Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Honoring John Garrett and Talking History With Jim Stempel 4-18-23

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Honoring John Garrett and Talking History With Jim Stempel 4-18-23 · OneLegUpAlex Media

0:02
Here's your ocean, Alex Garrett. Well here on the Alex Garrett Podcast.
0:16
I just want to say thank you for sharing your condolences and well wishes and
0:22
prayers for our family at this time. Yeah, I haven't podcasted in a
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little bit because over the weekend we lost my dad, John Garrett, Johnny
0:34
Lee Garrett, at the age of eighty five. I will not do a
0:40
whole blogout memorial on this podcast and said, I'm gonna do it as thoughts
0:45
come up, as times come up, as I feel called to play the
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audio I got of him over the last few months and even till last year,
0:54
But that will come and do time. I just want to take this
0:58
moment to say thank you for all the wishes, the messages, the love.
1:03
My family and I are certainly feeling it. And I'll tell you there
1:07
is tough times visualizing his end of life and his with us life, because
1:12
it's just incredible how fast things went from him just going to met Life saved
1:19
him even two months ago to now this. And you know, he told
1:26
me this wasn't the plan for this year, and I believe God had his
1:30
plan for all of this, and he's in God's hands now. And as
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far as the podcasting goes, I will say this. You know, my
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dad always listened at certain points to hear what I say, mainly on radio,
1:45
but sometimes I throw in the podcast and he'd always like to say that
1:53
I gave quote unquote half the story. And to me, I will measure
2:00
my words on this podcast and knowing that he's going to be in my ear
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like a producer in your ear every time I want to say something, is
2:07
this right? What would my dad say that's going to happen? So there
2:12
are distinct pauses, and there are distinct like switchover switch arounds or something like
2:17
that. It's fat because my dad was talking to me as I'm doing the
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podcast, and I don't know about you, but I can hear all as
2:28
different catchphrases he would say over the years, and I miss his voice already.
2:32
I also miss not hearing from him after every playoff game, you know
2:37
the Kings are up to nothing and learned the sacramento, and I'd love to
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talk to him because he was very intrigued about the Warriors over the years and
2:45
how they had their rise and now fall it looks like. And of course
2:50
in hockey we have all three teams making it Rangers Devils tonight. So yeah,
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there's a lot of sports that he will miss out on. And you
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know, somebody says the first Christmas, it's the first Birthday without it's the
3:02
first list. I'm feeling it right away because my dad was so involved.
3:07
He would talk to me after every game possible. And that's that's what we're
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a miss right out the gate, right out the gate. So as details
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become more available, we are going to the crematory today, and I'm a
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little nervous about that because now you've got to carry on his legacy and and
3:28
and make sure that he stays alive. But what I want him to know,
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and I know you're listening up there, Pop, what I want him
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to know is that he was loved and cared for and and really just included,
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even if he didn't feel at times, he always was. And I
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think that's the message. I want to care of me the next few weeks
3:53
here, as and years and forever. So that's where we're at. But
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this podcast cannot stop. It can't come to a grinding halt completely. That's
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why I have rebooted it. As we get through this grieving process here and
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I wanted to throw it to an interview. I did this past Wednesday.
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I got his book, got an interview with Jim Stemple. He's a historian,
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New Jersey native, and he talks about the American Revolution and New Jersey's
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impact on the Revolution, on winning independence, on keeping independence after the war
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and after the declaration. And his book is called Harassing an Enemy Without further
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ado my conversation with Jim Stemple. Well, I'm Alex Garrett, and today
4:49
on the One Leg Up podcast, I've got author Jim Stemple, mister Stempel
4:57
on my podcast today to talk about something you've never heard about of regarding the
5:02
American Revolutionary War. Now, Jim, thanks for joining me on the podcast.
5:06
Firstly, thank you thanks for having me Alex. You know, I'm
5:11
always fascinated by history, and this book really caught my eye because we all
5:15
know about when Washington crossed the Delaware, but your Tristate area, the Garden
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State, had some victories as well, and that's where you kind of start
5:24
off the book, isn't it. Yes, for sure, it starts off
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with Trenton and Princeton. I mean the conception, the general conception of the
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Revolutionary War during this period now is everybody kind of remembers Trenton and some remember
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Princeton, and then it seems to fall off of a cliff and disappear during
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the winter months, and then it seems to reappear in the early months of
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seventeen seventy seven, or I should say summer and fall of seventeen seventy seven,
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as Washington moves to defend Philadelphia from the British. At that time,
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Adolphius the capitol United States, and that's where it seems to pick up again.
