Patrick K. O'Donnell

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.

What's interesting, we don't know, we didn't find this out until later on, is that he basically, he freely talks to the British high command about how they can beat Washington and the Continental Army. But eventually he is freed in a prisoner exchange and given another chance and doesn't do very well at the Battle of Monmouth.

it is it is steve and i mean this is a situation people have to understand that this is our first civil war not everybody was on board with the american revolution i mean the the classic breakdown is you have a third that were patriots you know a third that were loyalists that were loyal to the crown and a third that were undecided and then what you see in my book uh washington's immortals where i really cover the eight-year

span of the American Revolution where none of it can be decided. Because what's the important thing, right? It's as you say, it's to keep the army intact. A insurgency that has the support of the population is almost impossible to defeat. That's something that we've learned, you know, throughout the 20th century in particular.

This is a situation where they knew they didn't necessarily have to win, they just needed to survive. And Washington was brilliant at this. He was brilliant at prudence and not attacking when he knew that he didn't have the odds. He also was brilliant in his alliance buildings with foreign powers, but also within, you know, this very much divided United States in 1776.

This is the situation, Steve, where the army is falling apart. You know, one of my favorite quotes is about one of the men sees his brother and doesn't even recognize him because he's in complete tatters, shoeless. His face is filled with sores.

The army is disintegrating because of the enlistments are expiring and Washington has to strike and he strikes at the vulnerable Hessian outpost under Johann Rall at Trenton. The problem is there's a river in the way again.

And Washington asks Glover if it's even possible to get across the Delaware when it's raging, a raging torrent. Like, don't worry, my boys can handle it. And they organize one of the greatest amphibious operations in history.