Being George Washington by Glenn Beck Page A
Authors: Glenn Beck
Tags: History, Non-Fiction
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were hardened patriots, not frightened by battle or adversity, willing to follow George Washington anywhere.
And so, on this fine spring morning, Frederick the Great’s grenadiers could not have performed better than these freemen who fired their muskets faster and faster, as the fire of joy splendidly unfolded. This morning’s muskets rang as loudly for freedom as Philadelphia’s great bronze Liberty Bell or Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence.
And these men—Washington and Steuben’s men—would soon be granted a chance to see if their ability to march in line and fire into the air would match their ability to fight. Because if General William Howe wouldn’t take the fight to the rebels, General Charles Cornwallis certainly would.
A Good General, a Great Author
I am sick, discontented, and out of humor. Poor food, hard lodging, cold weather, fatigue, nasty clothes, nasty cookery, vomit half my time, smoked out of my senses—the devil’s in it; I can’t endure it. Why are we sent here to starve and freeze? What sweet felicities have I left at home: A charming wife, pretty children, good beds, good food, good cooking—all agreeable, all harmonious! Here all confusion, smoke and cold, hunger and filthiness….
—SURGEON ALBIGENCE WALDO,
VALLEY FORGE, DECEMBER 14, 1777
A round ten thousand men arrived at Valley Forge in December 1777, surviving in drafty, makeshift tents before they built small, freezing huts—fourteen feet wide by sixteen feet long—that would go on to house twelve soldiers each.
At some point during their stay, around 30 percent of these soldiers would suffer from one disease or another; 2,500 of them would die. When they first got to the camp, about 4,000 men were without blankets; 2,000 would never have one during their entire stay at Valley Forge.
Washington must have noticed the streaking blood coming from lacerated feet on the icy paths that led to the camp. Thousands of his men were without shoes and, soon enough, army surgeons were amputating frostbitten and gangrened legs and feet in astonishing numbers.
And shoes weren’t the only thing missing. Eventually some of the soldiers’ clothing grew so ragged that it fell off their gaunt bodies, leavingthem with only blankets to cover their nakedness. With no clothes to wear, the men were too embarrassed to even leave their quarters.
To make matters even worse, the British, the world’s largest and most powerful fighting force, were amassed only eighteen miles away in Philadelphia, ready to pounce. They’d already taken New York and had just handed Washington a bruising defeat in Brandywine.
Morale was low. Not a single shot had been fired to defend the City of Brotherly Love—the capital of revolutionary America. In fact, it’s possible that Washington heard about the cheering crowds that awaited the British’s arrival in Philadelphia.
Have Government—Will Travel
With the loss of Philadelphia, the colonists were quickly running out of cities to call their capital. Or, perhaps more accurately, you could say that America seemed to be running out of people who believed the patriots would ever need a capital to begin with.
So, how many official capitals did the United States actually inhabit? It’s hard to keep track, but the answer is nine. The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774. The Second Continental Congress, though, seemed to be on the run quite a bit during the war, meeting at Philadelphia’s State House, in Baltimore, in Lancaster and in York, Pennsylvania, and then back again to College Hall in Philadelphia.
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress met again in Philadelphia, and then in Princeton, New Jersey; Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey; and then New York City. After the U.S. Congress was instituted by the U.S. Constitution in 1789, it was housed in New York and Philadelphia, before finally settling down (for good?) in Washington, D.C.
Despite the
And so, on this fine spring morning, Frederick the Great’s grenadiers could not have performed better than these freemen who fired their muskets faster and faster, as the fire of joy splendidly unfolded. This morning’s muskets rang as loudly for freedom as Philadelphia’s great bronze Liberty Bell or Thomas Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence.
And these men—Washington and Steuben’s men—would soon be granted a chance to see if their ability to march in line and fire into the air would match their ability to fight. Because if General William Howe wouldn’t take the fight to the rebels, General Charles Cornwallis certainly would.
A Good General, a Great Author
I am sick, discontented, and out of humor. Poor food, hard lodging, cold weather, fatigue, nasty clothes, nasty cookery, vomit half my time, smoked out of my senses—the devil’s in it; I can’t endure it. Why are we sent here to starve and freeze? What sweet felicities have I left at home: A charming wife, pretty children, good beds, good food, good cooking—all agreeable, all harmonious! Here all confusion, smoke and cold, hunger and filthiness….
—SURGEON ALBIGENCE WALDO,
VALLEY FORGE, DECEMBER 14, 1777
A round ten thousand men arrived at Valley Forge in December 1777, surviving in drafty, makeshift tents before they built small, freezing huts—fourteen feet wide by sixteen feet long—that would go on to house twelve soldiers each.
At some point during their stay, around 30 percent of these soldiers would suffer from one disease or another; 2,500 of them would die. When they first got to the camp, about 4,000 men were without blankets; 2,000 would never have one during their entire stay at Valley Forge.
Washington must have noticed the streaking blood coming from lacerated feet on the icy paths that led to the camp. Thousands of his men were without shoes and, soon enough, army surgeons were amputating frostbitten and gangrened legs and feet in astonishing numbers.
And shoes weren’t the only thing missing. Eventually some of the soldiers’ clothing grew so ragged that it fell off their gaunt bodies, leavingthem with only blankets to cover their nakedness. With no clothes to wear, the men were too embarrassed to even leave their quarters.
To make matters even worse, the British, the world’s largest and most powerful fighting force, were amassed only eighteen miles away in Philadelphia, ready to pounce. They’d already taken New York and had just handed Washington a bruising defeat in Brandywine.
Morale was low. Not a single shot had been fired to defend the City of Brotherly Love—the capital of revolutionary America. In fact, it’s possible that Washington heard about the cheering crowds that awaited the British’s arrival in Philadelphia.
Have Government—Will Travel
With the loss of Philadelphia, the colonists were quickly running out of cities to call their capital. Or, perhaps more accurately, you could say that America seemed to be running out of people who believed the patriots would ever need a capital to begin with.
So, how many official capitals did the United States actually inhabit? It’s hard to keep track, but the answer is nine. The First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia in 1774. The Second Continental Congress, though, seemed to be on the run quite a bit during the war, meeting at Philadelphia’s State House, in Baltimore, in Lancaster and in York, Pennsylvania, and then back again to College Hall in Philadelphia.
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress met again in Philadelphia, and then in Princeton, New Jersey; Annapolis, Maryland; Trenton, New Jersey; and then New York City. After the U.S. Congress was instituted by the U.S. Constitution in 1789, it was housed in New York and Philadelphia, before finally settling down (for good?) in Washington, D.C.
Despite the
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