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00:00Previously on The Revolution
00:02British General Howe conquered the rebel capital of Philadelphia.
00:06Philadelphia under the British was a place of terrible suffering.
00:12But Franklin secured France's support for America
00:15after a decisive continental victory at Saratoga.
00:18It seems like a fool's errand.
00:20Franklin is sent to an absolute monarchy
00:22to ask them to fund a revolution against a king.
00:25Anyone in his right mind would have assumed
00:27that the best thing to do would have been to let the colonies
00:29and England destroy each other mutually.
00:31But the animus on the French against the English is so great.
00:34This is a very easy argument to make.
00:36The American Revolution, once a colonial uprising,
00:40was now a world war.
00:55December 17th, 1777.
00:58White Marsh, Pennsylvania.
01:01A battered continental army, or what remains of it,
01:05marches north through the driving snow in search of winter quarters.
01:11The year's campaigns have taken a heavy toll on the soldiers.
01:15Their clothes are tattered, their spirits down.
01:19The Commander-in-Chief George Washington is feeling the strain as well.
01:25Three months earlier, another American general, Horatio Gates,
01:30catapulted himself onto the national scene
01:32by defeating the British at Saratoga, New York.
01:37The victory has given America a new war hero,
01:40one with boundless ambition.
01:43Horatio Gates wanted to be Commander-in-Chief of the American Army.
01:46And it goes much beyond that.
01:50Whoever was the victorious leader of the revolutionaries
01:53would emerge as the leader of a new nation.
01:56At the same time that Horatio Gates' stock is on the rise,
02:00Washington's is in freefall.
02:03At Brandywine, Pennsylvania,
02:05the Americans fought the largest engagement of the war so far.
02:09And Washington suffered one of his worst losses.
02:13One thousand American soldiers are wounded or killed.
02:17And Washington is forced to retreat north into New Jersey.
02:23The victory at Brandywine gives the British the prize they were after,
02:27the rebel capital, Philadelphia.
02:31Independence Hall, the seat of rebel power, now sits empty.
02:35A burning reminder of Washington's failures.
02:39America's rebel Congress is now a body in exile
02:43and have set up a new home 100 miles to the west of Philadelphia
02:47in York, Pennsylvania.
02:50In the chamber, there are murmurings that George Washington is weak-willed.
02:55That the general's poor judgment keeps the Americans from defeating the British.
03:00The expectations that civilian leaders had
03:04that Howe's army could be conquered just like that.
03:08There were doubters and carping and criticism
03:12and Monday morning quarterbacking against what he had done.
03:18Revolutionaries like Samuel Adams are calling the abilities of their commander-in-chief into question.
03:24Our troops are victorious in the north.
03:27The enemy troops are divided and scattered over a country several hundred miles.
03:32If we do not beat them this fall, will not the faithful historian record it as our own fault?
03:37Samuel Adams.
03:42Congress takes action and names Horatio Gates to head the newly created Board of War,
03:49a position that gives him a say in American military strategy.
03:54This is the low point of George Washington's professional life.
03:59Congress begins to lose confidence in him.
04:02Gates' followers are pumping up Gates.
04:05And the idea is then Brods that Gates ought to be the commander-in-chief.
04:08But now, Washington, knowing that he's seen as weak,
04:12must win big soon to solidify that command.
04:23But the Continental Army is in no shape for a fight.
04:26And in 18th century warfare, winter is the time to rest, to train, to resupply.
04:34For Washington, now is the time to rebuild his army and his reputation.
04:41And do it before the winter is over.
04:44It will be an uphill battle at the soon-to-be-storied Valley Forge.
04:51It is a strategic location, just 23 miles north of Philadelphia.
04:56Valley Forge is an ideal place from which to keep a close eye on the movements of the British Army
05:01and stop the enemy from pillaging the fertile countryside.
05:05Sitting on a plateau, the camp is easily defensible.
05:09Creeks and the Schuylkill River provide a natural fortification to the camp.
05:15But building and running a city a third the size of Philadelphia is a mammoth undertaking.
05:22Washington throws himself into the work.
05:26He designs the camp himself, down to the last detail.
