New York Times, former managing editor of the American Heritage Encyclopedia of the U.S., and Editor-in-Chief of Publishers Weekly.
During his career, Nat became intrigued with the Confederate plot to start fires throughout New York City on what was then a popular city holiday, Evacuation Day, which celebrated the leaving of all British troops at the end of the Revolution.
On Monday evening, March 11 at 7:30 pm, Nat will tell us the story of how rebel escapees from Union prison camps, who had fled to neutral Canada for safety, reached NYC by train, took rooms in various hotels in downtown Manhattan and tried to set them on fire. Nat’s book The Man Who Tried to Burn New York, which won the 1987 Douglas Southall Freeman History Award, reveals why the plot failed and what happened to the only conspirator who was caught, Robert Cobb Kennedy of Louisiana.