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Transcript

Episode 31: A Soldier’s Tale · Missing Pages

0:06
SPEAKER_02: Where are these Missing Pages, this map?
0:08
SPEAKER_02: We must have these pages back.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: This one's got pages missing.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: Why are the pages missing?
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Like a book with Missing Pages.
0:22
[music]
0:31
SPEAKER_01: Throughout much of the Revolutionary War,
0:34
SPEAKER_01: the British sought to cut the American continent in half to prevent coordination
0:39
SPEAKER_01: between the northern and southern colonies.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: This had failed at Saratoga in 1777.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: However, in the summer of 1779,
0:50
SPEAKER_01: General Clinton was able to take the forts of Stony Point and Kings Ferry,
0:54
SPEAKER_01: which bracketed a key crossing point along the Hudson River.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: In doing so, he was able to cut supply lines to Washington's many garrisons upriver.
1:05
SPEAKER_01: After this capture, Clinton took to burning the countryside to lure Washington
1:10
SPEAKER_01: into open battle, something he could ill afford to attempt at this point.
1:16
SPEAKER_01: But Washington had something else up his sleeve.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: He tasked Brigadier General Anthony Wayne
1:23
SPEAKER_01: with marching 1,300 men to retake Stony Point itself.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: By the beginning of July, intelligence pointed to an opening.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: The garrison that was left there was weak,
1:34
SPEAKER_01: with just 564 troops after Clinton took many of the other ones to start raising
1:41
SPEAKER_01: the countryside.
1:43
SPEAKER_01: But this did not make the assault any easier.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: This fort, nicknamed Little Gibraltar,
1:49
SPEAKER_01: sat atop a cliff edged 150 feet above the water, which surrounded three sides.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: The land to the west had been cleared a half mile out
1:58
SPEAKER_01: and two wooden walls had been constructed to prevent you from even getting
2:01
SPEAKER_01: to the fort itself.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: But General Wayne was on a mission.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: With plans set, he marched south on July 15th to prepare for an overnight assault.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: As the sun set, the army sat just a mile to the west, and Wayne gave his instructions.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: Two columns on the left and right would enter with just their bayonets led
2:23
SPEAKER_01: by twenty volunteers, a so-called forlorn hope,
2:27
SPEAKER_01: wielding axes to break through the first sets of walls.
2:31
SPEAKER_01: A middle column with muskets would act as a diversion.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: As midnight approached, the two flanks waded through the rising tide to reach the outer walls.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: The British guns killed or wounded much of the left forlorn hope,
2:45
SPEAKER_01: but the broken walls allowed for the rest of the men to rush
2:47
SPEAKER_01: through towards the main walls.
2:50
SPEAKER_01: On the right, Wayne waded through the rising river and led his army around
2:55
SPEAKER_01: the outer wall, avoiding much fire from the fort,
2:58
SPEAKER_01: though Wayne was grazed on the scalp and continued to lead
3:01
SPEAKER_01: with blood running down his face.
3:04
SPEAKER_01: Both columns collapsed in on the fort, climbed over the walls,
3:06
SPEAKER_01: and overwhelmed the garrison with their bayonets.
3:10
SPEAKER_01: In less than an hour, 63 British were killed, 70 were wounded,
3:14
SPEAKER_01: and 543 were captured, with less than 100 casualties total on the American side.
3:22
SPEAKER_01: This victory was a shock to the British and a delight to Washington.
3:26
SPEAKER_01: Just two years prior, the American army had continuously failed to take on and beat
3:31
SPEAKER_01: the British, even with superior numbers.
3:34
SPEAKER_01: But now, after the training led by a brash German at Valley Forge,
3:38
SPEAKER_01: this army seemed like it could take on anyone,
3:41
SPEAKER_01: even the most well-regarded armies of Europe.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: One thing that I struggle
3:50
SPEAKER_01: with when discussing history broadly is that I tend
3:56
SPEAKER_01: to slide into some great man history.
4:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't subscribe to this or really any other single model of history as I am not
4:06
SPEAKER_01: a historian, nor do I really like to simplify anything that I research.
4:12
SPEAKER_01: Especially that which condenses millions and billions of human interactions
4:17
SPEAKER_01: that make up all of history into a single framework.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: However, since this podcast is meant to act largely as a survey of American history,
4:28
SPEAKER_01: while also determining whether or not my own history education was up to snuff,
4:34
SPEAKER_01: these
4:37
SPEAKER_01: This is especially true in a period like the Revolution,
4:40
SPEAKER_01: where not only do the big names deserve a lot of oxygen,
4:44
SPEAKER_01: there is an exceedingly large number of very important people to discuss.
4:49
SPEAKER_01: You have those superstars like Washington or Jefferson, or King George or Lafayette,
4:56
SPEAKER_01: some of the lesser known, though maybe not anymore,
4:58
SPEAKER_01: names like Hamilton and John Lawrence and perhaps Lord North or the Earl of Chatham,
5:06
SPEAKER_01: William Pitt.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: All of these people are very important and because of their status in society had
5:11
SPEAKER_01: an outsized impact on the events that we are discussing in this season.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: So what tends to happen is the people who made a lesser impact,
5:21
SPEAKER_01: even those among the largest, as well as the many of thousands,
5:26
SPEAKER_01: tens of thousands of soldiers and random people on the street,
5:30
SPEAKER_01: they all get overlooked.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: Now, during the Revolution, too,
5:34
SPEAKER_01: while the colonial population was more well-read than many countries in Europe,
5:39
SPEAKER_01: this still meant that only about two-thirds of people, mostly men, could read,
5:43
SPEAKER_01: and even fewer could write, as literacy really only meant you could read
5:46
SPEAKER_01: the Bible entirely.
5:47
SPEAKER_01: And sign your name.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: There was no standardized education at that time, so this was the best they could do.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: So this left mainly only those who had been educated for years left to write
5:59
SPEAKER_01: about the experience of the revolution.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: So the random citizens of Charlestown or the farmer in the hills
6:06
SPEAKER_01: of Pennsylvania was not likely to leave behind many letters or treatises
6:11
SPEAKER_01: and likely barely registered in history at all beyond perhaps employment records
6:15
SPEAKER_01: or tax documents.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: Now what I'm saying is getting the voice of anyone not in the thick of the action
6:21
SPEAKER_01: among the elites 250 years ago is difficult.
6:25
SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't mean that it does not exist at all
6:27
SPEAKER_01: and that there are absolutely zero records to find.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: So what's important then is to find these exceptions to the rule.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: These normal people who were able to make an impact wherever they could.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: To ensure that a more full picture of what was going on at the time is shown.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: So to do so, I'll be following the story of one soldier from his enlistment
6:50
SPEAKER_01: through a portion of the war to get a sense of what it was like
6:54
SPEAKER_01: for the singular soldiers before transitioning back to one of those great men
7:00
SPEAKER_01: that we all know and love.
7:02
SPEAKER_01: Now this soldier, Joseph Plumbarton himself,
7:05
SPEAKER_01: knew the trouble with history when he wrote in the preface of his famous work called
7:10
SPEAKER_01: The Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers,
7:13
SPEAKER_01: and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier that, quote,
7:18
SPEAKER_01: Alexander could never have conquered the world without private soldiers, end quote.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: Now this would be where I discuss the notes that I took in high school
7:28
SPEAKER_01: and figure out what is missing from them,
7:30
SPEAKER_01: but there are no notes to read off for this episode.
7:35
SPEAKER_01: Both Joseph Plum Martin and the other main character of this episode,
7:39
SPEAKER_01: Baron de Steuben, are not mentioned.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: So grab your musket, as we've been doing many times in this season,
7:49
SPEAKER_01: and let's fill in those Missing Pages.
7:52
[music]
8:03
SPEAKER_01: Joseph Plum Martin was born on November 21, 1760, in western Massachusetts.
8:10
SPEAKER_01: He was the son of the Yale-educated minister of the small frontier town of Beckett,
8:15
SPEAKER_01: Massachusetts, Ebenezer Martin.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: Martin's father was not a prudent man,
8:21
SPEAKER_01: and he often found himself under the weight of debts and in the crosshairs
8:25
SPEAKER_01: of his congregants.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: In these tumultuous early years of his life,
8:29
SPEAKER_01: Martin often lived with his grandparents where he received a modest education.
8:35
SPEAKER_01: It was also during this time that the colonial world, especially in Massachusetts,
8:40
SPEAKER_01: was dealing with crisis after crisis.
