Things You Wish You Had Written
Raw, undisciplined, cowardly men:
In March 1775, the British First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich, declared “Suppose the colonies do abound in men, what does that signify? They are raw, undisciplined, cowardly men.†It was an opinion that resonated in the House of Commons. (David McCullough, 1776)
The following month the British army would find out just how “raw, undisciplined, and cowardly†those men were not, when they met at Lexington and Concord in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The pyrric British victory in these opening battles of the American Revolution would set the tone for things to come, and truely were “the shots heard around the world.â€
Those “raw, undisciplined, and cowardly men†overcame tremendous adversities in fighting the most powerful military force of the day. Fourteen months later, on July 4, 1776, Congress approved the wording of the most sacred document in American history—the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration laid out, in detail, the infractions of the tyrant King George against the colonists of America, and declared the thirteen colonies free of British rule.
The war raged on for five more years, but in the fall of 1781, British General Charles Cornwallis was surrendering his army to the “raw, undisciplined, and cowardly†American General George Washington.
Had I seen it yesterday, I definitely would have linked it. Surely the best 4th of July article for 2008. The only thing it is missing is this:
Faced with a dwindling supply of food and ammunition, and still awaiting relief from Clinton, Cornwallis offered to surrender unconditionally on October 17. Cornwallis declined to appear at the surrender ceremony or to surrender his sword (a custom at the time) to General Washington, claiming illness and sending Charles O’Hara instead. Washington refused to accept the surrender from O’Hara, and so the deputy surrendered to Washington’s subordinate, General Benjamin Lincoln. When the British forces came out, their drummers played the march, “The Day the World Turned Upside Down.”
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Darren:
I’ve often heard the name of the march but have never heard it played. I’d like to.
July 6, 2008, 1:17 pm