About Robert A. Selig

Robert A. Selig is a historical consultant who received his Ph.D. in history from the Universität Würzburg in Germany in 1988. He is a specialist on the role of French forces under the comte de Rochambeau during the American War of Independence and serves as project historian for the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail Project. For this project he researched and wrote surveys and resource inventories for the nine states through which American and French forces marched in 1781 and 1782. Among his publications are Hussars in Lebanon! A Connecticut Town and Lauzun's Legion during the American Revolution, 1780-1781 (Lebanon, 2004), and some 150 articles in American, German, and French scholarly and popular history magazines such as the William and Mary Quarterly, and the Yearbook of the Society for German-American Studies, as well as chapters in books and anthologies. Recent publications include “The Culture of Death: An Overview of Burial Practices during the American War of Independence,” The Brigade Dispatch. Journal Of The Brigade Of The American Revolution vol. 50 No. 1 (Winter 2023-2024), pp. 3-18; “L’expédition particulière and the American War of Independence, 1780–1783," in: Waging War in America 1775-1783. Operational Challenges of Five Armies, Don N. Hagist, ed. (Warwick: Helion & Company, 2023), pp. 171-191; « De Newport à Yorktown, à la Victoire et à la Gloire : la Route Washington-Rochambeau et la Victoire du 19 octobre » 1781 Bulletin Société de la Archéologique Scientifique et Littéraire du Vendômois Année 2022, pp. 99-104 ; “En Avant to Victory: The Allied March to Yorktown” in: The 10 Key Campaigns of the American Revolution Edward G. Lengel, ed., (Washington, DC: Regnery History, 2020), and “Hessian Savages, Frog-Eating Frenchmen, and Virtuous Americans, 1776-1783: How Personal Experiences Change Time-honored Perceptions” in: The American Revolution: A World War, David K. Allison and Larrie D. Ferreiro, eds. (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2018), pp. 170-185. Honors and awards include the French Ordre national du Mérite (February 2022), La Médaille d’Or des Valeurs Francophones of La Renaissance Française (2019), the Erick Kurz Memorial Award for German-American History of the Steuben Society of America (2015), the Distinguished Patriot Award, National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (2012), and the Ordre des palmes académiques (2011) as well as the 2023 and 2024 Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia Fellowship to conduct research Society of the Cincinnati’s headquarters in the Anderson House in Washington, DC.