Been watching that HC special called "The Revolution" and to really break it down what ol GW was able to accomplish is mind boggling....
That first year, backs against the wall, beaten and pinned in New Jersey. Cold hungry short on supplies, and enlistments coming up and little reason any soldier should resign for this pipe dream.....
What does he do, plans to cross the Delaware in the middle of winter, across a partially frozen river. Then march all night (some soldiers minus shoes in the snow), until they hit the Hessian militia in the early A.M., which turned into a total route. Very few men lost, and many of the German hired hand killed or captured, including the commander who was fatally wounded....
The Hessian army had been parting all night, and the last thing they ever expected was an early A.M. hit from a beaten battered army near certain surrender....
The image on the coin represents it all....
George Washington was a genius. Not so much in moving the chess pieces on the board, but to take advice from others and see the flaw in the plan he may have just suggested. Such as the French commanders when they planned the final assault on Yorktown....
He also knew how to get the most out of his men, like Barron Von Steuben who was black-listed in every army on the planet for and accused of terrible acts. But George was in a desperate situation and understood that he was a genius at drilling European military tactics, which was a most difficult task as most of the men were just untrained militia. Not an easy task to transform a militia man into a disciplined soldier who will hold their ground in battle....
He even quickly realized that dysentery and other diseases were due to the latrines being WAY to close to the living quarters, and basically cleaned up the camps, and made them more clean and suitable for the soldiers, or as much as they could be in the late 1700's....
Others like Daniel Morgan and Nathaniel Green were people George put into position and no doubt the war would not have been won without their contributions. In fact he trusted Nathanial Green so much (best soldier most have never heard of), that he said if he were ever shot from his horse and killed in action, that Green be given command of the entire Patriot army....
Both Morgan and Nathanial Green took Cornwallace and his elite Calvary on a multi month long cat an mouse chase through the south after Charleston fell, which was really the only real highlights for the UK during the entire war. Minus taking New York. But hey that worked out real well, as after Clinton took Charleston, he moved on up north and laid up their with a New York lady who had him tied down so to speak, lol. Maybe we should thank lady and her adulterous affair the most for American becoming a nation...
So Cornwallace decides to set up at Yorktown and re-establish some coastal bases to keep the war effort going, even after UK was near bankruptcy by now....
And that plan backfired big time as GW and the French en-circled them with the newly arriving French navy, and Clinton just sat in New York, living the good life, rof
. Why not, he had taken Charleston, guess he figured that was enough to win the war, lol....
Posted 07/04/2012 10:30 pm
