It is a land rich in lucrative crops like tobacco and rice and by all accounts full of colonists loyal to the crown the British expect to find Little Resistance at last they would find colonists loyal to the king and eager to embrace the British Empire especially for its protection and trade
By moving south they were moving to an area where they hoped that they could finally restore British Authority and put the loyalists in charge the goal was always to try to isolate the Rebellion the Assumption was that most colonists given the chance to be loyalists for four years the British have tried to
Find those colonists loyal to the crown for four years they have encountered an America deeply divided but now down south they believe they have their strongest foothold the South needs England and England needs the South they will drive their strategy toward the back country into this Frontier the British sent one
Of their most effective and ambitious officers Colonel Bannister Tarleton he is destined to become a household name in the South only it will not be for bravery but for brutality Charlton is known for his daring for moving his Cavalry quickly and the troops quick hits he’s also known for just for no restraint
He’s a little bit of a Dandy which was appropriate for that era but he fights like a Tasmanian devil the British will not only raise and train a Loyalist militia to keep peace in the south they will hunt down Rebels and Destroy them no one is better suited to that task than Tarleton
100 miles from the coast he closes in on the remains of the Continental Army in Retreat from their defeat at Charleston With great Speed and Agility tarleton’s British Cavalry catches up to a regiment of 350 Continentals under the command of Colonel Abraham Beaufort he pursues them to a town called waxhaws foreign sends Buford a deadly threat you are now encompassed by a core of 700 light troops on Horseback half of that number
A light infantry with Canon the rest Cavalry Bannister Talton British officer it’s a bluff Tarleton has no more than 200 men but they are his best soldiers well trained in the bayonet and saber Buford sure that he has the greater numbers doesn’t back down sir I reject your proposals I shall
Defend myself until the last extremity Colonel Abraham Beaufort [Applause] buford’s words will prove prophetic the Americans are able to fire just a few volleys before they are overrun but Tarleton doesn’t stop there as the rebels raise the white flag of surrender he continues a ferocious attack cutting down enemy soldiers even as they
Lay down their arms it will soon be remembered as the wax Hall’s Massacre Upton attempted to defend his head with his left arm until the arm was hacked off his head was then laid open to the eyes Continental Soldier waxhaws is a painful loss for the Americans but they will turn their defeat into another kind of Victory on the propaganda front
The battle of the wax us is used by Patriot propagandists to depict the British as monsters who will Massacre their soldiers in a dishonorable fashion and ride roughshod over the countryside any occupying Force trying to subdue a rebellion on the home soil of an Insurgency is going to operate at a
Disadvantage when it comes to the propaganda War foreign will be remembered and used as a Battle Cry against the British Sets the tone for the divisive War coming in the backcountry banister Tarleton receives a reprimand from his superiors but they do little else to rein him in The man now known as bloody bear continues deeper into the back country where the British are about to dig themselves an even bigger hole in an effort to shore up loyalty and frighten would-be Rebels the British issue an ultimatum to Southerners all persons who shall neglect to return their allegiance to his Majesty’s
Government will be considered as enemies and Rebels and treated accordingly in most parts of the country in most years of the revolution people had been able to stay out of the way at least partially but now it was Do or Die the severe Proclamation is the work of
Sir Henry Clinton the overall commander of the British forces in America Clinton should have known better back in 1776 the British issued nearly the same document in New Jersey Banking on strong loyalist sentiment it backfired then and it will backfire now The Verity here if there is one is if you’re going to push someone off of the fence you ought to be pretty certain which side of the fence they’re going to fall on Everyone must choose for or against loyalist or Patriot old rivalries and fresh wounds inform their choices the British have created a tempest in a teapot the Loyalists who do come out to join the fight for the king do so for their own agendas and they will soon be met by an equal force
Equal in number and violence of Patriots a hornet’s nest is stirred in the South unleashing a fight that looks less like a revolution and more like a civil war the British army now moves deeper into the Carolina back country having declared in a misguided Proclamation anyone not a friend an
Enemy they intend to back up their words with Force but resistance is deeper than they think late June 1780 British commander Sir Henry Clinton has lived in Charleston for a month now and can sense trouble brewing in the wilderness his response leave for New York and turn the southern
Command over to another officer London England the man who will replace Clinton is no stranger to the American War General Charles Cornwallis will soon return to the colonies but a changed man he has been in England to bury his beloved wife now with her passing Cornwallis can think only of escaping his memories
Going back to the one place he hopes will be a tonic for his grief devastated and like many men throws himself back into his work in cornwallis’s case it was the work of fighting the war whether he wins or loses in the colonies is no longer the point I am now
Returning to America not with views of conquest and ambition nothing brilliant can be expected in that quarter but I find England quite unsupportable to me it has now no chance for me I must shift the scene But Cornwallis will find the war in America change too from how it had been fought up north the British forces on the ground are moving further and further into unknown territory A wild country made up of remote Farms simmering with rivalries this is not the south of wealthy ports Rich rice Farms this is the south of fettered swamps and Untamed Frontiers here loyalties are not so clear those who might be loyalist like everyone in this back country Frontier Harvard grudges the British don’t
Understand Decades of land disputes and old animosities carry to the New World by each successive wave of immigrants have poisoned the territory all it takes is the presence of War seriously stir things up the south soon crawls with men like David Fanning a struggling farmer he had been robbed
Of everything he had two years back by a group claiming to be Patriots now with a powerful British mandate to ride under devotes himself to vengeance Fanning also gathers more like him Loyalist militia swarm over the back country with their campaign of Terror they are less interested in the outcome
Of the Revolution than in the chance to pillage and grab land from their Patriot Neighbors but I had no time for thought they were up to the house entered with drawn swords and pistols in their hands crying out where these Rebel women then they began to plunder the house of
Everything they thought worth taking Eliza Wilkinson Patriots soon joined The Fray men like Thomas Sumpter a former Continental Soldier take up their arms to battle the loyalists stirred out of what he hoped would be retirement Sumpter gets back into the fight for personal reasons too his house had been targeted by loyalists
For him as with men on both sides the cause of Independence takes a back seat to payback and plundering in the South it’s American against American their entire battles fought in fact there are 103 different battles in South Carolina alone where there’s an area Britain site this is Tori militia
Against against uh Patriot militia each side attempts to outdo the other in Terror and brutality quipping tar and Feathering and a particularly gruesome device called the spigot becomes as commonplace as Revenge a loyalist was placed with one foot Upon A sharp pin and turned around as cruel as this punishment might seem
To those who never witnessed the unrelenting cruelties of the Loyalists I viewed the punishment with no little satisfaction Charles Gibson Southern Patriot when the blood started to flow it was revenge and counter Revenge one killing provoked a counter-killing it really tapped into these pre-revolutionary resentments and conflicts it’s like a fire feeding itself
It is in short a civil war the entire strategy was failing for Cornwallis and the British producing not peace and Order but chaos and retribution what happened to Cornwallis in the south is a long and bloody Guerrilla war that had by that time made it extremely dangerous
For anyone to reveal he was a loyalist this was not the way Warfare was supposed to be conducted what people called the dogs of Civil War this was the way wars were fought in the southern back country Cornwallis must rethink the very premises of his campaign forget the Loyalists said they’re
Private Wars attack the rebels where it counts most the army Cornwallis is a man utterly devoid of self-doubt he really becomes convinced that he can lick the remainder of the Southern Department of the Continental Army so he engages once essentially a head-long rush to complete the annihilation of this Force
From his headquarters in New Jersey General George Washington realizes he must respond he prepares to fortify the Army in the South with new troops and more importantly with a new Commander but the man he wants to leave the Continental Army in the south is snubbed by Congress instead the Continental Congress will
Send their man they turn to General Horatio Gates the hero of Saratoga to head up the southern campaign George Washington is Fury they have chosen one of his greatest Rivals and a general he considers inferior but for now Washington can do nothing to stop an unfolding disaster
In the Carolinas civil order crumbles as Patriots and Loyalists battle each other In July Congress scrambles to form and equip a southern Army at its head against the advice of George Washington Congress sends General Horatio Gates Gates was the hero of Saratoga three years earlier when he defeated General John Burgoyne in the largest British surrender of the war Yet there are Whispers some say he stole credit for Saratoga from Benedict Arnold and Daniel Morgan but he is not the great General he claims to be Gates ever proud ignores the doubters and focuses on his Grand ambitions Horatio Gates wanted to be commander-in-chief of the American Army
And it’s it’s much it goes much beyond that uh whoever was the Victorious leader of the revolutionaries would the emerge would emerge as the leader of a new nation there had to be a new ruler some new kind of ruler no one had decided what yet I think he might have been that
Ambitious and that foolish but the challenges of the South still await him Gates must soon take charge of an Army in a dire state he will inherit 1400 soldiers still reeling from the defeats at Charleston and waxhaws I have says Gates an army without strength and a military chest without money
In the barren swamp lands of South Carolina Gates’s Army of professional soldiers slowly starves they are as short on provisions as they are on the will to fight Gates does little to alleviate their conditions his soldiers many of whom have been in the Army since the outset turn even more bitter
Being again disappointed fatigued and almost famished their patients begin to forsake them their looks begin to be vindictive Mutiny was ready to manifest itself Colonel Williams but Gates will soon get relief the Patriot militia who have been fighting their own wars in the back Country Now turn out to fight alongside the army
But they lack an experience they make up for its spirit the militia are itchy to take on the British and general Gates thinks they can the Continental soldiers now in the minority are less sure they foresee trouble we soldiers cannot imagine how an army consisting of more than two-thirds
Militia in which it never once been exercised in arms together could perform in the face of an enemy Colonel Williams Gates will Mount his campaign against Cornwallis ready or not faith in his militia and in himself is in an all-time high Gates has still been stung by assertions
That he doesn’t really deserve the credit for the victory of Saratoga he sees an opportunity to silence his critics and show them once and for all that he in fact is the best and most experienced American Battlefield commander and that he can beat the British whether on the defensive or on the offensive
Gates’s chance comes sooner than he imagines on August 16th the two armies stumble upon each other at Camden South Carolina each side hastily sets up for a battle five thousand British move into position where they will meet Gates’s three thousand men General Gates sends his militia out
Front where they get their first taste of the best trained army in the world his audacity has caused him to make a serious tactical error one with dire consequences Gates places the militia on the left of his line a position for which they are ill-prepared the British army will always put its
Best units at the right of its line which is the place of honor from the British perspective the British have their best regiments facing off against the weakest and most ill-prepared American regiments the best of the British is led by none other than bloody banned Tarleton The Butcher of waxhaws
He now leads a fierce bayonet charge into the militia standing there and watching this line of red coming at them and presenting 18 inches of Cold Steel coming at them Fear fuels confusion on the battlefield they are fighting a losing battle almost immediately the militia Panic break and run out of the blood he who has never seen the effect of panic upon a multitude can have but an imperfect idea of such a thing the best disciplined troops have been
Made cowards by it Colonel Williams but they do not flee alone fast overtaking them is General Horatio Gates himself the general who came South to gain Glory now takes off on his horse as fast as possible as far as it will carry him what began as a rather courageous
Venture now turns into a flight for his life and he rides is 200 miles all the way back to Hillsboro without stopping and becomes the butt of every mean-spirited joke in the Continental Army for the next two years I think he went into a complete pan
This situation was just too much for him for him Alexander Hamilton praised him on his ride to safety quite remarkable for a man of his age I’ve ridden so far so fast the Battle of Camden scars Gates reputation forever it similarly tarnishes the Army and in particular the militia
Few now believe the Patriots can hold the South even though the future of the Revolution depends on it the defeats at Camden and waxhaws have decimated the Continental Southern divisions of the three thousand troops who marched at Camden over half have been killed captured or wounded the majority of the Patriot militia
Simply disappear back into the Wilds the South has all but Fallen to the British in New Jersey George Washington soon receives news of the defeat at Camden Washington feared the worst when Congress appointed Horatio Gates and the worst has happened Gates will face court-martial but there is a more urgent concern who
Will now lead Washington’s Southern Army it’s after Gates’s debacle at Camden that Washington is finally allowed to send the man he wants of course he goes to Major General Nathaniel Greene a convention to introduce this gentleman to you as a man of abilities bravery and coolness George Washington Nathaniel Greene is Washington’s most
Trusted subordinate a New England Patriot and Fallen Quaker green has proven time and time again to be one of the most brilliant commanders in the Continental Army only one of America America’s great generals and nobody knows who he is Washington says if I’m shot in battle if
I can no longer take command the general I want to lead is Nathaniel Greene among the many qualities that recommended Nathaniel Greene to George Washington was his can-do attitude all military commanders want subordinates that will never admit defeat that always say they can find some way to accomplish the mission
Green will travel far from his native New England to take on this formidable command only to find an army ravaged and dispirited I am removed from almost all my friends and connections and have to prosecute a war with almost insurmountable difficulties I cannot contemplate my own situation without the greatest degree of
Anxiety Nathaniel Green Continental General only 800 are deemed fit for Duty the rest green reports are literally naked starving with cold and hunger foreign beseeches the 13 colonies for supplies and troops to no effect he begins to fear mutiny applicable to preserve discipline when troops are in want of everything be
Assured that you raise men in vain unless you clothe arm and equip them properly for the field Nathaniel Greene green and the southern Army have all but been abandoned he will attempt to supply his troops through local sources but there is a threat more urgent than starvation Cornwallis is on the March
