4/8 The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O'Donnell (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 17 January 2023
⏱️ 11 minutes
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4/8 The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware by Patrick K. O'Donnell (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/Indispensables-Marbleheads-Soldier-Mariners-Washington-Delaware/dp/0802156894
On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced capture or annihilation after losing the Battle of Brooklyn. The British had trapped George Washington’s forces against the East River, and the fate of the Revolution rested upon the shoulders of the soldier-mariners from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Serving side by side in one of the country’s first diverse units, they pulled off an “American Dunkirk” and saved the army by transporting it across the treacherous waters of the river to Manhattan.
In the annals of the American Revolution, no group played a more consequential role than the Marbleheaders. At the right time in the right place, they repeatedly altered the course of events, and their story shines new light on our understanding of the Revolution. As acclaimed historian Patrick K. O’Donnell dramatically recounts, beginning nearly a decade before the war started, and in the midst of a raging virus that divided the town politically, Marbleheaders such as Elbridge Gerry and Azor Orne spearheaded the break with Britain and shaped the nascent United States by playing a crucial role governing, building alliances, seizing British ships, forging critical supply lines, and establishing the origins of the US Navy.
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by Slack. With Slack, you can bring all your people and |
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| 0:21.0 | inside and outside of your company. Slack, where the future works. Get started at |
| 0:27.0 | Slack.com slash DHQ. |
| 0:35.0 | This is CBS I In The World. I'm John Baffshire with the author Patrick O'Donnell, his |
| 0:38.7 | new book The Indispensables. The diverse soldier mariners who shaped the country formed the |
| 0:43.9 | Navy and wrote Washington across the Delaware. Arriving in July of 1775, straight from the |
| 0:51.8 | Congress is George Washington to take command. What was the Marvel head opinion of Washington |
| 0:58.1 | when he first arrived? Were they affectionate towards him as they became? |
| 1:02.5 | George Washington needed headquarters and that headquarters was at the Vassal House and |
| 1:10.2 | it was the Marvel headers that were guarding the Vassal House that threw them in camp. |
| 1:15.5 | And Washington develops a very unique and important relationship with the Marvel headers. He |
| 1:20.6 | trusts them. And that bond of trust is something that will extend through the entire revolution. |
| 1:28.1 | And the guard Washington and it's here at the Vassal House that Washington is also introduced |
| 1:37.3 | to nautical things. It's John Glover who's in charge of the regiment at this point. |
| 1:44.2 | And the power becomes it remains the crucial supply. They need it badly. Washington takes |
| 1:50.7 | an inventory of his of the Arning and the men that are camped around the Vassal House |
| 1:57.5 | and around Boston are you know, thousands strong. But they have in their cartridge boxes |
| 2:03.4 | seven or eight cartridges. There's hardly any powder at all. If the British charge out, |
| 2:09.9 | they may not even be able to fend them off. And Washington is coming up with, you know, |
... |
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