05:31The layout of the barracks, the placement of roads, the location of its defenses.
05:38Washington enacts strict rules to fight typhus and dysentery.
05:42Soldiers who do not use proper privies face five lashes to be administered on the spot.
05:48Soldiers who contract venereal disease from prostitutes selling their services on the peripheries of the camp
05:54pay for their own treatment.
05:56Four dollars for the rank and file and ten dollars for the officers.
06:02These seemingly mundane tasks consume all of Washington's time.
06:07We might accuse him of being a micromanager, but in fact this was a situation that needed micromanaging.
06:15He has to really pay attention to the minutiae because it's the minutiae that's going to kill off his army.
06:21Dysentery and other camp diseases are going to create havoc in his camp unless matters of sanitation are attended too
06:29carefully.
06:29So he has to pay close attention to the details and he does it really well.
06:36Washington's hands-on approach wins the admiration of his soldiers.
06:41And he assures the men that he himself will share in every hardship and partake in every inconvenience.
06:50During the first month of construction at Valley Forge,
06:53Washington chooses to live in a tent at the edge of the camp alongside his army.
07:08Life in Philadelphia, however, stands in stark contrast.
07:12For the British, the winter break from the war brings a return to the creature comforts that status affords.
07:19The British army is very warm and comfortable wherever they want to be,
07:24whether it's New York or Philadelphia. They have no problems.
07:27Their problem is deciding which tavern to drink at at night.
07:30The British may have lost at Saratoga, but they hold the rebel capital and are savoring it for all it
07:36is worth.
07:38Evenings are filled by social gatherings and each Thursday there is a ball where Philadelphia's High Society loyalists mingle with
07:45the British officer class.
07:49Back at Valley Forge, the temperature hovers around freezing.
07:53Many of the soldiers are forced to wrap their feet in rags for lack of shoes.
07:58But the men make do, fighting off the cold by playing cards, mending their clothes, and learning new drills.
08:08For soldiers like Joseph Hodgkins, the 34-year-old cobbler from Massachusetts,
08:14letters from home are a bittersweet reminder of what has been left behind.
08:18My dear, I have looked for you till I know not how to look any longer.
08:24Monday afternoon I was very low in spirits, almost despair of your coming home.
08:30Brother Perkins and sisters send their love to you.
08:33Your most affectionate companion till death,
08:38Sarah.
08:44As the winter grinds on at Valley Forge, supply shortages become a problem.
08:50America has never had to feed and clothe an army.
08:54During the Seven Years' War, just a fraction of the soldiers' food came from the colonies.
08:59All the rest was shipped across the ocean from England.
09:03And since the outset of the war, the congressionally controlled provisioning offices have struggled mightily to supply the armies.
09:11Supplying the Continental Army was immensely complex.
09:15We call it the Continental Army, thinking of it as a national permanent army, a regular army, which it was.
09:23But in many ways, it's still organized and paid for locally.
09:28Each state was responsible for supplying its own troops.
09:32And this creates enormous confusion.
09:35In February, the army supply lines grind to a halt.
09:39The staple diet for the soldiers becomes fire cakes,
09:43a meager meal made of flour mixed with water into an unappetizing paste that is cooked over an open fire.
09:50It is a far cry from the promised daily ration of a pound of beef and a pound of bread.
09:58Washington is all too aware of the hardships faced by his soldiers.
10:02With his army facing starvation, he throws himself into a righting frenzy.
10:08Petitioning the states for more food and clothing.
10:11Pleading to Congress for more power to oversee the supply offices.
10:16And imploring local officials to send more aid.
10:20But for all his efforts, relief is slow in coming.
10:25Washington will need help to turn his army back into a fighting force.
10:29And it will come from a most unlikely source.
10:32A new arrival in camp.
10:33A Prussian, who goes by the name of Frederick William Augustus Heinrich Ferdinand.
10:39Baron von Steuben.
10:53February 1778.
10:55The winter at Valley Forge is taking a heavy toll on the Continental Army.
11:002,500 soldiers die from disease.
11:04More than have been killed in battle in the entire war.
