February 16, 2026 • 20 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the real test began. Could a fragile rebellion defeat the most powerful empire on earth? In this episode of our ongoing Story of Us—Story of America series, Dr. Bill McClay, a Hillsdale College professor and the author of Land of Hope, tells the story of how American independence was secured through hardship, perseverance, and the indispensable leadership of General George Washington.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, another
story from our series about us, the Story of America.
Here to tell the story is Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay,
author of the terrific book Land of Hope. If you
know or have young people in your life, check out
his remarkable Young Readers Edition two. After the Declaration of
(00:32):
Independence was signed, the question became, what's next. Let's get
into the story. Take it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The Declaration of Independence was a massive, amazing, world changing achievement.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
But in a way, it was the easy part.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It did not take a miracle to produce ringing words.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Celebrating the cause of independence.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It wasn't hard to have a few scattered military victories
against an enemy that wasn't fully prepared for war and
that had the bulk of its power across the seas.
But the admonitions of people like John Dickinson began almost
immediately to have some residents.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Dickinson said that the declaration was a skiff made of paper.
It was not destined to sail for long.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So it's the morning after a sort of a Hollywood
moment where the camera moves through the crowd and everyone
was cheering and bumping their fists in the air and
feeling great inspiration.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But at the same time, the very day.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
On which the Continental Congress voted on independence, the British
landed a force with no resistance on Staten Island. By
August they had in place a force of thirty thousand.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
This all happened to immediately have for the declaration.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And remember the colonists were divided in their sentiments. You
had a lot of people who were loyalists wanted to
stick with the king. Obviously, the bitterness between the patriot
cause and the loyalist cause was only bound to grow.
So many disadvantages that the Americans had coming into this.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
The lack of armed forces, the lack of.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Trained armed forces, the lack of funds to provide for
a reasonable and competent, let alone formidable armed forces to
prosecute a war. All of these things were lacking, throwing
a shadow of doubt over the whole enterpronx. Now it's
(02:59):
also true that Americans had they were playing with the
home field advantage, a big, dispersed home field.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
The British couldn't be everywhere at once.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We were perhaps more motivate the British regulars were supplemented
by mercenaries, German speaking mercenaries, the Haitians and others that
were basically soldiers for hire.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
They didn't have the passionate commitment.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
The cont that the colonists the former colonists had, so
there was motivation, There was home field advantage. Another advantage
was that the British were the chief power of the world,
chief power of bureau. The French in particular were still
kind of rubbing their wounds over the loss.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Of their North American Empire.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To the British, what fun it would be to come
in on the side of the rebellious colonists and deal
a blow to throw them from their dominance. Almost all
the other countries of Europe, particularly those with imperial aspirations,
would love to see Britain taken down several notches. So
(04:13):
if France could be persuaded to join in.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
That would even the odds of it. That would compensate.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So playing for French alliance support whatever could be had
as always in the minds of the revolutionaries, and indeed,
I think the Decoration of Independence was certainly written the
places where you can almost see the appeal to the
French popping out.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Of the tech and the Americans had one other.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Great advantage, George Washington. You know, there's a lot of
efforts to debunk the founders. George Washington's just undebunkable.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
He was a truly great man. The more you know
about him, the more you admire him.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Just a fine character, a patriot. He strongly supported the
patriot cause to pose the British Parliament.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
He would have loved to retire to his.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Beautiful estate in Mount Vernon, beautiful place, beautiful, RESTful place.
