While George Washington was an impressive leader, things looked grim for the Continental Army in the months following the Declaration of Independence.
In the first major engagement Washington's army was defeated and forced to retreat by British General William Howe, who captured the prize of New York in September 1776.
In the early morning of November 15, 1776, the British were joined by German Hessian soldiers, and the Americans were completely overwhelmed - barricaded inside of Fort Washington - with the British and Hessians firing unceasingly on them.
Just weeks later, General Washington was once again outmaneuvered and humiliated by British General Howe, who succeeded in the ultimate symbolic victory of marching his British troops into Philadelphia in September of 1777, literally occupying what was then America's first capital - the city of the signing of the Declaration and the seat of the Continental Congress.
While the British were settling in, expropriating and inhabiting the homes of wealthy Philadelphians, thirty miles away George Washington was regrouping with his sick, weary, and underfed troops in drafty tents during the cold winter of 1778 at Valley Forge.
Snowden's account of Washington's prayer at that dark hour of the revolutionary struggle depicts him as beseeching "God's deliverance of aid for the cause of the country, humanity and the world." Indeed, Washington placed everything on the line for the cause as did the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, citing in the last sentence of that document that "With firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Without Washington's leadership, unrelenting perseverance, and reliance on the Almighty, the Declaration would probably have come to naught, with subsequent and final battles in the war for independence almost certainly failing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/times_change_but_the_ideas_behind_independence_day_endure.html
In the first major engagement Washington's army was defeated and forced to retreat by British General William Howe, who captured the prize of New York in September 1776.
In the early morning of November 15, 1776, the British were joined by German Hessian soldiers, and the Americans were completely overwhelmed - barricaded inside of Fort Washington - with the British and Hessians firing unceasingly on them.
Just weeks later, General Washington was once again outmaneuvered and humiliated by British General Howe, who succeeded in the ultimate symbolic victory of marching his British troops into Philadelphia in September of 1777, literally occupying what was then America's first capital - the city of the signing of the Declaration and the seat of the Continental Congress.
While the British were settling in, expropriating and inhabiting the homes of wealthy Philadelphians, thirty miles away George Washington was regrouping with his sick, weary, and underfed troops in drafty tents during the cold winter of 1778 at Valley Forge.
Snowden's account of Washington's prayer at that dark hour of the revolutionary struggle depicts him as beseeching "God's deliverance of aid for the cause of the country, humanity and the world." Indeed, Washington placed everything on the line for the cause as did the 56 signatories of the Declaration of Independence, citing in the last sentence of that document that "With firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor."
Without Washington's leadership, unrelenting perseverance, and reliance on the Almighty, the Declaration would probably have come to naught, with subsequent and final battles in the war for independence almost certainly failing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/times_change_but_the_ideas_behind_independence_day_endure.html
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