Green needs a strategy and a miracle to keep his army from total Destruction Fortune green needs soon arrives in the form of Colonel Daniel Morgan The most courageous and unusual officers the Americans have [Applause] Morgan’s past is cloaked in mystery and he never speaks of it By age 17 he appears as part of the British army during the French and Indian War by then he is already a rough and Scrappy boy hardened from a backwoods frontier life by Nature he is a fighter and Carries scars from every brawl and knockdown including 500 lashes for punching his
Superior officer in his early days from then on Morgan becomes the stuff of patriot Legend he really is a roughneck Frontiersman vulgar hard drinking hard fighting man he really is the sort of stuff of fiction but his rise through the ranks of the Continental Army is fact a result of his enormous Talent
Daniel Morgan would never have been made a general in the British army Morgan moves ahead because of ability and and he’s a great example of the coming meritocracy you don’t have to be born into the Gentry to be an officer if you have the ability if you have the stick to itness
By the time Morgan reaches the South his hard-earned reputation and his role at major battles like Saratoga gains him the respect of Patriots and the resentment of the enemy no one is better suited to fighting in the rough Southern lands that Morgan with Morgan now at his side green will
Enact one of the boldest and most irregular moves of the war green will split his army Nathaniel Green adopts what it might be considered of unconventional approach to this war he’s going to break his Force he’s going to divide it into something of flying columns very mobile columns he knows the British army doesn’t know the territory and he knows that since they
Want to draw him into a decisive battle he can lead them through the Backwoods through the marshes into what our ultimately indecisive conflicts that’s going to spread the British army thin green and Morgan take off on separate paths green to the southeast Morgan to the Southwest
As if On Cue Cornwallis 2 splits his army sending the infamous Tarleton after Morgan while he himself pursues green four flying armies the prey and the Predators move through some of the roughest terrain on the Eastern seaboard each following their own will to win Cornwallis green Tarleton and Morgan
Four ambitious and gifted leaders now engaged in a headlong Chase On the fringes of their armies they skirmish affirming over and over again the proximity of each other’s troops yet green and Morgan with their lighter armies move faster avoiding a major battle instead they draw the British deeper into the back country further from supply lines and reinforcements General Cornwallis the British commander
Grows more frustrated with each mile of rough Terrain the farther green goes the more intent Cornwallis becomes on catching him he is going to chase Nathanael Greene all around the Carolinas trying to gain that decisive battle green knowing better than to engage Cornwallis on Cornwallis terms is not going to let
Cornwallis catch up to him as close as Cornwallis gets green is always able to stay one small step ahead of him be a little careful and tread softly or depend on it you have a modern Hannibal to deal with in the person of Cornwallis Daniel Morgan has his own Nemesis to contend with banister Tarleton and his ferocious regiment Morgan knows he can’t outrun them for long North far from the swamps of the South the war for independence looks very stained no armies engaged nor our battles fought here the British and Continentals are at an impasse in New York City Sir Henry Clinton the overall commander of the British in America Wiles away his time in luxury There was a lot of going to dinner he put on a lot of weight there was a lot of inspecting the troops all the things that a parade ground General has they were called would do short of fighting thank you the war down south is far off Clinton receives fewer and fewer
Dispatches from Cornwallis but that doesn’t concern him at least not enough to leave New York City 50 miles away in Hartford Connecticut another man with eyes on New York takes a meeting that he hopes will change the war General George Washington hasn’t seen a battle in a long while nearly three years but now his prospects may be changing the French are in town and Washington
And his counterparts the Marquis De Lafayette and comp de Rochambeau raise their glasses to a united front against the British they toast with French wine but it is France’s Navy that is on everyone’s mind seven French warships sit in a Rhode Island Harbor Washington believes they are enough to
Launch an attack on New York and wrestle it back from the British roshambo is more circumspect a veteran of European Wars roshambo shows patience where Washington displays Zeo the French General prefers to wait for more reinforcements much to the frustration of The Americans Though these French ships sit idly in Newport Rhode Island the French have already tipped the balance of power in the war but in less obvious ways from an American perspective the French navy has not been that significant to this point in the war the American perspective is a little bit biased and
Not very complete in colonies and oceans all over the world the French are taking on the British forcing them to fight a world war in the Caribbean to Cairo to Calcutta the French navy has helped extend the British Army and British Navy over a far wider expanse indeed around the globe
When in the absence of the French navy the British were free to concentrate on North America but the Americans don’t quite see it this way Washington sees only that he must delay his goal of taking New York the battles for now remain in the south January 16th South Carolina
Daniel Morgan can no longer avoid confronting tarleton’s forces must prepare to fight on the eve of their battle Morgan visits with his troops out of 600 men more than half are militia the same untrained forces that were last seen fleeing the field at Camden Morgan’s challenge make them engage
As he faces the most grueling Battle of his life Morgan rallies these citizen soldiers just hold up your head boys and when you return to your homes how the old folks will bless you for your Gallant conduct Daniel Morgan has great rapport with his troops he
Loves to joke with them to talk with them I think they really just find him one of the great officers they’ve ever served under he tells them things like we’ll have you home soon boys to kiss your girlfriends January 17th on a mild winter morning the battle
Takes shape on a field known as Cowpens here Morgan puts into play his own new strategy one of the most inventive of the war and most Timely up to that point in the war nobody had figured out how to use militia in a formal battle they weren’t
Trained to meet British regulars in a formal engagement Morgan he figures it out like others before him Morgan puts his militia out front the first line to meet Carlson’s charging British soldiers only this time he tells them to fire just two shots volley and then fall back against the onslaught of the British
Charge they do they do just that when the British see this they think that they have earned a replay of cannon that they have essentially caused a route of the militia forces who are breaking from the field they will pursue a headlong rush and find themselves facing the very
Well-directed volley fires of Morgan’s regulars the result is predictable for tarleton’s Legion banister Tarleton the aggressive and ambitious young officer drives right into Morgan’s trap Continentals reply with alarming Force [Applause] British infantry scatter and retreat Tarleton will try to push them on again but within an hour the Battle Is Lost
Tarleton has chased Morgan all across the South to end here defeated by the Rough and Tumble American at Cowpens talk about a conflict of you have this very arrogant dashing cruel British officer young guy and Daniel Morgan and they’re both Playing for Keeps you know how can you not love that Victory when
Um Daniel Morgan just beats the tar out of Tarleton most of the entire British Detachment at Cowpens is killed captured or wounded this time it is bloody banister Tarleton it was seen fleeing the field he will escape soon to rejoin Cornwallis Army thirsting for Revenge it was Morgan’s win
Morgan had outplanned outstrategized and out LED his counterpart he had transformed his militia Army at their moment of greatest need but it will be the backcountry Brawler’s last battle Morgan all alarms suffered quietly from painful back ailments and rheumatism You could say why is he retiring now he’s just won this big Monumental victory the real question is how was he able to fight at all during the Battle of Cowpens it’s very painful for him and his commanding officer Nathaniel Green says you’ve earned the right to go home
Morgan who had spent a lifetime of fighting will now watch the war from a small farm in Virginia from the sidelines for Nathaniel Greene the chase is still on Cornwallis is closing in and with Tarleton Again by his side they will come at green with everything they’ve got
The war in the South will go on as bloody and vicious as ever but the stakes are rising from the south to the north to across the Atlantic Ocean everyone is asking the same question how will this war end and when for everyone time is running out on the American Revolution
January 27 1781 New Jersey the war for independence drags into its sixth year money spirit and Patience are flagging throughout the army time is running out only three weeks into the new year the situation reaches a crisis point the Continental Army exhausted and neglected is on the verge of revolt
In no time Washington has Mutiny on his hands His response will be determined and drastic Unless effectual measures are taken to place the Army upon a more satisfactory footing its dissolution in the utter ruin of our cause will be the inevitable consequences George Washington [Applause] the story of the Mutiny began on January 1st in Morristown New Jersey there is little to celebrate this new year
The war has become an unrelenting misery soldiers from the Pennsylvania line reached their limit unpaid underfed and barely clothed they can endure no more for the great cause by 1781 the Continental Army has become in many ways the Professional Organization that Washington wanted and needed it to be
But it’s an army that is unhappy they haven’t been paid in a long time and when money has been forthcoming it has been paper money that is depreciating Moment by moment is worth less every day the soldiers are quite clear about the fact that they are loyal to the cause
But they want the terms of their contract to be honored raged they voiced their grievances to their superiors but there is nothing to be done Congress without the right to tax is out of money to pay its soldiers the soldiers are not swayed we’ll see this as a series of broken promises
They pledged their lives they are spilling their blood they thought they were making a contract to serve their country but the country isn’t honoring the country the officers watch from the comfort of their quarters some are sympathetic but others brush the soldiers concerns aside suddenly the ideas of the Revolution the
Talk of Liberty and equality for all men seem no longer to apply I don’t think the fact that the officers had better clothing better food better equipment endeared them to the regular troops who were so cold and so hungry and so behind in their pay within the revolution a rebellion grows
On January 2nd camps empty as 1300 soldiers one quarter of the northern Army up and leave they March out taking Cannon and weapons with one destination in mind Continental Congress two-day March away in Philadelphia their plan make Congress listen they get as far as Princeton they seize the town
Of Princeton Washington sends an army to surround them there and they negotiate a peaceful settlement the troops who want to go home get their money troops want to stay get the clothing they need about half of them go home and that’s the end of it Washington begs Congress for money and
Provisions as the only way to pacify his army It is too little too late As I have used every Endeavor in my power to avert the evil that has come upon us so will I continue to exert every means to prevent an extension of the Mischief but I can neither foretell or be answerable for the issue George Washington Thank you fresh unrest spreads among other camps they too want what they believe they are owed January 20th 1781 Pompton New Jersey now 200 soldiers from the New Jersey line reveal they too begin their march to Congress this time Washington will strike them down for the sake of the Revolution
These mutinies must end he couldn’t have an army where mutinies took place and hundreds of men left and went home the Army would implode and the war would be lost worse any Mutiny leads the British to believe that the Army is collapsing and to renew their fervor to win the war
Washington’s view is that’s it enough’s enough the mutineers don’t get far all are quickly captured the ringleaders are sentenced to death by firing squad but they are not the only ones who will pay a heavy price for their insubordination in a cruel move Washington then gets their 12 closest friends
12 men who were with them in the Mutiny but not quite the ringleaders and orders them to shoot them the men in the Jersey line are aghast at this but at the same time provider it could have been me this was a most painful task when ordered to load some of them shed
Tears James Thatcher Continental doctor the first six men fire but they have deliberately aimed High sending a volley over the heads of The Condemned men the second six are immediately assembled and under penalty of death themselves ordered to shoot this time the shots find their target the punishment sends a clear message
Sedition will no longer be tolerated in the Continental Army after the execution of those men in that terrible winter 1781 there were no more beauties but the unrest in his army has shaken Washington his authority and the revolution are slipping away he must find a way to end this war now
In the South the war continues without pause an ongoing showdown between two determined armies having surprisingly beaten the British at the Battle of Cowpens the Continentals steady themselves for Revenge The British will seek to make an All or Nothing push to annihilate the rebel Force fire General Charles Cornwallis the British commander in the South has become singular in his obsession he will not stop until he can make the Continental Army stand and fight dead the rebels keep pulling Cornwallis
Deeper into the backcountry on a cat and mouse Chase led by his arch-rival General Nathaniel Greene Cornwallis himself believes that if he can draw Nathanael Greene into one decisive fight if he can bring this war to one pitched battle somewhere in the south L’s going to be over
Green won’t give him that satisfaction General Nathaniel greed knows better he learned early on in battles like New York and Brandywine that keeping the Army away from direct confrontation is Paramount like a boxer who realizes his opponent hits harder Greene’s plan is to keep moving to wear down and exhaust his enemy
If you can buy time he can get reinforcements green draws Cornwallis step by step farther from his lines of supply farther from the possibility of reinforcements farther from the point of no return green has been leading a Chase for months that zigzags across the South through swamp and Forest Cornwallis
Manages to stay close often trailing by a few hundred yards the Continentals are like a mirage that disappears as he draws near the two sides regularly Skirmish amongst scouting parties but the main armies never meet Green’s Continental force is smaller lighter and faster the British by contrast are encumbered
They will need to take Extreme Measures to keep up To lighten his load Cornwallis orders an enormous bonfire built onto which all the unnecessary trappings of a distinguished British Army are thrown wagons tents clothing Fine China silver Cask upon Cask of rum Cornwallis is very Earnest he does not want to allow green to escape he is
Going to do anything within his power to catch up to Green in this situation without baggage necessaries with Zeal and bayonets only it was resolved to follow Green’s Army to the end of the world Brigadier General Charles O’Hara it is a fateful decision that he will pay for later
The race picks up speed The two armies begin to travel at an almost inhuman pace moving as much as 40 miles in a single day green now sees only one chance for survival As Cornwallis chases him toward the Virginia border green makes a daring move splits his army sending one branch toward the upper Dan River while the main Army moves East where green has commandeered all the boats along the crossings Cornwallis fooled dutifully follows the decoy it bought green the time he needed to
Move down the river to the point where the Continentals had gathered all of the boats on that River and crossed at a point that Cornwallis could not hope to cross Green’s plan works he moves his entire regiment all 2000 men across the Dan reaching the other side just in time
The British realizing the ploy rushed to the crossing arriving just hours after the last of Green’s boats leave Cornwallis so close to the victory he sought recognizes that the chase is over the cheers from the Continentals are so loud that can be heard across the river a taunting sound to the British
But it is genuine Joy after marching more than 200 miles in just one month Green’s Army can finally rest green will not stay in Virginia long he will get what he needs new supplies and new recruits and change his game The Hunted will become the Hunter