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But what I discovered is that there is actually an enormous amount of fighting
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that went on in New Jersey during that period of time that really hasn't been
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written about. Well, I know you're a New Jersey native, So is
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that a part of why you were fascinated with the New Jersey side of this
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war? Well, it is. Actually what happened was this is my tenth
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book, and I was contacted by Roger Williams, who is the editor at
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Knox Press, and we had a long conversation one time. He was interested
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to know if I would consider writing for Knox Press, and we talked about
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those goings on in New Jersey and he told me a little bit about this
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period, which really did catch my interest, because, like you said,
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I grew up in New Jersey, in Central New Jersey, in fact,
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and I didn't know that much about what he was talking about. So that
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did pique my interest, and I started looking into it deeper and deeper and
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deeper. And what I found was that there was an enormous out of battle
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and action and fighting and casualties going on in central New Jersey that no one
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had ever really heard about before. For instance, I mean, I grew
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up in Westfield, New Jersey, which is not terribly far from New York,
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and when I was a kid, there was a lot of lore in
7:15
town about the Revolutionary War, and one of those things was that they had
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caught a British spy and they had hung them there on the gallows in Westfield.
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When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike down Gallows
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Hill Road, and the lore was there was a ghost there and all this
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stuff, and it made me a little bit nervous. But as I got
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into this period, I found out that all that was low but what actually
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did happen was fantastically more important than what all the lore was. In fact,
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the entire British army, sixteen thousand strong and two divisions, marched into
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Westfield. They whacked overnight toward the town to shreds, marched off with all
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the money and all the livestock from the place. And I had never been
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taught in that any of it. Nobody knew about that. So that's when
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I really started to realize that, gosh, there's a lot of information here
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that I need to know, and I think that it really would help our
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understanding of the revolution, and certainly the people in the Rye State area understanding
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something important was going on in New Jersey that's never really been written about before
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this knowledge. By the way, I got to ask you about the colony
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after Colony that sort of stood up against the British right. It seemed like
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it came colony after colony. Was Jersey one of the first sustain up to
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them before even you know, the Independent? Were they one of the first
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colonies to really say we're done with this? Or where does Jersey fall in
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line with the whole rebellion in the first place. Well, there wasn't a
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lot of action in New Jersey at the time, but the sympathies were about
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a third of the people in Jersey, from what I've been able to tell,
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were for the rebellion, a third were against the rebellion, and a
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third were indifferent. That changed a lot during seventeen seventy six and seventeen seventy
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seven, and the loyalties switched over hard towards the towards the rebellion, towards
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Washington's army and for independence, because of the actions of the British throughout New
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Jersey that were pretty brutal. They had they had in their march from New
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York City down to the Delaware River. They had created large swaths of just
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waste land in New Jersey where the people fled their farms and homes. The
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British burned a lot of them, beat a lot of men, raped a
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lot of women, and it was an ugly time in New Jersey. And
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it continued on it to seventeen seventy seven. So I would say that early
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on New Jersey probably was like the rest of the colonies. They were lagging
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behind a little bit. It was Massachusetts that really started the rebellion, But
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once it got rolling and it moved down to New York City, the actions
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of the British caused a lot of the people to turn their loyalties. Got
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to ask you this because you know, it's joy because I feel like Jersey
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is not really a reenactment state. Meaning we know in Williamsburg, we know
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in you know, different parts of Virginia. We definitely know what the crossmen
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Delaware I mean, and up in Massachusetts. But Jersey is not known for
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being a reenactment state. So are there reenactments going on of these very battles
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you talk about in the book. Well, the first thing I needed to
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understand is that let me let me explain that there were a couple of dynamics
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going on in New Jersey. There were not a lot of big battles going
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on. And that's one of the reasons we don't know it that well.
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And the reason for that is that George Washington at the time the Congress that
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established the Continental Army and a number of establishments and they were one year enlistments.
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And as Washington moved into New Jersey in seventeen seventy seven, he made
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his headquarters at Morristown. The second establishment, which was they had enlistments from
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January first, seventeen seventy six to December thirty first, seventy seventy six.
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They were marching off and said made a third establishment, but they weren't marching
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in. So Washington was at a decided manpower disadvantage during his entire period of
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time. He could not possibly afford to get drawn into a major engagement.
