Dave Does History

On September 11, 1776, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge crossed to Staten Island under a flag of truce. They came seeking the limits of Britain’s peace offer and discovered there was no offer at all, only pardons in exchange for submission.The Staten Island Peace Conference failed to stop the war, but it clarified what the Revolution had become. Independence was no longer a bargaining position. It was the cause for which Americans would have to fight.Listen to the latest Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live.#DaveDoesHistory #AmericanRevolution #StatenIslandConference #JohnAdams #BenjaminFranklin #DeclarationOfIndependence #RevolutionaryWar

In September 1776, New York newspapers carried a mocking letter from a supposed eyewitness who claimed that George Washington and his “dirty pack of New England long faces” were losing the war. The author did not exist. The letter was British propaganda, part of an organized effort to ridicule the Continental Army, undermine public confidence, and convince Americans that resistance had become hopeless.The uncomfortable part was that the propaganda did not need to invent the defeats.Washington’s army had been driven from Long Island and New York City. Fort Washington would soon fall, taking nearly 3,000 American soldiers with it. Fort Lee would be abandoned so hastily that cooking pots and provisions remained beside the fires. Pursued by Cornwallis, the shrinking Continental Army fled across New Jersey until the Delaware River provided one last barrier between it and destruction.By December, independence no longer resembled the glorious promise proclaimed in Philadelphia five months earlier. It meant cold, hunger, disease, expiring enlistments, and the growing possibility that the entire enterprise might collapse. Congress fled Philadelphia. Loyalists became bolder. Neutrality suddenly appeared prudent. Washington had preserved his army, but he was rapidly running out of army to preserve.Then Thomas Paine, who had marched among these exhausted soldiers and witnessed the retreat himself, picked up his pen.“These are the times that try men’s souls,” he wrote. His words were aimed directly at the summer soldier and sunshine patriot who embraced liberty when it was exhilarating but abandoned it when sacrifice became real.In this episode of Dave Does History, we enter the darkest weeks of the Revolution, when survival required Washington to retreat and victory seemed almost unimaginable. Yet somewhere between Fort Washington and the frozen Delaware, the meaning of the struggle changed. If the Revolution was going to survive, Washington would have to stop running.Christmas night was coming.

What happens when the map is wrong, the river runs out, and the plan that brought you across a continent can take you no farther?In August 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Continental Divide expecting to find a practical water route leading west toward the Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. Instead, the Corps of Discovery encountered mountain ranges stretching across the horizon, rivers too swift and rocky for navigation, dwindling food supplies, and the possibility that the expedition might have to turn back.Yet at this moment of uncertainty, an extraordinary reunion changed everything.Sacagawea had been kidnapped from her Shoshone people as a child and carried east by Hidatsa raiders. Now, returning to her homeland with Lewis and Clark, she discovered that the Shoshone chief with whom the captains desperately needed to negotiate was her brother, Cameahwait. Their emotional reunion helped establish the trust the expedition needed to obtain horses, guides, and assistance for the journey ahead.The encounter occurred at a place Lewis called Camp Fortunate. Today, the historic campsite lies beneath Clark Canyon Reservoir in southwestern Montana. In 1805, it became the setting for one of the expedition’s most consequential decisions.The Corps had arrived as river travelers. If the mission were to continue, the men would have to leave their boats behind and enter the mountains on horseback. That meant accepting that their maps and assumptions were wrong without concluding that the mission itself had failed.In this episode of Dave Does History, Dave Bowman joins Bill Mick to examine Sacagawea’s homecoming, the collapse of Lewis and Clark’s geographical expectations, Meriwether Lewis’s revealing reflections on his thirty-first birthday, and the leadership lesson hidden beneath the waters of Camp Fortunate.Sometimes perseverance does not mean following the original plan. Sometimes it means remembering the purpose, listening to those who know the terrain, and finding another way forward.#LewisAndClark #CampFortunate #Sacagawea #Cameahwait #CorpsOfDiscovery #AmericanHistory #MontanaHistory #DaveDoesHistory #BillMickLive

American independence was declared in the summer of 1776.Whether the new nation could survive long enough to make that declaration mean anything was another matter entirely.By the autumn of that year, George Washington's ContinentalArmy had suffered a succession of defeats around New York. The British had the larger army, the Royal Navy controlled the surrounding waters, and General William Howe repeatedly maneuvered to trap Washington and destroy his army.At several critical moments, one largely forgotten Massachusetts officer helped make sure that didn't happen.His name was John Glover.Glover commanded the famous Marblehead Regiment, aremarkable collection of sailors, fishermen, ship captains, Black soldiers, Native Americans, and other Massachusetts men whose experience on the water made them unlike almost any other regiment in Washington's army.When Washington found himself trapped after the disastrousBattle of Long Island, Glover's men helped ferry thousands of Continental soldiers across the East River under cover of darkness and fog. Washington's army escaped.Seven weeks later, Glover was called upon again.At Pell's Point, roughly 750 Americans found themselvesfacing thousands of advancing British and Hessian troops. Glover couldn't defeat them. Instead, he used the stone walls of the Westchester countryside to create a defense in depth, forcing the British to deploy, attack, reorganize, and advance repeatedly.He was buying Washington something more valuable thanterritory.He was buying time.In this episode of Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live, wefollow John Glover from the evacuation of Brooklyn to the fighting at Pell's Point and the road toward White Plains. We also connect his story with Benedict Arnold's stand at Valcour Island and examine one of the great strategic lessons of 1776.Washington didn't have to defeat the British Army.First, he had to make sure it didn't destroy his. #DaveDoesHistory #JohnGlover #AmericanRevolution#RevolutionaryWar #PellsPoint #MarbleheadRegiment #GeorgeWashington #BattleOfLongIsland #WhitePlains #BenedictArnold #ValcourIsland #1776 #AmericanHistory #MilitaryHistory #BillMickLive  

Everyone remembers Benedict Arnold the traitor. Far fewer remember Benedict Arnold the hero.This week on Dave Does History on Bill Mick Live, we explore the Battle of Valcour Island, where Arnold built a navy from scratch, took on the greatest naval power in the world, and lost a battle that may have saved the American Revolution. Discover how one desperate stand on Lake Champlain bought the time that led to Saratoga and, ultimately, American independence.Discover why history is almost never as simple as we remember it.#DaveDoesHistory #BenedictArnold #ValcourIsland #AmericanRevolution #RevolutionaryWar #MilitaryHistory #NavalHistory #GeorgeWashington #HistoryPodcast #Liberty250