But time and again he came back into public life
in trying situations, sort of do or die situation, and
gave his blood, sweat and tears for the sake of
the national prospect, of the national honor. He was virtually incorruptible,
(05:32):
natural leader, big guy, tall mouscar, big shoulders. He looked
like a leader, and everybody respected him. The revolution was
full of intrigue and backbiting, the things you always have
in human affairs.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
It was nothing out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Without a leader that everyone could agree on, everyone could
look to, everyone could trust, regard with as to his dignity,
bordering on awe. Without all of those things, it's hard
to see that it would have all held together, particularly
during the very, very difficult times. So without Washington's leadership,
(06:12):
it's very hard to.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
See how success could have occurred.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
One of the things he had to do was to
raise an army and hold it together, and that was
a constantly shifting phenomenon. He didn't know from day to
day how many soldiers he had. In August of seventeen
seventy six, he had twenty eight thousand men under his command,
a considerable number. By December of that year he had
(06:48):
three thousand desertions, deaths, defeats, militiamen who just went home.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
He faced this all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
When the army's morale went down, the army's numbers went down.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Washington had to master the art of keeping people.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Involved, keeping them on board, promising a better tomorrow, Inspiring
them with the sense of to suffer without without griping
and complaining and moaning and rebellion for the sake of
a cause higher than yourself.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Was what it was to be a man.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
He was very influenced by the great Romans, particularly Cicero,
Cato Cincinnatis.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It may or may not.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Actually have existed that Cincinnatus was a citizen.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Who was brought out of his private life.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
As a farmer to be the dictator of Rome during
a period to deal with a sticky situation and lead
the military, which he did, and then he went back
to his plot, back to his farm. He did not
choose the u use the tremendous power at his disposal
to install himself as a permanent leader. Ayway, Washington was
(08:07):
often called the American Cincinnatus because he continually returned to
his plow whenever he could. Kato, the younger who opposed
the tyranny of Julius Caesar and represented the Republic, was
also a hero of Washington. He had a play based
on a famous play by Joseph Addison called Kato a Tragedy.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He had it performed for the troops.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
He used it to inspire his own troops to take
the route of nobility and self sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
For a cause greater than one's self.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So we couldn't have done better, The Americans could not
have done better than to have Washington as our president.
And in addition to all of that, I said he
was a pretty darn good militarily.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And when we return more of this remarkable story, and
it is so true without George Washington, the Indispensable Man,
as so many historians call him. Absolutely none of this
is possible. The story continues with Bill McClay here on
Our American Stories, and we returned to the Story of
(09:41):
Us the Story of America series here on Our American
Stories with Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay. When we left off,
Bill was telling us about George Washington in the early
days of the American Revolution. Let's return to the story.
Here again is Bill McClay.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
The winner of seventy seventy six. Seventy seven was maybe
the low point of the whole enterprise.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
It's a matter of months after that glorious, fist bumping, cheering,
triumphant declaration of Independence, he faced this gloomy valley of
this bond.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And what came to his rescue was Thomas Paine.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Thomas Paine wrote another document in some ways even better
than common sense, and this was called The Crisis. It
was a call to action. These are the times that
try men the souls. What a beautiful sentence that is.
It is poetry. These are the times that try men's souls.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There's so much there.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
One of the implications is that men will encounter times
in which their souls will be tried. They'll go through
a trial based with the possibility of defeat. These are
the times that try men's souls. That we are in
one of those times. The summer soldier and the sunshine
(11:22):
patriot will, in this crisis shrink from the service of
their country. But he that stands by it now deserves
the love and thanks of man and woman, caring me
like Hell is not easily conquered. Yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
The more glorious the triumph. What we have gained too cheap,
we esteem too lightly.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven
knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
It would be strange.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Indeed, if so celestial an article is freedom should not
be highly readed britten with an army to enforce her
Tyrannies declared she has a right not only the text,
but to bind us in all cases whatsoever. And it
being bound in that matter is not slavery, then there
is not such a thing as slavery upon earth. This
(12:20):
rhetoric is much more powerful, much more incendiary, much more
down to earth. The words are much more direct. These
are the times that tribe in souls that that's wow,
that's a powerful phrase. Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered.
Verry punchy, powerful prose. Pain then goes on to address
(12:43):
any self doubt the call of this might have been
feeling about the battle of the head, and they sure
we're feeling it.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Look at all those desertions. I have as little superstition
in me as any man living.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But my secret opinion has ever been, and still is,
that God Almighty will not give up a people to
military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have
so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities
of war by every decent method which wisdom could invent.