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All he could do was really harass the enemy, hence the title of the
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book. So we found a return from early March seventeen seventy seven. At
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that time Washington had about twenty two hundred continentals and they were spread all across
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New Jersey. At the same time, Cornwallis, who was the operational in
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operational command of the British Field Army at New Brunswick, at about eighteen thousand
11:41
troops. So Washington couldn't possibly get drawn into an engagement, a major engagement
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at that time, it would have been suicidal. The British, on the
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other hand, they had all everything they need. They needed except for one
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thing, and that was forged for their animals. Eighteenth century armies moved with
11:58
wagons and caissons and limbers for their artillery. They were all drawn by animals.
12:05
They needed food to keep those animals alive, and so they had to
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get out into New Jersey to try to get that that forge for their animals.
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New Jersey at the time was a very agrarian place. It was every
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it was very very prosperous. They had great farms. So the British were
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trying to get a lot of the timothy and alfalfa, hay and the straw,
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and the malicious in New Jersey initially violently opposed that, and so then
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did the Continentals, and that's where a lot of this came about. So
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you have a lot of small actions going on constantly daily, not just big
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battles, but daily actions as the British were trying to get forge for their
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animals and the Americans were fighting them. And that's why it didn't make a
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lot of news anywhere. You know, if you have a couple of hundred
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British marching out and they take you five dead and thirteen wounded, that's not
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making news anywhere. But this was going on constantly over eight over and eight
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months period, and that's why the casualty totals went up radically. For instance,
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the casualty rate for the British in New Jersey. They suffered about thirty
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three hundred casualties during this entire period. Now that means nothing to you until
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you compared to what they suffered during their entire New York Campaign. That's what
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I'm talking about, the Battle of Long Island and Washington, of Fort Washington,
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Fort Lee, White Plains that period of time, they only suffered fifteen
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hundred casualties. So it was well over twice the number of casualties. And
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yet nobody's really heard of the New Jersey Campaign of seventeen seventy seven. And
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yet most people know about the New York Campaign, at least those who are
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interested in American history. So that's the type of dynamics that was going on.
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There were a lot of small engagements, militia attacks, a lot of
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bushwhacking, ambushes and things like that that were taking a brutal toll on the
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British army over a period of time. During COVID, we talk about rebellion.
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Were you worried there was gonna be some sort of rebellion event against the
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government. I mean, I always thought our own government was created to protect
14:11
its own cheris and not forced them to go against its own government. Yet
14:15
we saw a lot of lawsuits was out a lot. But you know,
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we're talking about rebellion. Do you find any parallels to the way people were
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fighting the COVID mandates and whatnot, Not the violent part, but just the
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standing up in resistance that you will absolutely absolutely yeah. I mean the British
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in seventeen seventy seven they issued a proclamation to the people of New Jersey staying
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basically that anyone who came forward and signed the proclamation would be treated fair and
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they would forgive them if they had been on the rebel side. So a
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lot of people did come forward, but guess what, the British didn't treat
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them any better at all. Their homes were still being ransacked, their brothers
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were still being beaten, and this really turned the people of New Jersey violently
14:58
against the British. They saw a really oppressive occupation of New Jersey in those
15:05
in those areas where the British were, and every time they the British marched
15:09
out, they caused havoc in the general population. So yeah, I mean
15:13
a government. That's one of the first rules of government, right that goes
15:18
back to Lusseau and the contract with the people is that people are willing to
15:22
give up some of their rights so long as the government protects them. Once
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the government starts oppressing people and not protecting them but injuring them, and you
15:31
get you'll get problems in any free population. And yes, do I see
15:37
things that are similar similar? For sure, there's a lot of unrest right
15:41
now with the government, certainly in Washington and several state governments. It doesn't
15:46
seem to be that um public officials really care about the people anymore. I
15:54
ask you this question because obviously, people like myself and you want to preserve
16:00
American history. So how vague is telling this story of preserving the history?
16:04
You know, we're only three eight years after from a few hundred fifty years,
16:07
so there's some correlation to that kind of preservation of the history. And
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what you're saying here, isn't it? Absolutely? I mean, my wife
16:17
and I we've lived the American dream. I'm not writing these books for myself.