11:10Thousands of others are incapacitated by sickness and hunger.
11:15Washington has done his best to hold his army together.
11:18But is still under pressure from Congress to mount a successful spring campaign.
11:23And take back Philadelphia from the British.
11:26But to achieve that goal, he will have to enlist the help of others.
11:32On February 17th, a new recruit arrives in camp.
11:36Sent by the American Congress to aid in the cause.
11:41He calls himself Frederick William Augustus Heinrich Ferdinand.
11:45Baron von Steuben.
11:47And wears the bejeweled cross of the order of de la Fidelité.
11:52Denoting an honorary knighthood from Prussia.
11:57Von Steuben carries letters of introduction.
12:00But no papers confirming his achievements.
12:02An omission that should be a clue.
12:05For the Baron is stretching his story.
12:07Just as he stretched his name.
12:09He has never risen higher than the rank of Captain.
12:12And he has been turned down for service by the French, Spanish and German armies.
12:18Amidst rumors, he has taken familiarities with young boys.
12:22Which the law forbids and severely punishes.
12:26In short, von Steuben has come to the only army in the world that will have him.
12:31The Americans.
12:34The Baron's past may be shrouded in mystery.
12:36But Washington is desperate for leadership.
12:39For officers with European training.
12:42He puts von Steuben right to work.
12:46The task?
12:47To create a single method of training.
12:50A critical step towards a more professional army.
12:54And to do it before the winter is over.
12:58Von Steuben embraces the opportunity.
13:02The Baron starts small, spending hours each day working directly with a model unit that will be used to train
13:09the rest of the army.
13:11Baron von Steuben is a remarkable figure.
13:15Von Steuben's genius was the ability to distill the complexity of state-of-the-art European drill tactics into a
13:23digestible form to this raw material that was the American soldier.
13:28They are tactics that are new to Washington and his army.
13:32Tactics learned during the Baron service in the Prussian army.
13:36But he makes an important adjustment in the way he teaches them.
13:40Von Steuben recognized that he was not dealing with Prussian conscripts.
13:44He recognized the individuality and the republican notions of the population of troops that he dealt with.
13:51And he was able to take principles and tactics and give them to this force in such a manner that
13:58they were willing to receive it.
14:00And that they were able to transform themselves from virtuous republicans into soldiers in a professional army.
14:08Under von Steuben's tutelage, the soldiers learn how to form solid orderly columns.
14:14How to properly load and fire a weapon in formation.
14:18And the proper use of a bayonet.
14:20The army that comes out of Valley Forge is in many ways a much more sophisticated one than the one
14:25that goes in there.
14:27Von Steuben brings a new level of professionalism to the army.
14:32And that by itself creates its own sense of professionalism.
14:36It creates its own sense of belonging.
14:38They're belonging to something larger than themselves.
14:41In a matter of weeks, the ragtag unit is marching in lockstep.
14:48Soon, every soldier is taught the von Steuben technique.
14:52It becomes the foundation for the army's first training manual.
14:57Washington's army is slowly remade.
15:00It is nearly battle-ready.
15:08In March, spring finally comes to Valley Forge.
15:13The dark months of winter begin to fade away.
15:17Yet food shortages have been a recurring problem.
15:22For the young general Nathaniel Green, watching his army go hungry is more than he can bear.
15:28At 35, the formidable Green is a rising star in the army, even though he is an unlikely soldier.
15:36Born in Rhode Island, Green is a successful merchant from a devout Quaker family that loathes war.
15:41But he is ambitious and fiercely loyal.
15:46When war breaks out, he throws himself behind the patriot cause.
15:51Green becomes the youngest Brigadier General in the Continental Army at age 33.
15:57Now he has risen to the rank of Major General, and is one of Washington's closest confidants.
16:02And one of the loudest critics of the army's failed supply departments.
16:08The Quartermaster General, Commissary General, and Clothier General departments are in such a wretched condition,
16:14that unless there are some very good alterations in those departments,
16:17it will be impossible to prosecute another campaign.
16:20Our troops are naked, and the men getting sickly in their huts.
16:24Nathaniel Green
16:27Green's experience as a merchant leads him to take matters into his own hands.