Here in the South and Beyond The Tide is about to turn far from the swamps of the southern colonies another Chase drags on France 1781 the court of Versailles the venerable Diplomat Benjamin Franklin is still in Hot Pursuit of France’s money lately it has become elusive King Louis XVI America’s Ally against
The British has given more than 100 million dollars in direct Aid to the revolution fact he’s going broke funding the American yet it never seems to be enough to satisfy Ben Franklin it’s unless for everything from Thimbles and shovels and thread and drums and paint brushes too oh and by the way 30
000 blankets and 50 000 uniforms and a ship of the line would be nice too breath is essentially constantly approaching them with his Tin Cup and being told but we already gave it the office you know being told we’ve already given you X how can we possibly cough up more
Franklin is caught between two masters on one hand he must convince the French that the American Revolution can still be won on the other he must assure Congress that French aid the key to the war is on its way some Americans like General Washington have reason to doubt it
Washington was always confused and perplexed and until the end disappointed in the French the soldiers that they did promise didn’t get here fast enough he didn’t feel that there were enough of them he’s worried about the help that the French have given him if it’s going to be in time
Unbeknownst to Washington his concerns are being answered quietly on its own schedule and with its own agenda the French navy finally makes a move that will change the war March 1781 the eastern coast of France a shipment is being prepared the mighty French warship the vild De
Paris readies for a long Voyage to the Americas town Admiral Francois Joseph Paul comp DeGrasse one of France’s most talented Admirals and greatest Glory Seekers degrasse’s stated mission is in the Caribbean where France’s critical training interests lie but if the timing is Right DeGrasse plans to visit North America
After all this is a war against the British a cause beloved by all French It’s important to remember that France is in this conflict not to secure American independence Francis in this conflict to humiliate the British government to hopefully seize some territory from Britain and to slice off a major part of the North American Empire from the British Empire America may be a pawn in this game
Between superpowers but the rebels can still make their own luck their next moves will shape fresh opportunities for all sides February 22nd 1781. General Nathaniel Green pushes his players into position he readies his army now regrouped and resupplied to cross back into North Carolina where he will now seek the confrontation
With Cornwallis he once avoided Crossing again over the Dan River green soon draws Cornwallis back into the chase only this time green leads the desperate British commander toward a spot favorable to the Continentals they will take The High Ground at a small Junction called Guilford Courthouse March 15th green sets his army first Cornwallis weakened from lack of
Provisions nonetheless prepares to throw all he has left at winning cornwallis’s men soon break through Green’s militia Vines they Bear Down on the rest of the army with bayonets [Applause] The Continentals face the charge the two sides fall upon each other at Close Quarters bloody melee fought hand to hand fearing loss Cornwallis makes it desperate and brutal decision Cornwallis turns to the lieutenant in charge of artillery and orders him to fire grape right into the massive struggling men both Americans and
British in order to break it up Yeah the cannon cut down as many British As Americans but it is enough to stop the rebels green orders his men to retreat cannot and will not risk his soldiers Cornwallis is Victorious but only by sacrificing his own men twice as many British die in the victory as Continentals perish in the loss
It is the kind of wind that feels ultimately more like a defeat the months spent chasing green have cost Cornwallis greatly and gained him nothing defeat of the Rebel Army is not one inch closer to it he will leave the Carolinas an ambiguous Victor in search of more decisive battles
But he leaves the British strategy in tatters just at the moment the Continentals and their French allies are about to move as one Losses in the South and stalemate in the north have left the British command in America in disarray worse public confidence back home is weakening London England 1781. all of Britain is tiring of this increasingly unpopular conflagration whose costs in money and human life continue to escalate
King George and his cabinet may try to spin it differently but they cannot change the facts the Insurgent colonies are showing no signs of submission saying come home what’s in this for us they’re wondering how is this going to end how is this going to play out or is
This just going to go on for ever the rift between those who wish to end the war fast and those who take the Long View travels over the Atlantic in America the king’s commanders will soon find themselves with opposing strategies of war in New York Sir Henry Clinton the
Overall British commander takes a patient view of things it’s easy for him surrounded as he is by all the luxuries the colonies have to offer Clinton has four houses that he lives in in New York he’s living pretty high on the hog well supplied certainly his liquor bill is remarkably High
Found great enjoyment in the arms of Mrs badly who was the wife of a British officer I would guess it was hard for Clinton to leave New York it was comfortable it was loving at least Mrs Bradley was The Way Clinton conducts the war from New York it’s almost like he’s waiting
For events to throw him an advantage that he can then act upon Carlos’s instincts are to act cornwallis’s instincts are to fight them to death now my dear friend what is our plan without one we cannot succeed if we meet an offensive war in America we must abandon New York and bring our
Whole Force into Virginia Charles Cornwallis Cornwallis pushes his contest into Virginia but he is soon cut short Clinton opting for defensive Wars orders him to set up a protective base along the coast this adventure through the South Inland is not working we need to make sure that we secure the kinds of bases the footholds that will
Allow us to maintain our position in North America and fight another day Cornwallis has no choice but to obey his Commander He turns his army toward a small Coastal Village to a place called Yorktown Once Yorktown was known solely as a tobacco trading port but it will soon become a major Battlefield and for some a place of Destiny July the Caribbean Francis Admiral DeGrasse makes his long-awaited appearance the fall is hurricane season in the Americas this is a time when for the
Most part shipping comes to a complete pause in the Caribbean and so it’s the right moment for DeGrasse to leave the Caribbean and assist their allies in North America I am sorry to see the distress in which the American continent finds itself you can note the desire I have to provoke a
Change in your favor of the situation Admiral deGrasse the French navy thus far an absent player in the revolution now turns North with 28 ships 3 000 men and long-awaited money to pay Continental soldiers but they also come with a catch it will be the French not Washington who decide
Where they will land in their view the British are weakest in Virginia near the Chesapeake Bay at the small Port of Yorktown Washington had his heart set on retaking New York but when DeGrasse says he’s going to the Chesapeake he’s going to be there just for a certain time Washington
Then makes really the greatest decision of his career he knows he seems to sense that this is the time this is the time to strike it may be declared in a word that we are at the end of our tether and that now or never our deliverance must come George Washington
With all he has every Soldier every Cannon every French reinforcement Washington moves South the general now returns to Virginia his beloved Homeland in search of the battle he hopes will end the war ington breaks his stride just once as he rides ahead of his army on a mission of a more personal nature
For the first time since the beginning of the Revolution Washington visits his home goes home to Mount Vernon and I think the whole point of the war is brought home again to him on a very personal level he had seen Martha only rarely and he had grown out of touch with Mount Vernon
Now he delves into the details that a man of the house not the general of an army would attend to there is the ongoing renovation of Mount Vernon and the particulars of running a Southern plantation six years ago he left them behind to take charge of a rebellion that turned into a revolution
And a revolution that turned into a World War now he Longs for it to be over fighting for on one hand and then on the other hand it’s when can I get home I’m fighting for this but I want to be here so much George Washington is not the only one
Who came into his own in these many years Washington’s only son Jackie had come of Age Two long kept out of the army by his overprotective parents Jackie now makes a final plea to follow his father into battle This time Washington softens it is a testament to Washington’s confidence with all good fortune the end of the war is at hand a convergence is taking shape as Admiral DeGrasse sails up toward Virginia from the Caribbean the Continental Army now joined by five thousand French troops also heads toward the Chesapeake Bay
General Cornwallis hastens to build his defenses at Yorktown but he is beginning to feel that he is sitting at the center of a dangerous trap Cornwallis raises the alarm he rides to Clinton in New York sir if I had no hopes of relief I would rather risk an action than defend my
Half-finished defenses but if you cannot relieve me very soon you must be prepared to hear the worst General Charles Cornwallis Clinton’s response vague promises your lordship may be assured I shall Endeavor to reinforce the Army under your command by all the means within my power Sir Henry Clinton Cornwallis will soon find himself
Hanging on those promises while Washington and the French will get their chance to fulfill the promise of alliance for each player the war’s end game has arrived The Continental Army after a year of Deadlock and disloyalty is now moving as one on route to Yorktown and the largest offensive of the war America fatigued after six years of fighting holds its breath Independence their glorious cause feels within its grasp once more September 5th Admiral DeGrasse and his French Fleet
Arrived first to the Chesapeake Bay and take on the inadequate British Force sent to chase him out the two navies Clash at sea for four days Both fleets are badly hurt but it is the British who must give up the bay they needed to drive the grass out of the mouth of the Chesapeake and that they failed to do DeGrasse in one pivotal battle captures control of all that comes into or out of Yorktown
General Cornwallis knows his situation is worsening he needs more help he needs reinforcements his Commander Henry Clinton has not budged from New York Sir Henry Clinton to Earl Cornwallis New York your lordship may be assured that I am doing everything in my power to relieve you if the winds permit and no
Unforeseen accident happen this however is subject to disappointment Sir Henry Clinton Earl Cornwallis to say Henry Clinton sir I shall have no doubt if relief arrives in any reasonable time York will be in the possession of his Majesty’s troops General Charles Cornwallis Cornwallis feeling magnanimous takes faith in Clinton’s tepid promises prudently he stays put one by one his roots of Escape are cut off
The grasses ships inch up the York River George Washington takes the South French ground troops occupy the north and west seventeen thousand French and Continental soldiers now surround Cornwallis Washington presents his plan launch a massive frontal assault on Cornwallis European allies disagree Yorktown has now become heavily
Fortified Washington will lose a lot of men in the assault General Rochambeau the French Commander suggests a long-range Siege of Cannon and water Washington sees it as a better strategy one of his great gifts as a commander was to listen to other people and often do what other
People suggested even if he was against it at first On October 6th the sea begins trenches are dug that will in time envelop Yorktown like the tightening of a noose to say Henry Clinton served the enemy made their first parallel on the night of the sixth batteries opened and have since continued firing without intermission against so powerful an attack we cannot
Hope to make a very long resistance General Charles Cornwallis a lot of a Siege is about the timing can you force a city to surrender before the city gets reinforcements can you get closer and closer in your parallel trenches As you move towards the city lines of defenses
October 11th the second parallel is Doug closing the circle around Yorktown still there is no sign of Clinton’s reinforcements October 11th 5 PM since my last letter was written we have lost 30 men I have only to repeat nothing but a direct move can save me General Charles Cornwallis Clinton promises support
And Clinton promises support and Clinton promises support and corn Wallace waits for the support he waits for the support and it doesn’t arrive The Siege daily is becoming more and more formidable his lordship Cornwallis must view his situation as extremely critical if not desperate James Thatcher American officer foreign October 14th 8 pm
Washington’s troops close air and make a full-scale attack on the outer readouts of the fort October 15th Earl Cornwallis to Sir Henry Clinton sir my situation now becomes very critical the safety of this place is so precarious that I cannot recommend you run great risk in endeavoring to save us General Charles Cornwallis cornwallis’s letter will not be read Clinton has already set sail from New York
But the belated relief effort will not be in time his window has closed For six long years Washington fought a war marked more by loss than victory now his day has come the General’s finest hour begins quietly with a lone British drummer spotted coming through the smoke the enemy beat a Pali and Lord Cornwallis proposed a cessation of hostilities to settle terms for the
Surrender of the posts to this he was answered but a desire to spare the further effusion of blood would readily incline me to accept of the surrender but that I wish to have it in writing George Washington when he got cornwallis’s letter proposing the secession of hostilities
And his heart must have been ready to burst because I think he must have known just as Cornwallis knew that was it this was the end to say Henry Clinton sir I have the mortification to inform your Excellency that I have been forced to surrender the troops under my command foreign light
General Charles Cornwallis General Henry Clinton can barely contemplate the consequences of his inaction he had set in motion the end game and then sat idly while it played out now the southern British Army is lost and possibly the war itself October 19 1781 7 000 Redcoats lay down their arms in front of General George Washington On this momentous occasion only one person is missing General Charles Cornwallis avoids the ceremony claiming illness no doubt he felt worse on this day than any other in his long military career how could this have happened Cornwallis is so humiliated and so stricken by the defeat that he cannot surrender in person to George Washington October 27th Cornwallis and Washington will meet a week later when Cornwallis in a show of respect invites Washington to his headquarters what the two men discuss is not recorded
But surely they must have shared the same thought now they come together as equals as the commanders from two Nations one ancient and Powerful the other on the verge of being born for the Americans certainly their euphoric feelings of Victory now though the more difficult task of building a nation begins
Washington the general is about to exit the stage to make way for Washington the Statesman and Nation Builder a challenge he cannot yet conceive But before he can look to the Future Washington is pulled back into the present victory has come at a terrible price a personal tragedy that will forever Scar the general during The Siege Washington’s son Jackie who finally came to fight alongside his father Falls ill to a devastating Camp fever
Washington and Martha arrive in time to see their son alive but only briefly Jackie soon dies at the very last a victim of America’s Crusade at Yorktown same time country is celebrating in jubilation through all the colonies at the victory of Yorktown the commander-in-chief who brought them that victory is mourning
Deep in grief over the death of a son and his final child George and Martha have now lost all their children it is the final ultimate sacrifice for the Virginia farmer who stepped up to lead his fledgling country at last it seems the revolution is coming to an end
But Washington like the thousands of Americans who fought and died alongside him must Wonder at the extraordinary cost of Independence thank you October 1781 tense Tillman George Washington’s aide rides non-stop for four days and nights to bring glorious news from Yorktown Virginia to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia the Americans have decimated Britain’s Southern Army and forced the surrender of its best General Charles Cornwallis a huge victory over 7 000 people taken
Prisoner there are great celebrations illuminations they call them fireworks ringing bells and so on but the joy in Philadelphia is anything but unanimous loyalists face a different kind of Illumination would not have imagined this house to be illuminated last night but it was a mob surrounded it broke the shutters and the
