1776, the good, bad, and hopeless
I don't particularly like war stories. After all, the U.S. has been at war with some country some where throughout its existence. But lest you get indignant, so have most countries, unless you're reading a modern history published in the U.S. for use in our schools, then all communist and marxist countries/governments are given a pass, and all Americans are invaders, pillagers or scoundrels.Still, David McCullough's 1776 is a very sobering book. It only covers one year of our revolution which lasted until 1783, but there are so many times the Americans came close to remaining British subjects. In 1776, Americans had the highest standard of living in the world. I imagine there were many asking, Why are we in this war? Many Americans, Loyalists, and British wanted the war to end with peace talks because of the high losses.
- "In a disastrous campaign for New York in which Washington's army had suffered one humiliating, costly reverse after another, this, the surrender of Fort Washington on Saturday, November 16, was the most devastating blow of all, an utter catastrophe. The taking of more than a thousand American prisoners by the British at Brooklyn had been a dreadful loss. Now more than twice (2,837) that number were marched off as prisoners, making a total loss from the two battles of nearly four thousand men--from an army already rapidly disintegrating from sickness and desertions and in desperate need of almost anyone fit enough to pick up a musket. . . The British were astonished to find how many of the American prisoners were less than 15, or old men, filthy, and without shoes. . .
What lay ahead of the Americans taken prisoner was a horror of another kind. Nearly all would be held captive in overcrowded, unheated barns and sheds, and on British prison ships in the harbor, where hundreds died of disease. . . Washington is said to have wept. . ."
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