washington isn't that good a tactician but he comes to m uh... elemental
strategic insight
he doesn't have to win
yeah yeah the british have to win yep
and if he can sustain the continental army and avoid annihilation of the
continental army
the eventually
the british will decide it's not worth
continuing and that's pretty much what happens
and that's an elemental insight it's called a
fabian strategy after the brit after the uh...
the roman general lucius quintatus fabius in the
uh... pelop in the uh... punic wars
who it's it's quasi guerrilla tactics it's not quite guerrilla 'cause he's got a
regular conventional army there but it's a recognition that
the strategic center of the rebellion
or what we might call the insurgency yeah
uh...
isn't a place it's not boston it's not philadelphia it's not charleston they
capture all those places not new york
the strategic center of the rebellion is the continental army and if he can hold
that intact
and avoid fighting except when he's got superior numbers and a strategic
excuse me tactical advantage
then uh... ultimately uh the british will eventually give up we don't we don't
really win the american revolution right
uh it's the british decide to go
leave yeah uh...
and they have a lot invested in this war and that you know that what the the war
that's most
comparable
is the vietnam war uh...
only the british are the americans in this particular case and the americans are like the
vietnamese and uh...
the british really come to the conclusion early on that this war must
be won
for a reason
akin to the domino theory right
if we lose north america we lose the caribbean if we lose the caribbean we
lose ireland if we lose ireland we lose india
yeah yeah and it's this notion uh...
that everything's at stake and therefore they're willing to spend enormous
amounts of money and resources and they have
a delivery system if you will a banking system a logistical system
a military profession
that's much more sophisticated than anything that the united states has
one of the things that i got out of the research in this book is how
unbelievably
fortunate the united states was
because
uh... the state's often refused to meet their quotas in terms of money or or
troops
there's a hardcore
of three to four thousand
young men
who served for the duration right
a significant portion of them are african americans right
right about fifteen percent
it's the it's the last war which african-american serve alongside whites
not in segregated units until the korean war
yeah yeah yeah uh... that's an amazing thing
not not somehow or other that's a fact that's been hidden in american history
right right and that's um...
it's also one of the reasons washington starts to think differently about slavery
he's commanding a lot of african american troops that are fighting
bravely yep
uh...
these three or four thousand guys
aren't representative americans
they're ex-slaves they're indentured servants they're recently arrived irish or
scottish immigrants
they're fourth sons that don't have any inheritance
they're not yeoman farmer types
and they won the war
I mean it's as simple as
if they hadn't stayed together and been the nucleus
the continental army
probably would have
dissolved
and I can't understand why they did it
because they didn't get anything for it the pensions that were promised them
were never paid
they starved throughout most of the war 'cause they weren't provided with food on
any kind of regular basis they were in rags
when the british army marched out at yorktown
they laughed at the continental army yeah yeah
because they looked like a bunch of ragamuffins office
didn't they play something called the world turned upside-down they say that we're not sure
that really happened uh...
is is different sources on that
and the british commander didn't want to turn his sword over to washington and
wanted to give it to rochambeau the french commander instead because they
were embarrassed at losing to this
these these people that looked like they were just you know bums and uh...
and yet this is the group that won the war
and that story hasn't been told
uh...
two people I mean
washington won the war
by being the commander in chief that stayed the course for seven and a half
years but these guys at the core of the army the salt what he calls the
soldiery
and he said it at the end of the war he said
if someone ever tries to write the history of this
they will be accused of writing fiction
because no one will believe
that a group of poor young men ill clad
ill uh... ill fed
sustained themselves for this long and this long against a much superior force
uh... and they did so washington gives 'em credit this excerpt is brought to you by
the massachusetts school of law