Merry Christmas . . . and Happy Save the Revolution Day

If you have not seen it, The Crossing, is a very historically accurate rendition of the attack that literally saved the American Revolution.

In January 1776, the Colonial Army under George Washington’s command had successfully surrounded a small British occupation force in Boston.  But the fortunes of war soon changed.

By July 1776, the British began to attack the colonists in earnest, first with a Southern expedition that failed in Charleston, South Carolina, and then with an attack on Washington’s Army in New York.  The latter succeeded so well that, by December 1, 1776, Washington’s Army was a shadow of its former self.  Just a few thousand soldiers, most lacking adequate clothing or food, remained.  The British had driven them out of New York and New Jersey, capturing or killing a large number of the colonial soldiers on the way.

The British went into winter camps, believing the Revolution all but over.  Everyone expected that the small remnant of the colonial army would disappear over the winter and that, early in 1777, the vanquished colonists would sue for peace.

But as we neared Christmas in 1776, George Washington, a man of tremendous leadership skills and inhuman persistence, saw an opportunity to make one last desperate attack to change the fortunes of war.  And with that, I give you . . . The Crossing