Glass of the windows and were coming in it was the most alarming scene I ever remember Anna Rawl loyalist daughter Paris November 19th a month later as fast as 18th century news can travel a midnight message is delivered to Benjamin Franklin with the news of Yorktown Franklin has been in France for five
Years to secure and hold on to French support at long last victory and peace may be at hand London six days later ironically the British are the last to know prime minister Lord Frederick North gets the Dreadful news by way of a French source my God he cries it’s all over
The news stuns England the last anyone had heard Cornwallis one of Britain’s most able generals had marched his army from Charleston to Virginia uncontested there’s been no warning that such a profound defeat was even possible capture of Cornwallis comes as a nasty shock Britain’s not supposed to lose
It’s not supposed to lose to its own people to its own colonists King George III has no intention of surrendering any part of his Empire he prepares a speech to steal the spine of Parliament the late Misfortune calls loudly for your firm concurrence and assistance I have no doubt about that by the
Support of My Parliament by The Valor of my fleets and armies and by a United exertion of my people I shall be enabled to restore the blessing of a safe and honorable peace to all my dominions King George III In New York Britain’s man in charge of the American war is still General Henry Clinton his failure to reinforce Cornwallis at Yorktown has made his troubled command unbearable I am fairly worn out for God’s sake let me return to my little family while I have something of life left General Henry Clinton
Henry Clinton makes a willing and ready scapegoat for this debacle he has very few friends Legions of enemies so back in England immediately there are renewed calls to bring this war at least against the Americans to a speedy conclusion while London weighs its next move it orders Clinton to maintain all positions
On the Atlantic seaboard the British still have 12 000 troops in New York five thousand in Charleston South Carolina and over a thousand in Savannah Georgia Britain still has substantial forces in North America so no one is under any illusion that the war is over up in New Windsor New York Continental
Commander George Washington has brought his ten thousand man army 60 miles up the Hudson River from New York to contain Clinton and his army Washington’s troops may be savoring their Victory at Yorktown but the general himself is not yet ready to celebrate because there is this exuberant feeling
Of victory that the Americans have won this great Victory a lot of the American soldiers at this point are inclined to hang them up and head back home and return to the business of Peace but the war is not yet over and Washington recognizes this Yorktown didn’t end it
The British and the loyalists in the Carolinas and in Georgia wouldn’t lay their arms down foreign once again it falls to Rhode Island general Nathaniel Green Washington’s second in command to continue his Guerrilla war in the south with only a thousand men green cannot hope to capture Charleston or Savannah
But he relentlessly attacks British outposts in the Carolina and Georgia Backwoods forcing British soldiers back to the cities Breen and his men never let up on the enemy in some of the bitterest fighting of the entire War Fighting in the back country is continuing there’s fighting on the frontier and then skirmishing in other places there are more American deaths at the end of the war than at the beginning the war is not necessarily over foreign February 1782 the war in North America may not be over but it has grown increasingly unpopular with England’s people and politicians the feeling among almost everyone is kawas has been captured this war has been expensive it’s been ruinous in terms of the loss of men it’s drawn us into a fight where
We have no friends no allies in Europe or anywhere else parliament’s War opponents are determined to quit North America they introduce a motion that the war in America be brought to a close initially the motion is defeated by one vote but in a Revo three days later it
Carries by 19. effectively ousting Lord North and his pro-war regime the king is furious now with the opposition in power he must agree to end the war despite his firm belief that an independent America will weaken perhaps destroy his Empire he fuels even contemplates resigning as Parliament sets about the complex
Business of obtaining a workable piece By Spring the major conflict moves from the battlefields in America to the peace table in France will Britain recognize American independence what will the French demand for their contribution to the war the future of America now rests on the shoulders of a negotiating team headed by the wise and cunning Benjamin Franklin
London spring 1782 the six months of limbo after the American victory at Yorktown is starting to break Parliament has voted to end the war in America and forced out its prime minister Lord North in New York a worn out General Henry Clinton gets his wish and is relieved of his command
He has been fighting this war nearly from the beginning from Bunker Hill in 1775 to Yorktown For the last four years Clinton has served as commander-in-chief his greatest moment was capturing Charleston in 1780. but he exits America forever tarnished by the catastrophic failure at Yorktown Clinton’s replacement sir guy Carlton the former governor general of Canada is charged with ending hostilities and withdrawing British troops
George Washington ever weary keeps his army alert and ready for any British action from the former infatuation duplicity and perverse system of British policy I am induced to doubt everything to suspect everything General George Washington in Paris peace negotiations begins somewhat tentatively in April the Continental Congress has instructed
The venerable Benjamin Franklin to sort through the many political agendas of the French British Spanish and Dutch whose recognition America will need to secure its independence Franklin is the one sitting in Paris when the peace feelers are first put forward so it’s his job to begin to separate the valid
Ones from the sort of less serious ones to find figure out which embassery is really bearing negotiating power which is not as easy as it sounds but he holds this whole mess of Peace feelers in place until he’s joined in Paris by John Jay and ultimately by John Adams
John Adams currently in the Netherlands seeking Dutch recognition of the United States and is soon to join Franklin at the Paris peace table 37 year old John Jay a lawyer from New York and a former president of Continental Congress is the youngest member of the American Peace Commission and plans to arrive in Paris by June for now Franklin is on his own just the way he likes it but Britain wanted out of negotiations
More than anything else was to separate the United States from France because a persistent French U.S Alliance would be a horrific Prospect which is exactly what France is hoping for France has a great stake in the outcome Franklin’s Ally French foreign minister comp de virgin persuaded his King Louis
XVI to declare war on Britain his perennial enemy since joining the war in 1778 France has thrown its Army and Navy into the fight and has lent the Americans 31 million dollars version is anxious for a satisfying payoff to his investment American independence that will decimate England’s wealth trade and Power The Continental Congress has ordered Franklin to operate under the guidance and instructions of the French Court over the next several months in Paris and Versailles the old chess master takes care with every move Franklin knew that the cardinal rule of diplomacy was never to speak unless you
Absolutely had to the patience of an old man coupled with the fact that he’s naturally taciturn makes him enormously shrewd diplomat innumerable issues need to be ironed out with the British the big one of course is independence but there are other crucial items for both sides terms of trade
Fishing rights off the coast of Canada and on the Mississippi River payment of pre-war debts who owns what North American territory outside the previous Colonial borders but no issue is more sensitive than the fate of the Americans who sided with the British the loyalists A great sense of obligation to the American loyalists and there was a sense that having expended so much effort and drawn the Loyalists into public professions of Allegiance Britain couldn’t simply abandon their flesh and blood this way they have to be evacuated because they fought on the wrong side they see no
Life left for them who knows the land is going to be confiscated probably they may well be killed for fighting on the wrong side July 1782 Savannah Georgia with hostilities brought to a halt by the peace talks The Exodus Begins for those no longer welcome sir guy Carlton Britain’s commander-in-chief orders the evacuation
Of Savannah as a thousand British troops sailed for New York to join the main Army 2500 white Loyalists and 5 000 black slaves who joined the British set sail for british-controlled territory in Florida and the West Indies a month later in Charleston South Carolina the British posts a general
Notice promising transport out for those who cast their lot with the crown by the end of the year Charleston will see 126 ships carry nearly 12 000 people white and black to Florida the West Indies New York and England whatever their uncertain future they are almost certain to fare better than the
Loyalists who stay behind October 1782 John Adams finally arrives in Paris a commercial treaty with the Dutch in hand the peace talks begin in Earnest Franklin has prepared the ground for the younger more aggressive Adams and John Jay to take over the Reigns with their wildly different personalities these three make a
Brilliant though less than harmonious team Adams mistrusts Franklin’s Reserve which he interprets as devious and Adam’s intensity rubs everyone the wrong way Jay insists that American independence be a non-negotiable precondition to any serious talks I think the United States were fortunate in having negotiators who had spent a
Fair amount of time in Europe who were the intellectual peers of the men that they would be dealing with and were unusually Sly and Wily people Jay and Adams trust no one to look after United States interests including their French allies defying congress’s orders they cut the
French out of the process and deal only with the British in the end the three men work quite brilliantly together and pull off terms that are so extravagantly great for America that essentially the French will be reeling how did these babes in the woods manage to pull this off the French
To put it mildly are outraged without them the revolution would have surely failed yet these upstarts have dared to exclude them we have essentially violated our contract with the French and the French feel understandably cheated introduced those treacherous Americans we knew we couldn’t trust them in the first place It becomes Franklin’s job to not only repair the insult but to extract yet another loan from France’s depleted Treasury He goes off to see the French foreign minister of the count of Belgian and says to him two things first of all we’re babes in the woods we made a mistake we didn’t know how to do this properly which of course was completely the opposite of the truth and secondly
The British really would like to divide us they love the idea that they’ve divided us let’s not give them that satisfaction he does that masterfully as only Franklin could have he’s extremely subtle and Belgian is dumb struck by this speech but really can’t do anything about it and essentially it jumps on board
On November 30th the British sign a tentative agreement that for the first time acknowledges the former colonies as the United States of America almost all of its Provisions prove favorable to the Americans Britain will recognize the 13 free and sovereign states the states get guaranteed fishing rights off of Newfoundland the western
Boundary of the United States will be defined by the Mississippi River with navigation and fishing rights shared by America and Britain but not France or Spain the provisional treaty is sent back to America for approval Parliament hoped to make a generous piece that would create Goodwill in the
United States and the United States emerged from the peace conference with far more than they could have had right to expect but even among the winners of this generous piece there are losers many Americans will soon find out they have been left out as the war with Britain draws to a close
Discontent within the new nation threatens its very survival Winter 1783 a year and a half after the climactic Battle of Yorktown General George Washington is still waiting for an end to the war a provisional treaty has been signed hostilities have all but ceased but an official piece is not yet declared with too much time on their hands and
Nothing to do but drill discontent festers at the New Windsor New York encampment Mutiny is once again in the air the officers of the Continental Army were extremely frustrated peace negotiations were dragging on Congress had promised them officers pensions years ago they had still not approved that
There was months of back pay there owed that had not been collected they were enraged though they’re on the verge of going home Furious officers threatened not to disarm until Congress honors its Financial Obligations to its fighting men it was not outside the realm of feasibility that the Army might have in
Fact marched on Philadelphia and tried to depose the government March 15th Newburgh New York hundreds of officers assemble at a meeting hall near the camp a coup against Congress is becoming a serious threat they Pile in and they Jam the hall it’s an Airing of Grievances and it’s pretty
Obvious that they’re gonna they’re gonna decide to march on Congress and force the end and Washington has a dilemma he’s the commander of the army he has to defend Congress against his own men how can he do that they’re mad at him he hasn’t helped them in this he said he
Would and nothing has happened he he told them that things take time the wheels of Congress move slowly they didn’t want to hear that so they’re angry at him all of a sudden as the meeting starts the commander-in-chief arrives alone he walks to the front of the hall and he makes a speech
As I have never left your side one moment as I have been the constant companion and witness of your distresses it can scarcely be supposed at this late stage of war that I am indifferent to its interests this Dreadful alternative of either deserting our country in the extremist
Hour of her distress or turning our arms against it has something shocking to it that Humanity revolts at the idea my God he says wonderful things but a speech goes over like lead Then he says he’s going to read a letter from a member of Congress to add to what he has to say he picks up the letter he can’t read the letter He takes out his glasses and he tells the men that I’ve got to read this letter with my glasses because like you in addition to Growing gray I have gone blind in the service to my country This ad-lib line that he didn’t intend to say hits these men like a punch to the stomach and then all of a sudden these tough hard soldiers they begin to weep uncontrollably this admiration for the commander he never took a vacation he’s been at the front lines being shot at like us
He’s held us together for eight years everywhere we’ve been he’s been with us there’s this unbelievable connection between the officers and him foreign there was no Rebellion I think that moment in 1783 is one of the Great Moments in American history and Washington at his finest
It was a moment of real danger Americans had always suspected a standing army suspected what it might do suspected that it might actually take power and this is the moment where it might actually have occurred a month later in April Congress receives England’s official declaration to end all hostilities
One after another the European countries have recognized the United States of America as a Sovereign Nation by June most of the Continental Army disbands and Washington awaits the peaceful evacuation of Britain’s last stronghold New York City New York has become the last safe place for loyalists as the British military prepares to
Leave the city is overrun by thousands of black and white refugees who desperately need to get out some 100 000 blacks who had thrown in their lot with the British had been offered protection now the question is will the British make good on their promise Washington was demanding that the
British restore slaves to their masters and so there was a lot of concern but by and large the British didn’t do that by and large the former slaves left America with the British the fate of the slaves who escaped is mixed we know that 3000 went
From New York up to Canada a few hundred went to England lots of them were sent to the Bahamas and other places as slaves and some were returned forcibly by the Fall the Treaty of Paris is signed in November the last of the British soldiers leave New York
After seven long years General George Washington with what remains of his army returns triumphant to New York City the scene of his most humiliating defeat one eyewitness observes the troops that marched in were ill-clad and weather beaten and made a forlorn appearance but then they were our troops