16:19
I'm writing these for my children and their grandchildren and their grandchildren because I
16:26
would like everyone to be able to live in a free country, a country
16:30
governed by law, and have the ability to grow and prosper and do as
16:36
best as they can do that's that is the American dream, and that has
16:40
caused the United States to become an enormously popular and successful country, that the
16:48
most successful in the history of mankind. To understand that even you have to
16:52
have some perspective. You have to have some understanding of history and understand that
16:59
every every one of us living today is living in the greatest time on the
17:03
history, in the history of human content. I mean, we have virtually
17:07
all the food we want, any kind of food we want, We can
17:11
move at will, we can drive where we want. We have the entire
17:15
knowledge of mankind virtually at our fingertips and nowadays, and yet how many people
17:22
have any appreciation of that? I think very few, As at times that
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I'm I'm the same way, I think, oh my gosh, what's going
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on? You have to have a serious understanding of history to understand how fortunate
17:34
you really are. I'm gonna ask you it later we make it to twenty
17:38
twenty six and make it two fifty as a country, But before we get
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there, the research, I mean, come on, did you the research
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and to due to get this book published and written and all that very extensive,
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right, because this is dealing with artifacts and documents and even journals from
17:56
eons ago expensive. No. I did buy some books, but a lot
18:02
of things nowadays are online, and I wrote most of this during the COVID
18:06
lockdowns and all that. Fortunately I wasn't locked down here. I live in
18:08
Maryland, and I could go around anywhere I wanted. But that didn't mean
18:12
I could get into various buildings, government buildings. Fortunately a lot of things
18:17
are online and I could find them there, and the ones that I couldn't
18:21
that I wanted to, I could buy quickly and have it shifted here.
18:23
It didn't cost me a fortune. Cost I'd probably bought ten eleven books.
18:27
But most of the stuff I found online. And fortunately all of the Founders
18:33
letters and things like that, all their correspondences online now, so that's a
18:38
fabulous thing that you know. Again, you can go back and get all
18:42
of Washington's documentation. If you don't like George Washington, if you don't think
18:47
he was the kind of man that he should have been, go back and
18:49
read what he had to deal with. It's right there. You can find
18:52
it. It's I'm Founders online. Anybody can go read them all and you'll
18:56
find out that he was he was quite a leader you really us and he
19:00
was a man of great character in my opinion. Well that's that's good to
19:04
know. I'm Mavio said, they're all on line. But did you have
19:08
when people want let's read enemy har asked, what can they look forward to?
19:12
Not only stories? But how do I mentioned any quotations, any kind
19:15
of like perspective from the actual fighters on the battlefield, or how did you
19:21
go about writing it? Oh? Yeah, Well, I tried to have
19:25
a whole range of perspectives from the top leaders on both sides giving their opinions,
19:30
and so you can follow their thinking in their strategy down to them his
19:36
lieutenant commanders like William Maxwell and Nathaniel Greene. We have some of that right
19:42
down to the people who are actually fighting it. I have things from American
19:48
soldiers in the field, their diaries and journals, and I have things from
19:52
British and Hessian soldiers in the field. There's one man in particular, Captain
19:57
Johann Ewald, who wrote long journal and he was a Heshi and captain,
20:03
but he was he was a very fair minded man and his view of the
20:07
events then are really worth reading. Because he was working for the British but
20:14
he in a way admired the Americans when they did well, and he was
20:18
he was a very fair minded man, so you could you could see a
20:21
neutral approach to things, and you get you get some really good ideas on
20:26
what was going on from him. But there are a lot of I have
20:29
a lot of people in there, a lot of quotes from a lot of
20:32
different people as to what was going on, and so so you get you
20:37
get a feel for not only what Washington was thinking and what how and porn
20:41
Wallace were thinking, but men in the in the in the trenches, so
20:45
to speak, who are out there fighting every day. All right, I
20:48
gotta ask you this real fast. Uh. You know, Hamilton was put
20:53
putting American history on the map. So I kind of do a pop culture
20:56
and I don't know if you watched you listen to soundtrack, but you think
21:00
that when the woman ended in a good job documenting it also, I don't
21:04
know, I just it it brought people's mindset to that era through that musical,
21:10
did it not? Yeah? Apparently I haven't seen it. I don't
21:14
know how closely attracts to history. Yeah, but I've had a number of
21:21
people talk to me and say you know, that sort of inspired them to
21:26
start looking into the Revolutionary period. I mean, Alexander Hamilton in seventeen seventy
21:32
seven was brought on to George Washington's staff at Morristown. That's the first time
21:37
we really see him appear in any significant position. But he was just a
21:41
junior officer at the time. So but Washington saw in him a fine mind,
21:47
and that's what he was always seeking to have around him. People who
21:51
could think well, could write well, were well educated, and we're smart.
