Lawrence Babits

Lawrence E. Babits, Ph. D) is an American archaeologist with specific interests in military history and material culture, battlefield and maritime archaeology. Babits is credited with highly accurate accounts of soldier’s combat experience during the 18th century. Specifically, during the Battle of Cowpens, a turning point in the American Revolutionary War which is illustrated in his books, “A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens” and Long, Obstinate and bloody – the Battle of Guilford Courthouse” coauthored with Joshua B. Howard.1 Babits is currently a George Washington Distinguished Professor of Maritime Archaeology and History at East Carolina University. 2

1. Biography 2. Education 3. Awards and Recognitions 4. Societies and Organizations 5. Selected Publications 6. References 7. External Links

Biography

Lawrence Babits was born in Blytheville, Arkansas on June 22, 1943. He graduated from Surrattsville High School in Clinton, MD in 1961. During his youth he was involved in Boy Scouts and in his junior year of high school earned his Eagle Scout. The year he graduated from high school Babits worked as a carpenter’s apprentice in Washington, DC. In 1963 he joined the United States Army where he served for three years as an Infantryman. Babits left the Army at the rank of Sergeant and with an honorable discharge in 1966. From there he went to the University of Maryland to receive his BA in anthropology with a minor in history in 1969. From then until 1973 Babits worked for the University as a teaching assistant and continued to work to receive his masters degree in 1974 from Maryland. Babits began working as an archaeologist for the North Carolina Department of Resources in Raleigh and later became a teaching fellow in archaeology field methods. To further his education Babits went to Brown University to work as a teaching assistant and eventually teaching his own courses through the Sociology and Anthropology departments at Washington and Lee University from 1980 to 1981.2 Babits earned his Doctorate in 1981 from Brown and his dissertation was entitled, “Military Documents and Archaeological Site: Methodological Contributions to Historical Archaeology.” That same year he was inducted into Phi Alpha Theta, an honor society for history. Between 1971 and 1985 he also wrote sports articles in his spare time for various newspapers. With his Ph.D. Babits continued to teach as an assistant professor of history and archaeology at Armstrong State College in Georgia. From there Babits went to East Carolina University where he currently resides as director of the Maritime History and Nautical Archaeology program in Greenville, NC. Some of the classes he teaches include Battlefield Archaeology, Nautical Archaeology and Maritime Archaeology and History, Material Cultures, Underwater Archaeology, as well as field schools.2 Away from academics in 1996 he served as a guest faculty coach for the ECU Softball team. Throughout the years Babits has published a number of works including the book, “A Devil of a Whipping” which describes a battle that took place during the American Revolutionary War, won by the Americans because of excellent tactical maneuvers on January 17, 1781 in Cowpens, South Carolina. Babits gives estimations of troop numbers for both sides and details the events of the battle. The book was the winner of a Distinguished Book Award in 1998 from the Army Historical Foundation as well as the honorable mention book award from Fraunces Tavern Museum/Sons of the Revolution.4 Babits’ most recent book is entitled, “Long, Obstinate and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse” which is growing rapidly in popularity. During the 1980s Babits served as director for the Coastal Heritage Society and the Center for Low Country Studies as well as serving as the acting director of the Museum and Preservation Studies Program at Armstrong State College. Lawrence Babits is married with one child. In his free time away from academics he has enjoyed playing, coaching, and refereeing rugby since his early twenties.

Education

Lawrence Babits received his bachelors degree in 1969 and masters degree in 1974 from The University of Maryland. His doctorate degree was awarded from Brown University in 1981. 2

Awards and Recognitions

Throughout his dedicated career in archaeology, Lawrence Babits has been acknowledged by many scholarly bodies for his hard work in the form of recognitions and awards. In 2007 Babits received the honor of Fellow from the Company of Military Historians. Probably his most distinguished recognition, Babits was recognized by the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati as the George Washington Distinguished Professor of History award while teaching at East Carolina University.2 In 1995 Babits earned the McCann-Taggert Lectureship in Underwater Archaeology from the American Institute of Archaeology. The National Society for the Daughters of the American Revolution awarded him a History Medal in 1990. That same year the faculty of Armstrong State College awarded Babits the Curmudgeon Award and in 1985 he also received the H. Dean Probst Award for Outstanding Faculty Member that was decided by the students.