8:44
SPEAKER_01: And when Martin was 15 years old and the first shots rang out at Lexington
8:50
SPEAKER_01: and Concord, Martin was prepared to take up arms against the king.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: For the rest of the year, he tried to scheme up ways to become a soldier,
9:00
SPEAKER_01: but was eventually convinced back to his grandfather's farm.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: Now, throughout the winter into 1776,
9:07
SPEAKER_01: Martin heard continuous rumors about the army and the cause
9:10
SPEAKER_01: against their mother country,
9:13
SPEAKER_01: and he remained eager to join as enlistment started in late spring.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: With the British army leaving, To prepare for an assault on New York,
9:22
SPEAKER_01: any and all recruits were wanted.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: Martin made sure that he was one of them, even without his grandfather's permission.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: He tells the story of his secret enlistment, quote,
9:33
SPEAKER_01: When I arrived at the place of rendezvous,
9:35
SPEAKER_01: I found a number of young men of my acquaintance there.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: So seating myself at the table, enlisting orders were immediately presented to me.
9:42
SPEAKER_01: I took up the pen, loaded it with the fatal charge,
9:45
SPEAKER_01: made several mimic imitations of writing my name,
9:48
SPEAKER_01: but took especial care not to touch the paper with the pen until an unlucky white
9:52
SPEAKER_01: who was leaning over my shoulder gave my hand a stroke,
9:55
SPEAKER_01: which caused the pen to make the woeful scratch on the paper.
9:59
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
10:01
SPEAKER_01: Returning to his grandfather's farm, he found that the man was not pleased,
10:06
SPEAKER_01: but the decision had been made,
10:08
SPEAKER_01: so he helped outfit Martin for the campaign in New York.
10:13
SPEAKER_01: Now Martin would spend the next two months in New York preparing
10:15
SPEAKER_01: for the expected assault from the British,
10:17
SPEAKER_01: which would eventually come at Long Island on August 22nd.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: During the battle, Martin watched with his regiment as the British
10:26
SPEAKER_01: and American lines converged, and as he marched around the battlefield,
10:30
SPEAKER_01: he witnessed the defense in the rising river on the right of the American line.
10:35
SPEAKER_01: Quote, By the time we arrived, the enemy had driven our men into the creek,
10:39
SPEAKER_01: or rather Millpond, the tide being up.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: Where such as could swim got across.
10:44
SPEAKER_01: Those that could not swim, and could not procure anything to buoy them up, sank.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: The British, having several field pieces stationed by a brick house,
10:52
SPEAKER_01: were pouring the canister and grape upon the Americans like a shower of hail.
10:56
SPEAKER_01: They would doubtless have done them much more damage than they did,
10:59
SPEAKER_01: but for the 12-pounder mentioned above,
11:01
SPEAKER_01: that is an American gun firing back at the British.
11:04
SPEAKER_01: Back to Martin.
11:05
SPEAKER_01: The men, having gotten it within sufficient distance to reach them,
11:08
SPEAKER_01: and opening a fire upon them, soon obliged them to shift their quarters.
11:12
SPEAKER_01: There was in this action a regiment of Maryland troops, all young gentlemen.
11:17
SPEAKER_01: When they came out of the water and mud to us, looking like water rats,
11:21
SPEAKER_01: it was a truly pitiful sight.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: Many of them were killed in the pond, and more were drowned.
11:28
SPEAKER_01: After the battle was over, Martin joined the rest of his army and ferried
11:32
SPEAKER_01: across the East River in the middle of the night to escape the British.
11:36
SPEAKER_01: On the island of Manhattan, Martin's regiment was tasked with guarding the river
11:40
SPEAKER_01: from further British movement.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: On September It
11:43
SPEAKER_01: was
11:52
SPEAKER_01: quite a dark night, and at daybreak the first thing that, quote,
11:55
SPEAKER_01: saluted our eyes, end quote, was all the four ships at anchor,
11:59
SPEAKER_01: with springs upon their cables and within musket shot of us.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: The phoenix lying a little quartering in her stern toward me,
12:06
SPEAKER_01: I could read her name as distinctly as though I had been directly under her stern.
12:10
SPEAKER_01: What is the meaning of all this, thought I?
12:12
SPEAKER_01: What is coming forward now?
12:14
SPEAKER_01: They appeared to be very busy on shipboard,
12:16
SPEAKER_01: but we lay still and showed our good breeding by not interfering with them,
12:20
SPEAKER_01: as they were strangers, and we knew not, but they were bashful with all.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: As soon as it was fairly light,
12:26
SPEAKER_01: we saw their boats coming out of a creek or cove on the Long Island side
12:29
SPEAKER_01: of the water, filled with British soldiers.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: When they came to the edge of the tide, they formed their boats in a line.
12:36
SPEAKER_01: They continued to augment their forces from the island until they appeared like
12:40
SPEAKER_01: a large clover field in full bloom." Martin's regiment tried to stand
12:45
SPEAKER_01: against the invading Redcoats and Hessians,
12:47
SPEAKER_01: but the size of this invading force as well as the continuous firing
12:51
SPEAKER_01: of some 70 artillery pieces bombarding the coast with grapes shot
12:55
SPEAKER_01: from the ships ensured the defenders were quickly overwhelmed and forced to retreat.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: This was no organized retreat.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: These were still poorly trained militiamen, so as they ran away,
13:07
SPEAKER_01: any further encounter with the enemy, no matter how small,
13:10
SPEAKER_01: would reignite the fear and uncertainty among the soldiers.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: Martin described the ground being filled with military equipment dropped or thrown.
13:21
SPEAKER_01: These militias moved slowly north towards Washington's army at Harlem Heights.
13:26
SPEAKER_01: With the British forces coming from the east,
13:28
SPEAKER_01: the Patriots were then continuously driven westward as they tried to flee.
13:32
SPEAKER_01: Luckily for them, General Howe was slow in advancing his own troops,
13:36
SPEAKER_01: so much of the American army was able to regroup
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Martin wasn't able to rest long, though, as on the next day, the 16th,
13:45
SPEAKER_01: the British and the Americans were reengaged in battle.
13:48
SPEAKER_01: Remembering back to the Battle of Harlem Heights,
13:51
SPEAKER_01: this battle began with a small skirmish between two scouting regiments
13:54
SPEAKER_01: and eventually grew into a full-scale battle as reinforcements, including Martin,
14:00
SPEAKER_01: were pulled in until there were thousands on each side.
14:03
SPEAKER_01: The Americans were successful in their defense, though, and were able to regroup.
14:07
SPEAKER_01: As the British attempted to outflank the Americans by landing to the east,
14:11
SPEAKER_01: the Americans retreated north to the White Plains,
14:14
SPEAKER_01: where they entrenched atop a hill and waited for the advancing British and Germans.
14:21
SPEAKER_01: Martin describes the approach of the enemy, quote,
14:23
SPEAKER_01: They however soon made their appearance in our neighborhood.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: There was in our front about 10 rods which is about 150 feet distant an orchard
14:32
SPEAKER_01: of apple trees.
14:33
SPEAKER_01: The ground on which the orchard stood was lower than the ground that we occupied
14:37
SPEAKER_01: but was level from our post to the verge of the orchard when it fell off so abruptly
14:42
SPEAKER_01: that we could not see the lower parts of the trees.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: A party of Hessian troops and some English soon took possession of this ground.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: They would advance so far as just to show themselves above the rising ground,
14:53
SPEAKER_01: fire and fall back, and reload their muskets.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: Our chance upon them was as soon as they showed themselves above the level ground,
15:00
SPEAKER_01: or when they fired, to aim at the flashes of their guns.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: Their position was as advantageous to them as a breastwork.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: We were engaged in this manner for some time, when,
15:10
SPEAKER_01: finding ourselves flanked and in danger of being surrounded,
15:12
SPEAKER_01: we are compelled to make a hasty retreat from the stone wall." End quote.
15:18
SPEAKER_01: After this battle, the British set their sights on Fort Washington and Martin was
15:21
SPEAKER_01: among those who marched north, not south, to regroup.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: So he was not in Washington's army that fled from the British through New Jersey,
15:29
SPEAKER_01: and on December 25th, as Washington was preparing for his daring crossing
15:33
SPEAKER_01: of the Delaware River, Martin was discharged and returned home to his grandfather.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: Martin was only home for a few months before the recruitment calls came again,
15:43
SPEAKER_01: but instead of a single year, this time he was enlisted for three,
15:47
SPEAKER_01: or until the war was over, whichever came first.
15:50
SPEAKER_01: Upon joining, he was inoculated with smallpox with the rest of his regiment
15:54
SPEAKER_01: and spent the rest of the summer marching through Connecticut and New York
15:58
SPEAKER_01: before rejoining Washington's army as they prepared to attack the British stationed
16:03
SPEAKER_01: at Philadelphia.
16:05
SPEAKER_01: And on September 26, 1777, Martin saw battle again at Germantown.
16:12
SPEAKER_01: We saw a body of the enemy drawn up behind a rail fence on our right flank.
16:16
SPEAKER_01: We immediately formed a line and advanced upon them.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: Our orders were not to fire till we could see the buttons upon their clothes,
16:23
SPEAKER_01: but they were so coy that they would not give us an opportunity to be so curious,
16:26
SPEAKER_01: for they hid their clothes in fire and smoke before we had either time or leisure
16:31
SPEAKER_01: to examine their buttons.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: They soon fell back and we advanced when the action became general.
