Charles E. Hatch Jr.

Charles E. Hatch Jr. was a mid-twentieth-century historian with the U.S. National Park Service, long associated with Colonial National Historical Park; published details of his life are limited. His writing centers on early Virginia colonial history and on the interpretation of sites within national historical parks. Aimed at general readers, his concise and plainly written works turn archaeological and documentary evidence into readable historical guides. His representative books—The First Seventeen Years: Virginia 1607–1624, Jamestown, Virginia: The Townsite and Its Story, and Yorktown and the Siege of 1781—deal respectively with the colony's earliest years, the changing fortunes of the town site, and the closing campaign of the American Revolution, and remain accessible references for these historic places.