Kelsey Grammer: Blood on the Bridge

The New Hampshire militia's raid on Fort William and Mary leaves only one wounded redcoat while securing 100 barrels of the king's powder, a large cache of muskets and ammunition, and 16 cannons, a perfectly executed plan, and a serious escalation. The Boston Tea Party was a crime against private property. This is a crime against Great Britain. In other words, treason.

Wow, this is a four-part series that you simply have to watch. Many people think, well, the 250th birthday of America starts next year. When you think about the war, think about 1773, the Boston Tea Party, but so much happened in 1775. Kelsey Grammer knows all that. That's why he's the perfect host of the new series out on Fox Nation called Blood on the Bridge, the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Kelsey, welcome back. I know your passion for history. I think that anyone out there who says, you know, I never really I don't remember how this hold the details of Revolutionary War. This will really give you a real sense of how compelling and how unlikely our victory in this war was, don't you think?

Absolutely. It's funny, we don't really teach history anymore. I don't know why. I think it has something to do with trying to stop people from actually identifying as Americans. And honestly, we have an extraordinary story that's been told over the last couple of centuries that is currently being neglected, I think, by our education system. And without that knowledge, it's going to be hard to have an understanding of the impact and the bravery and the courage and the extraordinary accomplishment it was to to become the United States of America.

And so I'm doing my my small part to to lend a little bit of information to to our current situation here. And you just get a sense back first. It's easy to say, well, the Revolutionary War started and then we ended up losing almost every battle and coming out at the end of winning in Yorktown. But the way it started was a slow boil of the taxes, the lack of respect, the lack of understanding of what the colonists were going through, the arrogance of the British and felt as though they were superior. And then to see these men stand up and start speaking out, they get together, come together with a battle plan. And this guy like George Washington emerged to be the leader when he was really reluctant to get involved. I love the way you guys sense what Washington meant to the movement. It was really in the beginning, John Hancock and Sam Adams. What was their key role?

Well, John Hancock, I think, was a pretty wealthy guy. And he had a he had a dream of freedom for the American colonies that was motivated by the fact that in America they discovered an energy or I guess I'm trying to put this in terms that I think are somewhat spiritual. There was an understanding that they've been given something extraordinary by being here in America.

And this whole idea of American exceptionalism is, you know, poo-pooed by some people. But it had to do with, I think, the sort of the land and the work and what was happening here for everybody. They realized that this was a place of great opportunity for the new world. And in the new world, they realized that there were going to be a different set of parameters, basically individual freedom, and that the individual was the most important part of that freedom. And government of the people, by the people, for the people. These ideas started to resonate more and more. And whether or not it was a relationship between what they achieved here or what they discovered here, what they discovered in the brotherhood of desiring freedom, or maybe it was that the British impulse to suppress any freedom here was and also to discard the desire for freedom here was what buried them in a strange way. It was actually it was just wrong. It was a crime against humanity to actually consider that these people who lived here had no right to govern themselves.

So Kelsey, I did not know this. I didn't fully understand this. But if you want to know why the Second Amendment matters so much, think about Concord. So as General Gage realizes the colonists are getting rowdy, they're not listening, they're starting to band together and push back on the taxes, they go, okay, well, one way one thing we could do to make sure that they don't rise up, they're neutralized is take their gunpowder. So stop them from firing, stop them from having weapons. Therefore, we'll make sure that they don't. Well, evidently, they were able to gather some gunpowder, but they were able to gather more and were able to, when the war ended, let's make sure no one ever takes our guns. This way, no one will ever take our freedom. And then the unlikely result there was really something as well, Lexington and Concord and then the siege at Boston.

What did you take away from this? Well, the organic kind of the organic connection to this series of events and to the Second Amendment is completely obvious when you understand the history of it. The British went directly at our ability, which had been basically funded by Hancock, to defend ourselves, and to have guns in everybody's hand, to have the minutemen, the minutemen who could respond within a minute to any attack, to any threat. And that's what actually got them at this Lexington Concord kind of the way it danced together into this resistance. And then finally, what was arguably a victory for the colonies was that first it looked like they were going to be overwhelmed. And then all of a sudden, as the British were returning from this raid that they executed and killed several colonists, they faced, I think, 7000 colonists who were rallied within a day or less than a day to meet them face to face. And they I think that when the when the Brits turned the corner and came across that bridge and said, oh, oh, dear, we're we're in serious trouble all of a sudden.