16:36
SPEAKER_01: The enemy were driven quite through their camp.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: They left their kettles in which they were cooking their breakfast on the fires
16:42
SPEAKER_01: and some of their garments were lying on the ground,
16:44
SPEAKER_01: which the owners had not time to put on.
16:46
SPEAKER_01: Affairs went on well for some time.
16:49
SPEAKER_01: The enemy were retreating before us until the first division
16:51
SPEAKER_01: that was engaged had expended their ammunition.
16:54
SPEAKER_01: Some of the men unadvisedly called out that their ammunition was spent.
16:58
SPEAKER_01: The enemy were so near that they overheard them when they first made a stand.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: And then returned upon our people.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: For want of ammunition and reinforcements, we're obliged to return to retreat,
17:07
SPEAKER_01: which ultimately resulted in the rout of the whole army. End quote.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: After this failure, Martin marched with the army for days with little food or rest.
17:17
SPEAKER_01: Being driven to near starvation, he found whatever he could eat,
17:21
SPEAKER_01: including a slaughtered ox's spleen which he cooked over a fire,
17:26
SPEAKER_01: ate and promptly threw up.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: The army continued to move, avoiding any further confrontation with the British,
17:33
SPEAKER_01: and were forced to ford freezing rivers on little more
17:36
SPEAKER_01: than the occasional rotten beef cooked over a fire or whiskey to keep them warm
17:41
SPEAKER_01: when crossing these rivers.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, Martin was stationed at Fort Mifflin at the confluence of the Schuylkill
17:48
SPEAKER_01: and Delaware Rivers, where he would endure further deprivation awaiting
17:52
SPEAKER_01: a British attack.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: For weeks, Martin was stuck in this fort defending against a plotting British siege,
17:59
SPEAKER_01: and on November 15th, after three weeks of musket and mortar fire,
18:03
SPEAKER_01: the Patriots abandoned the fort, and Martin was among the last to leave,
18:07
SPEAKER_01: being tasked with burning and destroying all they could before retreating.
18:12
SPEAKER_01: As winter approached and fighting died down,
18:15
SPEAKER_01: Martin marched with his regiment toward the American camp at Valley Forge to join
18:19
SPEAKER_01: the rest of the 11,000 men there.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: The entire army was starving, freezing, and tired, and this camp proved to be no respite.
18:30
SPEAKER_01: And luckily for Martin, while much of the army was living in squalor,
18:34
SPEAKER_01: he was able to fare much better as part of the foraging party than most
18:40
SPEAKER_01: of his brethren.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: As he did so, he found that the cause against the British Empire was still alive
18:46
SPEAKER_01: and well throughout the countryside,
18:47
SPEAKER_01: despite the many fared much better than I had ever done in the army before,
18:54
SPEAKER_01: or ever did afterwards.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: We had very good provisions all winter and generally enough of them.
18:59
SPEAKER_01: Some of us were constantly in the country with the wagons.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: We went out by turns and had no one to control us.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: When we were in the country, we were pretty sure to fare well,
19:07
SPEAKER_01: for the inhabitants were remarkably kind to us.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: We had no guards to keep, our only duty was to help load the wagons with hay, corn,
19:14
SPEAKER_01: meal, or whatever they could take off, and when they were thus loaded,
19:18
SPEAKER_01: to keep them company till they arrived at the commissaries at Milltown.
19:22
SPEAKER_01: From thence, the articles, whatever they were,
19:24
SPEAKER_01: were carried to camp in other vehicles under other guards.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: Not remember that during the time I was employed in this business,
19:30
SPEAKER_01: which was from Christmas to the latter part of April,
19:33
SPEAKER_01: ever to have met the least resistance from the inhabitants.
19:36
SPEAKER_01: Take what we could from their barns, mills,
19:39
SPEAKER_01: corn cribs or stalls." When spring arrived Martin rejoined his regiment and found
19:45
SPEAKER_01: a quite different environment. He was now stuck in constant drill.
19:51
SPEAKER_01: These new instructions were introduced by the second main character of this episode,
19:58
SPEAKER_01: Baron de Stubent.
19:59
[music]
20:05
SPEAKER_01: The Baron, born Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben,
20:12
SPEAKER_01: on September 17th, 1730, was born into a nation and family that destined him
20:18
SPEAKER_01: for one place, the battlefield.
20:21
SPEAKER_01: The Prussian army, which is the northern part of what is today Germany and kind
20:26
SPEAKER_01: of into the Poland region, was the class of the European field.
20:31
SPEAKER_01: They were known for their highly regimented and well-trained armies.
20:36
SPEAKER_01: And also, his father was a cavalry captain.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: The audience at his baptism further destined that he would not be a mere soldier
20:44
SPEAKER_01: on said battlefield, but rather a general commanding one of the armies.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: He was flanked by four godfathers,
20:52
SPEAKER_01: one of which was a colonel of the Prussian artillery,
20:55
SPEAKER_01: and the other was the king himself, Friedrich Wilhelm I.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: Despite these connections, the Steuben family was not high nobility,
21:04
SPEAKER_01: though their status as Junker's lower nobility did provide them
21:09
SPEAKER_01: with a certain stability in German society.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: Given the importance of the Prussian military,
21:15
SPEAKER_01: about 80% of the budget went to the army,
21:18
SPEAKER_01: and the class that the Steubens lived in was not only conscripted at birth,
21:23
SPEAKER_01: like everyone else, but were also expected to work towards becoming an officer.
21:28
SPEAKER_01: A normal Prussian soldier was expected to learn tactics and maneuvers and put them
21:32
SPEAKER_01: into practice with high degrees of precision and discipline to ensure
21:38
SPEAKER_01: that they could punch above their weight
21:39
SPEAKER_01: and And Steuben's connections provided him even more
21:44
SPEAKER_01: with the best military education on offer in the country.
21:49
SPEAKER_01: In his book, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge, Paul Lockhart lays out the case.
21:55
SPEAKER_01: But what set Steuben apart from his contemporaries was his schooling under Frederick
22:02
SPEAKER_01: the Great, Prince Henry, and a dozen other general officers.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: He had learned from the best soldiers in the world how they gather
22:09
SPEAKER_01: in assessed intelligence, How to read and exploit
22:15
SPEAKER_01: He gleaned more from his 17 years in the Prussian military
22:19
SPEAKER_01: than most professional soldiers would in a lifetime.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: In the Seven Years' War alone,
22:24
SPEAKER_01: he built up a record of professional education that none of his future comrades
22:28
SPEAKER_01: And
22:37
SPEAKER_01: during the Seven Years' War,
22:38
SPEAKER_01: Steuben used his education and connections to rise rapidly in the military ranks.
22:43
SPEAKER_01: He fought in battles throughout Europe before eventually being captured in Russia
22:47
SPEAKER_01: and held as a prisoner of war.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: This education, specifically his knowledge of the Russian language,
22:52
SPEAKER_01: allowed him to escape captivity and and act as a sort of diplomat with Russia
22:57
SPEAKER_01: during the tail end of the war.
22:59
SPEAKER_01: But once the war was over in 1763,
23:01
SPEAKER_01: Steuben was dismissed and quickly became listless,
23:05
SPEAKER_01: having spent his whole life in the military.
23:07
SPEAKER_01: He flamed out as fast as he rose.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: After a year of aimless wandering,
23:12
SPEAKER_01: Stubin found a job as a chamberlain for a minor prince to manage his court.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: It was during this stint that he gained the title of freiherr,
23:21
SPEAKER_01: quote-unquote free lord or baron in English,
23:23
SPEAKER_01: which was common for men of his station.
23:25
SPEAKER_01: Though did not imply any sort of wealth held in land or status.
23:30
SPEAKER_01: It is from this title that Steuben began to take on the name Baron de Steuben.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: And since this didn't really do anything otherwise,
23:37
SPEAKER_01: when the family he supported fell into dissolution due to mounting debts in 1775,
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Steuben was left looking again for work.
23:47
SPEAKER_01: During a trip to Baden in one of those provinces that would eventually come
23:50
SPEAKER_01: to make up Germany in search of military employment,
23:54
SPEAKER_01: A chance encounter would change his life forever,
23:58
SPEAKER_01: and perhaps change American history forever.
24:03
SPEAKER_01: While there in 1777, Steuben met with the English cartographer Peter Burdett
24:09
SPEAKER_01: and learned from him about the situation in the English colonies.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Steuben quickly learned from Burdett that he was actually not working on behalf
24:17
SPEAKER_01: of Britain, but was actually being paid by America and working for Benjamin Franklin
24:22
SPEAKER_01: and Silas Dean, who were currently in Paris trying to gain favor with the French.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: And Burdett was looking for someone to help manage the army.
24:33
SPEAKER_01: Now, given his vast experience, Steuben was sure that this job was his for the taking.