And as I looked at them and thought upon all they had done for us my heart my eyes were full and I admired and gloried in them the more Americans can finally celebrate after a war that’s inflicted 25 000 military deaths one percent of the U.S population the people are ready to leave War behind and look to the Future everyone realizes that something momentous has happened but the joy will be short-lived the war is at an end but the American
Revolution is far from over we’ve only seen the First Act the political and social sorting out was far from over the revolution’s second act will be every bit as perilous for the new nation as the first the war’s aftermath is about to bring the fragile Alliance of States dangerously close to disintegration foreign
Congress December 23 1783. having now finished the work assign me I retire from the great theater of action and bidding an affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted I here offer my commission and take my leave of all the employment of public life George Washington
At this moment if he wanted to George Washington could rule the new United States but he walks away He submits one hundred thousand dollars for expenses asks no payment for his services and he goes home to Mount Vernon George Washington’s decision startled everyone what happens in revolutions is that the head of the Revolutionary Army that wins takes over you become a king or a dictator for life you take over
You don’t leave and go home he never really thought about it it was time to go and he went The war is finally over the British and their loyalists both white and black are gone the American Army has for the most part disbanded but many in America will soon realize that the long-awaited peace is anything but for American Indians the Revolution was a disaster they were on the losing side
And with the British walked away from the Indian allies the same American weapons the same American officers the same American enlisted men in many cases turned their guns West against the Native Americans and a long war of National Expansion into the West occurred but it’s not just the Indians who suffer
The end of the war brings political and economic chaos fear and anger spread through all 13 states at every level people are tired out the economy was in shambles there was no currency at the end of the war it had lost all its value their serious economic problems
The new United States is really a very fragile country a lot of their leaders are very worried exactly how they’re going to keep this group of states together is always a question the only thing binding the states into a union are the Articles of Confederation a very weak compact that assigns joint
Policy making power to the Continental Congress the Congress cannot however regulate trade Levy taxes or issue currency the Articles were drafted at the same time as the Declaration of Independence in 1776. but it took five years for the fiercely independent states to agree to even this feeble Central Authority
Garmin under the Articles of Confederation failed badly there was no Central chief executive Congress had no power to tax there were rebellions against Authority the revolution that started over British taxes has ended up with new conflicts over state taxes returning veterans are losing their Farms to bankers and tax collectors
This is not what they fought for and many are ready to take action take the farmer in Massachusetts at the end of the war in a broken economy he can’t pay his taxes and the legislature says we can’t retire the Revolutionary debt which is huge without imposing taxes so we have a very
Difficult situation here it leads to Shay’s Rebellion in 1786. Daniel Shays is a Fed Up veteran and farmer from Western Massachusetts in August 1786 he leads four thousand men on an armed Insurrection against County and state courts to Halt farm foreclosures the same men who fought in the
Massachusetts line in the revolution are now fighting against their own government they’re closing courthouses in September Shay’s Rebels forced closure of Massachusetts highest court the Supreme Court in Springfield the Massachusetts governor sends 4 400 state militiamen to put down the Rebellion the soldiers easily route Shays and his
Men with cannon fire and Grave shots four of Shay’s men die but the Rebellion has made its point the states are in chaos and they had better unite behind some kind of central government fast as a whole this unit doesn’t work yet and if it doesn’t find a way to work
What’s going to be the mechanism that’s going to ensure that that Independence is preserved and secured we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union establish justice ensure domestic tranquility in the coming months provide for the common defense the Quest for a
More perfect union will begin do ordain and establish this constitution of the United States foreign these are the grand words that will soon introduce a brand new constitution to the people of a floundering Nation but finding Grand words will be the easy part the hard part will be coming up
With a compact to satisfy all the competing interests before the whole noble experiment falls apart May 1787 Philadelphia it’s now or never for the anything but United States of America if they don’t come up with a constitution to establish a functioning central government the new nation will most certainly implode the states send 55 delegates to a constitutional convention to repair the woefully inadequate particles of
Confederation there are all kinds of questions about what’s going to be the direction for this new nation and you can’t have 13 different answers you need to have one answer these men are charged with nothing less than devising a whole new system of government the one thing they can agree on is to
Keep the preceding secret to ensure Candor and allow a full range of argument among the group are both new and old faces including the most revered man in America Washington is chairman of the Constitutional Convention his presence is very important for the legitimacy of this new constitution the last thing George Washington wanted
To do after eight grueling years of war was leave his beloved Mount Vernon home at 55 he is tempted to rest on his Laurels but he is keenly aware that all his efforts could be undone if Government doesn’t change I think Washington is nervous about what’s going to happen to the country if
They don’t have a new form of government he has a national vision of America that’s why he’s important to be in that room there are other Visions in the room Alexander Hamilton from New York is a brilliant 32 year old war veteran and attorney Benjamin Franklin the great negotiator
Now old frail but ever wise and reliable joins the Pennsylvania delegation among the missing are two of the revolution’s most forceful voices John Adams and Thomas Jefferson who are serving as foreign ministers in England and France Adams and Jefferson just I think are frantic with the fact that a new
Government’s being written about and they’re not there in their place the man with the plan the Virginia Plan is James Madison a 36 year old career politician from Virginia Madison knew this moment would come and has spent years formulating a new governing structure his Virginia Plan with a foundation as
Old as the Greeks and as recent as the state’s own constitutions proposes three branches of government an executive a two house legislature and a judiciary with each branch serving as a check on the power of the others throughout the hot summer of 1787 arguments rage about the balance of
Power between large states and small states between South and North between civilian and Military Authority there’s a real concern about democracy run amok there’s a real concern about monarchism returning there’s a concern about the states having too much power there’s a concern about this new national government having too much power and so
It’s really a balancing act to make sure that there’s a structure that does not let anyone monopolize power a lot of folks in the country hear a new Democratic federal government just as they fear the power of the crown another big issue how are you going to
Represent people you can have two houses but do you count the small states the same as the big States or the big States overwhelm the small states how are you going to get around that the months wear on and tempers wear thin some delegates go home and some states
Threaten to vote I fear worries Alexander Hamilton that we shall let slip the golden opportunity of rescuing the American Empire from disunion Anarchy and misery but under Washington’s patient hand the delegates stay the course and the long days and nights of argument and compromise produce a workable draft
It is only four pages made up of a preamble and seven articles that outline the structure of a new national government Article 1 Section one all legislative powers shall be vested in the Congress of the United States which shall consist of a senate and a House of Representatives
You can have two senators from each state and they’ll be to where the brains are and representatives in the house of Congress will be apportioned by population and that’s where the virtue will lie the sort of sense of what the people want so if you have them both you
Get the wisdom of the Senate and the virtue of the people Article 2 Section one the executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of America he shall hold his office during a term of four years and together with the Vice President Washington exerts his greatest
Influence in fashioning the unprecedented role of an elected president after years of wrangling with Continental Congress during the war he knows better than anyone the need for a decisive executive the president will execute the laws of Congress and as a civilian will act as the commander-in-chief of the national Army and Navy
Military tyranny something they’re determined to avoid so the respect for civilian Authority is something that plays a large role in the new constitution these first two articles and the third establishing a supreme court form the heart of an unprecedented democracy but the document also contains a blatant anomaly slavery
Slavery was in clear Counterpoint to the ideals of the Revolution but these guys believe very strongly particularly in the plantation economies that slavery was the basis of their livelihood many of them felt that slavery was wrong those who were dependent upon it could not figure out a way to escape it
With the South threatening to secede the delegates agreed to continue the importation of slaves for another 20 years another Clause prohibits any state from harboring or freeing escaped slaves from their masters for the purpose of counting population slaves are defined as three-fifths of a person otherwise they are property not people even though
Slavery was such a hot topic of discussion at the convention the word slave or slavery does not appear in that document at all you will find slavery talked about just not named you know they will use euphemisms like those not free other persons and so on slavery is so interwoven in the economy
Of the South that they just can’t bring themselves to right this wrong and they basically postpone the problem to be reckoned with on another day that day became the Civil War it was a pretty bad day on September 17 1787 39 exhausted delegates signed the finished document the Constitution they have fashioned to
Form a more perfect union is an imperfect compromise of visions and few of the signers if any are truly satisfied but with characteristic optimism Benjamin Franklin sets aside his own reservations and fully endorses it I think it will astonish our enemies who are waiting to hear that our states are
On the point of separation thus I consent to this constitution because I expect no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best Two days later the proposed United States Constitution goes into print born in secrecy it takes the public by complete surprise few expected such a sweeping new form of government but the people will study it and argue it and soon they too will have their say for all the talk about popular
Sovereignty that had gone on during the war and that’s what we were fighting for what we come to in the end is a small group of people at the top determining what they think the fate of the nation should be and then having to sell it as if a product to the rest
It will take nearly a year for the required two-thirds of the states to ratify this constitution on June 21st 1788 it becomes the law of the land Washington returns once again to Mount Vernon after the signing of the Constitution hoping to live out his days there but he knows like virtually every other
American that when it comes time to elect the first president of the United States it is he who will be called He is the only person that could be the president nobody else could hold the United States together everybody trusted and admired him only he could do this he feels that history is drawing him to this that is a destiny of some kind In a time like no other when history has made men and men have made history no one more than George Washington has guided the destiny of America twice he has taken the stage and twice he has left it now for the third time his people and
The Lure of posterity call him to take the Helm of this new nation lead it into its unprecedented and uncertain future as the United States of America Mount Vernon Virginia April 16 1789. George Washington gentleman farmer and former commander of America’s Revolutionary forces packing to leave his beloved home once again for eight years Washington led the American Army through a grueling war and no one believed he could win against the most powerful Empire in the world Great Britain His army lost more battles than it won but by sheer will and perseverance they marched their way to Ultimate victory now at 57 nothing would make George Washington happier than to live out his days in the serenity of Mount Vernon Washington has very much subordinated himself to the needs of the nation he
Has made Untold sacrifices but he really does intend to retire quietly to civilian life thank you but Washington’s long Revolutionary Road has not yet reached an end for the former commander-in-chief of the army has again been summoned into service by Congress and the country
He is off on a trip to New York City to be sworn in as the first president of the United States of a new America mob movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution
So unwilling am I in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares to quit a peaceful Abode for an ocean of difficulties George Washington everybody tells George Washington it isn’t that they think he should be the president he must be the president his eight-day ride will take him across
Many of the former colonies of America through the bloody battlefields where thousands lost their lives under his commands lives given in the name of Liberty it is a journey that will have the future president not only looking ahead but looking back as well at what made George Washington the greatest American General The year is 1775. 14 years earlier the place Continental Congress George Washington is about to take Center Stage ten years of riots and Rebellion have set the 13 American colonies Ablaze the Stamp Act riots the Boston Massacre the Boston Tea Party these have brought the British army to American soil Lexington
Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill pitted citizen soldiers against the most powerful Empire in the world now the colonists need an army and someone to lead it June 15 1775. John Adams Massachusetts delegates and well-known revolutionary thinker lays out a proposal the creation of a professional Army and Adams calls for the immediate appointment of a commander to head up this new Force the choice is unanimous gentleman planter from Virginia a hero in the French and Indian War of
The 1750s and the only delegate to show up every day in his military uniform 43-year-old George Washington very impressive guy when he wears his military uniform with great dignity and and of course he shows up making the point I have military experience I am a person who you can count on as
Your military commander he has the image to do it he’s got the experience he’s from Virginia they make him the commander-in-chief and he modestly says I’m I’m really not equal to the task and I’ll just do my best later there will be times when Congress will wonder if his best is good enough
But there were few men in 1775 with the experience and most importantly the character to take on the job of commander-in-chief July 1775 two weeks after his appointment Washington arrives in Cambridge Massachusetts to take charge of his soldiers and is stunned by the condition of his so-called Army these men are ragged disheveled getting drunk on duty no knowledge of how to handle a musket efficiently there was no discipline there was certainly no
Hygiene for a little structure it was a mess these are Washington’s revolutionaries these are the soldiers given him to defend against the British army he has precious little time to turn this woefully undisciplined underprepared under-supplied Army into a force that can stand up against the strongest Empire in the world Today the summer of 1775 now 14 years ago is a distant memory it was hardly The Way Washington had expected to lead an upstart group of rebels to Glory against the mighty superpower but Washington was never the kind of leader who would let any challenge stand in his way
He was very aware I think I think he had a role to play in history and wanted to create a legacy that he could be proud of and America could be proud of making the country proud began with a winter assault and more importantly the advice of others foreign 1776.
