The Glorious Cause - The Times That Try Men’s Souls

American Political History · May 26, 2025 · 24m

By December of 1776, the American Revolution was all but over. George Washington’s army had been chased the length of New Jersey and now huddled, a few thousand ragged and freezing men, on the far bank of the Delaware — and at month’s end their enlistments would expire and the army would simply dissolve. The Congress had fled Philadelphia. New Jersey was signing the King’s loyalty oath by the thousands. The army’s ablest general had been captured in his dressing gown. Washington confided to his brother that “the game is pretty near up.”

This is the story of the darkest hour of the Revolution…