24:38
SPEAKER_01: Though however impressive they found the Baron,
24:41
SPEAKER_01: Franklin and Dean were merely recruiters and had little authority
24:45
SPEAKER_01: to grant Steuben what he really wanted, a commission, that is an officer title,
24:51
SPEAKER_01: and a salary.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: To Steuben, this was a slap in the face,
24:55
SPEAKER_01: but this was still likely his only chance to rebuild the status he craved,
25:01
SPEAKER_01: so he accepted a position as a volunteer and would meet
25:05
SPEAKER_01: with the Continental Congress to plead his case.
25:08
SPEAKER_01: To aid him in this, the French commissioners wrote letters of endorsement
25:13
SPEAKER_01: which were carefully crafted to ensure Steuben's career seemed far more successful
25:17
SPEAKER_01: than it actually had been.
25:19
SPEAKER_01: And on September 26, 1777, with letters in hand, Steuben made his way to America.
25:26
SPEAKER_01: And after over two months at sea,
25:28
SPEAKER_01: Steuben arrived in New Hampshire on December 1st to a crowd awaiting
25:33
SPEAKER_01: the potential savior of the revolution.
25:36
SPEAKER_01: He arrived in America amidst a low point of the Revolution.
25:40
SPEAKER_01: George Washington was being questioned,
25:43
SPEAKER_01: and there was a group of generals determined to replace him,
25:46
SPEAKER_01: the so-called Conway Cabal.
25:49
SPEAKER_01: After the miraculous successes in 1776 for Washington at the Battle of Trenton
25:54
SPEAKER_01: and Princeton, The failures in the battles in 1777,
25:58
SPEAKER_01: that is Brandywine and Germantown,
26:01
SPEAKER_01: had lowered his standing among many of the other generals in the army.
26:06
SPEAKER_01: On top of that, the great success by Horatio Gates
26:10
SPEAKER_01: at Saratoga only made his failures more stark.
26:15
SPEAKER_01: These battles proved that the men fighting had the spirit needed to win,
26:19
SPEAKER_01: but lacked the discipline, a mark against the leadership,
26:22
SPEAKER_01: specifically George Washington.
26:24
SPEAKER_01: On top of that, to put up this poor display around the American capital,
26:28
SPEAKER_01: or supposed American capital that had been captured,
26:31
SPEAKER_01: and thus force the government to retreat,
26:34
SPEAKER_01: the general's reputation was further stained.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: Now, to put an end to what they saw as a farce, a group of subordinate leadership,
26:42
SPEAKER_01: most notably Charles Lee and Horatio Gates,
26:46
SPEAKER_01: along with several members of Congress including Benjamin Rush and Samuel Adams,
26:51
SPEAKER_01: were determined to remove Washington from command.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: These allies, worried about the potential power creep within Washington's command,
26:59
SPEAKER_01: had the spotlight pointed back at them
27:01
SPEAKER_01: when co-conspirator Thomas Conway's letter regarding Washington revealed this plot.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: The so-called Conway Cabal, only named after him because of his letter,
27:10
SPEAKER_01: not because he was the leader of this,
27:12
SPEAKER_01: created a power struggle that took hold of the entire nation
27:16
SPEAKER_01: as the Continental Army was struggling for survival at Valley Forge.
27:21
SPEAKER_01: The newly created Board of War granted Conway the position of Inspector General
27:26
SPEAKER_01: of the Continental Army, but he was stymied at every single turn by Washington,
27:31
SPEAKER_01: who did not take his insubordination lightly.
27:35
SPEAKER_01: Rather than put up with Washington's pettiness,
27:37
SPEAKER_01: Conway decided to abandon his post and was later replaced, to his great dismay,
27:42
SPEAKER_01: by Baron de Steubin.
27:44
SPEAKER_01: In the interim between these two inspector generals,
27:47
SPEAKER_01: the coup was revealed to go far deeper than just Conway.
27:50
SPEAKER_01: The entire cabal was eventually revealed, and one of the leaders, Horatio Gates,
27:54
SPEAKER_01: was now the head of the Board of War.
27:57
SPEAKER_01: There had been many attempts during the winter to pin the terrible conditions
28:01
SPEAKER_01: that we'll see at Valley Forge on Washington.
28:05
SPEAKER_01: So when Baron de Steuben arrived at Valley Forge,
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Washington seemed to be surrounded by enemies.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: On top of the internal leadership rifts,
28:17
SPEAKER_01: arrivals from abroad being granted generalships, namely Lafayette and Baron de Cobb,
28:22
SPEAKER_01: had created further consternation among the American military leaders.
28:27
SPEAKER_01: All the while, as I He said the army was starving and freezing at Valley Forge,
28:32
SPEAKER_01: hoping to just make it to the next fighting season.
28:35
SPEAKER_01: Thus, Steuben arrived in a fraught time when the army was trying to remain intact,
28:40
SPEAKER_01: the leadership was fracturing,
28:42
SPEAKER_01: and the Congress was weary
28:44
SPEAKER_01: of yet another foreign influence undermining American interests.
28:48
SPEAKER_01: Luckily for Steuben, the letters from the Paris Commission had prepped Congress
28:53
SPEAKER_01: for Steoben's arrival and detailed the vital need of his services.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: So they brought him in for an interview.
28:59
SPEAKER_01: And during questioning, the Baron assured the Congress that he was not requesting
29:03
SPEAKER_01: a commission nor a salary.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: Now This was not exactly truthful, as that was always his aim,
29:09
SPEAKER_01: but he knew this was the only way for him to actually move towards those goals.
29:15
SPEAKER_01: In the end, Congress did grant him the rank of captain and promised a salary after the war.
29:22
SPEAKER_01: This was the moment that he had been waiting for.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: He was now a soldier again, and he was not going to squander it.
29:30
SPEAKER_01: He quickly became friends with two of Washington's greatest allies in the army,
29:34
SPEAKER_01: John Lawrence and Alexander Hamilton,
29:36
SPEAKER_01: and then quickly gained the favor of the general himself
29:40
SPEAKER_01: and was granted unlimited access to basically every single facet of the army.
29:45
SPEAKER_01: Washington said, fix it.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: His first task was to diagnose what was going wrong,
29:51
SPEAKER_01: and his conclusion was basically everything.
29:55
SPEAKER_01: The army was lacking supplies, had little discipline, and were devoid of battlefield acumen.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: And now, as the new Inspector General,
30:04
SPEAKER_01: it was Steuben's duty to fix these problems and turn this ragtag collection
30:08
SPEAKER_01: of mismanaged militias into a cohesive fighting force capable of standing
30:14
SPEAKER_01: against a professional European army.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: Now we've been talking about a war for six and a half episodes now.
30:19
SPEAKER_01: I think it's about time we start to talk a little bit about the armies.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: We'll start with the British as they act as a good foil against the Americans
30:28
SPEAKER_01: and also show kind of what Steuben was trying to create at Valley Forge.
30:33
SPEAKER_01: Now the majority of the troops sent to America in 1776 were from the rural parts
30:39
SPEAKER_01: of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
30:42
SPEAKER_01: They were poor farmers, laborers, and tradesmen in their late 20s,
30:45
SPEAKER_01: but were highly trained and well-disciplined.
30:48
SPEAKER_01: But most were not veterans.
30:50
SPEAKER_01: Some had faced the enemy in wars in Europe, but most only knew drill and routine.
30:56
SPEAKER_01: In his book The Glorious Cause, Robert Middlecoff describes the British armies like this.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: In most respects, the British Army was
31:03
SPEAKER_01: a conventional 18th century European force trained to fight accepted style
31:08
SPEAKER_01: of the century.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: In the 18th century, before the French Revolution brought its immense changes,
31:14
SPEAKER_01: war was the preserve of the dynastic state,
31:16
SPEAKER_01: fought on a small scale for limited purposes.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: Ordinarily, two groups in society did the fighting, the aristocracy,
31:23
SPEAKER_01: who provided the officers, And in underclass peasants, fragrance,
31:27
SPEAKER_01: and dregs who filled the ranks.
31:29
SPEAKER_01: Composition of the army required that it be highly trained and harshly disciplined.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: Vagrants, ignorant peasants,
31:34
SPEAKER_01: and in many cases foreigners who were dragooned
31:37
SPEAKER_01: or hired felt neither moral commitment to their rulers
31:40
SPEAKER_01: nor loyalty Tactics
31:47
SPEAKER_01: reflected
31:52
SPEAKER_01: the assumptions that underlay the general rules of campaigning.
31:55
SPEAKER_01: Skillful tactics consisted of maneuvering troops so as to begin battle
31:59
SPEAKER_01: under circumstances that would prohibit heavy losses.
32:01
SPEAKER_01: This consideration sometimes outweighed the results of battle,
32:04
SPEAKER_01: with defeat and light losses tolerable, and victory with heavy losses intolerable.
32:09
SPEAKER_01: Skill in marching was more important than proficiency in the manual of arms,
32:13
SPEAKER_01: the handling and use of weapons, including their firing at the enemy.
32:17
SPEAKER_01: Hence, the enormous energy lavished on close-order drill,
32:20
SPEAKER_01: drill on the parade ground, with intricate movements precisely accomplished.
