THE REVOLUTION WAS GOING BADLY: 2/8 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
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
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.
UNDATED VALLEY FORGE STATION IN WINTER
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a new book, The Indispensable, the diverse soldier mariners who shape the country, |
| 0:07.0 | Patrick O'Donnell, his new book, The Indispensable, the diverse soldier mariners who shape the country, formed the Navy, and rode Washington |
| 0:16.3 | across the Delaware. |
| 0:17.4 | Right now we want to discover Marblehead. |
| 0:20.4 | About 18 miles to the northeast of Boston on the water and it is a prosperous town in the 18th century. |
| 0:29.0 | Patrick, you estimate about 5,000. |
| 0:31.0 | Its business was fishing. |
| 0:33.4 | What was its relation to Boston and Massachusetts' economy? |
| 0:38.0 | It's the second largest port city in Massachusetts, |
| 0:41.4 | and it's a thriving cosmopolitan city and it's |
| 0:46.5 | fortunes are made on fish specifically codfish and the men of marble had fish the Grand Banks. This is well over a thousand miles to the north up near Nova Scotia. But the Grand Banks are teeming with cod fish in some cases which are you know hundred |
| 1:05.2 | pounds or more John and they they fish the grand banks bring back the cod and then |
| 1:10.4 | they trade the cod which they put insulted barrels for other goods and they have a massive |
| 1:17.7 | merchant fleet that they've developed where they trade around the world and bring goods in and out of Marblehead. |
| 1:24.8 | In 1774, October of 1774, Marblehead obeys the orders, the directions, the guidelines |
| 1:32.4 | of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. the Concord. Each town is to have its own militia and Patrick's reporting about 50 with |
| 1:46.3 | sergeants and lieutenants and colonels. That becomes the core of the Marblehead |
| 1:52.1 | regiment that will spend years as parts of the Continental Army. |
| 1:57.0 | Important to introduce some of the players here, Colonel Jeremiah Lee and Lieutenant John Glover. |
| 2:05.0 | I'm going to key on Glover because it's a discovery to me to meet John Glover. |
| 2:10.0 | What is he in 1774, Patrick? |
| 2:12.0 | John Glover starts out. |
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