21:55
Washington was good in that regard. He wasn't scared of people who were
21:59
intells and he always sought their views. But yeah, from what I understand,
22:03
I haven't seen Hamilton, but I don't think it tracks too closely with
22:07
history, but it's something that inspired people to look into it. Got actually
22:14
because I see you graduated from Citadel and I was actually on their canvas tournament
22:18
when I was in South Carolina. A beautiful place. But the academic institution
22:22
they're not teaching the history right, So how are you looking to work with
22:27
the academia, even your alumna, you know, your alma mater, on
22:32
getting this history recorded and taught to the students. Of today. Well,
22:37
that's the problem, isn't it. I mean, my wife was a professor
22:42
at a local culture or she taught the physics and astronomy, and she saw
22:48
exactly what you're talking about going on, that the kids knew nothing of their
22:53
own history. And actually it really hasn't been taught other than in certain areas
22:59
of the you know, if you go into Tennessee or Texas. In some
23:02
different places, American history is still being taught, but here in Maryland it's
23:07
not. Really. Civics isn't being taught. Kids have no idea how their
23:10
government works, so when things aren't working, they think, well, this
23:15
stinks, we just need to do something different. They don't understand their government,
23:18
They certainly don't understand their history, and it's a huge problem. That's
23:22
one of the reasons I started writing books, just with the idea that I
23:26
didn't think I was going to solve this problem myself, but I thought I
23:29
could at least help with it and write some things that we're interesting that might
23:34
inspire people to investigate their own history. But it's a huge problem, and
23:40
the only way we're going to turn that around is to go back and start
23:44
teaching civics and start teaching honest American history. I don't care what we can
23:48
bring in all perspectives into that history, that's fine, but we're forgetting about
23:53
the founders. And you know, I guess it's certain at a certain level
23:56
people have forgotten we fought a civil war, right that five hundred thousand men
24:02
died to help free slaves, and that seems to have just been lost to
24:07
history. Amazing sad. Actually, how would Jim Semple, he's the author
24:12
of the Enemy Harassed Washington's New Jersey campaign of seventeen seventy seven, obviously well
24:18
called n I was when you were said, oh, yeah, I talk
24:21
about the seventeen seventy six Washington crossing the Delaware. So let's go there for
24:26
a minute. Um, is there anything untold about that that we don't know?
24:30
That you might give us some insight too, because it clearly was a
24:33
there was a lead up to what happened, you know, before and after
24:37
New Jersey, um to Delaware, right to Delaware. Yeah, sorry,
24:47
okay, yeah, yeah, Well, um, the revolution, the Revolutionary
24:52
War at that point was really on its last gasps, and Washington knew it.
24:56
Like I said, the Second Establishment was a out to march off,
25:00
and he was going to have nothing to fight with it. That long time,
25:03
he knew he had to do something to excite the war effort, to
25:10
gain the confidence of the people again, and his crossing of the Delaware River
25:17
on Christmas night seventeen seventy six was as much an aspect of desperation as it
25:22
was anything else. He had to do something before all those enlisteners ran out,
25:29
and it was, you know, one of the more miraculous victories certainly
25:33
in American military history. And he was able to turn everything around almost overnight.
25:40
You know, he attacked a brigade of Hessians, caught them by complete
25:45
surprise. In about an hour, the victory was entirely over, recaptured,
25:48
about eight hundred Hessians killed, quite a few, and a number ran off.
25:53
It electrified the country, at least those people who were confident in terms
25:59
of the unit or wanted the rebel cause to survive and move on. It
26:03
was an enormous victory. What people don't understand is that Washington then went back
26:08
over the Delaware and recrossed it. Then about three or four days later,
26:12
he believed he had the British on the run and He ordered his troops to
26:17
concentrate on Trenton again, but the British weren't on the run. General Howe
26:22
in New York had gotten the wind of Washington's victory at Trenton and had ordered
26:27
corn Wallace to return and march with all the troops he could and destroy Washington,
26:34
which corn Wallace was on doing. He was marching. He came to
26:37
Princeton, gathered up about five or six thousand troops, and marched on Trenton
26:42
again. But the weather had turned warm suddenly. What had the weather in
26:48
New Jersey was in the entire area had gone up and down all winter.