16:31He leads foraging parties into the Pennsylvania countryside to round up food and supplies.
16:38But the citizens are often unwilling to give up their property,
16:42even to an army fighting for their independence.
16:45It creates a precarious situation.
16:48Washington didn't want to alienate the local civilian population.
16:52He did what he could to supply the army,
16:56but he wants to protect that relationship with the local community.
17:03But desperate times call for desperate measures.
17:08When persuasion fails, livestock and grain are occasionally taken at the end of a musket.
17:14Green leaves the scared civilians with the only reimbursement his army is offering,
17:19the promise of future payment.
17:21An IOU.
17:25Green's efforts impress Washington,
17:28who puts him in charge of acquiring supplies for the army.
17:32The duty-bound general accepts his assignment as quartermaster.
17:38But it is certainly not the commission that he had hoped for.
17:42Nobody ever heard of a quartermaster in history.
17:45All of you will be immortalizing yourselves in the golden pages of history,
17:49while I am confined to a series of drudgeries to pave the way for it.
17:54Nathaniel Green
17:55This is the classic case of a successful general being called back to the Pentagon to be a bureaucrat.
18:01And Green doesn't want that.
18:03But on the other hand, it's a sense of Puritan guilt.
18:05It's a sense of sacrificing what's good for you, what's good for your country.
18:11Green dispatches foraging parties far and wide.
18:15South into Virginia, to the eastern shore of Maryland,
18:19and north into New Jersey.
18:23Rebuilding the supply lines for the army.
18:29The efforts of Baron von Steuben and Green over the winter at Valley Forge
18:34have given Washington confidence that he has an army that is now ready to take the fight to the British.
18:45Meanwhile, an ocean away,
18:47a bold American is pushing the war to a new and unlikely front,
18:52the shores of England itself.
19:01April, 1778.
19:04The long winter at Valley Forge has finally come to an end.
19:07The Continental Army continues to train in preparation for the summer campaign.
19:13One that Washington hopes will bring a much-needed military victory,
19:16and vindication for his previous losses.
19:20But the fighting season is still months away.
19:24For now, all the general can do is ready his troops.
19:28Unbeknownst to Washington, though, the war for independence is spreading to a new and unexpected front,
19:35across the ocean.
19:45On a chilly spring morning, a lone American ship, the Ranger, cuts through the water off the coast of England.
19:54Their target? The port towns along the western coast of Britain.
20:00It has been 700 years since anyone has raided these shores.
20:04700 years since a foreigner has rained terror on the inhabitants of the British mainland.
20:10The architect of this bold plan?
20:13John Paul Jones.
20:16At first sight, the 31-year-old Jones is an unlikely captain.
20:20He is short in stature and soft in his speech.
20:23But the Scottish-born Jones is already a veteran sailor.
20:27Jones is a proud man. He's a very handsome man.
20:32Almost beautiful to look at.
20:34He's wearing a British naval uniform.
20:37Now you may wonder, why would an American naval officer wear a British Navy uniform?
20:44Because he thought it was better looking.
20:45Jones is the son of a gardener who set out for the open sea at the age of 13 to
20:51make a name for himself working on merchant and slave ships.
20:55Jones casts himself in his own play.
20:58And it's a play of upward mobility.
21:01This is a notion that's very 20th century, but in the 18th century it was unusual.
21:07In the 18th century, your place in society is defined.
21:12That's not the way John Paul Jones wants to see the world.
21:16He wants to be a rising figure.
21:19He wants to overcome his modest origins and become a gentleman.
21:26It takes him just eight years to reach the rank of captain.
21:30But shipboard life is a dangerous business.
21:33And at 28, he is forced to flee to Virginia to escape charges of murdering a mutinous crew member.
21:40He starts life anew in America.
21:43Adding the last name Jones to avoid being found.
21:46And joins the fledgling Continental Navy in 1775.
21:51But what America calls a Navy is little more than an awkward flotilla of mismatched merchant ships,
21:57clumsily converted for battle.
21:59A fighting force that could never stand up to the superior power of the British Navy.
