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This is a special edition of the Brian Kilmead Show, America 250. Remembering two key moments that helped America win the revolution. Here's Brian Kilmead. And thanks so much. Listen, it's America 250, and over the last year, I've had a chance to do five special features on what made America great, my series on Fox Nation.
My first stop that I want to share with you is one you probably know little about, and don't blame yourself. It's Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York. The significance can't be overstated. Here's the story.
So, Matt Kegel, as curator of this fort, why do you have me outside the walls to start? Because this right here. Is the bloodiest battlefield of the entire 18th century in all of North America. But this isn't Fort Ticonderoga yet, is it? Not quite yet.
This is still what the French called Fort Carrion. The fort has been here in some form since 1755. The British have launched a major campaign to take this post, the largest army that had ever been assembled in North America to this date.
So the French are here outside, about 4,000 troops. Yes, against a British and American force numbering nearly 16,000.
So the French level a forest of trees that was left here, a log breastwork seven, eight feet high. People are under the impression that they waited in the fort. Fight, but they didn't. No, they waited outside and they lured the British into this position. On July 8th, 1758, British troops in multiple columns begin to approach the French positions.
And their intent was just to run in and attack them. But being caught in the Abbati, they become targets to French marksmen and they're mown down. Even though they got higher numbers, much higher numbers. The British aren't having success. The British said all they could see were their hats and the muzzles of their guns.
The French are just loading muskets, handing them to men up on the line. It's a butcher's house here. The fighting goes until almost nightfall on July 8th, and by the end of the day, the British have suffered nearly 2,000 casualties. That's more than at Bunker Hill. It's the bloodiest battle that is fought in North America until the Mexican-American War of the 1840s.
But ultimately, would the British prevail? They would. That defeat here in 1758 was so substantial, they come back and they finally seize Fort Carrion. This battlefield. Became a touchstone for generations.
There are people that fought here in 1758 that witnessed how. A smaller force. in a well-chosen position could defeat a larger one. And that's a lesson they take with them into the American Revolution. Um We're inside the walls.
I didn't realize we have two walls here. You got an outer perimeter and a much higher wall on the inside. Yeah, this is called the Couvre Fosse, and this is kind of an outer defense. This is the easy way to get into the fort. You only come in this way, really, if you're friendly.
If you're part of the garrison and you're reinforcing them, there are ditches 15 feet deep in front of those walls, which means walls themselves 30 feet high to prevent an attacker from getting in.
So, Matt, the British occupied this fort since 1759, but that's about to change. This place takes on a renewed significance. Because where it's located. Because of where it's located in part, but also because of what's here in terms of artillery. There was a huge stockpile of weaponry that had been left over after the French and Indian War, and Americans knew about this.
And as American militia and minute companies from all across New England started to pen the British into Boston, they realized what they needed to get them out was artillery that could reach the city of Boston and the sea lanes that supplied it. There's actually two separate simultaneous expeditions launched to capture Ticonderoga. One coming out of Connecticut, which eventually employs Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. Benedict Arnold got a commission from the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts because he appealed directly to them, saying somebody should go to Ticonderoga and get these cannon. And so both of these expeditions are launched on the road at the same time and they meet up just days before the final attack is to take place and squabble over who's actually going to command this operation.
They eventually negotiate and they agree that they will share the command of the final attack on the fort. Where did the attack actually happen? On the other side of this barracks into the parade ground of the fort itself. Let's go. Yeah.
This is right where Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys stormed into the fort early in the morning of May 10th. They move into this parade ground with their guns facing in every direction because they're anticipating that when the British see that they're coming in, they're going to fight back. And they wait a few moments before realizing that everyone's fast asleep. They start pulling out these sleepy soldiers from their bunks. They need to find the officers and get the formal surrender of the fort to just end this right away and ensure that the Americans have controlled this facility.
Do they? They do, yes. By this point, there are only two British officers here. One of them rushes out of his room. He manages to get to his captain's quarters, says, you know, wake up, something's happening, and buys a little time by talking with these guys, saying, well, why are you here?
They don't know that a war has happened. You're asking for the fort to be surrendered, but whose authority? And he gets two different answers. Connecticut and Massachusetts, which is a bit confusing. But when you've got 80 guys with guns pointed at you, what choice do you have?
