Here is an interesting article on why it is important to remember one of the greatest Americans who ever lived.
Why Honor George Washington?
by George F. Smith, Columnist
March 26, 2002
Earlier this year, Marty Markowitz, the newly-elected president of the borough of Brooklyn, announced his intention to remove a portrait of George Washington from his office and replace it with a picture of a black or a woman. The "old white man" had to go, he claimed. This was 2002, and he wanted Borough Hall to "reflect the richness of our diversity." [1]
Markowitz isn't alone in his viewpoint. A few years ago in New Orleans, where over 90% of the public school population is black, a local school board voted unanimously to change its name from George Washington Elementary to Dr. Charles Richard Drew Elementary. Washington, like other founders who happened to own slaves, did not "respect equal opportunity for all," so the board decided to name their school after a pioneering black surgeon, rather than the country's founder. {2]
Carl Galmon, who has been pushing to get schools in New Orleans to change their names, and whose activities are part of a movement spreading throughout the South, thinks no black would want their kids to pay respect to anyone who enslaved their ancestors. "To African-Americans," he says, "George Washington has about as much meaning as David Duke." [3]
History offers grounds for believing otherwise. Before our colonies emerged as a nation and such issues as equal opportunity could be openly discussed, there was a little business to take care of; namely, prying ourselves loose from Britain's grip.
Congress asked Washington to handle this assignment. As commander-in-chief of the Continental army, his job was to lead a collection of fired-up farmers in battle and defeat the most powerful military force on earth. As might be expected, his campaign got off to a bad start.
A disaster out of the gates
In the summer of 1776, he brought his men from Boston to New York City, to defend it against the British military buildup under command of General William Howe, who was aided by Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis. After making a few mock gestures at peace [4], the British attacked the rebels on Long Island, easily outclassing them. American casualties were heavy, confusion was rampant, and militia especially were abandoning the ranks in large numbers.
Ironically, the war for independence nearly ended in Brooklyn, within walking distance of Markowitz's present-day office, when the British trapped Washington against the East River. Howe held his troops back while waiting for his navy to secure the river and prevent the Americans from escaping. But foul weather delayed the ships, and on a morning thick with fog, Washington took his troops quietly across the water into Manhattan, where they headed north.
Washington continued his retreat through New Jersey, with the British giving chase and some of his countrymen hurling ridicule. By early December the American forces had fled to the Delaware River, crossing into Pennsylvania near Newtown. With winter setting in, the British decided to quarter in various towns and outposts on the Jersey side of the Delaware.
To General Howe and Lord Cornwallis, the conflict had been more of a hunt than a war. They would soon bag their quarry, but they were in no hurry. By European custom, war ceased during winter months, and Howe personally had better things to do than chase upstart farmers. He returned to New York to carry on an affair with Elizabeth Loring, the wife of his commissary of prisoners. [5] In his absence, Howe's troops, acting against his stated orders, embarked on a terror campaign against New Jersey residents.
The situation was grim for the American cause. As Washington's army was driven from New York, great numbers of Americans were accepting Howe's offer of a pardon. Washington's troops were decimated by disease and desertion. The ones remaining were tattered and poorly fed. He pleaded to Congress for clothing, saying that some were "entirely naked and most so thinly clad as to be unfit for service." [6] Other than some militia from Philadelphia, his appeals for troops yielded nothing.
By December 20th, Washington estimated his force at 7,600, about half that of the British. But enlistments would end on December 31st for most of his men, leaving him with no more than 1,400 troops. The British knew about the expirations and had little doubt the Americans would close camp and go home.
Quitting was not an option
The General must have thought often of his comfortable estate at Mount Vernon. He could've been home with his family, rather than fighting an invincible foe for an unsupportive country. And he was enduring these hardships without pay. But he came up with one last plan. He would attack the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton on the morning after Christmas, hoping to catch them sleeping from the previous night's revelry. A victory would recharge the troops and the American people, and would help him raise the army he needed.
Around 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Day, a force of 2,400 men began crossing the Delaware at McKonkey's Ferry, north of Trenton. One of Washington's aides recorded in his journal: "It is fearfully cold and raw and a snowstorm is setting in. The wind is northeast and beats in the faces of the men. It will be a terrible night for the soldiers who have no shoes. Some of them have tied old rags around their feet; others are barefoot, but I have not heard a man complain." [7]
By 3:00 a.m. the troops were on the Jersey side and the artillery was now on its way over. Washington stood on the bank, wrapped in a cloak, superintending the landings. An hour later they began their eight-mile hike to Trenton in two columns by different routes, while sleet pelted them.
The hung-over Hessians surrendered after a short skirmish. Washington took his troops back to Pennsylvania, let them recover, then crossed over to Trenton again on the night of December 30th, intending to attack the British at Princeton. The following day, when enlistments were up, he rode before his troops on horseback, pleading with them to stay a month longer. He commended their bravery and told them "the present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny." [8]
He persuaded some of his men to stay on and promised them a bonus of $10 in gold coin for volunteering.
Meanwhile, the victory over the Hessians had panicked the British. Cornwallis had hastily gathered his men from across New Jersey and brought them to Trenton to confront Washington. Believing he had the Americans trapped, Cornwallis held off attacking while his exhausted troops recovered. As night fell on January 2, 1777, the two armies faced each other, separated only by a small creek.
The fox with a lion's heart
Washington had no desire to challenge Cornwallis's superior numbers. Leaving campfires burning to deceive the enemy, he slipped away and headed for his target. At daybreak, as he reached the outskirts of Princeton, British reinforcements surprised him as they were leaving for Trenton. The Americans fought well at first, but began to scatter when more redcoats arrived.
Washington knew that running away would be the end of the United States. In one of the most decisive moments in American history, he drove his horse into the fray, between the advancing enemy and his retreating troops, hollering at his men to come back. Moved by his bravery, they returned and drove the British back into town, where for the next hour some of the most savage fighting in the war took place, with Washington right in the thick of it. It ended in a rout for the Americans.
A young American officer wrote to his wife: "I shall never forget what I felt in Princeton on [Washington's] account, when I saw him brave all the dangers of the field and his important life hanging as it were by a single hair with a thousand deaths flying around him. Believe me, I thought not of myself." [9]
Whenever I'm having a rough day, I think of Washington and his men marching to Trenton on a brutal winter's night, barefoot and ragged, in a desperate attempt at victory. I think of Washington becoming a sitting duck as he called his troops back at Princeton. Then I remember why he did it, and that later, after the war, people wanted him to be king instead of our first president. "I did not fight George III," he told them, "to become George I."
We should honor anyone who has made our lives better, but even the shortest list of benefactors should have Washington at the head. While he didn't secure freedom for all men, he secured the foundations of a system in which all men could be free. ***
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Losing our History, Rod Dreher
2. Blacks Strip Slaveholders' Names Off Schools, Kevin Sack
3. Blacks, Kevin Sack.
4. Scheer, George F. and Rankin, Hugh F., "Rebels & Redcoats: The American Revolution Through the Eyes of Those Who Fought and Lived It," Da Capo Press, 1957, pp. 156-157
5. "Rebels & Redcoats," p. 208, 225
6. "Rebels & Redcoats," p. 209
7. "Rebels & Redcoats," p. 212
8. "Rebels & Redcoats," p. 216
9. "Rebels & Redcoats," p. 219
© 2002 George F. Smith
Photo of Columnist George F. Smith courtesy of the author
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