Throughout this past election, partisans on both
sides felt that only the thinnest of lines protect this republic from
catastrophe. As demonstrated in this photo I took last month at Fort Lee Historic Park, not far from
where I live in Bergen County, NJ, that was, quite literally, true in this week back in November 1776. There was
no bridge crossing the Hudson the way there is now, but Americans soldiers
still dreaded that their British foes would come pouring over the river in
pursuit of them.
They had every reason to fear this. The prior two months had seen the largest fleet of ships ever to leave
the shores of Great Britain, unloading 31,000 British and Hessian troops in the New
York area. They promptly proceeded to whip the Americans at Long Island, then
the southern tip of Manhattan, then all of Manhattan up to Fort Washington.
On November 16, 1776, even that stronghold was out of patriot
hands, as an assault by Hessian troops seized Fort Washington—and with it,
nearly 3,000 American troops. (The misery was only starting for the latter:
only 800 would survive their imprisonment aboard the British death ships.)
George Washington had seen enough, knowing it was
pointless to continue to hold Fort Lee after its counterpart across the river
had been taken. Even those plans for an orderly retreat, however, had to be
abandoned: another Hessian attack, this time on Fort Lee, led the Americans to
leave more precipitously.
For the following month, Washington had to curb his
aggressive instincts, retreating across New Jersey rather than engaging in another pitched battle, in order to keep his army together as a unit. At last, he spotted an opportunity through surprise, and his twin victories
across 10 days at Trenton and Princeton bought him much-needed time even as
they cheered his troops.
Earlier today marked the 240th
anniversary of the British invasion of New Jersey. At the Fort Lee Historic
Park, a recreation of the Continental Army’s encampment, the occasion was
observed through music, cooking artillery demonstrations, and a parade to
Monument Park—the kind of festivities that would not have occurred in 1776.
Back then, the bright promise of the Declaration of Independence seemed to be
flickering out, and many in the young country feared the extinction of their
rights with their nationhood.
That feeling has been shared more than a few times since then.
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