It was an extraordinary thing. And that was a year before they had the sort of the unifying message of the Declaration of Independence. They were they were fighting a war already.

And that's what's fascinating. And also, when you said something else about the sort of the ongoing abuse of the colonies, the sort of the bad stepchild thing, the English really had no interest in the colonies, except as a financial gambit. And Ben Franklin, though, who was a loyalist at first, went over to England and became the ambassador from the Congress to England and realized at the end of it, that at the end of his tenure there, that he was a patriot.

He was he was going to fight for liberty, because the the the attitude of the British toward the American colonies was was pretty dismissive. And and that superiority, that sense that we weren't worth being bothered with. Let's just we know it's, you know, it's what people in power tend to do. They tend to forget about people. I know they knows his voice. Yes.

Yeah. Kelsey Grammer's here with us. We'll watch you on Zoom. So with all of our stations, but you could also see us on the Fox News app, just click on watch his new series is Blood on the Bridge. It is awesome. Just got to warn you, when you start watching it, you're not going to want to stop the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

So many people watch our channel, watch, listen to the show, are very patriotic. And because I put out seven history books and I'm able to speak about them pretty freely. And I take questions for really smart people that just, you know, in life you have to make decisions. I can't sit around real history books.

I have a family to raise. You know, I'm an accountant. I mean, I'm into finance, I'm into finance, but there's such a thirst to tell stories.

I always laugh when people come up to me and say, I don't really love history. And I go, wait, do you like stories? Yes. Do you like true stories? Yes. You like stories about your country? Oh, yeah.

Oh, you like history. And you're, this is what you were able to do. The mixing of the acting, your appearance is at the host and the voiceover. You have to make sure you're involved in quality. What sold you on this product that it would be to Kelsey Grammer's level? No, we've done several of these things now with Fox and Fox Nation and the producers that have worked with. We actually sort of repurposed a little bit the legends and lies that Bill O'Reilly had done years before. And we sort of stepped into that and sort of redid them a little bit. And that was the first, my first foray into this historical kind of reflection series stuff. And then we started doing more of the battles for America that went pretty well. And I've just always had this thirst for history myself, but you're right.

The stories are compelling and fascinating. And of course, history is prologue to what we're living in right now. If you don't understand your history, you don't know where you came from. You don't know who you are. And you'll be able to be convinced that someone else will tell you what your rights are.

If you understand the history that reflects upon this country, at least you understand what it is to be personally involved in your own history. And that's important. And that's what we're trying to do with the shows. I love these shows.

They have great scholarship. They also have a storytelling element that is compelling and, and, and human. It makes, it makes history accessible to the individual at this time.

And then we find out what's true and what's not. And I just love the so-called unsung heroes. Anybody who watches your show knows about Dr. Joseph Warren, but probably nobody else, unless you're really passionate about history, understand it. You might know Paul Revere, but do you know William Dawes? Tell me about Dr. Warren. Well, Dr. Warren was a sort of a pivotal freedom loving, or, or, or at least idealist in living in Boston at the time. And who was, he perished at the battle of Bunker Hill, which was really fought at Breed's Hill. But there's, it was a shame because he was, he had some inside intel and was kind of like the first major American spy, honestly, because he, he rubbed shoulders with the elitist Brits that were there at the time. And some of the powers that be were there at the time. And also was apparently there's some, you know, some rumors that he was friendly with somebody's wife. General Gage.

Yeah. Who was privy to a lot of knowledge about what the English were doing. So he was invaluable in those early years. And it's a shame that he died because he certainly would have been considered a pillar of our, of our founding fathers. And the thing is, Kelsey, he decides to get into the, basically the infantry. When he could sit in the back and finance the war and provide intelligence, he says, no, give me a gun.

I'm on the front lines. And that's where he lost his life. And lastly, Paul Revere's ride lives up to the hype, right?

William Dawes did it one direction, Paul Revere the next direction. Apparently there were a lot of guys that did it. If I ever lived, there were a lot of guys that, you know, it's like a little bit more like the old Wells Fargo, you know, or the Pony Express, but where they would hand off the mission to the next rider. I think people got a little tired.

A horse might get a little worn out and maybe need to stop for some feed. But they, they had this system put in place that was part of the Minutemen concept that would give warning, give warning to as many people as needed to get it. And for as far and wide as they needed to make the warning heard. And so there were several riders that went out. But the famous Midnight rider, Paul Revere, Longfellow's poem is a great testament to that kind of bravery and that courage and the excitement of fighting for one's freedom. I mean, it's a fascinating thing that they took this notion and said, it's worthy of dying for. It's worthy to die for this.