22:05So the ambitious Jones sets out on his own course.
22:09Jones is a military genius and he has a fundamental insight,
22:14which is that we're never going to beat the British by playing some defensive game.
22:18The British Navy at this time has more than a hundred men of war.
22:24The American Navy has none.
22:26So they're not going to win some mass naval battle.
22:29They have to go guerrilla.
22:33John Paul Jones returns to the waters of his youth and in surprise attacks shocks the enemy.
22:41Raiding British merchant ships along the Irish coast.
22:45Burning supply ships along the west coast of Britain.
22:48And leading an attack on the port of Whitehaven.
22:51The very town Jones set sail from as a young boy.
22:55The idea is to terrorize the British people.
22:59To show them that the cost of suppressing the American Revolution is going to be high.
23:04To take the fight home to the Brits.
23:08It is a strategy that has an immediate effect.
23:11News of the raids hits London like a thunderclap.
23:14This morning an express arrived with alarming intelligence that an American privateer had appeared off the coast and proceeded to
23:22Selkirk House, which they pillaged.
23:23Along the northwest coast of England, a general intimidation discovers itself on every appearance of a sail.
23:32But for his tactics, raiding towns and taking merchant ships, Jones becomes known as the Pirate Jones.
23:42It is a label that plagues him.
23:46John Paul Jones wants to be seen as an officer and a gentleman, not as a pirate, and it hurts
23:50him.
23:51In an attempt to prove that he is more than just a pirate, Jones sets his eye on one last
23:56goal.
23:57Taking a British warship.
24:01He finds the perfect target anchored off the Irish coast.
24:04The Drake.
24:06With twenty guns, all four-pounders, she is a relatively even match to Jones' ranger.
24:12As is his custom, Jones flies the British naval ensign, which allows him to slide close to the enemy ship.
24:18And at the last minute, Jones gives the order to fire.
24:22The battle is on.
24:25The two ships exchange broadsides, at close range.
24:3018th century warfare was supposed to be gentlemanly, at least for the gentleman who fought it.
24:36It was almost like a formal dance.
24:38At sea, ships, like a minuet and a ball.
24:42Jones didn't believe in all that.
24:44Jones believed in what today we would call total war.
24:47He would put men up in the tops, as they were called, up the mast on these platforms,
24:52to blaze away with muskets, with guns.
24:57These new tactics give Jones the upper hand.
25:01His crew rakes the deck of the Drake with hot grapeshop.
25:04The tears through sails and limbs.
25:07And after just one hour, the British lower their flag in defeat.
25:12Its significance is that no American ship has taken a British ship in a clean, fair fight.
25:19And the British Navy considers itself to be so superior to any other Navy.
25:24So for an American ship to defeat a British ship was a real blow to the Brits.
25:30And it told them, hmm, what are we getting into here?
25:33The Ranger makes a hasty retreat, heading to France, the British Navy in desperate pursuit.
25:40For Jones, the mission is a success.
25:44What was done is sufficient to show that not all their boasted Navy can protect their own course.
25:50And that the scenes of distress, which they have occasioned in America, may soon be brought home to their own
25:56doors.
25:57John Paul Jones.
26:01Jones has brought the revolution right to the doorstep of the British.
26:06Arriving in France, he becomes the toast of Paris, the ideal of American heroism.
26:13Jones' war will continue.
26:15The following year, he will lead a modest fleet aboard his new ship, the Bonhomme Richard, winning the greatest American
26:22naval battle of the time against the British warship, the Serapis.
26:26And years later, for his daring missions, John Paul Jones will become known as the father of the American Navy.
26:35Back in America, George Washington prepares to take the fight to the British Army,
26:41looking for the battle that will restore his reputation once and for all.
26:50May 5th, 1778, Valley Forge.
26:55Three months of drilling have given Washington a new confidence in his army.
27:00The efforts of Washington, Nathaniel Green, and Baron von Steuben, whose service has now earned him the position of Inspector
27:06General of the Army,
27:07have emboldened a force that is now 13,000 strong.
27:13Washington's perseverance through the hardship of the winter has held his army together.