Societies and Organizations

Babits holds membership positions in a number of professional societies. He is a member of the Society for Historical Archaeology which focuses on “the dissemination of knowledge concerning historical archaeology” and “the identification, excavation, interpretation, and conservation of sites and materials on land and underwater.”3 He is a member of the Nautical Archaeology Society from the United Kingdom that strives to continue and improve upon nautical archaeological techniques. The Company of Military Historians is another society Babits belongs to. It involves the continuation of studies of "information on the uniforms, equipment, history, and traditions of members of the Armed Forces of the United States worldwide and other nations serving in the Western Hemisphere."5 He also received the Life Member award in 1992 from the Coastal Georgia Archaeological Society in which he is still currently a member. Furthermore, Babits is part of the First Maryland Regiment living history organization from the Revolutionary War and the First and Second Maryland Regiment living history organization from the Civil War. He has been apart of that organization since 1967 and is currently still involved in its workings.

Selected Publications

Books and Monographs:

1975 Continental Soldier. Tarheel Jr. Historian Fall 1975:6-10. A Napoleon Breech Face Fable of Fire. Military Collector and Historian XXVII(3):126-127. Dating a Confederate Frock Coat. Military Collector and Historian XXVII(4):160-162.

1994 Exploring a Civil War Sidewheeler. Archaeology 47(5):48-50. Table of Organization: The American Main Line at Cowpens, 17 January 1781. Military Collector and Historian 46 (4) 158-162.

1998 A Devil of a Whipping - The Battle of Cowpens. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.

1998 Maritime Archaeology - A Guide to Theoretical and Substantive Contributions. Plenum Press, New York (co-edited with Hans Van Tilburg).

1998 Underwater Archaeology 1998, Society for Historical Archaeology, Tucson, Arizona (co-edited with Catherine Fach and Ryan Harris).

2001 Maritime Archaeology in North Carolina (Chapter 9). International Handbook of Underwater Archaeology, edited by Carol V. Ruppe and Janet F. Barstad, Kluwer Academic, New York.

2004 "Fortitude and Forebearance" The North Carolina Continental Line in the Revolutionary War 1775-1783. Archives and History, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh, NC (co-authored with Joshua Howard).

2004 Reproducing a Periauger. Sea History Winter 2004-2005, #109:15-17.

2006 Fields of Conflict Battlefield Archaeology from the Roman Empire to the Korean War. Edited with Douglas D. Scott and Charles Haecker. Two Volumes, Praeger Security International. Westport, CT. – Reprinted by Potomac Books in paperback, 2008.

2009 “Long, Obstinate and Bloody” The Battle of Guilford Courthouse. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC. (co-authored with Joshua B. Howard).

2009 “Sailor Clothing” Annual Report Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society 2008:31-35. “It’s raining, it must be the Nationals” – the North-South Skirmish Association’s annual spring shoot at Winchester, Virginia. Skirmish 66 (Feb 2009): 54-57

Research Articles:

1991 Preliminary Cultural Resources Survey of the Proposed Stone Revetment, Savannah Plant, Kemira, Inc. Report on File, Archaeology Laboratory, Armstrong State College, Savannah. GA.

2000 A Derelict Small Boat Survey, Pamlico Drainage, North Carolina, USA IN Down the River to the Sea. Edited by Jerzy Litwin, pages 193-196. Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology, Gdansk, 1997. Museum Morskie, Gdansk, Poland. (with Annalies Corbin).

2001 "Book Archaeology" of the Cowpens Battlefield. IN Fields of Conflict: Progress and Prospect in Battlefield Archaeology. British Archaeological Reports International Series 958:117-126. Edited by P. W. M. Freeman and A. Pollard. Archaeopress, Oxford.

2006 The APES Archaeological Study: The North Carolina Sounds: an Interface between Land and Sea. IN Connected by the Sea Proceedings of the Tenth International Symposium on Boat and Ship Archaeology Roskilde 2003, edited by Lucy Blue, Fred Hocker and Anton Englert, pp. 163-70.Oxbow Books, Oxford (with Frank Cantelas and Keith Meverden).

2008 Report on Site Visit to Ruthven Barracks, Kingussie, Scotland. Prepared for Friends of Fort Dobbs, Statesville, NC.

References

1. Babits, Lawrence. A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Print.

2. "Department of History: Lawrence Babits." East Carolina University. 19 Dec 2008. East Carolina University Department of History. 17 March 2009 <http://www.ecu.edu/cs-cas/history/Babits.cfm>.

3. Dixon, Kelly J.. "About." Society for Historical Archaeology. 2007. Society for Historical Archaeology. 20 March 2009 <http://www.sha.org/about/whoweare.cfm>.

4. "Program in Maritime Studies: Lawrence Babits." East Carolina University. East Carolina University Department of History. 17 March 2009 <http://www.ecu.edu/maritime/fac_bab.htm>.

5. "The Company of Military Historians." The Company of Military Historians. 2001. 20 March 2009 <http://www.military-historians.org/>.

External Links

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