26:52
What had been frozen roads turned finally turned the mud for the British march and
26:57
they came in. They slawgged into Trenton late in the day and corn Wallace
27:03
deployed his troops and there was a little bit of fighting, but they lost
27:06
daylight. Corn Wallace decided that he could He had Washington pinned against it the
27:11
Yelaware River. He could destroy him in the morning. But Washington wasn't about
27:15
to stick around. And he had held a conference of his other officers,
27:19
and they knew of some back roads and they had local people that could leave
27:25
them out. So overnight the roads roads froze again almost amazingly with a north
27:32
wind blew in throws the roads allowed the Americans to slip away. They marched
27:36
overnight to Princeton, attacked the British at Princeton one another victory there. Now,
27:41
what people don't know a lot is that at that time corn Wallace had
27:47
his major depot at Brunswick, which was New Brunswick today, and it contained
27:53
an enormous stash of supplies and things. But it also contained a treasury of
28:00
seventy thousand pounds sterling, an enormous amount of money that was supposed to finance
28:04
the British war effort in the in the uncontent, and Washington knew it was
28:12
there. And now Cornwallace realized, when he was at Trenton, because he
28:15
heard the gunfire behind him, that Washington was closer to all that money and
28:21
all those supplies than he was, and it turned it turned him into its
28:26
total panic. He forced his army back up the road at the double quick,
28:30
desperate to get to that those supplies before Washington get there. And Washington
28:34
had an idea of going there, and he got to a crossroads just north
28:38
of Princeton called Kingston, where the roads forked, and one for north east
28:45
towards bruns with the other one straight north into the New Jersey Mountains. And
28:49
Washington really wanted to go get that because he knew what could meant. But
28:53
he was looking at his troops. Now, these are men, you have
28:56
to understand. They'd been marching and fighting at night in the cold and bitter
29:00
cold. A lot of them had no shoes, no coats, no hats,
29:04
been sleeping on the frozen ground for days, marching and fighting two battles.
29:10
And he took a look at these men and he realized they'd had it,
29:14
you know, they'd had it. You can only push men so far.
29:17
And had he made a move towards Brunswick, there's a good chance he
29:21
would have been run down by the British, and the American Revolution might have
29:25
run on the flat road there between Kingston and Brunswick. But he made a
29:29
very wise decision, and not an aggressive one, but a very wise one.
29:33
He decided not to make that move and to go north into the mountains.
29:37
But all that money was there for the taking, had had he gotten
29:41
it, the American war effort would have taken a huge leap forward. But
29:47
that's one of those things most people don't know about that. But it's very
29:51
interesting, and I think Washington a great decision, even though it, you
29:53
know, it pushed the war on for years. Who was the generals he
30:02
relied on the most in New Jersey to get the job done. While in
30:06
New Jersey he had some people that would rise to fame over time, and
30:11
Nathaniel Greene was in charge of one division. He was posted at Basking Ridge
30:15
of William Maxwell did a very good job for him. Maxwell was a very
30:21
aggressive officer and he stayed with Washington and the Continental Army through seventeen eighty.
30:26
I believe you had William Alexander, who they called Lord Stirling because he supposedly
30:33
had a plane to a Scottish royalty. He did a good job. He
30:37
did a very good job during the Battle of Long Island by holding Washington's first
30:42
line of combat so that after the British flanked that position, Washington could fall
30:49
back and form another line. And he did some very good fighting in a
30:52
similar manner in New Jersey where he had to fight another rearguard action. You
30:57
also have re emerging then who had been was a Daniel Morgan. I don't
31:04
know you're if you're familiar with Morgan. But Morgan became a legend within the
31:08
Continental Army and ultimately rose to the to the rank of brigadier general. But
31:12
he returned. He was from Virginia, and it was really a sort of
31:17
a country fighter. He was great with a light infantry, which at the
31:22
time meant troops forward that were moving quickly, attacking and falling back his troops.