Right. And what happens to what was left of the British soldiers, the 45 or so? It's the first offensive victory of the American Revolution. This action, small as it was, bloodless as it was, it changes the scope of the war. No longer is this just a defensive conflict outside Boston, you know, defending our homes from the Redcoats marching in and then pushing the British into the city.
This is an offensive operation. It crosses colonial borders. It opens the possibility that the war could even go further into Canada. And for strategic purposes, why is this a great fort to have?
Well, it's important because it controls access between Canada and New England and New York. Nothing gets through here without passing through this place. By the Americans seizing it, they're basically securing their northern border. It also opens up the possibility of what the revolution will look like in Canada. Where there's a lot of conflicting feelings, Americans are both afraid of Canadians coming in on the side of the British, but optimistic that perhaps we can get them to join our cause because French Canadians for years did not like the British.
Now they're part of the British Empire, but what if they could join our cause and leverage that against the British, push them out of Canada, and reduce that threat to the American colonies? And what do they do?
Well, ultimately, it's the Americans that make the initiative after Congress somewhat begrudgingly authorizes a defensive invasion of Canada. Move north, take positions that the British might otherwise use to attack us and hold on to them, and that precipitates over the late summer and fall of 1775 a full-scale invasion of Canada to our north.
So Matt, the colonists have this for. In 1775. How long do they hold it?
Well, they hold it through the rest of 1775, 1776, and into 1777. But by the end of 1775, the Americans have invaded Canada. That invasion collapses at the beginning of 1776. It was a failure. It was a total failure.
And the American military falls back hundreds of miles and they decide finally to stop and make their stand right here at Ticonderoga almost the exact same time the Declaration of Independence is coming to Congress.
So the Army digs in here. They have to totally rebuild themselves. But the British keep coming. They capture Crown Point 12 miles north of here and they start to probe the American lines at the end of October 1776. And what they find is not that army that had been brushed out of Canada, that was demoralized and out of control.
They find 13,000 men dug in, bristling with cannon, armed with weapons, waiting for them. and they get cannon fire from American shore batteries, and they realize That they're not going to be able to crack this nut. And they make the decision to turn back to Canada. That failure of the British to drive here to take Ticonderoga may have been the most important battle of the revolution that never happened. If this army had collapsed, if this fort hadn't held the line, The British could have split the colonies in half and ended the revolution.
But of course, troops were needed elsewhere, enlistments were expiring, men had to be let go. The next year, they have far fewer troops, and the British are able to come back. Matt, you brought me to Mount Defiance overlooking the fort. 1777. There's a skeleton crew here over the winter.
They're trying to get more troops over that summer, but the British are making another invasion of the United States. And that army is driving southward. One of the things they do is against all expectation, they cut a road up this promontory and they build a battery. The British do. The British do.
And they not only cut a road up there, they bring two cannon up there and they begin to prepare a battery overlooking the American works.
Now, it's just two cannon, and those cannon never actually open fire, but it's kind of the last nail and at the last minute, the 11th hour. The American commander decides to retreat, to give up this position, but. Preserve the army. And that's what's key. And it's that army that will go on to form the core of the army that stalls the British, battles them, and forces them to surrender at Saratoga.
This turns the American Revolution, which has merged from a colonial rebellion to a war of independence into a global imperial war.
So as you see, they gained momentum from there. And in turn, win a key battle that not only gets them feeling better, but gets the French in. Yup, that's all part of the Fort Ticonderoga story on the Brian Kilmeat Show. Special Edition continues. Don't move.
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We're telling the story of Fort Ticonderoga. We know the big battles in the Revolution, but you don't know everything, especially this fort in particular.
Some famous names like Ethan Allen play a key role. We'll discuss it. And here's part two of Fort Ticonderoga, a Fox Nation special, bifurcated just for you. Fort Ticonderoga is occupied by the British. For how long?
Why do they leave?
So the British are here. They hold the fort for almost the rest of the year 1777. They actually get attacked by Americans in September who capture the guns up on Mount Defiance and open fire on the fort.
So they did what the British didn't even do in July. But they can't force the fort to surrender, so they settle with destroying their supplies and equipment before evacuating. The British though learn of the surrender at Saratoga. They realize that although they hold Fort Ticonderoga, they're now totally exposed.
So they make the decision to retreat back to Canada in November of 1777. We have a situation without a war, thankfully, in our country. No reason to really keep this place going. And what happens? Yeah, it's not needed by the U.S.
government afterwards. And admittedly, this area does become significant again. During the War of 1812, Lake Champlain is once again a major theater of war between the British and the Americans. But in the years after the War of 1812, this place loses its strategic significance. It's far now from the new international border between Canada and the United States.