27:18He is now eager to test the mettle of his soldiers, and the British are about to provide the perfect
27:24opportunity.
27:29British Headquarters, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
27:32A new Commander-in-Chief is taking over the British Army, Sir Henry Clinton.
27:37His predecessor, William Howe, recalled after the British loss at Saratoga.
27:44Clinton arrived in America in 1775 with Howe and General John Burgoyne.
27:50Both generals left America in defeat.
27:53Now, he is the last one standing.
27:56At the time of the American Revolution, positions of command devolved to the next man in the line according to
28:04seniority.
28:05Promotion was subject, with very few exceptions, to the rigid law of seniority.
28:11And in this case, Henry Clinton was the only choice because he was the next most senior officer following the
28:18recall of Howe.
28:19Clinton is as concerned with how his actions will be interpreted, how he will be judged.
28:26That awareness of, if I don't handle this right, what's this going to mean for my reputation back at home?
28:34Clinton has good reason to worry about his reputation.
28:38The war for independence has changed dramatically.
28:41It is no longer a battle between two adversaries.
28:46Now, there are three.
28:50For the past year, the Americans have been courting France, the world's other superpower.
28:57Leading the effort is the rebel emissary, Benjamin Franklin.
29:02At 72 years old, Franklin is an internationally renowned scientist and writer who has entered a new phase in his
29:09career.
29:10That of diplomat.
29:14America's victory at Saratoga has shown the French that the colonies can hold their own against the British and has
29:20persuaded them to join the fight against their ancient enemy.
29:25Now, the elder statesman is working out the final details in the newly signed Treaty of Friendship.
29:31France gives money and supplies, but more importantly, offers their navy to the American cause.
29:37French naval support is absolutely crucial for American resistance.
29:43The British, they have to now take the naval dimensions of this war into account.
29:49They can no longer say we can take a naval supremacy for granted and concentrate on winning the war on
29:56land.
30:01Back in Philadelphia, British General Clinton opens his first orders, which have just arrived from England.
30:07The British Ministry has been forced to make a dramatic choice.
30:12In May 1778, the British hold Philadelphia, New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.
30:22Now, there is a very real danger of a blockade by the French fleet at any of these ports.
30:28So, Clinton is ordered to give up the rebel capital of Philadelphia and consolidate his forces in New York City.
30:36It is a forced retreat, not how Clinton had expected his leadership to begin.
30:45American spies in Philadelphia rush dispatches to Valley Forge with word of the British action.
30:53The news finds Washington and his generals discussing battle plans for the upcoming summer.
30:59Now, the question on the table is whether to move on the British when they begin their retreat to New
31:05York.
31:06Washington is still stinging from last year's losses at Brandywine in Germantown and is eager for a fight.
31:14But before he can take on the enemy, Washington has to take on one of his most talented generals and
31:21one of the most outspoken challengers to his authority, General Charles Lee.
31:26The British born Lee is an eccentric but capable officer and a brilliant military tactician.
31:32But in December of 1776, as he was supposed to be on his way to aid Washington as the Americans
31:38fled New York, Lee was instead captured by the British while he lounged in his night clothes at a tavern.
31:45Despite the blunder, Washington worked hard to get the experience Lee back from the British in a prisoner exchange.
31:53Lee is arguably the most qualified general officer in the American army in a strictly military sense.
32:02He fought in the French and Indian War. He fought in continental Europe during the Seven Years War.
32:06He fought from Russia to Poland. He's exceptionally experienced. But this experience breeds some hubris. He thinks that he knows
32:15better.
32:15Lee seemed to have an agenda throughout the war of really carving out an independent command for himself.
32:22And one could speculate that he probably would have liked to supplant Washington as the commander in chief.
32:31Lee's arrogance has always been an issue, and he questions Washington's plans at every turn.
32:37But today he takes his argument one step further, suggesting that the American force would never stand a chance fighting
32:44the royals head on.
32:46Coming from someone who spent more than a year in British captivity, Lee's stance raises questions about his loyalty.
32:53There was always an aura of suspicion around him, in Washington's mind at least.
32:59Part of the reason I'm very suspicious of Lee is he wasn't treated as a prisoner.
