A Christmas Night Story 246 Years in the Making

Topic: Perspective

In the aftermath of yesterday’s upsetting, but not unexpected, courtroom fiasco, patriotic Americans may understandably find themselves somewhat deflated.  After two years of exposing election fraud, with seemingly our best chance for relief at hand, we took yet another low blow from a corrupted and unyielding judiciary that is either so controlled they have no choice but to cover for the lawless, or so cowardly they refuse to honor their oaths to rule justly in order to placate emotional infants on the left so they don’t burn our cities down in fits of anger.

We are rapidly running out of linear solutions, just like the early founders did.  That is why they listed out their “grievances” in meticulous fashion in the Declaration of Independence, to demonstrate for posterity that they did indeed take every measure available for the redress of said grievances, before severing political ties in the manner they chose.  Many Americans are unaware that at the time of Washington’s crossing, we were not in the “driver’s seat.”  We were getting clobbered up and down the eastern seaboard and at the brink of collapse.  We needed a hero, and we needed that hero to come through in a big way.

I decided to write this article in response to that gut punch and to remind us that we have indeed been counted out before.  Just today, I read a post on LinkedIn, a platform I visit infrequently and update even less.  It was written by Matt Phillips, the son of a World War II veteran, who owns a coffee company catering specifically to the military.  It is well worth the read in its entirety:

By Christmas Eve of 1776, the American Revolution was, in essence, over. The Americans had lost. George Washington was out of options. His army, down to only a few thousand had lost seven battles in a row and was freezing on the west bank of the Delaware River awaiting the end.

The British, on the other hand had 33,000 soldiers, well over a hundred ships and were partying in New York City and preparing for the final surrender. Most of the American troops had resolve, but they had lost hope that England could ever be defeated. Half of Washington’s army – 1,500 men, were quitting that week and going home because their enlistments were up. Washington decided on one last offensive.

He gathered the same fishermen who had helped him retreat in August from New York ad had his beleaguered troops ferried across the half frozen Delaware at midnight on Christmas Eve. Just before they boarded the boats, the General prayed, and had the American Crisis, the challenge by Thomas Payne, read to his men:

“These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain is too cheap, we esteem too lightly: ‘Tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to set a proper price upon its goods and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article s freedom should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has right {not only to tax} to bind us in all cases whatsoever’ and if being bound in that manner is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon the earth. Even the expression of impious, for so unlimited power can belong only to God.”

Washington landed near Trenton in a blinding snow and hailstorm that served as a cover for his crossing and approach. Christmas morning, his men quickly surprised a detachment of 1,200 Hessians. Colonel Rhal and his men had been partying and drinking with a pompous, false sense of security late into the night. When Washington attacked in early morning almost all were captured and Rhal was mortally wounded. That day, Washington re-crossed the river with over 1,000 prisoners, and only five casualties of his own. As was his custom, he did not mistreat his prisoners.

Thus were, by the grace of God (and a great General and leader) the fortunes of war turned in favor of the Patriot cause...

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The Battle of Long Island, Aug. 1776

The hand of God was evident in those early days.  Washington’s Continental Army was nearly destroyed at Long Island on August 27, 1776, with British General Howe seeking to separate New York and New England from the colonies further south.  A small group of Marylanders held off the British long enough to allow a retreat to commence.  1776 History’s webpage records:

Rather than press their advantage, British General William Howe ordered his men to stop the attack and dig trenches around the Continental Army.  He expected the Americans to surrender.  He also expected British ships to sail around and cut off the Americans from their only line of retreat across the river to Manhattan.  But the ships never came.  Why?  Because there was not enough wind to get them there.

This gave George Washington the night to secretly get 9,000 men to safety and keep his army intact.  He ordered every available boat to be taken and used to get his army across the East River.  Working through rain and darkness, the oarsmen in the boats crossed the river multiple times to deliver soldiers across to the other side.  The only problem was that as the sun rose there was still a large part of the Continental Army left in Brooklyn.  These men likely would have been killed or captured if they did not cross the river, losses the Americans could not afford.

