ORIGIN DEFEAT AND AFTER: 1/8: The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware, by Patrick K. O'Donnell
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 31 July 2023
⏱️ 14 minutes
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ORIGIN DEFEAT AND AFTER: 1/8: The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware,
by Patrick K. O'Donnell
https://www.amazon.com/Indispensables-Marbleheads-Soldier-Mariners-Washington-Delaware/dp/0802156894/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
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 the 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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| 0:59.0 | Patrick O'Donnell, the book is the indispensable. |
| 1:02.0 | The diverse soldier mariners who shape the country form the Navy and road washing in across the Delaware. |
| 1:08.0 | Patrick, the Marbleheaders divide. |
| 1:11.0 | John Glover leaves one contingent home to Marblehead. |
| 1:15.0 | His wife is ill, they're exhausted, they're sick, they're filled with, they're closed or filled with vermin. |
| 1:21.0 | Rubbed raw, you give some brilliantly detailed analysis of how exhausted they are. |
| 1:27.0 | But some of the Marbleheaders stay on. |
| 1:30.0 | And they stay on to fight and I'm looking at 1227, several days later at Asapong Creek. |
| 1:37.0 | Please describe what the scene is and why Asapong becomes so critical. |
| 1:43.0 | This is also known as the Second Battle of Trenton. |
| 1:46.0 | And a variety of factors basically lead Washington back across the Delaware. |
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