32:24
SPEAKER_01: These movements and formations were rigidly controlled, the intervals between men,
32:28
SPEAKER_01: ranks, and files exactly determined, and the troops were taught, drilled,
32:32
SPEAKER_01: and practiced until they could carry them out without thinking,
32:35
SPEAKER_01: as if they were parts of the machine animated only by the sounds
32:38
SPEAKER_01: of their officers' voices." Now the American army was very different
32:43
SPEAKER_01: from the British army, and it was also made up of two different distinct groups.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: The first was that of the militiamen, and Middlecoff describes them like this,
32:54
SPEAKER_01: quote, Of all the Americans who fought,
32:57
SPEAKER_01: the militiamen best exemplified in themselves and in their behavior the ideals
33:01
SPEAKER_01: and purposes of the revolution.
33:03
SPEAKER_01: They had enjoyed independence or at least personal liberty long
33:06
SPEAKER_01: before it was proclaimed in the Declaration.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: They instinctively felt their equality with others and in many places insisted
33:13
SPEAKER_01: upon demonstrating it by choosing their own officers.
33:16
SPEAKER_01: Their sense of their liberty permitted even compelled them to serve only
33:20
SPEAKER_01: for short enlistments, to leave camp when they liked,
33:23
SPEAKER_01: to score in the order of others,
33:24
SPEAKER_01: and especially those orders to fight when they preferred to flee.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: Their integration into their society drove them to resist military discipline,
33:31
SPEAKER_01: and their ethos of personal freedom stimulated hatred of the machine that served
33:35
SPEAKER_01: as the model for the army.
33:37
SPEAKER_01: They were not pieces of a machine, and they would serve it only reluctantly and skeptically.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: What was lacking in the militia was a set of professional standards, requirements,
33:46
SPEAKER_01: and rules which might regulate their conduct in battle.
33:49
SPEAKER_01: What was lacking was professional pride.
33:52
SPEAKER_01: Coming and going to camp as they liked,
33:53
SPEAKER_01: shooting their guns for pleasure of the sound, the militia annoyed the continentals,
33:57
SPEAKER_01: who soon learned that most could not be trusted." Now the other group,
34:01
SPEAKER_01: as mentioned in that quote, the Continentals, were a much more well-trained group.
34:06
SPEAKER_01: They were the American regulars.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: They were supposed to be the closest that Americans got to what the British army looked like.
34:13
SPEAKER_01: However, in reality, they basically sat between the British regulars and the militiamen.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: Here's Middlecoff again. Quote, The Continentals, the American regulars,
34:23
SPEAKER_01: lacked the polish of their British counterparts.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: But at least from Monmouth on they showed a steadiness under fire almost
34:29
SPEAKER_01: as impressive as their enemies.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: And they demonstrated a brave endurance.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: Defeated, they retired, pulled themselves together and came back to try again.
34:37
SPEAKER_01: These qualities, patience and endurance endeared them to many.
34:40
SPEAKER_01: For example John Lawrence of Washington's staff in 1778 wanted desperately
34:46
SPEAKER_01: to command them. The soldiers he admired were anything but aristocratic.
34:50
SPEAKER_01: As the war drank down, they came increasingly from the poor and the propertyless.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: Most probably entered as substitutes for men who would rather pay than serve,
34:58
SPEAKER_01: or as the recipients of bounties and the promise of land.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: In time, some, perhaps many, assimilated the ideas of the revolution.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: As Baron von Steuben observed in training them,
35:09
SPEAKER_01: they differed from the European troops in at least one regard— Now,
35:13
SPEAKER_01: within all
35:18
SPEAKER_01: of these American soldiers,
35:24
SPEAKER_01: there was a constant battle within each of them between duty and freedom.
35:28
SPEAKER_01: Now, the militiamen definitely tended towards the freedom side of things,
35:33
SPEAKER_01: and the regulars more towards duty, but it was always a question.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Should they serve their fellow soldiers, often resulting in their own death,
35:41
SPEAKER_01: or should they hold fast to their liberty and abandon their battle?
35:45
SPEAKER_01: And as Thomas Paine put it, these were the times that tested their souls.
35:50
SPEAKER_01: Now given the scope of the fixes required to actually move this army,
35:54
SPEAKER_01: this American army, towards that of a European army,
35:58
SPEAKER_01: along with the authority granted to the baron,
36:00
SPEAKER_01: this sudden shift would have had a negative impact on the army morale.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: He was a Prussian, a foreigner,
36:08
SPEAKER_01: attempting to enforce standard European army tactics on an army
36:12
SPEAKER_01: that was expressly trying to break from that tradition.
36:15
SPEAKER_01: But Steuben was conscious of this, and he was also eager to be accepted.
36:21
SPEAKER_01: So he used his wit and friendly nature to soften the troops and win them over,
36:26
SPEAKER_01: both the individual soldiers and the officers.
36:30
SPEAKER_01: He quickly ingratiated himself in the army camp dinner party scene hosted
36:34
SPEAKER_01: by Katie Green, the wife of Nathaniel Green,
36:37
SPEAKER_01: but he also took a great interest in the struggles of the individual soldiers,
36:42
SPEAKER_01: as was common practice in the Prussian armies.
36:45
SPEAKER_01: Just lending an ear was more than many of the officers had done previously.
36:49
SPEAKER_01: And as he investigated, he was shocked to see the condition the soldiers were forced to endure.
36:54
SPEAKER_01: They lacked food, clothing, and shelter in the middle of winter.
36:59
SPEAKER_01: Paul Lockhart, in his book The Drill Master of Valley Forge,
37:02
SPEAKER_01: describes Steuben's observations of the army like this.
37:06
SPEAKER_01: Quote, Most of all, he admired the resilience of the ordinary continental soldiers.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: They lived in unbearable conditions and were terribly disappointed.
37:15
SPEAKER_01: Nearly braved of food or clothing, sometimes all but forgotten by absentee officers.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: Few had serviceable blankets, many were without shoes or breeches,
37:25
SPEAKER_01: with little more than a linen hunting frock and under drawers to stand
37:29
SPEAKER_01: between their seats.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: The men
37:39
SPEAKER_01: frequently went
37:40
SPEAKER_01: for days at a time without the smallest peat of salt meat
37:42
SPEAKER_01: or dried fish, subsisting mostly on fire cakes made from flour and water.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: It was not an unusual sight to see groups of men boiling shoes
37:51
SPEAKER_01: and leather accoutrements in order to make them digestible.
37:54
SPEAKER_01: The men, huddled for warmth around their scattered campfires,
37:57
SPEAKER_01: listless eyes sunk deep in gaunt faces staring up at Steuben as he passed by.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: They did not often have the energy or inclination to show him the deference
38:06
SPEAKER_01: to which he was accustomed but this did not offend these soldiers seem
38:11
SPEAKER_01: to have been abandoned by their country
38:12
SPEAKER_01: and although their numbers had dwindled alarmingly the fact that there were any man
38:17
SPEAKER_01: at all astounded him end quote Once Steuben understood the plight of the army,
38:21
SPEAKER_01: Washington gave him his first assignment.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: Train the army to fight like a European army.
38:27
SPEAKER_01: For much of the war, there was a focus on small skirmishes and guerrilla warfare
38:32
SPEAKER_01: to prevent the Americans from being forced to face the British at full force.
38:36
SPEAKER_01: However, this was proving less successful than had been hoped,
38:39
SPEAKER_01: and Washington felt that the Americans would only gain the respect
38:43
SPEAKER_01: of a European army if they acted like one.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: And the only way to do this was to drill.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: And drill like the professional armies they hoped Now to
38:53
SPEAKER_01: do this, Steuben did not suddenly start training the entire army at once.
38:58
SPEAKER_01: That would be far too cumbersome.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: Instead, he created a company of 100 hand-picked veterans to create a model company
39:05
SPEAKER_01: that would then be used as an example for the rest of the army.
39:09
SPEAKER_01: Now, the contrast between Steuben and these men was stark, and Lockhart describes the scene.
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Quote, The immaculately dressed,
39:18
SPEAKER_01: well-fed and bejeweled German nobleman looked very much as one would expect
39:21
SPEAKER_01: of a Prussian soldier.
39:23
SPEAKER_01: His hat of fine black beaver, a bicorn blocked in the French style,
39:27
SPEAKER_01: sitting atop cued and powdered hair, dark blue cloak.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: Knee-high riding boots wrapped impossibly tight around his calves.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: Standing before the company, a little soft perhaps in the midriff,
39:37
SPEAKER_01: but still at attention without being rigid.
39:40
SPEAKER_01: His exerzier stock, which was basically a cane, gripped in his right hand.
