This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchewitt, Professor Joseph Ellis, whose new book is

the cause, the American Revolution and its discontents, emphasis on the discontents, because

everyone involved in the rebellion, so-called by the London side, the cause by the American side, has other

opinions than what's happening in front of them. Washington's opinion is that this is a

collective endeavor that needs discipline and a Congress that supports it. Congress has other

ideas when it meets, and chiefly not to fund the

army, but to count on the militia, what the professor calls the myth of the militia. It is now

Valley Forge, a place I'm very familiar with, having been a Boy Scout on Valley Forge many times.

I recommend everyone to visit to imagine how cold it was,

7778. Professor, I come to Valley Forge freshly because now I see that Congress did not share

Washington's opinion. The British have camped in Philadelphia. Don't bother to attack Washington.

Washington's soldiers, what's left of the Continental Army, are without food, without blankets, without hope at all.

Washington calls on Nathaniel Green again.

How does Green help him?

Green takes over the responsibility for the quartermaster corps.

There's nobody to do the job.

He does it.

And he manages to send foraging patrols out further, eventually to provide enough food.

This comes by the time, not until April. About 1,200 American

soldiers die of malnutrition or exposure during the winter of Valley Forge. So it really is a kind

of, you know, it's it's a time for what I call the few.

These are the people who stay the course, who survive, who endure.

...