And the fortifications start to fall into ruin. That's when they get privately acquired by William Ferris Pell, a New York City merchant, who begins the preservation of this site.
So Matt, you're bringing us now behind the scenes. Where are we?
So now we're at the Thompson Pell Research Center, and this is where we store our collections. In 1820, a private citizen named William Ferris Pell purchased those two parcels of land from the two colleges, reunited the Ticonderoga garrison grounds, and fenced in what was left of the fort, these ruins here, to prevent further deterioration. And that might be seen as the first act of historic preservation in this country's history. And then the rebuild begins. Yes, so over time, people were still coming to this place to experience the history and the beauty of this landscape.
Over the 1800s, after William Ferris Pell's death, it was in the early 20th century that his descendants decided that they could embark on the process of restoring these ruins, of bringing them back to what they looked like during the Revolutionary War. That work began in 1908. We opened to the public on July 6th of 1909, dedicated by President William Howard Taft, and we have been open ever since. This is the core collections area for the Fort Ticonderoga Museum, where we bring pieces from all across the world that have been collected that represent this period. And this right here is one of the most significant and one of the Most powerful pieces in our collection.
This is the Warner knapsack? This is the knapsack of a Continental Soldier. And there are fewer of these that survive than I can count on one hand. But it was important for this soldier to keep this. It's desperately important for this soldier.
And we know that this is the knapsack that he had during the war, in part because he left a note with it. And on this note, He writes, This knapsack I carried through the War of the Revolution to achieve the American independence. And how did it come here? When the Fort Ticonderoga Museum was created in the early 20th century, it was donated to the museum in part because of what it represents. Because for Benjamin Warner, it wasn't enough just to hand it down, and he lays it out in his letter.
He says that whilst one shred of it shall remain, never surrender your liberties to a foreign invader or an aspiring demagogue. This simple thing. that was the reminder of his service would be the memento that you could grasp a hold of that and for generations in the future remember the suffering and the sacrifice of soldiers in the Revolutionary War. I can't leave here without getting a story about the helmets. Yeah, so we have the largest collection of 18th and early 19th century military dress in North America.
Part of that's headgear.
So this represents generations, mostly of American militia units raised by the various states over the course of the end of the 18th century and the early 19th century from across America. Because you do have to know who's fighting with you, what unit is what unit. Yeah, and reflect what type of soldiers. Are they light infantry? Are they grenadiers?
Are they cavalry troops? It's impossible not to notice your gun collection. Certainly. We have one of the largest collections of early modern firearms in this country. This includes material from both the United States, from Great Britain, from France, from Spain, from Germany, from the Netherlands, all the various powers involved in Atlantic warfare in the 18th century.
Matt, can't thank you enough. Thanks for bringing us behind the scenes.
So Stuart. What is your role here along with looking the part? You want people to feel what it was like when this fort was raging. Absolutely.
So my job as Vice President of Public History here is to immerse our visitors here at Ticonderoga in what it was like to serve here. What's your goal when the thousands of people come here every year and they want to know about this fort? Your goal is to make them feel what it was like. I want them to come here and experience what it was like here on a given day, whatever it might have been 250 years ago. I want visitors to experience the smells and the sights, to hear the cannons, but also get a deeper understanding.
You know, what did it mean to actually be here? Why were people willing to put their lives on the line here at Ticonderoga?
So, Stuart, part of your program is bring history to life. Absolutely.
And to do that, you have a... A actually authentic cannon from the era in which this fort was thriving. Absolutely.
So, this right here, this is a reproduction of a French cannon, one that would have been left here at Ticonderoga at the end of the Seven Years' War, the French and Indian War.
So, you're actually gonna light this off, and you do this twice a day. Can we get a sense of how you do it? We already just took the step of sponging the piece, so now we've made sure that the bore, this hole inside of the cannon, is completely clear.
Now, with the piece sponged, we're gonna go ahead and bring on up a cartridge. If you could come on over here next to me, my friend's gonna hand you this rammer because you're gonna do part of the next step. I'm gonna get to work.
So, we got this, this is a priming horn, and he's pouring a little bit of gunpowder right down through the vent there. And now we've got a continuous line of gunpowder all the way from the top here all the way down to our cartridge. All right, so now that we got it loaded and aimed, I'm gonna have you go ahead and fire it off. And right over here, what we've got this, this is what's called slow match.
