Leslie Nielsen.
Posted on 07/04/2017 2:32:11 PM PDT by Eagles Field
I always savor the insight Freeper History Buffs offer, especially the spirited difference in opinion. The easy answers are Washington, Jefferson, the like. Who are the ones unsung, where the tide may not have turned without?
The Scots and Irish of north Georgia
I know my answer is an easy out, but I’d say it was the farmer who put down his plow, picked up his rifle and fought for an idea.
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Plowshares to swords it’s own reward.
I know my answer is an easy out, but I’d say it was the farmer who put down his plow, picked up his rifle and fought for an idea.
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Plowshares to swords it’s own reward.
Sam Houston was Washington II. He saved Texas utilizing George’s ferocious skill at manipulating men all up and down the spectrum for the win.
> It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t hang onto Arnold. His obsession with money did him in. <
Money, and more importantly, prestige. If Congress would have given - with Washington’s approval - some fancy title to Arnold, he would have stayed with the rebels.
It’s interesting to speculate what would have happened in that case. Would Arnold have then have been, someday, a President of the United States?
All of them.
Happy Independence Day
God
Along with 18 and 30, I say George Washington.
Today we know that the great man himself entertained doubts about the cause. With New England states cut-off, a British force to the south, with inflation exploding and with desertions, in 1780, he wrote in his diary, “We seem to be verging so fast to extinction that I am filled with sensations to which I have been a stranger till these three months.”
The French secretly offered the British terms involving their keeping New York, the Carolinas and Georgia, but the offer was rejected. King George III thought that the financial collapse would soon be followed by a military collapse. Yet, George Washington pressed forward (publicly) and the Americans soldiered on.
A second person who could be identified as indispensable is King Louis XVI. His loan of 1779 in silver (which arrived here the next year), along with an army under General Rochambeau and a navy under Admiral D’Estaing gave the Americans new impetus and were crucial at keep the British navy at bay, during the Yorktown campaign. Some people cite Dr. Benjamin Franklin for his role in securing this loan. But, let’s give the French their due. We’ve been repaying our debt to them ever since.
Multiple people had critical roles to fill.
I would still say Washington. Motivating troops to fight, and being right there with them. Not letting them get away with undisciplined crap because “war”. Later, not becoming a napoleon even though people begged him to.
Thomas Jefferson? He ranks among the most expendable. Jefferson eschewed warfare, thought it beneath him, and favored talking his foes into submission.
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Although what you say may be true, he wrote the damn Declaration, you fool. We’re looking for insight, not your obsession with contrarianism weak fueling your self-esteem lacking.
Leslie Nielsen.
I think your list is the closest.
Perhaps John Adams makes the list due to the loan he arranged from the Dutch right when the US was completely broke.
Agreed!
David McCullough was going to write a biographical history of the Revolution centered around John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. After he had done his first year of intensive research he realized that in his opinion John Adams was THE essential man. He changed his focus an wrote his best seller biography on John Adams.
Henry Knox!
(watching The Revolution series on TV and I was reminded about him).
Book store owner, military groupy and artillery fanboy.
Boston is sieged. The Patriots need artillery. Ol’ Knox says “umm guys? Why don’t we get those guns sitting around at Fort Ticonderoga?”
He goes up there. Gets the guns. It takes him awhile but he gets those guns to Boston.
Washington gets a high point quickly fortified (like, overnight, surprising the crud out of the Brits) and the Brits say...
Hey, how about you let us walk out of here all peaceful like?
After the Brits are gone, Washington looks around at his staff and says “umm... any of y’all know where we might find some gunpowder for these here guns that Knox got for us?”
Would the siege of Boston been lifted without Henry Knox’s efforts?
Insight is where you find it. Or not in your case.
Happy Independence Day
One of my favorites, certainly.
The high point that Washington fortified was Dorchester Heights.
I read a book about Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox, when I was about 12 years old...He was a bad ass....
Bump for Ben Franklin
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