On Oct. 2, 1776, Gen. George Washington roused himself from something close to despair to discipline his troops and plan a renewed campaign against the British.
The Americans might have been facing seemingly insuperable odds, but Washington would stay faithful to the cause of liberty and independence until the end. It’s a lesson we might need to relearn today as we face a national crisis almost as existential as the one Washington faced. Like him, we face both foreign enemies and domestic tyrants. And if we do not learn from our history, we are certainly doomed to fail at fighting our own crisis.
Washington was worried about the lack of professionalism among some of his volunteers, at the position of the enemy “a stone’s throw away,” at the shortness of enlistments, and all the other problems that the commander-in-chief of the American Continental Army found wherever he turned. “You would not believe what the last 12 months has done to me,” Washington wrote Sept. 30, 1776, to his nephew Lund, according to History.com. “In confidence I tell you that I never was in such an unhappy, divided state since I was born.” If he were to give "the bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should put him in my stead with my feelings." He was terrified he could not serve "with reputation," though he promised that if "the men will stand by me... I am resolved not to be forced from this ground while I have life."
By October 2, Washington had rallied his customary determination and hope tempered by common sense. He issued his general orders appointing a new aide-de-camp to Gen. Heath, mandating a widespread reading of "the new Rules for the Government of the Army," and establishing strict rules about ammunition allotment. Washington wrote like a man full of plans for the future and determined to bring his army into shape for the campaign ahead. Ultimately, the Continental Army would lose the battle for New York. But Washington and his men would make a spectacular comeback with the Trenton-Princeton campaign beginning Christmas night of 1776.
Sometimes we are apt to forget that the war to establish America was not an inevitably successful project. We rightly see 1776 as a glorious year, but the Continental Congress's members who signed the Declaration of Independence believed they were signing their death warrant, and Washington and his men seemed beset by disasters. Many times throughout 1776, the Continental Army and its commander-in-chief were afraid they could not possibly win a decisive victory against the powerful British Empire. Yet despite all that, the Patriots stayed true to the cause, and eventually God rewarded them with the Trenton-Princeton campaign that staggered the British and proved a turning point of the Revolution.
Related: America 250: Washington’s Army and Allies Begin Decisive Siege of Yorktown
As we face a cultural and political crisis, sometimes we are tempted by despair. The leftists, commies, and malign foreign actors have wrecked our education system, taken over our judiciary system, bought off our politicians, terrorized conservatives, promoted both foreign and domestic terrorism, glorified sexual perversion, corrupted our elections, poisoned the entertainment industry, shipped our manufacturing overseas, and captured our media. But God and Patriots have saved America from existential crises before.
Washington and his troops survived and conquered their crisis because they were "resolved not to be forced from this ground while" they had life. No matter how many times they suffered defeat or catastrophe, they came back to fight another day. That is what is necessary to save America 250 years later.