33:04He had dinner with the other officers. He had a convivial life with them.
33:09It was not the kind of treatment that was given to other revolutionaries when they were captured.
33:16What none of the Americans knew at the time is that while in captivity, Lee had offered advice to the
33:23British as to how to beat the Americans and bring the conflict to an end.
33:27An act of treason that would color Lee's actions for the rest of the war.
33:35June 20th, 1778, Mount Holly, New Jersey.
33:41The main force of the British Army, 11,000 soldiers, have begun their withdrawal from Philadelphia to New York with
33:47a supply train that stretches more than 12 miles.
33:52Washington sees the British as vulnerable and wants to bring on a fight against the advice of his generals, including
34:00Saratoga's victor Horatio Gates.
34:03But Gates, now stationed in Albany, New York, has become obsessed with a major campaign into Canada.
34:10An offensive that Washington calls the child of folly.
34:14Even supporters in Congress view the idea as impractical because it would split the American army in two.
34:21Gates' plan is rejected.
34:24The American army, 13,000 strong, breaks camp at Valley Forge and sets off after the British.
34:34For more than a week, the two armies march across New Jersey, covering 90 miles in a searing June heat.
34:42American detachments ahead of the British fell trees, destroy bridges, and engage in skirmishes, slowing the British army's progress.
34:54Until finally, Washington sees his opportunity for a full engagement.
35:00On the night of June 24th, Washington lays out his battle plan.
35:04At the crossroads of Monmouth Courthouse, an advanced corps of 5,000 soldiers will move forward and engage the rear
35:11of the British army as they prepare to get underway.
35:15Washington, with 7,000 soldiers, will hang behind the advanced force.
35:20If the British retreat, the Americans will let them go.
35:23But if they engage, Washington will move forward and join the fight.
35:30In accordance with military etiquette, Washington's senior officer, General Charles Lee, is offered command of the advanced force.
35:38Lee claims the right to lead the attack because he's inexperienced, second in command.
35:44Lee didn't turn it down. He took it, which was unfortunate, because Washington had to let him go ahead of
35:51the rest of his army.
35:54On June 27th, Washington issues the order.
35:58Lee will attack the next morning.
36:06The British army has been retreating across New Jersey for more than a week.
36:12And against the wishes of his generals, George Washington has set his army out in pursuit,
36:18seeking an opportunity to bring on a full engagement.
36:23Finally, at a crossroads called Monmouth Courthouse, the Continental Army catches up with the British.
36:30June 28th, 1778.
36:34A devastating heat has engulfed the parched fields of eastern New Jersey.
36:41In the morning, General Charles Lee's men set off towards the British rear guard at Monmouth.
36:48Washington and 7,000 soldiers wait seven miles behind Lee's troops.
36:54The general waits anxiously for word of the offensive, but so far, there has been none.
37:01His army has been trained and turned into a new and hard-fighting army.
37:06And that army and its commander are now convinced that they can beat any army on the face of the
37:11earth.
37:11And they are eager for the fight.
37:14And that fight comes on one of the hottest days of the war.
37:18Different records show that the heat was somewhere between 100 and 104 degrees on the morning of the battle.
37:25At noon, the first progress reports come in from Continental soldiers that appear to be in retreat.
37:31The news is unbelievable.
37:34Lee was not attacking.
37:36What was going on here?
37:38He had the strength.
37:40He had the trained men who knew how to maneuver now.
37:43Then all of a sudden, he began to retreat when he should have attacked.
37:47In fact, Lee had no battle plan.
37:50Nothing.
37:51He was hopeful of victory somehow.
37:54It's obvious to all the men at Monmouth that there is no plan.
37:58The men retreat.
38:02Furious, Washington rides ahead and encounters General Lee himself.
38:07Washington personally rode up and took over and relieved Lee of his command.
38:15Nobody accurately knows what Washington said because it was almost sacrilegious to write down when George Washington swore.
38:26And whatever he called Lee, it was enough for Lee to get the idea and to get out of there.
38:32With Lee reprimanded, Washington turns his attention to a more urgent matter.