(13:17):
Neither have I so much of the infidel in me
as to suppose that He God has relinquished the government
of the world and given us up the.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Care of devils.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And as I do not, I cannot see on what
grounds the King of Britain can look up to Heaven
for help against us. Common murderer, a highwayman, or a
housebreaker has as good a pretense as he who so
he gives a field report to those who are not
(13:51):
in the field, although eventually Washington would.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Read these words to the men in the field.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Our new army at both ends of the content of
this recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open
the next campaign with sixty thousand men well armed and clothed.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
This is our situation, and who will may know it?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
By perseverance and fortitude, we have the prospect of a
glorious issue.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
My cowardice and submission, the sad choice.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Of a variety of evils, a ravaged country, a depopulated city.
Our home is turned into barracks, same body houses for
Hesshiantists look on this picture and weep over it, and
that there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it
not let him suffer it unlamented. So this was a
(14:53):
great gift to the colonial cause. And the timing could
not have been better, because on Christmas nine in seventeen
seventy six, Washington struck back and a letter force across
the icy Delaware a surprise at dawn a sleeping force
of Hessians mercenaries at Trenton.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
A week later, he had a similar tribe in Princeton.
These were two small victories.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
But they were a token of a more hopeful future.
Maybe there would be a big victory to solidify the
colony of cause and maybe induce the French to support
the colonists.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And indeed they got that victory.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
The British general Johnny Burgoyne had a plan to slice
New England off from the rest of the colonies, New
England being the biggest troublemakers of course, coming down from
Canada towards Albany, New York, American forces came in and
surrounded them. He got bogged down in the woods because
(16:01):
of his immense baggage train with thirty carts carrying clothing
and supplies of champagne.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
They called him, gentlemen, Johnny not for nothing, and he
was surrounded for to surrender.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
On October seventeenth, fifty seven hundred British troops were taken prisoner.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
This was a big, big win.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
It was an indication of Americans they were up to
the fight at short and that the French would not
be backing a losing cause if they backed the American
and concluded a treaty of alliance. More immediately, the winter
of seventeen seventy six to seventy eight loomed ahead, and
(16:45):
this was arguably the lowest point of the Washington's army.
They were encamped at Valley Forge, exposed to disease, to
the elements ill supplied, I f ed ill clad.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
The fate of the army hung like a thread.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Twenty five hundred soldiers died, another thousand deserted, another seven
thousand were too ill for duty. Washington's army was decimated.
This indeed was a time that try ben soul. But
things started to improve. A Prussian general, drawn to the
(17:27):
colonial cause arrived and started training the army and made
them into a competent military force, and the Continental Army
was restored by Sumber seventeen seventy eight, Washington's force was
strong enough to go after the British forces in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Things were going well.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
They didn't go so well in the American South until,
with the help of the French, British general Charles Cornwall
made the mistake of bringing his force of seventy two
one hundred men down the peninsula leading to York twent
He thought he'd be safe there because the Americans didn't have.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
A navy frend Admeral called de Grasse came up from
the Caribbean blockaded the coast.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Meanwhile, varying in troops, they affected a pincer move on
Cornwallis and he had no choice but to surrender, and
this was in effect the end of the British military effort.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
On the day he surrendered, it said.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
The British military band played a song familiar to the
English titled the World that Turned Upside Down. We don't
know for sure, but it makes a good story because
it conveys how Cornwallis and his men must have felt.
This surrender meant that this war was over the world
(18:56):
hadn't turned upside then the colonists had become not subjects anymore,
but citizens of their own self governing entity. This was
all in seventeen eighty one. It took a couple of
years to sign the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed American
(19:17):
independence for the independence that had been declared in seventeen
seventy six and had been fought for.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Ensuing seven years of struggle.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So now the greatest struggle of all remained the struggle
of making American independence into an effectual fact, a country
that could stand among the nations of the world.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
And a terrific job on the production, storytelling and editing
by our own Monty Montgomery inself of Hillsdale graduate, and
a special thanks to Clay Professor of History at Hillsdale College,
author of the fantastic book Land of Hope, The Story
of Us, The Story of America. Here on our American Story.