31:29
Washington made a special brigade for him of about five hundred men. They
31:33
all carried the long rifle, which had a great range, but you had
31:37
to know how to fire. So he had really good people who knew how
31:41
to fire the long rifle. They weren't wearing uniforms, they were wearing hunting
31:45
shirts, and they carried a hatchet and a scalping knife and a long and
31:51
the long rifle, and they were extremely effective. And Morgan would go on
31:56
to win one of the best battles and the most decisive ones in American military
32:00
history in the South. It was a small engagement known as Colpins, but
32:05
that actually turned the war around as well. So he had a number of
32:08
good people working for him at the time. All right, Well, I
32:12
think the million dollar question about why history is so important is it sort of
32:17
gives contact to him today and sort of gives us a guide to how to
32:21
win today it too. Well, if we can win a revolution, we
32:24
can win our daily lives. So how can people apply what you're what you
32:30
wrote about in the last ten books as well as you know what they've done
32:34
to keep us free for you know, set that foundation. How can we
32:37
do that in our How can we apply those kind of values and morals in
32:40
our daily lives and as a country today? Well, first off, you
32:45
have to understand that we live. We have the good fortune of living in
32:50
a constitutional republic, so we can go vote and if we don't like things,
32:54
we can do something about it. I mean, people had to do
32:58
that in the past with with guns. You know, we don't have to
33:01
do it with guns now, but we have to do it. It's not
33:04
going to be done for us. And that we have been bequeathed something enormously
33:09
useful and helpful to us as individuals, but it has to be held every
33:15
day by another a generation. Really, there are many people in the world
33:20
who would be happy to take it away from him and take your wealth and
33:23
take everything that you have in the future of the country, and you have
33:29
we have to be willing to organize and fight back, not with guns,
33:35
but at the ballot box and by organizing ourselves and understanding the problem we're up
33:39
against and understanding what we could lose. We could lose it all, you
33:45
know, in one generation. But that's been known for a long time.
33:47
You know, there are a lot of people when the government was being originally
33:52
formed and throughout the Civil War understood that, you know, this union could
33:57
be lost. And that's why a lot of people fought a civil war.
34:00
They didn't want to lose the union that they knew was so prosperous and so
34:05
good for them. So I would say, people just need to understand the
34:09
problem and organize and do something about it. It's not going to be done
34:15
for us. We have to do something, no matter how minor it is,
34:19
we have to do something. That's my best advice. I love that.
34:22
Now, are you any historical societies can people link up with you and
34:27
discuss this deeply? What was an emails or for media? And yeah,
34:31
are there any historical societies in New Jersey that honor where you've just written an
34:36
enemy haraq Oh. Yeah. Absolutely. In fact, I was just up
34:40
in Princeton last weekend. I gave a talk for the Sons of the American
34:45
Revolution. They had a meeting there and I gave a talk there. You
34:51
can look into the Sons of the American Revolution. They have a number of
34:54
chapters throughout New Jersey, and I'm sure they were in New York and Delaware
34:59
and all around this area. There's also Revolutionary War Roundtables and there are a
35:04
number of those throughout New Jersey and I often speak at those. Those are
35:07
good organizations. They're they're very much involved in training and learning and re outreach
35:15
to people and especially to children. So those are very good organizations. Um.
35:21
I have a Facebook page that people can just google it. I mean
35:23
they can find me on I have a website, a Facebook page, and
35:30
um that's that's basically what I do. I give a lot of talks throughout
35:35
I'll be in New Jersey through probably over the next year, talking a lot
35:37
of those places. The Daughters of the American Revolution also have chapters in New
35:44
Jersey. I'm going to be talking at several of their places, so I'll
35:47
be around and hopefully I'm going to return to my hometown in Westville that we're
35:52
talking about having a pretty good sized event there. Well, hopefully this podcast
35:57
can get down there. I'd love to get to meet you in Yeah,
36:01
I'll you will be glad to give you a notification when it comes up.
36:06
That would be awesome. It's been Jim spent both he can be found on
36:09
Amazon and all the other pages to get an Enemy Harassed Washington's New Jersey campaign.
36:16
And thanks again Jim for this beautiful interview today. And I love talking
36:21
history, so thanks for you know, giving all of us. We'll be
36:24
more wisdom today. Thank you, Alex. I enjoyed it and I will
36:29
definitely be enjoying reading his book Harassing an Enemy in the coming days. But
36:34
I just want to say, if you are in the area of the Viscardi
36:37
School this upcoming Saturday and want to reminisce and want to shoot the breeze and
36:43
share your memories and thoughts, I'll be there nine am to four pm at
36:46
the first ever Spring Wheelchair Basketball Sportsmanship Tournament. And I know that'll be an
36:55
emotional one, but we will push through it, and I know my dad
36:59
will be with me even if he's not working, walking through the doors of
37:04
the Viscardi Center, which I was so used to for so many years.
37:07
Until then, we'll talk to you soon and God bless