David Inglehart

A native of Watertown, New York, David Inglehart is a graduate of Colby College who earned an M.A. (in English) from Middlebury and has worked variously as a journalist, teacher and multimedia developer. In 1992 he elisted the aid of two teaching colleagues and began work on Fateful Lightning: the American Civil War, a multimedia textbook which he published on CD-ROM in 1995. Three years later he completed a companion title on his own, Quest for Empire: the Napoleonic Wars, published in 1998. A final title, Born in Battle: the American Revolution,was produced by the original team and released in 2001. The completed trilogy was later converted to the browser and launched as Age of Revolution. In 2024 he published a memoir, “Near the Borderline: coming of age (and then some) on the northern frontier.” He currently lives in mid-coast Maine.

William Hillenbrand

William Hillenbrand received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Cortland, an MA (in English) from Pennsylvania State University and an MA in History from the University of Virginia. He began his teaching career at the Northfield Mount Hermon School, where he taught English and History and coached football and baseball for many years. In 1992 he began work on the text of Fateful Lightning, completing the work over the course of three summers–a testament to the benefits of the academic calendar as well as his prolific talents as a writer and historian. In 1998, he repeated the feat with the completion of a comprehensive study of the American Revolution, Born in Battle, released in 2001. He later taught English at the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida. 

Dennis Kennedy

Dennis Kennedy earned a B.A. from Stonehill College and an MA and PhD (in English) from the University of Massachusetts. He wrote his dissertation on Mark Twain and also specialized in Irish Studies. In arranging and performing the music for both Fateful Lightning and Born in Battle, Dennis brought a rare combination of scholarship and musicianship to the work, researching and writing an extensive songbook and providing lead vocals as well as accompaniment on instruments ranging from piano to penny whistle.