So slow match, it's a cord that's been soaked in saltpeter, gunpowder, and a little bit of exactly like it would. And you can see, it's burning. It's burning real hot. Make sure it's red hot. And so what you're gonna do, you're gonna take that, bring it on down to that little bit of priming charge right there.
This is gonna fire.
Okay. And it did. And I believe we got our target. We have to. You never quite know.
So, this, this is what you would have been shooting. This would hurt. This would cut you in half. This would cut you in half. That, a four-pound shot.
It could actually travel 1.7 miles.
So imagine all the way across Lake Champlain. You could hit that. That's pretty. Easily. And if you really want to hit a lot, these are.
Grape shot.
So it'll scatter as soon as This is really important so people instead of just hearing about it, reading about it, they can see and feel it, right? And I think things like this, you know, real grape shot or a real four-pound cannonball, war gets really real really fast. And we want our visitors here to see this. This is war. This is what fighting was really like.
The use of artillery is intimately tied to fortifications like Fort Ticonderoga.
So when visitors come here and they see what we're doing, you know, it's not just a boom. It's really seen a part of this story of independence.
So thanks so much for this real slice of history brought to life. Hopefully people realize how special this place is.
So I hope you have a better understanding and a new place to visit when you bring your family somewhere this summer.
Meanwhile, coming up next, we look at one of the most famous paintings and the story behind it, Washington's Crossing over in New Jersey. We'll explain the story when we come back. Nearly home. Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the pro's number one most trusted app.
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But for this special, you have it front and center, exclusive to you.
Now I look at Washington's Crossing. It was freezing that day, and I felt bad because I had shoes and a coat. Washington's forces, in many cases, didn't. Here's the story, the true story of what Washington went through and what they accomplished. Look at this.
The Delaware River.
So quiet. It's so serene. But that wasn't the case December 25th, 1776. This was the site of General George Washington's bold move. It would change the direction of a war and the fate of a nation.
I'm Brian Kilmey, and I'm here at Washington Crossing Historic Park in beautiful Pennsylvania, the site of one of George Washington's greatest victories. You have to think about this, how bad the war was going for America. The Battle of New York had us on the run. Washington had to do something to change the direction, the course of this war. And he would chart it.
He would strategize. And he would execute. This is the story behind the story of the pivotal moment that not only would change the course of America, it would change the course of history. And this is not just history. It's what made America great.
This is the McConkey's Ferry Inn. Here at the Washington Crossing Historic Park and I've booked Alex Robb. Historian who is dressing for the times. Alex, great to see you. It's fantastic.
I see you brought you, you're armed.
So you're ready to go? Ready to go.
So I'm excited for this great moment in American history. Where am I now? This is the site where George Washington and his army crossed the Delaware River. There were two ferries that operated here, the McConkey Ferry and the Johnson Ferry, and the Army utilized those ferries to get the horses and artillery across the river. On the night of the crossing, they all converged at McConkey's Ferry so that they could all cross at the same time.
Let's set the scene. What was happening in our wars? 1776 was a year of absolute disaster for the American Army. They had started the year relatively confident because of some of the victories that they got in 1775. Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill.
And when 1776 comes around, the British and their Hessian allies launch one of the largest invasion forces ever assembled. They send approximately 35,000 troops to New York City and they absolutely decimate Washington's army. Washington brings his men here, many of which, their term's gonna be up. They signed up for a year. It's coming to an end.
He desperately needs a victory. What's the plan?
Well, the plan is to leave Pennsylvania and launch a surprise attack on the city of Trenton, which is being held by the Hessians. But there's doubt amongst the troops that they can win. I mean, how are they going to beat the number one fighting force in the world who almost destroyed them in New York? Yep, man. They're outgunned.
They got no experience. Many of the soldiers had only been in the army for a few months at this point and as you say, you know, they experienced these defeats. The plan is to cross the river on Christmas night. And they're going to march through the dark approximately nine miles and approach Trenton from several directions, completely seal off the city, isolate it, and try to score a surprise victory. Key is surprise.
Key is surprise. You're in the dead of winter and it is a middle of the nor'easter. Everything is freezing. People talk about contributing any way they can.
