The commanders at Cowpens and Kings Mountain who liberated the South from British control.
Benjamin Franklin
He was essential via his diplomacy with France to have them supporting us with arms and sea power. He was also one of the intellects behind the revolution and the writing of Constitution.
He also had a great penchant for the ladies of The French Court. Apparently he was very popular at the court.
Not a specific person, but the Riflemen under command of Daniel Morgan.
Crispus Attucks
Mordecai Gist and Hyam Salomon to name just two. Most people have never heard of them.
Two different questions there. Washington was clearly the most indispensable. In answer to your second question, Thomas Paine. His first tract really convinced people we needed a revolution, and his second gave the army the spirit to keep going at the most desperate time.
One was General Francis (The Swamp Fox) Marion, who led the SC militia and on whom the movie The Patriot is very loosely based.
Saratoga got the French off the fence and ready to fully back us. It gave credibility to the American fighting man.
It's unfortunate that we couldn't hang onto Arnold. His obsession with money did him in.
Imo, and I’m not a deep studier of that war so I’m probably dead wrong but...
The unnamed on the patriot side that fought in that bloody and savage civil war within the revolutionary war in the backwoods of the southern colonies.
If the loyalist side had come out on top in that, the patriots would have been surrounded by Canadian types, north AND south.
I know my answer is an easy out, but I’d say it was the farmer who put down his plow, picked up his rifle and fought for an idea.
Can one just imagine the current population of America today ratifying and adopting that miraculous document known as The Constitution of the United States of America?
As John Adams noted, that Constitution was made for a "moral and virtuous people"--a people whose inner impulses motivated them toward ordered liberty and respect for the uncensored views of others.
All of them!
General Nathanael Greene and Brigadier General Daniel Morgan!!! Guilford Court House and The Cow Pens!!!
God.
I don’t think any ‘unsung heroes’ are left to find after all these years!
Of course Virginia’s own George Washington was ‘The Indispensable Man’.
a more interesting question is who were the most indispensable heroes of the post-revolution. after the uniting influence of the enemy was gone, people’s true colors came out.
not counting washington, of course.
According to the History Channel, it must have been General Pickett
Brian Williams. They parachuted him behind British lines at Yorktown.
Dan Morgan