It's something. And I think that still lives in us. I think that still exists in us. And I've always regretted that I didn't actually serve in the military. But of course, at that time, the war that was being fought was the Vietnam War. And so I was, there were a lot of issues about that, a lot of questions about it. But I still would have served if I'd been called.

It's just, I just missed it. Nixon pulled us out in time for me to just miss it. I was, I registered for the draft. When I turned 18, I was, you know, ready to go. But turned out I didn't have to. But this extraordinary notion that an individual would give his life so that other people he didn't even know and other generations he was unaware of would foster a freedom that would last for generations and generations is an extraordinary idea. And lives here. And Kelsey, think about this.

And I know you do. You leave your family when you are the sole earner. There's no Social Security. And then you grab a gun and you're taking on the finest fighting force in the world, fresh off battle, that was still being fought with France. So you got to experience infantry against an inexperienced group of farmers. That's the American story. The people watching and listening to us right now, that's your story. And lastly, a couple of things. He never said here comes the British, the British are coming because most people he would be yelling that to are British because, you know, loyalists.

Number two, he did say one if by land, two if by sea. I just got to ask you, here we are coming up on year 250. President Trump says he's going to make a big deal of it along the way.

What could we do as a country? You got your series. It's out there. I think that when we talk about reforming education, I'm all for it.

Got it. But it history's got to come back. The American story has got to be taught and it's got to be taught everything. Slavery. Absolutely. Freedom. Civil war. Jim Crow.

Yes. But the story is a country that constantly gets better and constantly tries to improve and emerges. Number one, that's a pretty good story. So, you know, it's interesting. I think it was 1803, Thomas Jefferson, as president, tried to float the idea that slavery would be abolished. And it was defeated. It was defeated in Congress. Yeah, fascinating. It was defeated by one vote.

A vote from New Jersey didn't show up. And it's an extraordinary thing that he had the vision and to write the Declaration of Independence, for one thing, but then to also as president to insist that we actually tackle the issue of slavery. A lot of kids don't know this. A lot of people don't know this. They still think of it as a stain on our country. Well, they were men of their time. Slavery was an active. What you call a phenomenon at the time that powered a lot of economy and, of course, a lot of people were resistant to losing it, but it wasn't right. It wasn't right if we saw the world as we do see it, that we were all created.

And he was ready to put his money where his mouth was. And that people should remember this. They should remember that these men actually were willing to change what they grew up with, to fight what they were told, what they were taught. And the world that they grew up in was no longer attractive to them. And they were willing to fight to change it. And these are extraordinary people who have vision, great vision. And that's where you're from.

I mean, people should understand you don't have to go 23 and me. These are all we're related to all these people. These are who are ancestors came to be a part of, the fresh start that maybe you made the choice to come.

Someone watching us right now or some of your ancestors did. And lastly, I know we're going to talk on One Nation on Sunday night, but just for you personally, I'm not an actor, but I've hosted things before. When they say, Kelsey, we need you to host this Kelsey Grammer. Do you approach it any differently as opposed to they say, go play Frazier on Cheers?

Oh, sure. Listen, Frazier is one character I've played. He's definitive in terms of it brought me success. It brought me some monetary comfort, but he's also a great character.

I mean, he's a wonderful character, a gift to an actor. But my personal standing as an American loving actor or whatever is my privilege. And I'm very proud of being allowed to have to speak for the people of the previous generations who many fought and died for this country. My my granddad was a member of the military and fought at Guadalcanal. He was an extraordinary example of the kind of men I respect and believe in. And so I'm doing my best to honor that my personal connection to it and also my understanding of what an amazing gift it is that people have the courage to die for freedom. Yep. Yeah, we hit it with we hit the ladder when we were born in America.

We just have to realize it. It's called Blood on the Bridge. It's on Fox Nation right now.

The Battle of Lexington and Concord. Kelsey Grammer, the host and producer. Kelsey, thanks so much. I'll talk to you Sunday. Good to see you. Listen to the all new Bret Baier podcast featuring common ground in depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, along with all your Bret Baier favorites like his all star panel and much more available now at Fox News podcast dot com or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to the show ad free on Fox News podcast plus on Apple podcast, Amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.