38:38The British Army, which is fast approaching.
38:45But for the British soldiers, marching in hundred-degree heat in their full-wool uniforms, it is an exhausting advance.
38:54We proceeded five miles in a road composed of nothing but sand, which scorched through our shoes with intolerable heat.
39:01The sun beating on our head with a force scarcely to be conceived in Europe.
39:06And not a drop of water to assuage our parching thirst.
39:09A number of soldiers were unable to support the fatigue and died on the spot.
39:15Lieutenant William Hale.
39:19At one o'clock, less than half a mile separates the British Army from the Americans.
39:25Washington must act fast, rallying the troops on the high ground of the field.
39:33Within an hour, the American soldiers have formed their ranks.
39:38The British arrive, hot and exhausted from their march, only to face a Continental Army in a strong defensive position.
39:47The winter's training at Valley Forge is paying off, and Washington knows it.
39:52He then does something astounding.
39:55He rides back and forth in front of his lines to rally the troops, putting himself in the line of
40:02fire,
40:02risking his life as he asked his own men to risk their lives.
40:08People who know Washington in the war think that he has a feeling of invincibility,
40:15because he puts himself in the line of fire so often.
40:19He's almost convinced that he can't be killed.
40:21The British open up on him and miraculously miss him.
40:31The Battle of Monmouth erupts.
40:35More than 20,000 soldiers clash in the brutal heat.
40:39The fighting rages for hours, long into the summer afternoon.
40:44For the men on the field that day, it is some of the most intense combat they have ever seen.
40:51The briskest cannonade commenced on both sides that I ever heard.
40:55If anything can be called musical when there is so much danger, I think it was the finest music I
41:00ever heard.
41:01Henry Dearborn.
41:03The English commander to the right hollered,
41:06Come on, my brave boys, for the honour of Great Britain, and killed many with their bayonets.
41:12British Lieutenant Alexander Dow.
41:16The shattered remains of our battalion suffered from thirst and heat, at which several died.
41:21Some preferred the shade of the trees in the direct range of shock to the more horrid tortures of thirst.
41:27One of these had his arm shattered to pieces.
41:30Lieutenant Hale.
41:33The British advance repeatedly, but Washington's men repel each of the assaults.
41:40In the thick of the fighting, a young woman named Mary Hayes McCauley risks her life caring for the wounded
41:47and bringing water to the parched American troops.
41:50She is just one of the scores of women who take to the battlefields of the revolution, and become known
41:56to the soldiers as Molly Pitcher.
42:00The Battle of Monmouth is the longest of the Revolutionary War, lasting continuously more than five hours.
42:12Sunstroke, not musket balls, is the biggest killer on this day.
42:16Scores of soldiers on both sides die from the heat.
42:23When the smoke had cleared at Monmouth, it was a draw.
42:30Washington knew, and the country knew, that this new army that had come out of Valley Forge was a good
42:36one.
42:36They had held their own against the British.
42:39This renews the public's spirit for the war, and forever solidifies Washington's position as the unquestioned Commander-in-Chief.
43:00The Continental Army has proven itself a capable fighting force.
43:06Washington has proven his leadership as their general.
43:11For his retreat in the face of the enemy, Charles Lee will face court-martial.
43:15He will be wounded in one duel, and challenged to seven others, for suggesting that the Americans could not stand
43:22up to the British.
43:25Disgraced, he will retire to his Virginia home, and die there with his beloved dogs in 1782.
43:33The rebel capital, Philadelphia, is now back in American hands.
43:38And Washington turns control of the city over to one of his most trusted generals, Benedict Arnold.
43:45The bold general is now a military governor.
43:48He will make choices here that will forever change his past, his present, and his future.
43:58On the field that evening at Monmouth Courthouse, the entire army lay together in exhaustion.
44:04And Washington sleeps here, on the battlefield with his men.
44:09The French Navy is now under sail.
44:12Destination? America.
44:14Just maybe, the war can be won before the year is out.
44:39In the past and the war can occur.
44:47The Candidate Monmouth Courthouse, the German Man T
44:48The Candidate Monmouth Courthouse.
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