Patrick K. O'Donnell
speaker
672 appearances
8 recordings
1 series
first heard Oct 2025
last heard 29 Aug
Patrick K. O'Donnell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 4.
Appearances
one of the greatest evacuations in military history right under the noses of you know a massive royal navy in the east river as well as this massive juggernaut in front of them and here you know one of the great miracles
in American history and world history takes place, the providential fog comes at exactly the right time as dawn comes and the rays of dawn illuminate the East River and illuminate potentially the operation to evacuate the Americans that Glover is desperately trying to pull off. They go back almost a dozen times.
you know with these small boats to bring off the wounded to bring off the equipment and the men and dawn comes and the fog then screens the remaining boats as they they escape and bring off nearly everybody
a handful of boats and you got to do it all night and if you don't extract this entire army it's the the the war could be over right then and oh by the way the wind never favored the royal navy to go up the east river behind the defenses and they would have if it did they would have blown apart this small little fleet that john glover had that was bringing off
the uh the army the the nine thousand uh or plus men that were coming off uh you know at brooklyn it's an incredible story
What happens is they land about two weeks after the Battle of Brooklyn. The evacuation takes place on the night of December 30th, 29th, 30th. They escape to Manhattan. And then there's a lull where there's another round. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Not December 30th. No, not December 19th. You're getting off in Brooklyn in the...
i said september i believe i thought i thought i meant september september september the middle of september they land at murray hill in and around there and they attack manhattan and they uh the army disappears basically again and uh you know there's washington is horrified it's only the the marylanders what's left of them and the marblehead troops and some others that stand and fight but much of the army
is is uh it flees and they make their way towards the harlem heights where they have another defensive line and and there is one glimmer of hope at the battle of harlem heights where
elite british troops the um their light infantry moves out and it's here that uh american riflemen basically surprise these british troops in the battle of harlem heights is an american victory a small victory against these you know the umpires some of their best troops but after that it's just pretty much one defeat after another
And the British have a massive advantage in the fact that their fleet can land anywhere. And Washington has to defend the indefensible, which is Manhattan, which can be pretty much attacked from any point. And there's another amphibious landing.
where uh you know it's it's the it's october it's roughly around the middle of october and a small group of riflemen uh under edward hand about 25 men are behind a log pile and they're able to repel much of the invasion force
And it's a bright spot because they land in an area that's actually kind of an island, the British land in an island area that floods during high tide. And so they're sort of separated from the mainland. And then they're being picked off by Washington's riflemen. And then they decide to land a few days later at another point. And it's John Glover that has...
as a an important role as a rear guard uh along with his brigade and they they retreat to white plains and uh there's another um epic of epic battle and it's here that the hessians play a key role under johan rawl uh and it leads to another tremendous defeat which is uh at the at the battle of fort washington where nearly 3 000 americans are captured
by um the hessians and most of it is as a result of of a traitor within the fort the adjutant leaves about a week before the battle begins with the plans of the fort the dispositions of where everybody is actually located and they know where the weak spots are and the hessians once again lead the assault under johan roll they pierce the defenses at fort washington and uh you know nearly three thousand americans are
famous treatment. This is where everything is going wrong. It's really initially decided by the British themselves. They attack Fort Lee. They cross over the Hudson River. They seize Fort Lee very quickly. Washington is absolutely alarmed. They need to quickly evade the British as quickly as possible. They're basically moving the army as fast as they can across New Jersey.
to the safety, or at least the perceived safety, of the Delaware River. But most importantly, there are friendly farmers in Pennsylvania that can feed the Continental Army, which is, you know, it starts at about 20,000 men, and it's going down quickly in numbers to 4,000 to 5,000 crossing the Jersey.
He was getting enormous pressure and his rivals were basically chomping at the bit and then working behind the scenes to get rid of him, basically. And he had a number of them. And one of his rivals is...
I think it's in a sense fortuitous from an American historical perspective. His greatest rival is out there basically campaigning for the job, basically telling everybody how great he is and everything else. And then he is in New Jersey.
He's not following orders from... He's not really communicating with Washington himself. And he is in a... This is General Charles Lee.
This is General Charles Lee, who's in an inn, and he is captured by elements of dragoons led by Bannister Tarleton and others. And he's brought out of the inn in his bedclothes, and then, you know, he's basically, he's cashiered away.
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