On New Year’s Day 1777, Robert Morris wrote to George Washington and said: “The year 1776 is over, I am heartily glad of it and hope you nor America will ever be plagued with such another.”  While many of us have similar thoughts every New Year’s about the previous year, the year 1776 was exceptionally bad for the patriot cause, despite the Declaration of Independence being signed that summer.  After losing New York and a string of battles, Washington had shocked the world at Trenton on the day after Christmas.  This glimmer of hope was almost crushed by the fact that most of his army’s enlistments expired on January 1st.

Here is an exclusive excerpt about this pivotal moment from the forthcoming book Victory or Death by Mark Maloy, one of the inaugural books of the Emerging Revolutionary War Series:

“Washington’s men had sacrificed much in the past few weeks and suffered greatly. Many believed they had done their duty, and rightly so. But at this moment, they were needed more than ever before. All day on December 31, 1776, Washington’s generals appealed to the soldiers to reenlist. Washington authorized an exorbitant $10 bounty
to those men who agreed to remain, this being funded by financier Robert Morris in Philadelphia. Some of his generals, such as Gen. Thomas Mifflin, a politician and public speaker from Philadelphia, were successful in retaining some of the men, others were not as successful. However, the most affecting scene was when Washington himself personally appealed to the patriotism of the men who had campaigned by his side. Washington paraded Gen. John Sullivan’s and Gen. Nathanael Greene’s divisions just outside Trenton. He entreated the men to stay on just a few weeks more. He asked those who wished to reenlist to move forward, but at that point no one moved. Sergeant Nathaniel Root of the 20th Continental Regiment (Connecticut) remembered that the men were “worn down with fatigue and privation” and had their “hearts fixed on home.” Washington, pleading with his brave soldiers wheeled his horse in front of the men and declared to them, “My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected; but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty and to your country which you probably never can do under any other circumstances. The present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny.” After considering their commander’s words, more than two hundred of these men stepped forward to stay on and fight, and some of these men would be killed in the coming battles. The combination of patriotic pleas and hard currency helped persuade many more to
stay. Washington retained a force of about 3,000 men from his army. These veterans would prove invaluable in the coming days.”

Poor John Adams.

I think it would be fair to say that John Adams spent the last 25 years of his life feeling sorry for himself.  He was a grumpy and vain old man searching for the respect he thought he deserved.

If Adams were to read the highly anticipated new book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon Wood, the old curmudgeon would be no happier.  In fact, the final lines of the book, handed down like a final judgement, would only confirm what Adams believed would be the view of historians forever.  “To be an American,” Wood wrote, “is not to be someone, but to believe in something.  And that something is what Jefferson declared.  That’s why we honor Jefferson and not Adams.”[i]

Continue reading “BOOK REVIEW – Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson” →

On August 27, 1776, in Brooklyn, New York, a small contingent of Maryland soldiers showed the world what valor and patriotism looked like.  During one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War, the actions of these brave soldiers would earn them the venerated name of the Maryland 400.

At the Battle of Long Island, the American Army was strung out in a long line across modern day Brooklyn facing south, with Washington and his headquarters located at Brooklyn Heights.  However, Washington and the Americans had failed to guard the extreme left flank of the American line.  As a result, British General William Howe divided his army in two, attacked the American main line head on to hold them in position, while British Generals Charles Cornwallis and Henry Clinton marched around the American flank and attacked from the east.

Continue reading “The Maryland 400” →

In 1940, during World War II, the British and French armies were completely surrounded by the Nazis at Dunkirk.  The Allies made a successful evacuation, lived on to fight another day, and gained a newfound resolve to resist the Nazi war machine.  The uncertainty and suspense of the evacuation at Dunkirk has recently been brought to life on the big screen with Christopher Nolan’s movie, “Dunkirk.”  As people pack the theaters this summer to see the film, it’s good to remember that America had its own desperate, nation-saving evacuation during the Revolutionary War.

In the summer of 1776, Great Britain dispatched the largest expeditionary force it had had ever sent anywhere in the world up to that point in history.  The British soldiers and sailors made their way into New York harbor to subdue the American rebels. Continue reading “America’s Dunkirk” →