And we returned to our American stories. Up next, another
story from our series about us, the Story of America.
Here to tell the story is Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay,
author of the terrific book Land of Hope. If you
know or have young people in your life, check out
his remarkable Young Readers Edition two. After the Declaration of
(00:32):
Independence was signed, the question became, what's next. Let's get
into the story. Take it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
The Declaration of Independence was a massive, amazing, world changing achievement.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
But in a way, it was the easy part.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
It did not take a miracle to produce ringing words.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Celebrating the cause of independence.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It wasn't hard to have a few scattered military victories
against an enemy that wasn't fully prepared for war and
that had the bulk of its power across the seas.
But the admonitions of people like John Dickinson began almost
immediately to have some residents.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Dickinson said that the declaration was a skiff made of paper.
It was not destined to sail for long.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
So it's the morning after a sort of a Hollywood
moment where the camera moves through the crowd and everyone
was cheering and bumping their fists in the air and
feeling great inspiration.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
But at the same time, the very day.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
On which the Continental Congress voted on independence, the British
landed a force with no resistance on Staten Island. By
August they had in place a force of thirty thousand.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
This all happened to immediately have for the declaration.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And remember the colonists were divided in their sentiments. You
had a lot of people who were loyalists wanted to
stick with the king. Obviously, the bitterness between the patriot
cause and the loyalist cause was only bound to grow.
So many disadvantages that the Americans had coming into this.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
The lack of armed forces, the lack of.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Trained armed forces, the lack of funds to provide for
a reasonable and competent, let alone formidable armed forces to
prosecute a war. All of these things were lacking, throwing
a shadow of doubt over the whole enterpronx. Now it's
(02:59):
also true that Americans had they were playing with the
home field advantage, a big, dispersed home field.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
The British couldn't be everywhere at once.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
We were perhaps more motivate the British regulars were supplemented
by mercenaries, German speaking mercenaries, the Haitians and others that
were basically soldiers for hire.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
They didn't have the passionate commitment.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
The cont that the colonists the former colonists had, so
there was motivation, There was home field advantage. Another advantage
was that the British were the chief power of the world,
chief power of bureau. The French in particular were still
kind of rubbing their wounds over the loss.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Of their North American Empire.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
To the British, what fun it would be to come
in on the side of the rebellious colonists and deal
a blow to throw them from their dominance. Almost all
the other countries of Europe, particularly those with imperial aspirations,
would love to see Britain taken down several notches. So
(04:13):
if France could be persuaded to join in.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
That would even the odds of it. That would compensate.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
So playing for French alliance support whatever could be had
as always in the minds of the revolutionaries, and indeed,
I think the Decoration of Independence was certainly written the
places where you can almost see the appeal to the
French popping out.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Of the tech and the Americans had one other.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Great advantage, George Washington. You know, there's a lot of
efforts to debunk the founders. George Washington's just undebunkable.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
He was a truly great man. The more you know
about him, the more you admire him.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Just a fine character, a patriot. He strongly supported the
patriot cause to pose the British Parliament.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
He would have loved to retire to his.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Beautiful estate in Mount Vernon, beautiful place, beautiful, RESTful place.
