1/ With July 4th upon us, I often think about how the period directly after the adoption of the Declaration was one of the most difficult, dangerous, and consequential of our history.
We rode on a razor's edge of defeat until Trenton. Washington was trading space for time...
We rode on a razor's edge of defeat until Trenton. Washington was trading space for time...
2/ ...falling back from New York. This period was a grim as can be imagined. We'd been at war with the greatest empire on earth for over a year by that time. Until Trenton and Princeton at the turn of the year, major victories were thin on the ground. 1777 was no picnic either.
3/ Hell, it took until 1783 to wrap it all up. It's a reminder, though, that persistence against overwhelming odds, American's glorious, clumsy, wonderfully stubborn demand for independence took time and sacrifice.