39:45
SPEAKER_01: He appeared to be the very embodiment of old world society,
39:48
SPEAKER_01: of aristocracy and privilege, the very same values the men were fighting against.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: He beamed confidence and optimism.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: And opposite him, the men, representing nearly every state in the Union,
39:59
SPEAKER_01: dressed in a kaleidoscopic array of tattered clothing,
40:02
SPEAKER_01: hats and coats of every description with some wearing blankets in lieu of overcoats.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: They were gaunt maybe even a little jaded and had the look of men
40:11
SPEAKER_01: who had traveled far and seen much.
40:13
SPEAKER_01: Heartbreak and hardship both." Now
40:17
SPEAKER_01: during these training sessions Steuben would train a squad of 20 men hands -on
40:22
SPEAKER_01: while the rest of the company watched.
40:24
SPEAKER_01: He started with the basics standing at attention marching turning in place Even
40:29
SPEAKER_01: the simplest maneuvers would fail, but Steuben carried on,
40:33
SPEAKER_01: though often this came after frustrated ranting in German,
40:37
SPEAKER_01: which actually ended up endearing him to the soldiers that he was training,
40:42
SPEAKER_01: the aristocratic mask slipping just a little bit.
40:46
SPEAKER_01: Now, once the smaller squads were up to an acceptable standard,
40:49
SPEAKER_01: the company would reform and the maneuvers were repeated with the larger group.
40:53
SPEAKER_01: And the transformation was rapid.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: In just four days, the soldiers marched, turned,
40:58
SPEAKER_01: and maneuvered with precision never before seen in an American army.
41:02
SPEAKER_01: Now, during this training, Steuben was forced to adapt his methods and plans
41:07
SPEAKER_01: to cater to these very individualistic and rebellious soldiers.
41:11
SPEAKER_01: Americans had a deeply ingrained suspicion of authority, and as I said,
41:16
SPEAKER_01: liked to understand the whys much more than just the whats.
41:19
SPEAKER_01: Beyond that, time was short, so the normal training program,
41:23
SPEAKER_01: which was normal for a Prussian army,
41:25
SPEAKER_01: was shortened to focus on only that which would provide the highest impact
41:29
SPEAKER_01: on the battlefield.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: Now after Steuben was happy with this model company,
41:34
SPEAKER_01: he needed to transfer this to the entire army.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: Now he did not do this part alone.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: He chose other sub-inspectors to work on each company in the same way he did,
41:44
SPEAKER_01: one squad at a topside.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: And in just three weeks, by mid-April, entire battalions, about 300 to 500 soldiers,
41:51
SPEAKER_01: were marching together and performing precise battlefield maneuvers.
41:55
SPEAKER_01: And as the army became more capable, the pride among the soldiers and officers rose with it.
42:00
SPEAKER_01: To add to the morale, the alliance with France,
42:03
SPEAKER_01: which had been long rumored and hoped for, was announced at Valley Forge on May 1st.
42:10
SPEAKER_01: And as a final show of this transformation, a grand review was conducted.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: Lockhart describes it like this, quote,
42:20
SPEAKER_01: The boom of a cannon echoing over the encampment signaled the end
42:23
SPEAKER_01: of an open-air church service.
42:25
SPEAKER_01: And the beginning of the maneuvers that Steuben had devised for the occasion.
42:28
SPEAKER_01: The entire army marched by files onto the Grand Parade,
42:31
SPEAKER_01: and though their uniforms were disheveled, they moved like soldiers,
42:34
SPEAKER_01: silent and perfectly in cadence, to the music of the fifes and drums.
42:39
SPEAKER_01: They formed two parallel lines of battle, each two ranks deep.
42:42
SPEAKER_01: And after three salvos of 13 cannon each rang out from the artillery park,
42:47
SPEAKER_01: the infantry gave its salute to France and the alliance.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: It did so with an elaborate display called a feu de joie.
42:53
SPEAKER_01: The first two men went in the front rank one in the rear.
42:55
SPEAKER_01: On the far right flank of the first line raised their muskets and fired
42:59
SPEAKER_01: into the air, followed immediately by the next two men on their left.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: The coordinated rolling fire continued in this fashion,
43:05
SPEAKER_01: two muskits booming at a time from right to left along the first lane
43:08
SPEAKER_01: then commencing on the second line from left to right and beginning all over again
43:12
SPEAKER_01: with the first The process was repeated three times.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: Not a man fired out of turn.
43:18
SPEAKER_01: It was a spectacle rarely seen even in the best -trained European armies.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: The onlookers applauded in awestruck approval as the smoke billowing
43:26
SPEAKER_01: from the muzzles of 10,000 muskets obscured the neatly aligned ranks
43:30
SPEAKER_01: from their view.
43:32
SPEAKER_01: This army now seemed ready for battle,
43:35
SPEAKER_01: but Washington and Steuben couldn't be sure until they were tested for real.
43:41
SPEAKER_01: And the first test came just two weeks later.
43:50
SPEAKER_01: With the arrival of the French fleet off the coast of Virginia,
43:53
SPEAKER_01: which had been bearing that news, Henry Clinton,
43:56
SPEAKER_01: after replacing General William Howe,
43:58
SPEAKER_01: worried that their position at Philadelphia would make the British Army vulnerable.
44:04
SPEAKER_01: Rumors reached Washington that the British were thus abandoning Philadelphia
44:08
SPEAKER_01: to make their way up to New York to safety.
44:13
SPEAKER_01: The French general, Marquis de Lafayette, eager to make his name known,
44:17
SPEAKER_01: took some 2,500 soldiers to determine what the British army was actually doing.
44:22
SPEAKER_01: Along the way, Lafayette stopped at a small village called Barren Hill to rest.
44:27
SPEAKER_01: The British, wise to this approaching army,
44:30
SPEAKER_01: hoped to cut them off and deal a major blow to the Americans.
44:33
SPEAKER_01: An army of some 10,000 redcoats marched out of Philadelphia directly at Lafayette.
44:40
SPEAKER_01: Now the general was completely blind to this approaching army,
44:43
SPEAKER_01: and by the time he became aware of it,
44:45
SPEAKER_01: it seemed certain that his own army would be decimated.
44:48
SPEAKER_01: However, there was one possible escape route across the Schuylkill River,
44:53
SPEAKER_01: but they needed to move fast.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: The army changed from a defensive position to a march and quickly forwarded
44:58
SPEAKER_01: the chest-deep water to escape the British.
45:01
SPEAKER_01: Joseph Plum Martin was at this quote-unquote battle and described the mad dash to the river.
45:07
SPEAKER_01: Quote, Just at the dawn of the day, the officers' waiters came, almost breathless,
45:12
SPEAKER_01: after the horses.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: Upon inquiring of the cause of the unusual hurry,
45:16
SPEAKER_01: we were told that the British were advancing upon us in our rear.
45:19
SPEAKER_01: How they could get there was to us a mystery, but they were there.
45:22
SPEAKER_01: We helped the waiters to catch their horses and immediately returned
45:25
SPEAKER_01: to the main body of the detachment.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: We found the troops all under arms and in motion, preparing for an onset.
45:32
SPEAKER_01: But our commander found that the enemy was too strong to be engaged
45:35
SPEAKER_01: in the position we then occupied.
45:37
SPEAKER_01: He therefore wisely ordered a retreat from this place to the Schuylkill,
45:41
SPEAKER_01: where we might choose any position that we pleased,
45:43
SPEAKER_01: having ragged woody hills in our rear and the river in the front.
45:47
SPEAKER_01: When I was about halfway to the river,
45:48
SPEAKER_01: I saw the right wing of the army through a lawn about half a mile distant,
45:52
SPEAKER_01: but they were too late.
45:53
SPEAKER_01: Besides, they made a blunder here.
45:54
SPEAKER_01: They saw our rear guard with the two field pieces in its front,
45:57
SPEAKER_01: and thinking at the front of the detachment, they closed in to secure their prey.
46:02
SPEAKER_01: But when they had sprung their net, they found that there was not a single bird under it.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: We crossed the Schuylkill in good order,
46:07
SPEAKER_01: very near the spot where I had crossed it four times in the month of October
46:10
SPEAKER_01: the preceding autumn.
46:12
SPEAKER_01: As fast as the troops crossed, they formed and prepared for action,
46:16
SPEAKER_01: and waited for them to attack us.
46:18
SPEAKER_01: But we saw no more of them that time, for before we had reached the river,
46:21
SPEAKER_01: the alarm guns were fired in our camp and the whole army was immediately in motion.
46:26
SPEAKER_01: The British, fearing that they should be outnumbered in their turn,
46:28
SPEAKER_01: directly set their faces for Philadelphia,
46:31
SPEAKER_01: and set off in as much or more haste than we had left Barren Hill.
46:37
SPEAKER_01: Six Americans were killed in the skirmishes during this escape,
46:40
SPEAKER_01: but the escape itself was a miraculous feat given the circumstances.
46:44
SPEAKER_01: More importantly, the maneuvers, precision, and discipline needed
46:47
SPEAKER_01: to conduct this escape were something thought completely impossible just
46:51
SPEAKER_01: a few months prior.
46:53
SPEAKER_01: The work at Valley Forge had saved Lafayette's army and likely his life.