However, a final fortune smiled down on the Americans from Above.  A heavy fog settled over the area and the rest of the Continental Army was able to conceal their movements from the British.  As the fog lifted, the British were left in bewilderment as they realized the Continental Army was gone.

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The British took Long Island but were unable to extinguish Washington’s force completely.  Washington’s men persevered, even though they lost key battles in New York well into October.  Then what happened?  The enemy grew overly confident and assumed they would win because they thought they were the superior fighting force.  Washington’s men were being attritted as casualties of war, or by means of desertion or the men simply walking off for lack of pay.

The British at higher headquarters were throwing parties and drinking away the colder months that were less amenable to military operations, expecting Washington, a hero of the French and Indian War, to roll over and die.  The forces at the Trenton garrison, Hessian mercenaries, were passively boozing it up on Christmas night, content to collect fat paychecks to serve as extra muscle for the British.  To put it mildly, our enemies were laughing right in our faces, just like a Philistine giant laughed at a small shepherd boy a thousand years before the reason for the season came to this world as a baby.

Today, our elections are ripped away from us in broad daylight.  Foreign leaders are paraded through ourCongress as our elected and selected “leaders” fork over our treasure to throw at the rest of the world’s problems, wars, pandemics, and crises.  Courts are politicized and afraid to offend one side of the ideological spectrum.  Children are taught to hate America and the very foundation of what makes us us.  The vise has tightened so much, with political prisoners held without due process and so many fearing persecution at the hands of our own government, that the brazenness of the media and government apparatus must stem from a mistaken perception of imminent victory.

It is clear to me that Washington did not prevail over the British because he had the manpower, the funding, control of key terrain and infrastructure, or the supplies, ammunition, and sustenance – because he was at a disadvantage in practically every category save for the fact that his enemy was a long way from home, with the prolonged conflict eventually losing support in England as their own domestic problems and tax burdens increased.

Washington had the help of God, and what God called him to do was persevere.  Washington never forgot the value of perseverance, writing, “perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.”

While the victory on Christmas Night 1776 hardened the resolve of the Continental Army and gave them the belief they could win tactically, it didn’t come easy.  In fact, the British won two-thirds of battles in 1777, leading up to Washington quartering his Army at Valley Forge in the brutal winter of 1777-78.  His men came out of Valley Forge only to lose four out of every five battles in 1778, but by the next year, the British had worn down, and the Continentals improved, to the point that the battles were split fifty-fifty.

When patriots defended North Carolina successfully in 1780, it was the beginning of the end for the ”road team,” who surrendered Yorktown under General Cornwallis on October 19, 1781, and fired the last shot on American soil the next year.  On September 3, 1783, the British recognized our independence at long last, more than seven years after we declared it, and nearly as long since Washington’s heroic advance across the Delaware.

We find ourselves as the Continental Army found itself 246 years ago this evening.  We live in a world that grows smaller by the day, with incredible power to connect with anyone in the world, but with true personal connection being rare.  We are losing, and it isn’t for lack of resolve, at least not in the front echelons of the patriot movement.  Many of our people are still far too comfortable, with plenty of access to streaming, football, piano recitals, and a restaurant on every street corner.

They will be made to care.  Your job is to focus on your lane, your mission, and leave the results up to God.  Notice I did not say to pray about it and do nothing.  You need to be engaged, you need to be vocal, and you need to drag more like-minded people into the scrum with you.  If you claim you have faith God sees the events of man, and cares about them, then we can act like it, too.

God is the General.  You need only to capture your objective and let him move the pieces as he judges best.  Our nation is the freest nation in the history of mankind because our founders believed that we were made in God’s image (an undying Spirit), and because we were made in His image, we have dignity, and are thus worthy of rights bestowed not from man, but from God.  They enshrined these rights in our founding documents.

Today is the day we celebrate the day when God became flesh and came to dwell with man, and the day we remember the heroic accomplishment of our freedom loving ancestors to believe that God had our back, and that action was required to demonstrate faith and unleash his blessings.

In doing the same, we will eventually overcome the darkness in our world, too.  We have been here before.  When the next Delaware Crossing comes to pass, metaphorically speaking, you will already need to have your heart and mind set on “go,” or you’ll be late to the party.

Merry Christmas.