Posted on 12/24/2011 11:36:14 AM PST by 2banana
235 years ago a today. Christmas Eve.
A rag tag bunch of citizen soldiers/militia were given the order to march.
In a raging snowstorm. To cross a swollen ice choked river.
Most of their enlistments were ending in a few days. They were freezing, tired, hungry, frost-bitten and had lost every battle they had fought in for the last year.
They were about to attack some of the finest and well supplied soldiers on the continent.
Outnumbered.
And yet they marched.
Merry Christmas.
I often think of those American troops marching on Christmas Eve.
I have never had it that hard - not in the worst firefight or the most suck-fest army school that I have been in.
Many of them died on the march. They say the road was red in blood from frost bitten feet. All for some still unknown form of government promising vague freedom.
Something to think about tonight while having your Christmas Eve meal...
Thank you for the post, 2B. Merry Christmas to you, from a fellow old crochety warrior.
My gggggrandfather marched that day and crossed with Washington into Trenton for “the taking of the Hessians”(as he stated in his Rev. War pension app. now in the National Archives).
That was a crucial day for the Colonists, a badly-needed ray of hope for a bedraggled army.
God Bless them all.
To THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS,Camp near Potts Grove,September 23,1777
General George Washington
If anyone hasn’t read it, I highly recommend David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing. EXCELLENT read for the historian and NON historian alike. The footnotes are as fascinating as the text.
This is worth the time if you haven’t seen. Newt Gingrich speaks about Valley Forge. “VICTORY or DEATH”
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=qtjfMjjce2Y
I should have stated that the part of this that is pertinet to this thread at the 7:09 mark and runs to the end of the tape at 9:46. Although this worth watching in it’s entirety.
Thanks, Im gonna spread it around if you don’t mind.
I have always wanted to go to “The Crossing” re-enactment. This year I get my wish.
Merry Christmas
Including a Frenchman whose only “dog-the-fight” was a desire that all men be free of tyranny. And whose grave I visited last Summer with a great sense of respect. http://www.friendsoflafayette.org/about_us.html
No - free for all to use. 2banana
Thanks brotherman, Merry Christmas!
In case someone thinks Washington was not a good commander. He had trouble with large formations, but as tactician he shows himself to be on a par with Stonewall, at least on this day. Salut, general Washington! And merry Xmas,
Too bad he wasn’t the politician that Washington was. France needed someone with at combination of gifts. Instead they found Napoleon.
What a grand legacy of family history you have-—I am so disgusted with the whining of citizens today and the continuous polls that go up and down daily for Presidential contenders and on the worth of the worthless in my White House (who is basking in the sun on the taxpayer dollar), while millions cannot find work to feed their families—yes, many of us stood cold,wet night watches at sea and on land on a Christmas Eve and didn’t think about it (other than we would rather be doing something else)—it was just part of the job we enlisted for-—with the crybabies today I fear we will never win another major fight when it comes-—may God Bless all who ever served and those who will love this country enough to stand and fight for it in the future-—I pray the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ is not the train that will destroy us all (surely will be if the Obanamation is back for 4 more years)-——guess I have had too many years of of voters putting crap into the running of America-—Normandy vet
What a grand legacy of family history you have-—I am so disgusted with the whining of citizens today and the continuous polls that go up and down daily for Presidential contenders and on the worth of the worthless in my White House (who is basking in the sun on the taxpayer dollar), while millions cannot find work to feed their families—yes, many of us stood cold,wet night watches at sea and on land on a Christmas Eve and didn’t think about it (other than we would rather be doing something else)—it was just part of the job we enlisted for-—with the crybabies today I fear we will never win another major fight when it comes-—may God Bless all who ever served and those who will love this country enough to stand and fight for it in the future-—I pray the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ is not the train that will destroy us all (surely will be if the Obanamation is back for 4 more years)-——guess I have had too many years of of voters putting crap into the running of America-—Normandy vet
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