24 March 2022
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Above is an image of the video. To view the video itself, please scroll down this page.
Researcher Anne Ammundsen has spent twenty years painstakingly piecing together the correspondence surrounding the Asgill Affair, in which a young soldier, Charles Asgill, was unlawfully imprisoned and his reputation subsequently severely damaged.
The Asgill Affair is a chapter of history with international connections at the time, from George Washington to Marie Antoinette. Anne Ammundsen has dedicated two decades of research to piecing together the evidence and thus help to clear Charles Asgill's name - which was damaged as it was George Washington's account that held sway in the late 1700s, and in the decades that followed.
Anne Ammundsen spoke to Helen Tovey, Editor of Family Tree, about her research.
To learn more about the Asgill Affair
Please see:
- The Charles Asgill Affair: Setting the Record Straight by Anne Ammundsen which can be found on Amazon
- General Washington's Dilemma by Katherine Mayo which can be downloaded here
If you wish to contact Anne Ammundsen, please email: [email protected]
Anne Ammundsen's self-confessed 'Heath Robinson' studio set up, so arranged to ensure her Asgill collection was visible in the video background.
If you wish to contact Anne, please email: [email protected]
Notes:
Theresa/Thérèse. Re: mention of Theresa in the recording. To give her French origins some meaning, Asgill's mother changed her name from Theresa, signing as Thérèse.
Memorials: James Gordon now has a memorial plaque in the graveyard in which he is buried in an unmarked grave, Trinity Church, New York City. Since the interview Anne Ammundsen has had a meeting with St James's Church, Piccadilly, but a memorial to Charles Asgill and his wife is looking less promising there.
Memorial Stanchion for Lieutenant Colonel James Gordon at Trinity Church, New York City.
The latest review of Anne Ammundsen's publication on Charles Asgill
Professor Gregory Urwin of Temple University, Doylestown, PA, USA wrote:
"There is a marvelous new biography available on Lieutenant and Captain Charles Asgill, a young Foot Guards officer captured at Yorktown. Continental Army authorities chose Asgill by lot to be hanged in retaliation for the lynching of a Rebel militia officer by Loyalist renegades, even though that contravened the surrender document that George Washington and Lord Cornwallis had signed, which exempted the latter's officers from such treatment. Only the intervention of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette saved Asgill from the gallows. That story is told with greater authority than ever before on the basis of newly discovered evidence by this book."