Some fight with the muskets that you have, and some give their provisions. And that's what the Thompson-Neely House did, right? The Thompson-Neely House is where a lot of the soldiers camped before they got here. Can we go? We can go.
Hi, Alex.
So you got me in front of the Thompson Neely House. Why do you have me here?
Well, this is where our story starts. Everybody thinks of the real famous Christmas Day crossing and a lot of people aren't sure how does the Army get there in the first place. The Army actually spends, part of the Army anyway, spends about two and a half weeks encamped in this area. And the Thompson Neely House is really important because this is one of the buildings that was requisitioned as a hospital. And this is where they sort of find shelter for a couple weeks.
Morale was down. Morale was very, very low. Many soldiers were deserting every day because it looked to many like the war was going to be over in just a matter of weeks with a British victory. The family stayed probably in a couple rooms upstairs, and there were a couple rooms downstairs that we know were probably used as offices for some of the officers. But a majority of the house, the portions that were here then, were being used as a hospital.
I guess this is where maybe the officers would be, right? A little bit of privacy? Yeah, so we actually interpret this room as the room where Captain James Moore. would have been and he's the man who is here trying to recover from an illness but unfortunately loses his life on Christmas Day as the Army is crossing the river.
So he's one of the men that we know for a fact was here. He actually served in the same unit as Alexander Hamilton. And Alexander Hamilton at this time, he's a captain of artillery. This is before he goes on to be Washington's top aide. Washington's thinking that the British are going to march on Philadelphia.
So he posts his army here because there's a lot of good ground to defend and he's going to use the topography of this area, the hills, and of course having control of the river to his advantage. The plan is hatched actually at Washington's headquarters, which is a couple miles from here still.
So if a lot of people think, oh, they spent weeks planning this thing, they were spending weeks looking for the opportunity. And it's not until the 23rd that this opportunity really makes itself known.
So they left here and went to Bakati's Ferry. When the troops got underway, when they started their march, a storm was coming in in rain, which changes to sleet, which changes to howling snow and wind. Hey, what kind of uniforms did they have? Not much of anything really in the way of uniforms.
So these men were, you know, they had to endure these weather conditions, of course the physical strain of all their labor. And the entire time that they're doing that, they're wearing threadbare clothing.
Some of the soldiers don't have shoes. I mean, it's really a desperate situation. And they're wondering, is this a desperate effort? Right, and there's no guarantee of victory.
So as we walk from the house, now ready for battle. These are the boats that Washington used. What we're looking at here are what we would call Durham boats. And these are replica boats? These are replicas.
And when Washington launches his attack, These are the boats that he's going to use to bring the infantry across the river. How many people would row these?
Well, this particular boat would take eight to row. They go back and forth until they get 2,000 men across. And they gotta be quiet because this is a sneak attack. Exactly. These boats, after you have eight guys in here rowing, you can fit maybe two dozen soldiers.
So these crews have to make multiple trips back and forth to bring all the men across. When you see the painting of Washington, what should we know about it? It's iconic. It signifies around the world this great general and this impossible task which was accomplished. But how realistic is the painting?
Well, the painting itself is not exactly an accurate depiction of what happens here. And it's important to know that that painting never really was meant to be so much of a historical record of these events. That painting is very much a romantic emblem of sort of these ideals. It gets the essence of the story. It has Washington up front.
Was he?
Well, the painting shows a lot of the men sitting in the boat. We know that that would be very unlikely. And then when they got onto the other side, they still had to walk a couple of miles, right? They had a nine-mile march after that. A nine-mile march.
Nine miles through the bad weather. They're bringing horses, they're bringing artillery with them. You gotta know where you're going. That's exactly right. Because if you get lost, that element of surprise is going to be completely lost.
A lot of the Hessian troops had actually, they were pretty well warned that an American attack was coming. For the weeks leading up to the crossing, the New Jersey militia had actually launched a series of raids against Trenton. And the commanding officer in Trenton, Colonel Rawl, he had ordered his men to sleep in their uniforms with their guns by their beds because he was expecting at any moment there might be a surprise raid. Washington, he's hoping to surprise them. But basically, the way he's going to surprise him is by using the elements and using that nighttime advance on the city.
And then how did he penetrate the camp? They thought nobody is going to try to do an attack in this kind of weather. And so, you know, the whole time these Americans are fighting the elements. But when they get to the outer periphery of Trenton, it's the weather that's going to conceal their movement. And the other thing is, once you get there, you gotta fight.