It has been six months since Washington has taken charge of the Continental forces his army is a ragtag lot of citizen insurgents but ever since the Battle of Concord the untrained Force has managed to hem the British into the city of Boston now the question is how to get them out
Washington is eager to bring the fight to the British to launch his first offensive of the war his plan to send waves of foot soldiers into a full frontal attack on the city of Boston Get his young officers like Nathaniel Greene and Henry Knox stand in staunch opposition George Washington always had the ability to listen to many people he thinks everybody’s view is important and if he can listen to enough opinions he’ll know as much as they do a Hallmark of good leadership instead Washington’s officers suggest
Using an untapped Resource One hundred twenty thousand pounds of artillery captured by the Americans from a remote New York Outpost Fort Ticonderoga they propose hauling the cannon under the cover of night to Dorchester Heights and training this newly acquired Firepower on the enemy below Washington considers the idea and knows
It is the right choice he orders the plan into action on the morning of March 5th 1776 British general Howe awakes to the site of 20 Cannon pointing down on his ships in the harbor with one stroke the Americans Checkmate the British it’s not until after they seat ticonderoga’s guns on Dorchester Heights
That they realize they got to get the heck out of there and so they do 8 900 British soldiers and 1100 loyalists the Americans siding with the British take just two weeks to board their ships and leave the colonies for now Washington Savers the first victory of his command Boston the Beloved
Birthplace of the revolution is back in Patriot hands thanks in no small part to the good sense and creativity of his young officers but peering over his shoulder just waiting for him to stumble are a number of his more senior officers over time General’s Charles Lee Horatio Gates and Benedict Arnold
Each connive to undermine Washington’s command The winter of 1776 was just the beginning and that easy victory at Boston was but a fleeting illusion for seven more years of war still lay ahead or the taxed every fiber of his character to survive let alone to become president April 17 1789 a world weary but Resolute George
Washington enters the second day of his journey to New York City it will soon be sworn in as the first president of the United States of America Washington now heads to Baltimore Maryland where the great hero of the revolution is greeted by 10 000 citizens at the Canon salutes of the new nation he is destined to lead foreign there are a few people who are legends in their own time and Washington was deservedly one of them
I am so much affected by this fresh proof of my country’s esteem and confidence that silence can best explain my gratitude George Washington the road before him is daunting it will wind through political territory never before explored by any man in history but Washington and America have grown accustomed to Blazing new trails
A course that was set some 13 years earlier New Year’s Day 1776. the first day of a momentous year for a nation in the throes of birth this is the day Washington receives news Britain’s King George III has issued a proclamation crushed the Rebellion by any means necessary they are words that only serve to steal
The resolve of the general and his men that are the first and a year marked by words for now a voice rises in the colonies that galvanizes the cause words from another Englishman words that will help lead the colonies out of rebellion and Into Revolution We have it within our power to begin the world over again it is not the concern of a day a year or an age now is the seed time of Continental Union the writer Thomas pay the words what Americans long to hear it is a 46-page pamphlet titled simply
Common sense and it spreads like wildfire throughout the colonies Some say a hundred thousand copies of this were published translate that into population rates today that would be like selling 20 million books through Amazon Barnes and Noble pains Common Sense releases the genie from the bottle words mixed with an idea to break totally with the King to be independent
Suddenly in every Tavern and every Meeting House Everywhere people congregate they’re talking seriously without this idea should we go for Independence or not it is a potent tonic for a people in Revolt in the ranks of Washington’s Army a transforming effect of the words is immediate
Era everyone knew they had a stake in it and it was perhaps the most glorious moment in the history of this country where people really did believe the birthday of a new world is It it has been years since Washington has seen Thomas Paine the author of Common Sense has left America behind off to sow the seeds of a new Revolution in another country where the word Liberty is on everyone’s tongue France the monarchy that backed the Americans in the war of independence is
Trembling from the same Democratic forces she helped unleash in America peasants and common people are shaking the foundations of centuries of feudal rule pain may have departed this new nation but it was his words that helped lay the groundwork for the world’s seminal revolutionary document America’s Declaration of Independence
Spring 1776. George Washington is moving his men south from Boston toward the next big military battle the British are coming back their target New York City 100 miles to the South the Continental Congress has reconvened in Philadelphia for a fight of Their Own the political battle for Independence
Here Benjamin Franklin John Adams John Hancock and luminaries from all 13 colonies prepare to declare in writing their intention to break from Britain they turned to a young Virginia lawyer a rising star in American politics 33 year old Thomas Jefferson craft the words that will spell treason against the king It is a heady and vexing task to articulate the cause for which people are willing to die the cause of Liberty but defining Liberty that is the rub who’s in and who’s out who’s included does this mean everybody this mean only the rich does this mean property holders
How far do we go who’s included in this new nation we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness but does that really mean all men there
Is the matter of slavery Jefferson owned slaves Washington owned slaves and these are the men leading the fight for human Liberty slavery was in clear Counterpoint to the ideals of the Revolution these guys weren’t idiots they understood the notion of paradox but they also believed very strongly particularly in the
Plantation economies that slavery was the basis of their livelihood July 1st 1776 Jefferson delivers his final draft of the Declaration to Congress and watches in horror as the delegates tear it apart and that was three days of debate in Congress in which Congress took out 89 different things including any language
Criticizing the practice of slavery and Jefferson just sat there writhing through the whole thing with the issue of slavery now tabled for another day the final draft is approved America has a birthday July 4th copies are taken by horseback everywhere throughout the colonies in the town squares all over the country
Church bills ringing and the people were assigned the crowd was applauding people really did believe the birthday of a new world is at hand it’s happened so many other times since the American Revolution that it’s easy to overlook its novelty a nation declaring itself independent really without precedent
It is a decisive moment for every American and an especially grave one for the commander of the Continental Army there is no turning back and now the British with the largest Force ever sent across the ocean are descending upon New York City for Washington that memorable year 1776
Is one he would rather forget because of the Declaration of Independence history has recorded it as epic and glorious but for Washington it stands out as perhaps the most grueling and humiliating of his life April 18 1789 5 am few men in America have slept in as many different places as George Washington this morning he makes final preparations to leave Baltimore beginning the third day of his northward trip to New York City there in just a matter of days he will
Be inaugurated as the first president of the United States it will be a triumphant moment for a man whose confidence and reputation once lay in tatters just weeks after the exuberance that followed the Declaration of Independence Back in 1776 you would have suspected that this guy would be out of a job pretty soon summer 1776. the nation has been set a fire with the idea of Liberty but at his headquarters in New York City General George Washington is faced with the reality of what stands between the
Colonies and their independence the British have returned spectacularly 130 warships and nearly 25 000 men sail into New York Harbor when the British come in the summer of 1776 It’s like Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back this is the most powerful military Nation on earth that is bringing that
Power to bear on you it is a sight to unnerve even the most battle-hardened Soldier the British sailed past Manhattan and set up camp on Staten Island Washington was faced with a tremendous task he had no Navy to speak of and he was trying to protect a group of islands with hundreds of miles of Shoreline against the world’s most powerful Naval Force Washington’s men spent the summer digging in on Long Island’s Brooklyn Heights where they expect the British to
Launch their attack Liberty must equal War Late August 1776. in the early morning the British commander General William Howe makes his move more than 20 thousand British soldiers marched toward the American positions it is their first head-on attack against Washington’s Army [Applause] the battle is a bloodbath the Continental Army is totally overwhelmed on this day 300 Americans die and
Another 1 000 are captured before beating a Swift and chaotic retreat Washington watches in shock it’s the best trained army in the world easily outmaneuvers his one stroke the British have nearly destroyed the American Army put a quick end to the so-called War of Independence Washington is forced to make a desperate
Move before All Is Lost under cover of night he orders an all-out Retreat back to Manhattan Washington may not have a Navy but he has resourceful courageous fishermen from Massachusetts all through the night they use any boat they can get their hands on to Ferry nine thousand men to the safety of Manhattan
At dawn the Americans receive one providential break a strange and Eerie fog sets in over New York Harbor the British Sea and hear nothing as the last of the soldiers Escape when the fog lifts the British find only a deserted enemy camp the Continental Army has vanished
The failure to capture them and to put a stop to the war by rounding up the rebel forces really was one of the greatest blunders of the War the British lost their best opportunity to win the war at a stroke Washington’s Army is now an Army on the Run
And the British waste no time in launching a new offensive in battle after battle the Continental Army is overwhelmed by the superior power and sheer number of British forces they are driven off the Isle of Manhattan this really negatively affects the Morales force and perhaps more importantly affects the morale of some
Of his subordinate commanders who really now question whether or not Washington is the right man for this job Washington leads the remains of his defeated Army on a retreat South into New Jersey A little more than a year into his command the general is now pursued by the British and Under Siege from his own officers foreign Charles Lee Washington’s most experienced General sees a perfect opportunity to supplant his commander-in-chief and he isn’t shy about saying so to anyone who might help him get ahead
A certain great man is most damnably deficient I foresaw all that has happened had I the powers I could do much good General Charles Lee one of Lee’s confidants an increasingly disillusioned officer named Joseph Reed encourages Lee to make a move against the commander-in-chief Washington is totally unaware of the
Designs of Lee and Reed that is until a courier delivers him the wrong letter my dear Reed I lament with you that fatal indecision of mind which in war is a much greater disqualification than stupidity or even want of personal courage Eternal defeat must attend the men of
The best parts if cursed with indecision General Charles Lee Washington’s response was to write to read and say I opened this by accident I thought it was official business and to just try to smooth it over I think all of these moments really just highlight the extraordinary equilibrium that he maintained
Washington lets it pass but he now knows that his power is weakening and that both British and American wolves are at his heels as Washington flees across New Jersey realizes that this revolution might be over he’s a commander-in-chief of an army that has shrunk drastically Congressman right there wives and their
Friends letters saying that the game is just about up they’re fearful that this war is shortly going to be over Washington had never been lower than those dark days of 1776. others thought him destined for Oblivion rather than Legend but legends are made from character and vision
Just when all seemed lost he summoned both with one bold stroke April 19 1789 day four of George Washington’s journey to New York City to become the first president of the United States leaving Maryland behind he is heading toward Wilmington Delaware Washington crosses the fields and dells of America
Passes the tributaries that lead to a river of great personal importance the vital Delaware River scene of one of Washington’s greatest reversals of Fortune 13 years before December 1776 in its Pennsylvania Camp the Continental Army finds itself back on its heels Washington’s poor judgment has cost the Americans New York City and depleted his fighting force the British now occupy New Jersey and place Hessian forces at Key Junctions along the Delaware places like Trenton
There the King’s Men will catch their breath before the next season of fighting in the American Camp faith in the revolution is falling as fast as the temperature and many of his soldiers are ready to quit when their enlistments expire at Year’s End here with us recently embedded with Washington’s
Flagging Army was the author of Common Sense Thomas Payne Who Bore witness to their travail again he wields his pen to inspire a people with words capturing the moment and the mood in a pamphlet American crisis let it be told to the Future world that in the depth of winter when nothing but
Hope and virtue could survive that the city and the country alarmed at one common danger came forth to meet and to repulse it time hath found us Thomas Paine Washington takes these words to Heart it is time to act to rescue the cause with the end of the year fast
Approaching Washington makes a bold decision to take his army across the Delaware River in a surprise attack at Trenton Washington chooses Christmas day to reveal his plan to his troops and readies them to reverse the course and take the fight to the British The Crossing is a Monumental task
The same Massachusetts fishermen who had helped the Army Retreat from Brooklyn Heights in August must now put the Army on the offensive ferrying 2 400 soldiers horses and artillery across the near Frozen River in blizzard conditions do it before Dawn Washington himself will lead his soldiers into battle every school child in America
Is familiar with the painting of Washington Crossing the Delaware when he’s boldly in the front of the boat standing up looking heroically towards the Eastern shore of the river it would have been nice but it didn’t happen like that nobody stood up that night wisely so in worsening weather The Crossing takes forever
Yet the plan remains get to Trenton by Dawn but there is still a Nine Mile March ahead of the Continentals light or no light Washington has everything riding on this the soldiers some with only Rags on their feet must push on when they arrive the Hessians are caught off guard
The surprise attack is glorious Battle of Trenton is a brutal encounter the American surprised the Hessians who tumble out of their backs grab their muskets and attempt to defend themselves the battle lasts less than an hour the Hessians don’t have a chance because they’re surprised This is Washington’s day he sends a resounding message to the British and Americans alike the Continental Army is back and I am its Undisputed leader through most of the Fall there have been a number of officers who thought they could do his job better than he could
And a number of members of Congress who thought the same that changes after Trenton foreign ‘s Triumph at Trenton was unmercifully short-lived back then in 1777 he was still desperate for supplies and men to keep the war effort going and most of all Washington needed a Navy against the British who had total control of the port of New York City critical help would come from an old war
Horse who never fired a shot or put on a uniform to the rescue came the incomparable Benjamin Franklin April 20 1789. the fifth day of George Washington’s trip to New York City his inauguration as the first president of the United States is just days away Washington expresses the optimism of a new nation to an old friend from France I really entertain greater hopes than I
Have at almost any former period that America will not finally disappoint the expectations of her friends George Washington and the United States owe a great debt to France and to the man who brought the European superpower to America’s side 12 years earlier Benjamin Franklin it is winter 1777.