46:58
SPEAKER_01: Now, despite the success of Steuben in training and reorganizing the military,
47:03
SPEAKER_01: he still made enemies.
47:05
SPEAKER_01: The most important one of these was Charles Lee.
47:09
SPEAKER_01: Now, Lee, having been captured before the Battle of Trenton,
47:13
SPEAKER_01: had been released from captivity after a trade with the British and arrived
47:18
SPEAKER_01: at Valley Forge in May 1778.
47:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, despite the mutual contempt between him and Washington,
47:24
SPEAKER_01: Lee's experience ensured that he remained the most senior general
47:28
SPEAKER_01: in the Continental Army.
47:29
SPEAKER_01: And thus, his opinion still held sway.
47:32
SPEAKER_01: And he was concerned that Steuben had gained far too much power over the army
47:36
SPEAKER_01: And Lee refused to let Steuben work as Inspector General
47:40
SPEAKER_01: without his express permission.
47:43
SPEAKER_01: In an attempt to keep the army from imploding and this tension
47:47
SPEAKER_01: from building too much, Washington intervened and ensured
47:50
SPEAKER_01: that Steuben's training would be followed,
47:53
SPEAKER_01: but did not give the Baron any sort of command.
47:57
SPEAKER_01: But before this pot could completely boil over,
48:00
SPEAKER_01: movement by the British brought the focus back to the war.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: The rumors of the British moving from Philadelphia to New York were now proving
48:09
SPEAKER_01: to be true, and this march began on June 17, 1778.
48:15
SPEAKER_01: Washington felt that this evacuation by the British and the long march
48:19
SPEAKER_01: that would ensue provided a great opportunity for the Americans to strike.
48:24
SPEAKER_01: However, the timing needed to be perfect for them to succeed.
48:29
SPEAKER_01: Washington thus made this decision.
48:32
SPEAKER_01: He would follow the retreating British and wait for that moment.
48:36
SPEAKER_01: And the British army was slow.
48:39
SPEAKER_01: Their baggage train, which followed the army,
48:42
SPEAKER_01: was made up of some 15,000 wagons full of supplies,
48:46
SPEAKER_01: which made their march extremely sluggish, more sluggish than was normal.
48:51
SPEAKER_01: And Clinton was really in no rush to run from the Americans.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't really scared of them.
48:57
SPEAKER_01: He had the numbers advantage, the training advantage, and the supply advantage.
49:01
SPEAKER_01: So when the British settled into camp on June 26 near the Monmouth Courthouse,
49:06
SPEAKER_01: Washington was ready for battle, but so was Clinton.
49:11
SPEAKER_01: And Clinton waited, and Washington waited too.
49:14
SPEAKER_01: Washington was willing to wait for the British to begin breaking camp
49:19
SPEAKER_01: and attack just when they were at their most vulnerable.
49:22
SPEAKER_01: It was also in this moment that Washington changed the command
49:25
SPEAKER_01: for the forward division, the first division who would attack the British
49:29
SPEAKER_01: from Lafayette to Charles Lee.
49:33
SPEAKER_01: And gave Lee total control over the actions of this army on the battlefield.
49:39
SPEAKER_01: At dawn of the 28th, the British began moving again.
49:44
SPEAKER_01: And the Americans began their assault.
49:46
SPEAKER_01: However, Lee was slow to move and didn't really have a solid plan
49:50
SPEAKER_01: for what he would do when the British started moving.
49:53
SPEAKER_01: So by the time he arrived at the British position,
49:56
SPEAKER_01: the camp had been broken down completely and the British were waiting for him.
50:01
SPEAKER_01: The assault that he attempted failed miserably.
50:05
SPEAKER_01: However, there was a silver lining.
50:08
SPEAKER_01: In retreat, the Continental Army kept its composure.
50:12
SPEAKER_01: The training was working, but this was small consolation to Washington,
50:17
SPEAKER_01: who was forced to witness his plan fall apart at the hands
50:21
SPEAKER_01: of a too-cautious general.
50:24
SPEAKER_01: Joseph Plum Martin was actually there during Lee's retreat
50:26
SPEAKER_01: and witnessed Washington's response, When he found out, quote,
50:31
SPEAKER_01: We had not retreated far before we came to a defile, a muddy, slewy brook.
50:36
SPEAKER_01: While the artillery were passing this place, we sat down on the roadside.
50:39
SPEAKER_01: In a few minutes, the commander-in-chief in suite crossed the road just where we were sitting.
50:44
SPEAKER_01: I heard...
50:49
SPEAKER_01: He said something, but as he was moving forward all the time this was passing,
50:53
SPEAKER_01: he was too far off for me to hear it distinctly.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: Those that were nearer to him said his words were damn him.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: Whether he did thus express himself or not I do not know,
51:03
SPEAKER_01: It was certainly very unlike him,
51:05
SPEAKER_01: But he seemed at that instant to be in a great passion.
51:07
SPEAKER_01: His looks and...
51:09
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
51:12
SPEAKER_01: Paul Lockhart gives a wider description of this event.
51:16
SPEAKER_01: His face twisted and reddened with anger, Washington confronted Lee directly.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: Precisely what transpired between the two generals at the West Morass has become
51:25
SPEAKER_01: a hotly debated issue.
51:26
SPEAKER_01: Several officers, not all of whom were actually present,
51:30
SPEAKER_01: insisted that Washington was so enraged that he swore in public, a remarkable thing.
51:34
SPEAKER_01: Lafayette said that Washington called Lee a, quote, Damned poltroon, end quote.
51:38
SPEAKER_01: Charles Scott recalled that his commander, quote,
51:41
SPEAKER_01: Swore on that day till the leaves shook on their trees.
51:43
SPEAKER_01: He swore like an angel from heaven, end quote.
51:46
SPEAKER_01: All those within earshot of the meeting agreed, however,
51:49
SPEAKER_01: That Lee was confused and uncharacteristically inarticulate, stammering, quote, Sir,
51:54
SPEAKER_01: Sir, end quote, when Washington asked him the reason for the retreat.
51:58
SPEAKER_01: Lee, who appeared highly embarrassed to those present,
52:00
SPEAKER_01: then responded that contradictory intelligence and disobedience
52:03
SPEAKER_01: of his orders was responsible for the failure.
52:09
SPEAKER_01: He retired to Englishtown, where he would wait out the rest of the battle
52:15
SPEAKER_01: that he had begun, leaving Washington and his other generals to save the army
52:19
SPEAKER_01: as best they could.
52:20
SPEAKER_01: End quote.
52:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, despite Despite Lee's retreat, the battle was not over.
52:24
SPEAKER_01: With the temperature rising to near triple digits by the afternoon,
52:28
SPEAKER_01: each side conducted consistent bayonet charges, flanking maneuvers,
52:32
SPEAKER_01: and musket follies.
52:33
SPEAKER_01: The British were unable, despite their numbers,
52:36
SPEAKER_01: to break through the Continental Army lines,
52:38
SPEAKER_01: so they disengaged and attempted a retreat of their own,
52:41
SPEAKER_01: scrambling over the same rough terrain that the Americans had previously.
52:45
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately for the Americans, the setting sun denied the final assault,
52:50
SPEAKER_01: which may have pushed the battle in their favor.
52:53
SPEAKER_01: Washington hoped to continue in the morning, but Howe was not of like mind,
52:57
SPEAKER_01: and the battle concluded with a silent British retreat towards New York.
53:01
SPEAKER_01: In the end, despite the war by this point only being half over in hindsight,
53:06
SPEAKER_01: the Battle of Monmouth would be the last large battle of the Revolution.
53:10
SPEAKER_01: And it was not a decisive battle.
53:12
SPEAKER_01: The British were still able to march to New York, and the American army remained intact.
53:17
SPEAKER_01: But it also proved to the British, and to the Americans themselves,
53:22
SPEAKER_01: that this new American army rebuilt by Baron de Steuben could not only fight
53:28
SPEAKER_01: with tenacity and grit like it had before many times, but now with discipline.
53:35
SPEAKER_01: This stalemate, while not the victory Washington had hoped,
53:39
SPEAKER_01: put just enough wind back in the American sails to keep them moving.
53:43
SPEAKER_01: And the arrival of the actual sails bearing
53:45
SPEAKER_01: the fleur-de-lis lifted spirits even higher
53:49
SPEAKER_01: as the French fleet provided much more firepower to support American attacks
53:53
SPEAKER_01: on British positions.
53:54
SPEAKER_01: With all of this new firepower and all of this new confidence,
53:58
SPEAKER_01: Washington looked to dislodge the British wherever he could.
54:02
SPEAKER_01: He knew New York was too well defended, so he didn't even want to attempt there,
54:07
SPEAKER_01: so he decided to attack the garrison at Washington charged General Sullivan
54:12
SPEAKER_01: with the task of attacking from land with some 10,000 men and the fleet led
54:17
SPEAKER_01: by the French Admiral Comte d'Estaing providing support from Narragansett Bay.