And that's what this is for. That's exactly what's going on. Can you give me a sense of what it'd be like to load my musket and take on the Hessians? I would love to. Let's do it.
Yeah, I got a true sense of what it was like to have a gun and how hard it was to be accurate, I should say, musket. That was a really cool event. We come back more of my special on what made America great, focusing on Washington's crossing, the Delaware. America 250, remembering two key moments that helped America win the revolution, continues next. Hi, I'm here to pick up my son Milo.
There's no Milo here. Who picked up my son from school? Streaming only on Peacock. I'm gonna need the name of everyone that could have a connection. You don't understand.
It was just the five of us.
So, this was all planned. What are you gonna do? I will do whatever it takes to get my son back. I honestly didn't see this coming. These nice people.
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Send and receive messages, translate or caption live conversations, collaborate with MetaAI and more. Be one of the first to try Meta Ray-Band display. Visit meta.com slash metarayband display to book a demo and find your pair. This is America 250, remembering two key moments that helped America win the revolution. Yep, welcome back, everyone.
We're telling the story of Washington's Crossing and the remarkable story of the resilient soldiers who might have thought this effort's lost. I have to get back to my farm. We can't beat the British.
Well, they never had been led by somebody better than George Washington who inspired them to greatness. And here's what they went through, and here's what they did. Part two of Washington's Crossing.
So you cross, you're freezing. Wind's in your face. It is snowing. And then you gotta be able to load your musket and you gotta be able to shoot it. Exactly.
It's pretty tough to do, even under ideal conditions.
So I can imagine it would be really difficult for these men who have just braved a snowstorm and now they've gotta fight a pitch battle. All right, so give me some instructions. Maybe I'll try it. All right, well, first I'll show you how. These men were instructed to load.
So, the mechanism that we have here is called a lock. You've got a piece of flint that's going to strike against this metal face to set the gun off.
Okay, and you've got to reach around to this pouch here, cartridge box. Take out a cartridge.
Now, of course, we're not gonna be shooting an actual musket ball today, this is just black powder. But the soldiers would have to tear that open. pour a little bit of gunpowder down here. in the lock for ignition. And by the way, someone could be shooting at you.
The whole time you're doing this, somebody is shooting at you. And you've got to close that mechanism. Turn the gun around. Shake out the powder. push the paper and if there were a musket ball you'd push that down too.
Take out the ramrod. Push everything down. Return that. And now you're ready to fire. The two things.
Ramrod pops out. You're screwed. Yeah. If you lose this, then you're not going to be able to load your weapon. Lose the flint.
Lose the flint, then you've got basically a big club. All right, Brian, here you go.
So you want to pull this nice and tight into your shoulder. And once you get it up to your shoulder, you pull this hammer back until you hear a click. Turn your head because there's definitely gonna be a lot of smoke and flame jumping up here, and then you're ready to fire.
Okay. Mm-hmm. That is a scary sound coming your way.
So, you can imagine being in these really tight, cramped streets in the city of Trenton with hundreds of muskets going off, artillery going off, men shouting orders. This would have been a really, really chaotic scene.
So, how did they survive this cold? They built fires to keep warm. Is that what we got over here? Yep, we've got a small fire here. Wow, incredible.
Tell you what, this feels good. Feels nice to get warm. There's actually, there's a really good account of a soldier. He talked about how the wind was so biting and so cold that he would stand by the fire and he'd feel his front side get warm and he'd feel his backside freezing.
So he would have to keep turning in revolutions just to show you how cold and how bad the weather was.
Sometimes even standing right next to a fire wasn't enough to stay dry and stay warm.
So what's behind me right here?
So this is an example of what we would call a brush shelter. And when we talk about the Thompson Neely property and the soldiers camping up there, this is typical of the sort of shelter that you would see up there. Many of the men arrive without tents or without any other form of shelter.
So when they get to the place where they're going to camp, they're taking down fences, they're ripping boards off the sides of buildings, cutting down whatever trees they can find to put up these shelters. Another amazing part of the story is you have two future presidents. General Washington. and James Monroe. Exactly.
A lot of people don't know about Monroe's involvement. He actually has a really important task during the crossing. He crosses ahead of most of the army and he's leading an advanced party to go and secure the way to Trenton.