Benjamin Franklin has just arrived in France on a secret mission Franklin’s writings and scientific discoveries have made him the most famous American in the world now his assignment is to use all his diplomatic skills to bring France’s Navy and treasury to America’s side it seems like a Fool’s errand when you
Think about it Franklin is sent to an absolute monarchy to ask them to fund a revolution against a king if anyone can bring the French on board it is the wise and Kanye Franklin but he needs Washington to appear as if he can win this war yet across the ocean in America nothing
Could be farther from the truth August 22nd 1777 Hartsville Pennsylvania American Scouts bring alarming news to Washington the British Fleet have entered the Chesapeake Bay and planned to launch an attack on Philadelphia the capital of the newly confederated United States Washington quickly moves his army South through Philadelphia to meet the British head on three weeks later Washington positions
Its forces along the banks of a tributary to the Delaware River called Brandywine Creek it is here that he will make his stand against the advancing British September 11 1777 the Battle of Brandywine musket and artillery fire erupt between the two armies 25 000 soldiers Clash on the field
It is an intense and bloody battle [Applause] The Continental Army successfully holds off the British into the afternoon what Washington doesn’t know is that his main Force has only been engaging half of British general Howe’s Army the other half has been sent on a day-long March to the West around the American defenses and is now headed for
A surprise attack from behind the battle becomes a route Washington is forced to retreat giving up the fight giving up Philadelphia an ocean away in Paris the loss of Philadelphia is hardly the news Benjamin Franklin needs to bring the French into the war His old Hometown the new capital is now in British hands and the Continental Congress has fled to York Pennsylvania but Franklin betrays little concern he even manages to spin the loss as good news for the Americans remarking instead of how taking Philadelphia Philadelphia has taken how Franklin predicts to the dubious French that to hold Philadelphia how will be hard-pressed to commit his troops elsewhere While back in America George Washington can hardly afford to be so cool his humiliation emboldens the rivals in his ranks most notably the head of the northern wing of the Continental Army General Horatio Gates Gates is a proud though somewhat disheveled man british-born he left England’s rigid military class structure
Five years earlier for a chance to gain glory in America Gates sees his opportunity he will make a stand against the British force that is cutting a swab through Upper New York in their bid to gain control of the Hudson River right into the fields of Saratoga
Gates is not the only American officer looking for Glory he has his own rival at Saratoga in the person of an arrogant and determined General Benedict Arnold over a meal of oxheart Arnold and Gates talk strategy the two couldn’t be more different in temperament Arnold aggressive and anxious for
Battlefield Glory wants to attack the British the more passive and gun-shy Gates wants to wait for the British to come to them Horatio Gates couldn’t stand Benedict Arnold considered him an upstart in arrogant upstart and Benedict Arnold like many of the Revolutionary soldiers called Gates granny Gates a the old man
Old woman tempers flare the conversation turns heated and Gates banished his best General from the dinner table in solitude wouldn’t let him come to meetings and Benedict Arnold fumed as a result of that dinner and decided that he would have to defy the orders of his commanding officer because he believed
The Americans were going to be beaten if it were up to Granny Gates um October 7 1777. just south of Saratoga on a rise of land called Bemis Heights gate sets 2 400 men out to meet 1500 British soldiers a heated battle erupts on the field Benedict Arnold in defiance
Of gates orders leads an aggressive charge against the Royals Arnold employed snipers he got rifled highly accurate put them up in trees it was a new kind of warfare and the British didn’t adapt to it it is a strategy that gives the Americans the upper hand but at a high price
Arnold takes a musket ball to his leg and is nearly crushed by his horse when the battle was over his second in command said sir where are you hit said it’s my leg I wish it had been my heart and I do too I wish it had been in his heart because
If he had died at that moment he would have been the great hero of the revolution Arnold’s Battlefield daring has effectively destroyed Britain’s Northern Force while Gates had directed the battle from the safety of his desk yet it is Horatio Gates who takes the credit for the victory
It is not the last slide that Benedict Arnold will have to endure the British bid for supremacy of the Hudson River ends in surrender had General house sent reinforcements the British might have won but just as Benjamin Franklin predicted Howe’s Army was stuck holding Philadelphia Across the ocean in France Franklin now has what he needs to bring the French on board the news of victory at Saratoga is exactly what France’s King Louis XVI has needed to hear he pledges part of his army and more importantly his Navy to the American cause in what amounts to a declaration
Of war between France and England the American Revolution started as a far-off colonial uprising is now a World War for Washington the victory at Saratoga is both good news and bad he welcomes France’s entry into the war but the anointment of Horatio Gates as the hero of Saratoga again raises questions over
Who should be in charge of this Army a future is a national hero couldn’t have been further from Washington’s mind back in 1777. and he had another Long Winter to face at the much storied Valley Forge This was the moment when Washington had to turn around his army and his leadership or there would never be a United States of America let alone a President Washington foreign 1789 George Washington the former commander-in-chief of the Continental Army has been called back into service by his new nation the United States of America for eight years Washington led the Continental Army through a war against the most powerful Empire in the world a war few believed he could win
Now he is on the fifth day of a journey to the city of New York where he will be sworn in as America’s first president at each town along the way Banquets and parties are thrown as the new nation celebrates the Great American Hero of the revolution Next up City Tavern the City Philadelphia Pennsylvania Philadelphia the former Rebel capital is a fitting halfway stop on Washington’s Journey eleven years earlier he faced one of his greatest challenges at a place just outside the city a place that even now in 1789 has become an American Legend a place called Valley Forge January 1778. Washington is making winter camp at Valley Forge Pennsylvania it has been another long year of fighting and his men are in desperate need of rest of resupplying of retraining but building and running a camp a third the size of Philadelphia is a mammoth undertaking Washington relishes the task overseeing
To The Last Detail the layout of the barracks the placement of Roads the location of defenses his Hands-On approach wins the admiration of his soldiers he assures his men that he will share in every hardship and partake in every inconvenience and for the first month he lives in a
Tent at the edge of Camp alongside his soldiers For all his efforts supply shortages become a problem Washington pleads with Congress for more Aid but to little avail by February 2500 soldiers are dead from disease more than have been killed in battle since the War Began thousands of others are stricken with sickness and hunger Washington will need help to turn this
Looming disaster around in mid-February a new recruit arrives in Camp a foreign officer sent by the Continental Congress to lend badly needed experience to the cause he calls himself Frederick William Augustus Heinrich Ferdinand Baron von Steuben wears a Bejeweled cross representing an honorary Knighthood from Prussia curiously Von Steuben carries no papers
Confirming his supposed achievements but Washington is desperate for leadership for officers with European training and he puts Von Steuben to work Baron von stoiven is a remarkable figure Von Steuben’s genius was the ability to distill the complexity of state-of-the-art European drill tactics into a digestible form to this raw
Material that was the American Soldier tutelage Washington’s ragtag Army learns how to form solid orderly columns how to properly load and fire a weapon in formation and the proper use of a bayonet upon students to the Army and that by itself creates its own sense of belonging they’re belonging to something larger
Than themselves Every Soldier is taught Von Steuben’s techniques which become the basis of the Army’s first training manual Von Steuben’s work gives Washington confidence his army is now ready to meet the British head-on With the spring thaw comes news that the British are pulling out of Philadelphia and marching Overland back to New York City Britain’s Arch Enemy France has recently entered the war and from his headquarters in Philadelphia General Henry Clinton Britain’s new commanding officer fears that an approaching French Fleet with blockade New York City
He is determined to protect the city at all costs Washington eager to avenge his loss of Philadelphia the year before decides to go on the offense against the British as they cross New Jersey his army has been trained and turned into a new and hard-fighting army and that Army and its Commander are now convinced that they can beat any army on
The face of the Earth and they are eager for the fight and that fight comes on one of the hottest days of the war June 28 1778 in a searing heat the Continental Army catches up with the British at a New Jersey Crossroads called Monmouth Courthouse Washington’s second in command on this
Day is another of his old Nemesis General Charles Lee Lee is charged with leading the advanced Force while Washington forms a second wave of seven thousand soldiers seven miles behind three hours into the fight Washington Waits near the front line of battle where he encounters Lee’s soldiers who appear to be in retreat
Leet was not attacking him what was going on here in fact Lee had no battle plan nothing he was hopeful of Victory somehow it’s obvious to all the men at Monmouth that there is no plan the men retreat in a fury Washington rides ahead and intercepts generally himself nobody accurately knows what Washington
Said because it was almost sacrilegious to write down when George Washington swore and whatever he called Lee it was enough for Lee to get the idea and to get out of there it is not the first time Lee has ignored Washington’s orders but it will certainly be the last
Lee retires to the rear in shape Washington now takes charge ordering his retreating soldiers to form ranks to create a new front line against the fast approaching Redcoats by the time the British arrived exhausted from their March in Woolen uniforms in the 100 degree Heat they find the Continental Army in a strong defensive position
The Winter’s training at Valley Forge has paid off Washington knows it he then does something astounding he rides back and forth in front of his lungs to rally the troops putting himself in the line of fire risking his life as he asked his own men to risk their lives
The British Open up on him and miraculously miss him the Battle of Monmouth erupts more than twenty thousand soldiers Clash continuously for five hours in the brutal Heat longer than any other Battle of the war in some of the most intense fighting these men have ever seen
Sunstroke kills as many as musket balls When the Smoke occurred in Monmouth it was a draw Washington knew and the country knew that this new Army that had come out of Valley Forge was a good one that held their own against the British this renews the Public’s spirit for the war
And forever solidifies Washington’s position as the unquestioned commander-in-chief 11 years after the Battle of Monmouth as his friends in Philadelphia toast his send-off to the presidency that scorching June day stands as the moment Washington silence Charles Lee and all his other critics the day he climbed back on the road to immortality
April 21st 1789 day six of George Washington’s journey to New York City gets underway as he leaves Philadelphia Washington is reminded of the man he personally appointed to run the city a bold and brave American General he once admired and respected and now despises more than any other man
Benedict Arnold one of the most troubled and treacherous characters of the revolution July 1778 City Tavern Benedict Arnold has recently arrived in Philadelphia to assume his new post as military governor he will attempt to restore order to the city after nine months of British occupation quite well healed now Arnold seems to have forgotten his own troubled background though born into a prominent Connecticut
Family Arnold’s alcoholic father squandered their Fortune forcing his son to take a lowly apprenticeship as an apothecary determined young boy grew to become a successful yet angry man with ambitions of becoming a gentleman and once war broke out a hero In 1775 it was Arnold who helped lead a daring raid on a remote British Outpost Fort Ticonderoga but Arnold’s co-commander on that mission the Wiley Frontiersman Ethan Allen took complete credit for the capture of the fort two years later at Saratoga Arnold’s Battlefield heroics were Again usurped by a fellow officer Horatio Gates
Though it was Arnold who led the fight and suffered a near-fatal wound he received no credit for the victory the people and the Press hail Gates as the new American Hero in fact the hero of the battle was better than God crippled by the injury from Saratoga Arnold has relinquished a battlefield
Command for this new Post in Philadelphia determined to make the best of it he now throws himself into the job but his actions begin to raise questions Arnold’s First Act was to close all the stores he said to take an inventory of what there was available but immediately
The accusations began to fly that he was cornering the market on Goods that he was going to sell himself I don’t think Benedict Arnold was doing anything that many of the other generals on both sides did as a matter of custom or he was just doing what was common
Practice at the time but he got inhaled for it Arnold’s questionable business dealings come under Fire in the Press with charges of corruption and abuse of power charges compounded by his choice in women Arnold courts and Mary’s 18-year-old Peggy shippen a beautiful young lady from a wealthy family and a suspected loyalist
She was a gorgeous young woman she was extremely well educated by her father could run a business which appealed to a Yankee Merchant like Arnold today they would be considered a dynamite couple But they are a couple under intense scrutiny in an overheated political climate the cries against Arnold’s actions escalate for nearly a year they are charges that will have to be answered March 5th 1779 Benedict Arnold stands in the Continental Congress called by a special investigative committee to answer the accusations levied against him
In his mind he is yet again underappreciated his honor unfairly tarnished his statement is really a recitation of all that he did and all that he had lost a crippled for life he would pass over for promotion several times and he thought he had lost his honor with its lingering Cloud over him
Arnold’s impassioned defense vindicates him in front of Congress but the charges just won’t go away leading the attack against Arnold is Joseph Reed formerly one of Washington’s trusted officers now the acting governor for the state of Pennsylvania Reed threatens to withdraw Pennsylvania’s support for the war if Washington refuses to take action
Against Arnold and George Washington is forced to weigh in the commander-in-chief wants to give The Talented Arnold a well-deserved field command but he needs Pennsylvania’s support agrees to issue a written rebuke to Arnold once the affair blows over he can give Arnold the intended promotion When Arnold receives the ruling from his commander-in-chief the words are stinging reprehensible imprudent improper for Arnold it is the final slight now in his mind betrayed he devises a betrayal of his own he Taps an old friend of Peggy’s from the occupation of Philadelphia British Major John Andre
And offers to surrender a mighty Fort to the British in exchange for twenty thousand British pounds and a general’s rank in their army Fort that even Bears the general’s name Fort Arnold also known as West Point West Point is a prize the British have coveted since the beginning of the war
