Posted on 12/27/2016 9:07:35 AM PST by Oldpuppymax
Try to picture it. Try to feel it. It’s brutally cold. East Coast cold, where the humidity makes the bitterness cut right through to the bone. You’re freezing, even with a thick parka and snow boots. Your fingers are numb in your designer gloves. Holding your hot chocolate, you’re thankful for the warmth making its way down your throat as you walk down the paved and de-iced sidewalk.
Travel back in time to 1776. You don’t have a parka, or boots, or a hat or gloves. You’re lucky if you have a shirt on your back and something between your feet and the ice and snow. You can’t remember the last filling meal you had. You don’t even mind picking the weevils off the chunk of stale bread you have for your day’s ration. The something warm to drink is hot water with a few re-hydrated vegetables floating in it. You’re a soldier in the Continental Army, and it’s December in Pennsylvania.
You’ve just lost New York to the British, abandoned Fort Lee in the face of enemy invasion, and you’re on the run. You’re demoralized, cold, and hungry. Hot on your heels are the Redcoats, commanded by General Cornwallis. The warmly clothed, well-fed, well-supplied British are the most powerful army on earth and they are determined to obliterate once and for all the “rebellion in the colonies”.
You and five thousand soldiers reach sanctuary behind the Delaware River on December 7th, but sickness and desertions cut your ranks relentlessly. The soldiers’ contracts with the Continental Army are set to expire on December 31st and no one is getting paid anyway, so many of the demoralized just go home early to get out of the miserable conditions. The Continental Army is quickly unraveling in defeat.
General Washington sends scouts to...
(Excerpt) Read more at thecoachsteam.com ...
Yes, Merry Christmas Col. Rall. As you bled out you were probably wishing you’d bothered to read that spy’s note handed you the evening before.
Fischer’s book about this battle is great
Thank you for posting the thread, oldpuppymax.
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Recessional of the Sons of the American Revolution:
“Until we meet again, let us remember our obligations to our
forefathers who gave us our Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
an independent Supreme Court and a nation of free men.”
Dr. Benjamin Franklin, when asked if we had a republic or a monarchy, replied "A Republic, if you can keep it."
I’m sure most people have heard of it, but A&E’s “The Crossing” starring Jeff Daniels is an excellent movie depicting this very battle.
Thank you for the ping. The essay is well-written and uplifting.
God bless our brave fighting men — from our nation’s birth up through today.
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