So his job is really to according roads off and detain any civilians that he encounters so that they can maintain that element of surprise. And Unro Very nearly loses his life at the Battle of Trenton. He takes a musket ball, sort of around the juncture of his neck and his collarbone. and he's saved by a doctor who joined them on the march a couple miles outside of Trenton. And he volunteered his services.
He was able to stop the bleeding and thus saved his life. We're out of the elements. Where do you have us? We're here in the visitor center with a lot of artifacts, a lot of archives, working in more ways than one to preserve this amazing story. You just had me with a musket.
These are other samples of other muskets, right? Exactly, yep.
So we've got three really nice examples here, and this gives you a nice sort of cross-section of the types of weapons that would have been used in the Revolution because you've got an English musket that would have been utilized, obviously, by British soldiers as well as American soldiers. You know, we talked about how unreliable these muskets can be in bad weather. And some of the men start to tell their officers, I'm not sure my weapon's going to fire, my ammunition's getting wet, and they say, rely on the bayonet. How long was the battle? The battle itself is actually very short.
Five hours, maybe? Not even. They arrive. Washington's plan initially is to arrive at Trenton before daybreak. He wants his troops to be there four or five o'clock in the morning, but the crossing falls behind schedule.
The troops actually arrive in Trenton after daybreak and the sun is up when the fighting begins. But thankfully they're still able to preserve that element of surprise. The battle itself lasts only about 45 minutes. It's really the 26th that it happened. Yep, so we got the crossing on Christmas night, so you can see this map here.
This map is actually really interesting because it is one of the first published accounts of the battle. This was actually drafted by a British officer and published in newspapers over in England.
So here is where we're at, McConkie's Ferry. And the army crosses, they converge on Trenton from a couple different directions.
So they're moving about nine miles south, attack Trenton. And after they secure the victory in Trenton, the Americans decide to pull out. And so they go back up these roads, back that you know, the nine miles backtrack. With 900 prisoners. 900 prisoners.
You know, they had everything that they brought over the night before. Then they had all the captured baggage and an additional 900 men to bring back. And so they came back these nine miles backtracked and got back to Pennsylvania. This is depicting the Battle of Princeton.
So, you know, this is sort of the end of that campaign and really what solidifies the Continental Army's hold on New Jersey. And we talked about that momentum shift. You know, now the British who had been chasing the Americans out of New Jersey, they're going to be the ones who are now on their heels going back to New York City. What's the reaction when people come through? Do you think they understand the magnitude of this moment in American history and how it has everything to do with the country we became?
Without these victories, there would be no army in 1777. You know, these men, many of them, I don't think were really wanting to go to battle. They came to Bucks County and they knew that there were only a couple weeks left on their enlistments. They were hoping to survive and go home to their families. Like so many of their brothers already wouldn't have the chance to.
So if those men, you know, if their enlistments expired and they went home with things looking the way they, you know, they had, not many people were going to step forward in the spring.
So I think even from the beginning, you know, the fact that the men in 1777 showed up. You know, that shows you that the American perspective is starting to shift.
Well, Alex, keep America's story alive, okay? I'll do it. For one student at a time, one visitor at a time. Thanks so much. Thank you.
Appreciate it.
So Alex told me to go to Bowman's Tower if I want to get a true perspective on the battle, the circumstances, the topography.
So that's where I'm at. And it's time for me to go inside, go up, and check it out. Top of Bowman's Tower. Here we are. Over north is where the troops came from.
As you can see, over here, you have the Delaware River. And if you look at the town, you could almost imagine that being a colonial town, spaced out, rural. You know, sitting here on the top of Bowman's Tower and looking out at the battlefield and what Washington must have been thinking and the odds in which he had to overcome. It makes me wonder just where the courage came from, where the strategy came from, and where the resilience came from. It's really emblematic of the American spirit.
What a perfect place to end this story. in front of Emmanuel Leutze's famous painting of George Washington and his men cutting through the ice, crossing the Delaware, en route to winning a battle they simply had to win. It encompasses everything we believe America is. Resilient, resourceful, and a belief that we can accomplish anything we want and anything is indeed possible. I mean, just giving you an idea of the revolution, maybe the colonists didn't know what they were getting into as they wrapped together 13 colonies and fought for their freedom against the world superpower.
But once it started, they weren't going to stop. And it's the story of resilience and ultimately won a victory, which is why we're in the greatest country in the world. Thanks for listening to the special edition of What Made America Great, the Brian Kilmead Radio Show. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here, wishing you a very happy half-off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service.
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