The 1775 Battle for Freedom; by Jeffrey Francis

Our speaker recapped important aspects of early battles that George Washington’s colonial army fought against the British.  Battles included both victory and defeat that ultimately lead to freedom for the colonies from rule by the British.

There were several policies and actions by the British that lead up to the early battles including: forcing the colonies to buy British goods including The Sugar Act, The Stamp Act of 1765 and The Townshend Act taxing raw goods and finally the Tea Act, ending in the Boston Tea Party.

After an initial victory against the British, Washington suffered a number of difficult battles and losses to the British army. In the Battle of Trenton, Washington defeated a formidable garrison of Hessian mercenaries before withdrawing. Washington’s army crossed the Delaware on Christmas Day 1776 and, over the course of the next 10 days, won two crucial battles of the American Revolution.

Realizing his men could not hold Trenton against British reinforcements, Washington withdrew across the Delaware. However, on December 30 he crossed back into New Jersey with an army of 2,000. Washington worked quickly to supplement his numbers, urging militiamen whose terms had expired to stay on for six weeks. On New Year’s Day, Washington’s force of 5,000 poorly trained men massed in Trenton. The next day Cornwallis arrived with an army 5,500, to be defeated by Washington.

Jeffrey Francis highlighted the importance of having a clear purpose or goal and focus on achieving that goal.  The saying “Give me victory or give me death” was used by Washington, indicating how serious they were about overcoming British taxation and rule.

Lessons from the early revolution:

• Never give up
• Establish a clear goal that you believe in
• Focus on the objective/goal
• Have patience (In Washington’s case waiting for the right opportunity to attack)