Posted on 07/04/2017 2:32:11 PM PDT by Eagles Field
I always savor the insight Freeper History Buffs offer, especially the spirited difference in opinion. The easy answers are Washington, Jefferson, the like. Who are the ones unsung, where the tide may not have turned without?
Thanks for the full report. I visited Grasse the first year I was in France. There is a museum de Grasse at Antibes and his portrait (small) hangs in the Military Museum at les Invalides.
Aha
The virtue signaling response
Everyone applaud!
Franklin fancied himself a loyalist until fairly late in the process. However his release of private letters from the Mass. Governor (who had disdain for the colonists) in an attempt to engineer a scapegoat for the bitterness the colonists felt towards the crown backfired, sealing his fate in Britain. Called before the King's privy council, he was skewered and humiliated publicly and as he left the room he was said to have whispered to his accuser "I'll make your King a little man for this!".
It gives me chills to imagine the rage in that muttering for it is known fact that from that moment he was a fierce revolutionary. Once he turned his genius level intellect to the problem of independence he became truly indispensable. He was crucial towards securing French support for the war and was one of the most influential forces in crafting the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Peace treaty with Britain. In fact, in sweet irony, when he came to sign the peace treaty with Britain making the US independent he intentionally wore the same suit he'd worn that long past day when he'd been humiliated before the King's privy council council. You just have to love a man with that sort of decisiveness, iron will, and subtlety.
Every couple of years we watch the John Adams miniseries based on McCullough’s book. Just finished part 5 tonight.
Must've been a thing back then.
Also in the mid-'Sixties there was a book "Pirate Queen" about Grace O'Malley, an Irish chieftain who also fought the Elizabethan English.
The fact that I remember it shows that I liked it a lot!
I saw some of it when it was broadcast on PBS, but never the whole thing. We usually watch “1776!” on the 4th, but this year, Tom the Son took it to Boy Scout camp to use in teaching “Citizenship in the Nation” Merit Badge. (He’s director of the Eagle-required badges program.)
We could watch “Gettysburg,” but I’ll probably just fall asleep by 9:00.
Maryland became known as “The Old Line State” in recognition of the Maryland Line. Unfortunately most people think it is because Maryland is the south side of the Mason-Dixon Line.
My oldest daughter, who is in the Coast Guard (sort of an anti-pirate queen) gave her sisters a book about Grace O’Malley for Christmas one year. Pirates never go out of fashion!
The John Adams miniseries is excellent. Plus there are 2 bonus features one on the “making of” and one on David McCullough. My sister sent me the DVD set in 2008 after I had my first knee replacement and was laid up.
Me too, except I don't really remember Texas John Slaughter very well ... did he have some kind of a hat?
My dad liked Elfego Baca. There was a scene where he ran and dove into a buckboard, after being shot at, and my dad exclaimed out loud, "Wow, look at that!" ... or something to that effect. Whatever he said, it impressed me enough to remember these fifty ... nay sixty! ... years later. ... It was a family show!
I know one very helpful warrior was General John DeKalb. He wasn’t even living in the states until the war started. I think he was trained in the French military. Born inAustria.
I agree, but I would put Patrick Henry in the second group of important but not indispensable people. Washington, Franklin and Paine contributed multiple times in different sectors: Franklin with the French and pushing the Declaration; Washington in keeping the army together and crafting a winning strategy; and, Paine writing two books at key parts of the Revolution that even the poorest Americans could afford. In the second tier, I would put Henry, Gen. Daniel Morgan (remarkable victory at Cowpens), Jefferson, John Adams, Nathanael Greene (saved the Southern colonies and the southern army), JP Jones, and John Hancock. Surprisingly, I would also include Benedict Arnold, who when he was on our side, blocked the British Navy on Lake Champlain long enough to save Ft. Ticonderoga and West Point. He was also very effective at Saratoga and in the march to Quebec City.
Maybe I can check it out of the library, if I have some time because of a knee replacement or something. I have trouble finding 20 minutes to watch a show these days.
Hands down: Col. John Glover - Battle of Pell’s Point
One often overlooked military leader who was very effective and prob. saved Washington’s army in New York was Lord Stirling. Like Grant, he was an open drunk; but like Grant he was a very effective general on attack. Stirling didn’t get the accolades after the war since he died at its conclusion.
Have another look at Grant, he was not a drunk. He did have an episode with alcohol, but was not a drunk.
Nathaniel Greene was Washington’s pick to lead the southern army. The Congress, however, chose Gates due to his victory at Saratoga. After the disaster at Camden where Gates was no closer to the battlefield than thirty miles in the arrears, Congress finally listened to Washington and sent Greene south to try to scrape togethher the fragments of the southern army. Grreen has the masterful touch of being able to see each man’s greatest strengths. He chose Henry Lee, an Aristocrat from Virginia, to work with the countryman Francis Marion. It was a great match. He chose Dan Morgan to lead Cornwallis and Tarleton a merry chase while he reorganized and rebuilt the southern army. Morgan’s brilliant strategy at Cowpens decimated Tarleton’s troops and assured a much weakened Cornwallis who was finished off at Yorktown.
Sorry, I meant Pickens, not Pickering.
My grandfather in law some generations removed fought for the colonists at Kings Mountain. My wife and I visited there a year ago, very dense forest, must have been a bloody battle for sure. But freedom demands blood.
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