But have never been able to take with a military offensive control West Point and you control the vital Hudson River severing communication between New England and the rest of the colonies at West Point the river remains tidal which is to say it sometimes the day it flows
South and at other times of the day it flows north this made West Point an ideal place to Mount Cannons on both sides of the river as ships had to navigate this very tricky curve The British readily agreed to Benedict Arnold’s turns Arnold sets his Plot In Motion Arnold takes a meeting with his commander-in-chief and uses Washington’s desire to give him a field command to his advantage persuading Washington to instead give him control of West Point George Washington was puzzled that Benedict Arnold would want the command
Of West Point Washington wanted to put him back into the line of battle but Arnold insisted on West Point because that was the deal with the British now in charge of West Point Arnold prepares detailed information on the fort sets a meeting with the Enemy September 21st Benedict Arnold and his British contact
Major John Andre come face to face along the banks of the Hudson River they go over the plans of the fort and troop movements Arnold’s treason is now complete I think the biggest misconception about Arnold’s treason is he did it for the money I don’t think he did I don’t think it
Was as simple as that he did it for his pride the money was secondary Arnold will now wait for the moment when he and Peggy can slip quietly behind the British lines news is about to arrive that will change everything Andre has been captured and on him are discovered the plans to
West Point Arnold knows it is only a matter of moments before the plot is uncovered so he flees just a few miles away a familiar figure is making his way towards a breakfast meeting with a trusted General when Washington arrives it is clear something is amiss Arnold is nowhere to be found
And Washington gets the news John Andre has been captured with the plans to West Point it all adds up to one undeniable conclusion one of the great Heroes of the revolution has sold out to the British in British held New York City there is a new officer in their ranks
Brigadier General Benedict Arnold his loving wife Peggy forced in shame from Philadelphia Now by his side Arnold’s treason was the highest in the young history of America was an act That Shook George Washington to the Core that one of his highest ranking generals could betray the cause forever raise the question who else might be considering the same April 22nd 1789 the last two days of George Washington’s
Journey to the American presidency takes him through the countryside of New Jersey a place of both grave humiliation and great success it was here that his army retreated from the British in 1776. Here where he made his greatest reversal of Fortune with a surprise attack at Trenton but it was the winters at Morristown that proved to be his greatest challenge Morristown 1780. Washington has just received a dispatch from his Southern Army they have been forced to surrender nearly five thousand soldiers have fallen to the British at Charleston South Carolina Southern Army is now lost the South’s major port in British hands outside of Washington’s headquarters the
Brutal winter of 1780 is taking a mighty toll on his army the winter encampment in Morristown was a lot harder than the encampment and Valley Forge Valley Forge seems to get all the Press but Morristown was really Dire Straits it was a long winter it’s it snowed in May soldiers are starving
Dissension and insubordination grow in the ranks some soldiers even threatened mutiny Washington must step forward and rescue his command from the threat of Chaos Eight nooses prepared for eight men charged with various offenses insubordination forging documents theft all are sentenced to death Washington orders the execution held before the entire camp for all his men to see it is a carefully choreographed event Washington wanted to use capital punishment particularly sparingly
But he also knew it was great theater all a were put on top of the Gallows their graves had been dug in front of the Gallows and their coffins which he ordered manufactured placed next to the graves as they were about to be hung a soldier stepped forward from the crowd reprieve
Reprieve from the commander-in-chief seven of the eight were freed this time just one man will hang for his crimes it would not be the end of the problems in Washington’s ranks one year later it happens again Mutiny erupts now it appears as if the Continental Army is unraveling
And without the Army there is no Revolution Washington takes Swift and decisive action leaders of 200 mutineers are condemned to death and to carry out the task of execution Washington orders a group of the other mutineers to form the firing squad to pull the trigger on their own comrades and arms
It is a psychologically devastating punishment the Morristown winters of 1780 and 1781 were some of Washington’s Darkest Days his Army and the cause seem to be coming apart the war had to come to an end soon but the question was how the answer would come from the southern colonies where one of Washington’s
Favorite generals was leading a swift moving fight February 1781 North Carolina Major General Nathaniel Green is in the thick of a campaign against British General Charles Cornwallis Rhode Island’s native son and his force of 1000 are traveling light using Guerrilla tactics against the heavily Laden British Southern Army
A backwoods game of cat and mouse that wears the Redcoats down the fights are few but take a heavy toll the Battle of Guilford courthouse in North Carolina costs the British a portal of their troops by the summer Cornwallis is spent his weakened Army limps into a small Virginia Port named Yorktown
Foreign what happens next has not come before in the war all the pieces fall into place for Washington one after the other the French dispatch a fleet North from the Caribbean Washington marches his army South British general Henry Clinton chooses to keep his men protecting New York
All roads now lead to Yorktown and an assault on Cornwallis for 11 days the Americans in French lay Siege to the city tightening the Noose around the British army surrounded cut off and unsupported it is only a matter of time until the British supplies run out until they must yield and surrender
For all practical purposes the war is now over foreign And a half years later the Victorious General who led his nation’s soldiers on the battlefield and two years later its politicians through a constitutional convention is about to begin the third Act of his remarkable revolutionary life as his coat finally brings him to the outskirts of New York City George
Washington will in a matter of days become President Washington April 23 1789 George Washington enters the eighth and final day of his journey across many of the American states a journey to the city of New York where he will be sworn in as the country’s first president
If there was ever a question in Washington’s mind of the admiration the Young Nation has for it this ride serves as Testament to his Fame the newspapers of the era printed George Washington’s route there’s no television at that time there was no CNN no radio but the newspapers were read by everybody
So the entire country knew where he was going and what time the highways are filled with people who have written days just to see him they bring their grandchildren so the grandchildren until their grandchildren to tell their grandchildren they actually saw George Washington this great national hero it is a much
Deserved Hero’s welcome for the former commander-in-chief and soon to be leader of the new nation a nation that won a war but still has a long road to travel in 1789 the new United States is an extraordinarily energetic diverse but also unstable place it’s a turbulent time in the country people are
Apprehensive about the future all the soldiers all the Gallant Brave young men of the war 240 000 of fought in Revolution but there aren’t 240 000 jobs for them when they go home a lot of them are unemployed politically the country is a mess the very ideals that set the country
Ablaze and drove her to Revolution individual liberty representative government Freedom are no longer just lofty goals they are being put into practice across the land people seem to think that democracy means that everybody should govern maybe they should not Pennsylvania has over 400 people in its state legislature if you put 12
Politicians in a room it’s hard to get anything done put 400 in a room there is no one man that can hold a country together except him in defeating the British America has won her independence and under Washington’s guidance she must now become a winning Nation but the war for independence has left
Many losers in its wake Britain has lost her colonies a crushing blow to the Empire but somewhat surprisingly it is America’s closest Ally France that suffers the most the French are kind of left holding the bag in this conflict the French a generally been estimated that something like 13 billion dollars in today’s
Dollars we wouldn’t have had any uniforms we wouldn’t have had any Munitions without the French but from the French point of view they are bankrupted by our war and of course it will have disastrous consequences for them France in 1789 bankrupt and weakened is hit by an even greater wave
Democratic earthquake that ripped the American colonies from Britain hits Francis Shores with a vengeance peasants and commoners alike rise up against the monarchy tearing down centuries of feudal rule French people hold their own Revolution back in the colonies restoring peace in the wake of a wrenching war is first and
Foremost in Washington’s mind in a war between Brothers where people have been forced to take sides those who chose to remain with the crown the Loyalists have to come to grips with their loss and many are still on American soil it does take several years for the Loyalists who stay in the newly
Established United States to be reincorporated as members of the society but one of the things you don’t see in this country is a massive retaliation against the Loyalists and that is due to the nature of the American Revolution and to its leadership this is the country Washington will have to govern
Country in need of peace between Loyalists and Patriots a country where many African Americans participants in the struggle for National Independence find themselves still in the bounds of slavery where American Indians many who sided with the Patriot cause find themselves forced out of the national dialogue it is a complicated picture indeed
Nobody had created a republic that was this big geographically or contained so many different types of people it it really threw the rules of what a democracy what a republic could be out the window and said we’re going to change all that The final day of George Washington’s Journey nears its end he makes one final Crossing leaving New Jersey on a barge that carries into the city of New York alongside his barge is a barge full of Continental soldiers in another barge is a choir of men and women
And he notices that the old standard God saved the king has now been translated into God’s saved George Washington he had considered himself the father of the army the next logical step to him would be to be the father of his country The inauguration of George Washington the great hero of the revolution is just days away George Washington the father of the American Army is about to assume a new role as the father of America the first president of the United States it is April 30th 1789. and today he will be sworn in at New York City’s Federal Hall the final step in his long journey a
Journey no other man has known that’s important remember that the American presidency in this constitution is a Innovation that comes out of this period no one quite knows what the role is it’s not a it’s not a monarch it’s not a king something new so it has to be invented
At Federal Hall Washington visits the Chamber of the newly created Congress Massachusetts Firebrand John Adams his vice president at his side it is a day for celebration a day for ceremony every ceremonial detail must be created from scratch even how to swear in a president in the five days prior to the inauguration
Congress had battle back and forth should the president be sworn in inside should be sworn in outside everything the Congress did and president-elect Washington did was precedent sending and they knew that and he knew that in the end George Washington himself makes the decision he will be sworn in outside
Out Among the American people April 30th 1789 America’s first inauguration George Washington takes his position on the balcony at Federal Hall thousands look on months of planning have led to this moment though there is one small detail that has been overlooked in all the planning they forgot to get a Bible
At the last minute somebody runs two blocks to a fraternal organization and borrows their Bible to tell them George Washington is going to be sworn in on it with everything now in place the ceremony begins a revolution that began with self-evident truths has given birth to a constitution
And a leader to preserve protect and defend it he takes the oath of office and as he ends it adding himself in a confident voice says so help me God Justice Livingston turns to the crowd and says Long Live George Washington the president of the United States Crown just roars
George Washington takes his place in history and although some wanted him to have a grand title Washington ever the Virginia gentleman a insists on being called simply Mr President [Applause] No one knew whether this was going to work there are observers speculating that just give them a few years they’re going to be tearing each other apart many people at that time so that the war did not end the revolution the revolution ends with new democratic government this great experiment in the world
The inauguration of George Washington was not the end of the story it was just the start of the story 25 000 gave their lives for Liberty and long after the heroes of the Revolution came home others took their place in history John Adams the great Firebrand of the Revolution became the second President of the United States died somewhat fittingly on Independence Day July 4th 1826 reportedly saying Thomas Jefferson survives but that was not the case five hours earlier on that same day Thomas Jefferson the third president of the United States whose Louisiana
Purchase doubled the size of America with a single stroke died at the age of 83 at his home Monticello Benjamin Franklin the man who delivered the French to the American cause withdraws from public life in 1788 due to ill health dies two years later at the age of 84. twenty thousand people attend the funeral of the man who tamed lightning British commander-in-chief Henry Clinton returned to England after the crushing loss at Yorktown where he received a very cool reception Spent the last years of his life compiling his complete memoirs a vain effort to vindicate himself for losing the war Britain’s King George III never able to crush the American Rebels went mad and was deemed mentally unfit to rule for the final decade of his reign foreign Benedict Arnold the connecticut-born
Yankee and America’s greatest traitor landed in London after the war where he failed as a businessman he died a broken man at the age of 60. suffering one final slight Arnold was buried without military honors in a grave mistakenly marked with another man’s name [Laughter] [Laughter] Frederick William Augustus Heinrich Ferdinand Baron von Steuben the man who almost single-handedly whipped Washington’s Army into shape over the winter at Valley Forge was rewarded for his efforts with sixteen thousand acres of land in Upper New York State he died there a bachelor in 1794. Nathaniel Greene the Rhode Island Quaker and George Washington’s favorite General never got to see the swearing-in of his old Commander he died of sunstroke in 1786 while on a plantation in Georgia George Washington served as president of the United States for two terms refusing to accept a third
He returned to his beloved Mount Vernon Home in 1797. finally leaving his life of service behind him he died just two years later at the age of 67. in one final act for her ever private husband Martha Washington burned their personal letters written throughout the war
A record of a man and a war forever lost to time The American Revolution a colonial Rebellion a revolution of ideas the revolution Between Brothers A revolution Independence