But time and again he came back into public life
in trying situations, sort of do or die situation, and
gave his blood, sweat and tears for the sake of
the national prospect, of the national honor. He was virtually incorruptible,
(05:32):
natural leader, big guy, tall mouscar, big shoulders. He looked
like a leader, and everybody respected him. The revolution was
full of intrigue and backbiting, the things you always have
in human affairs.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
It was nothing out of the ordinary.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Without a leader that everyone could agree on, everyone could
look to, everyone could trust, regard with as to his dignity,
bordering on awe. Without all of those things, it's hard
to see that it would have all held together, particularly
during the very, very difficult times. So without Washington's leadership,
(06:12):
it's very hard to.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
See how success could have occurred.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
One of the things he had to do was to
raise an army and hold it together, and that was
a constantly shifting phenomenon. He didn't know from day to
day how many soldiers he had. In August of seventeen
seventy six, he had twenty eight thousand men under his command,
a considerable number. By December of that year he had
(06:48):
three thousand desertions, deaths, defeats, militiamen who just went home.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
He faced this all the time.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
When the army's morale went down, the army's numbers went down.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Washington had to master the art of keeping people.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Involved, keeping them on board, promising a better tomorrow, Inspiring
them with the sense of to suffer without without griping
and complaining and moaning and rebellion for the sake of
a cause higher than yourself.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Was what it was to be a man.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
He was very influenced by the great Romans, particularly Cicero,
Cato Cincinnatis.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
It may or may not.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Actually have existed that Cincinnatus was a citizen.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Who was brought out of his private life.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
As a farmer to be the dictator of Rome during
a period to deal with a sticky situation and lead
the military, which he did, and then he went back
to his plot, back to his farm. He did not
choose the u use the tremendous power at his disposal
to install himself as a permanent leader. Ayway, Washington was
(08:07):
often called the American Cincinnatus because he continually returned to
his plow whenever he could. Kato, the younger who opposed
the tyranny of Julius Caesar and represented the Republic, was
also a hero of Washington. He had a play based
on a famous play by Joseph Addison called Kato a Tragedy.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
He had it performed for the troops.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
He used it to inspire his own troops to take
the route of nobility and self sacrifice.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
For a cause greater than one's self.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
So we couldn't have done better, The Americans could not
have done better than to have Washington as our president.
And in addition to all of that, I said he
was a pretty darn good militarily.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And when we return more of this remarkable story, and
it is so true without George Washington, the Indispensable Man,
as so many historians call him. Absolutely none of this
is possible. The story continues with Bill McClay here on
Our American Stories, and we returned to the Story of
(09:41):
Us the Story of America series here on Our American
Stories with Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay. When we left off,
Bill was telling us about George Washington in the early
days of the American Revolution. Let's return to the story.
Here again is Bill McClay.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
The winner of seventy seventy six. Seventy seven was maybe
the low point of the whole enterprise.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
It's a matter of months after that glorious, fist bumping, cheering,
triumphant declaration of Independence, he faced this gloomy valley of
this bond.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
And what came to his rescue was Thomas Paine.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Thomas Paine wrote another document in some ways even better
than common sense, and this was called The Crisis. It
was a call to action. These are the times that
try men the souls. What a beautiful sentence that is.
It is poetry. These are the times that try men's souls.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
There's so much there.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
One of the implications is that men will encounter times
in which their souls will be tried. They'll go through
a trial based with the possibility of defeat. These are
the times that try men's souls. That we are in
one of those times. The summer soldier and the sunshine
(11:22):
patriot will, in this crisis shrink from the service of
their country. But he that stands by it now deserves
the love and thanks of man and woman, caring me
like Hell is not easily conquered. Yet we have this
consolation with us, that the harder the conflict.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
The more glorious the triumph. What we have gained too cheap,
we esteem too lightly.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
It is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven
knows how to put a proper price upon its goods, and.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
It would be strange.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Indeed, if so celestial an article is freedom should not
be highly readed britten with an army to enforce her
Tyrannies declared she has a right not only the text,
but to bind us in all cases whatsoever. And it
being bound in that matter is not slavery, then there
is not such a thing as slavery upon earth. This
(12:20):
rhetoric is much more powerful, much more incendiary, much more
down to earth. The words are much more direct. These
are the times that tribe in souls that that's wow,
that's a powerful phrase. Tyranny like hell is not easily conquered.
Verry punchy, powerful prose. Pain then goes on to address
(12:43):
any self doubt the call of this might have been
feeling about the battle of the head, and they sure
we're feeling it.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Look at all those desertions. I have as little superstition
in me as any man living.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But my secret opinion has ever been, and still is,
that God Almighty will not give up a people to
military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have
so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities
of war by every decent method which wisdom could invent.