54:23
SPEAKER_01: The plan set for August 10th was for the Americans to march from the north
54:27
SPEAKER_01: and the French to support from the bay and send in 4,000 troops from the west.
54:32
SPEAKER_01: However, the British knew of this coming attack and William House sent a fleet
54:36
SPEAKER_01: to drive the French away.
54:38
SPEAKER_01: And the day before the assault,
54:40
SPEAKER_01: Estang decided to abandon the landing to attack the British fleet instead.
54:45
SPEAKER_01: Over the next two days, the British
54:47
SPEAKER_01: and French maneuvered their ships around each other and through a gale,
54:51
SPEAKER_01: which damaged each fleet more than their cannons did.
54:54
SPEAKER_01: Sullivan attempted an assault on the British troops, but failed.
54:58
SPEAKER_01: So he hunkered down in a siege and waited for his staying to land.
55:02
SPEAKER_01: But the Admiral was in no position to fight and feared further reinforcements
55:05
SPEAKER_01: from the British, so he sailed for Boston to repair his ships.
55:10
SPEAKER_01: On August 21st, Sullivan retreated from Newport himself.
55:15
SPEAKER_01: This alliance between France and America was not off to a great start,
55:19
SPEAKER_01: but despite the victory that the British had here,
55:22
SPEAKER_01: they were still extremely pessimistic about the war.
55:26
SPEAKER_01: As the war expanded, especially now with this French fleet able to attack
55:30
SPEAKER_01: in the Caribbean, as we'll get to in future episodes,
55:33
SPEAKER_01: and potentially even attack in Europe,
55:36
SPEAKER_01: The number of troops that they needed to defend their land, their vast empire,
55:41
SPEAKER_01: was greatly expanded.
55:43
SPEAKER_01: And it was becoming more and more obvious to the British
55:47
SPEAKER_01: that this war was not really winnable at this point.
55:51
SPEAKER_01: But beyond just this battle being lost too, it wasn't all well in the American camp.
55:57
SPEAKER_01: Steuben, though he was flying high after the Battle of Monmouth, was cut right back down.
56:03
SPEAKER_01: All of his work as Inspector General had proved a boon to the fighting capacity
56:06
SPEAKER_01: of the Army and ought to have granted him a command, but this was not to be.
56:12
SPEAKER_01: He had proven that he was highly capable and was often praised by the likes
56:17
SPEAKER_01: of Hamilton and Lawrence, but his ego and ambition seemed
56:20
SPEAKER_01: to ruffle Washington's feathers enough to keep him from flying too high.
56:26
SPEAKER_01: Steuben was also used to the customs of European armies and monarchies,
56:31
SPEAKER_01: but he was now in a democratic world,
56:34
SPEAKER_01: and navigating these new structures was extremely frustrating for Steuben.
56:38
SPEAKER_01: He found the lack of discipline which he saw at Valley Forge and would continue
56:43
SPEAKER_01: to see, despite all this training, demoralizing,
56:47
SPEAKER_01: and worried that this war was going to be prolonged or even lost due
56:51
SPEAKER_01: to the complacency of Americans.
56:54
SPEAKER_01: He was eventually able to get one of his suggestions accepted,
56:57
SPEAKER_01: and it would be this one that would stamp Steuben's legacy forever
57:00
SPEAKER_01: in American military history.
57:02
SPEAKER_01: He would use his experience at Valley Forge,
57:05
SPEAKER_01: as well as the vast education that he had received in Europe,
57:09
SPEAKER_01: and write the first American military codes.
57:13
SPEAKER_01: And Lockhart in The Drillmaster of Valley Forge describes what these codes would look like.
57:19
SPEAKER_01: He had no intention of merely copying the Prussian military regulations.
57:24
SPEAKER_01: He admired the Prussian system and overall believed it to be the best in all
57:27
SPEAKER_01: of Europe, but he also recognized that the center
57:29
SPEAKER_01: of military thought was not Prussia but France.
57:33
SPEAKER_01: The composition of the new regulations would involve picking and choosing
57:36
SPEAKER_01: the best elements from the Prussian and French systems and then adapting them
57:40
SPEAKER_01: to American conditions.
57:41
SPEAKER_01: And this required juggling a dizzying quantity of details in ephemera,
57:45
SPEAKER_01: working from memory Fleury's advice who was
57:48
SPEAKER_01: a French general working alongside Steuben and the few military texts he had
57:52
SPEAKER_01: at hand he composed scores of short essays written on a variety of topics
57:56
SPEAKER_01: for his own use on the proper formation of infantry units on tactics on the duties
58:01
SPEAKER_01: of officers in European armies on the administration
58:04
SPEAKER_01: of the entire military End quote.
58:07
SPEAKER_01: Broken into three sections, a drill manual, official regulations,
58:11
SPEAKER_01: and a code of conduct, the Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops
58:16
SPEAKER_01: of the United States, also known as the Blue Book, were comprehensive, concise,
58:21
SPEAKER_01: and original.
58:23
SPEAKER_01: He did not copy or adapt the minutiae,
58:25
SPEAKER_01: but rather took the fundamental principles of the Prussian and French militaries
58:30
SPEAKER_01: and built onto it an American context.
58:33
SPEAKER_01: There are further details of maneuvers in various terrains,
58:36
SPEAKER_01: common administrative procedures,
58:38
SPEAKER_01: and a guide for the duties of each rank in the army.
58:41
SPEAKER_01: It was a vital book to continue to instill the order in an army
58:45
SPEAKER_01: that was still heavily lacking, and Washington was eager to put it to use.
58:50
SPEAKER_01: Stupin and the rest of the generals involved had finished writing in March of 1779,
58:55
SPEAKER_01: and throughout the summer the book was reprinted and handed out to all
58:58
SPEAKER_01: of the officers to help guide the training.
59:01
SPEAKER_01: And this regulation book paid dividends early,
59:04
SPEAKER_01: as 1,300 Continentals were able to overwhelm the British garrison at Stony Point,
59:11
SPEAKER_01: which I detailed at the top of the show.
59:13
SPEAKER_01: However, it wasn't adopted perfectly.
59:16
SPEAKER_01: There were still major discipline issues,
59:18
SPEAKER_01: and the states were slow or unable to fill their recruitment totals.
59:22
SPEAKER_01: It seemed like, even with all of the work that Steuben had put in,
59:26
SPEAKER_01: nothing would truly change about the American army.
59:30
SPEAKER_01: To make matters worse, the American economy seemed to be inching
59:32
SPEAKER_01: towards complete collapse, with inflation rising rapidly,
59:36
SPEAKER_01: thus making supplies extremely expensive.
59:39
SPEAKER_01: And yet, despite Steuben's continuous pleading well into 1780,
59:45
SPEAKER_01: Congress did little to rectify the issues the army was facing.
59:49
SPEAKER_01: Being ignored and pushed aside for so long,
59:52
SPEAKER_01: Steuben openly decried the other leadership in Congress and vowed to resign
59:56
SPEAKER_01: from his inspectorship.
59:57
SPEAKER_01: He truly believed in the revolutionary cause at this point and did not want
1:00:00
SPEAKER_01: to see all the work done by him, by the army, go to waste.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_01: This threat was enough to get Congress to accept his recommendation
1:00:08
SPEAKER_01: over an American general for reorganization and recruitment methods.
1:00:13
SPEAKER_01: It was during this fight that Steuben remained close with Washington
1:00:16
SPEAKER_01: and actually became close friends with him,
1:00:19
SPEAKER_01: as they were both dedicated to a singular cause.
1:00:22
SPEAKER_01: And the general feeling about this cause,
1:00:25
SPEAKER_01: which had waxed and waned throughout this war so far, seemed to be cresting a bit.
1:00:30
SPEAKER_01: Cornwallis was rampaging through the southern states,
1:00:34
SPEAKER_01: the British remained at their stronghold in New York,
1:00:37
SPEAKER_01: and the Continental Army was still too undisciplined and too small to do anything
1:00:41
SPEAKER_01: about it.
1:00:42
SPEAKER_01: However, there was a new hope on the horizon.
1:00:46
SPEAKER_01: Not just because of the changes brought by Steuben, but because at long last,
1:00:51
SPEAKER_01: the French, who had long been very helpful at sea and as military leaders,
1:00:57
SPEAKER_01: were now sending actual troops.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_01: Lafayette arrived with the news that Conte de Rochambeau was en route to America
1:01:06
SPEAKER_01: with over 6,000 troops in tow.
1:01:09
SPEAKER_01: Benjamin Franklin and Silas Dean had been successful,
1:01:13
SPEAKER_01: and it seemed now that the war was flipping on its head.
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SPEAKER_03: There's
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[music]
1:01:31
SPEAKER_03: Look no further for a place to hide,
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SPEAKER_03: a place no one can
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[music]
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SPEAKER_03: speak.
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[music]
1:04:26
SPEAKER_03: Perspective on
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[music]