(13:17):
Neither have I so much of the infidel in me
as to suppose that He God has relinquished the government
of the world and given us up the.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Care of devils.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And as I do not, I cannot see on what
grounds the King of Britain can look up to Heaven
for help against us. Common murderer, a highwayman, or a
housebreaker has as good a pretense as he who so
he gives a field report to those who are not
(13:51):
in the field, although eventually Washington would.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Read these words to the men in the field.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Our new army at both ends of the content of
this recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open
the next campaign with sixty thousand men well armed and clothed.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
This is our situation, and who will may know it?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
By perseverance and fortitude, we have the prospect of a
glorious issue.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
My cowardice and submission, the sad choice.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Of a variety of evils, a ravaged country, a depopulated city.
Our home is turned into barracks, same body houses for
Hesshiantists look on this picture and weep over it, and
that there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it
not let him suffer it unlamented. So this was a
(14:53):
great gift to the colonial cause. And the timing could
not have been better, because on Christmas nine in seventeen
seventy six, Washington struck back and a letter force across
the icy Delaware a surprise at dawn a sleeping force
of Hessians mercenaries at Trenton.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
A week later, he had a similar tribe in Princeton.
These were two small victories.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
But they were a token of a more hopeful future.
Maybe there would be a big victory to solidify the
colony of cause and maybe induce the French to support
the colonists.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And indeed they got that victory.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
The British general Johnny Burgoyne had a plan to slice
New England off from the rest of the colonies, New
England being the biggest troublemakers of course, coming down from
Canada towards Albany, New York, American forces came in and
surrounded them. He got bogged down in the woods because
(16:01):
of his immense baggage train with thirty carts carrying clothing
and supplies of champagne.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
They called him, gentlemen, Johnny not for nothing, and he
was surrounded for to surrender.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
On October seventeenth, fifty seven hundred British troops were taken prisoner.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
This was a big, big win.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
It was an indication of Americans they were up to
the fight at short and that the French would not
be backing a losing cause if they backed the American
and concluded a treaty of alliance. More immediately, the winter
of seventeen seventy six to seventy eight loomed ahead, and
(16:45):
this was arguably the lowest point of the Washington's army.
They were encamped at Valley Forge, exposed to disease, to
the elements ill supplied, I f ed ill clad.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
The fate of the army hung like a thread.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Twenty five hundred soldiers died, another thousand deserted, another seven
thousand were too ill for duty. Washington's army was decimated.
This indeed was a time that try ben soul. But
things started to improve. A Prussian general, drawn to the
(17:27):
colonial cause arrived and started training the army and made
them into a competent military force, and the Continental Army
was restored by Sumber seventeen seventy eight, Washington's force was
strong enough to go after the British forces in New Jersey.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
Things were going well.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
They didn't go so well in the American South until,
with the help of the French, British general Charles Cornwall
made the mistake of bringing his force of seventy two
one hundred men down the peninsula leading to York twent
He thought he'd be safe there because the Americans didn't have.
Speaker 5 (18:06):
A navy frend Admeral called de Grasse came up from
the Caribbean blockaded the coast.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Meanwhile, varying in troops, they affected a pincer move on
Cornwallis and he had no choice but to surrender, and
this was in effect the end of the British military effort.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
On the day he surrendered, it said.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
The British military band played a song familiar to the
English titled the World that Turned Upside Down. We don't
know for sure, but it makes a good story because
it conveys how Cornwallis and his men must have felt.
This surrender meant that this war was over the world
(18:56):
hadn't turned upside then the colonists had become not subjects anymore,
but citizens of their own self governing entity. This was
all in seventeen eighty one. It took a couple of
years to sign the Treaty of Paris, which confirmed American
(19:17):
independence for the independence that had been declared in seventeen
seventy six and had been fought for.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Ensuing seven years of struggle.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
So now the greatest struggle of all remained the struggle
of making American independence into an effectual fact, a country
that could stand among the nations of the world.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
And a terrific job on the production, storytelling and editing
by our own Monty Montgomery inself of Hillsdale graduate, and
a special thanks to Clay Professor of History at Hillsdale College,
author of the fantastic book Land of Hope, The Story
of Us, The Story of America. Here on our American Story.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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