[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.But right across the river were garrisons of the hated Hessian soldiers in their winter quarters.A victory over them would be doubly effective.Today we have often heard about how Washington crossed the Delaware River amid the ice floes and surprised the Hessians, and in hindsight it seemed as if the conclusion was foregone.This is very, very far from the truth.Actually the plan called for two groups of rebel soldiers to attack across the river.The other failed to make the crossing at all.And the success of Washington’s attack was far from guaranteed.He led 2,400 men, some poorly armed and partially trained, against nearly 1,500 crack troops who would be on the defensive.The rebels’ only edge would be surprise.To ensure they had this, the river crossing was done in darkness.The problem was that the same darkness and fierce cold that hid them also slowed the crossing.Instead of arriving at Trenton to attack at sunrise on December 26, 1776, the Americans were still marching toward the Hessians.Not all of the local people were rebels.In fact, at this point many were still loyal to the crown.As the army marched down the road toward Trenton in the very early-morning hours, a loyalist farmer realized who they were and hurried off to warn the Hessian commander, Colonel Johann Rall.The farmer got as far as the colonel’s door.There a guard stopped him and would not budge.Tradition says the colonel was deep into a game of either chess or cards and had left orders not to be disturbed.The farmer hurriedly scrawled a note to Colonel Rall.The note reached the colonel, but was in English.Rather than trying to summon a translator that early and leave his game, the colonel put the warning note, unread, into his pocket.From that point on victory was inevitable.Washington’s 2,400 rebels surprised the Hessians, many of whom were asleep and mostly hungover or still drunk from the prior night’s Christmas celebrations.For the loss of four wounded and no one killed, Washington’s army killed 22 Hessians, wounded 94, and captured almost 1,000; the remaining 400 German soldiers scattered into the countryside.Just as important, Washington captured the food, clothing, and supplies of a well-equipped British regiment.Had Colonel Rall bothered to read the farmer’s note there is a high probability that the well-trained Hessians would have thrown back any rebel attack.Another defeat, combined with the ending of many of his men’s enlistments, would have broken Washington’s army.The Revolutionary War would have ended with a victory for Lord Howe, and today America might still be a British colony.The world would have been turned upside down.41FINANCED HIS OWN WORST NIGHTMAREDid unto Others1776There are few records of someone in such a position of power that he managed, by his own decisions, to destroy himself and end a 1,000-year-old dynasty.This feat was accomplished by Louis XVI of France.Louis had taken the throne in 1774 and inherited his nation’s antipathy toward Britain.His father, Louis XV, in 1771 had managed to reduce the power of France’s parliament until it was nothing more than an advisory body.When the American colonies revolted, this seemed a good chance for France to hurt Britain at no risk to itself.Over the next five years, France sent aide and soldiers to assist the American colonists.This may well have made all the difference: The French fleet holding the bay outside Yorktown in 1881 ensured Cornwallis had to surrender and guaranteed American independence.Louis XVI’s American intervention was a foreign policy coup that greatly discomforted the British.But in the long run, it did more harm to his own monarchy.Supporting the American war was very expensive.It virtually bankrupted the royal treasury.This, in turn, meant that the French financial system had to be modernized and taxation changed so that the losses could be replaced.A specially summoned session of the Assembly of Notables was called to approve the changes.They refused to do so.This left the French king with only one more place to turn for approval of his financial plan.This was to summon the Estates General, the grand parliament with representatives from every level of French society.That was where his encouragement of the American Revolution and its popularity in France once more turned on the king who made it successful.To justify their independence, the American rebels had to make the point that the rights of men were more important than the prerogatives of any monarch.The Americans meant the will of George III of Britain, but the ideas also took root among the intellectuals of France.When the Americans won, again with Louis XVI’s help, the writings of such men as Paine and Adams were reflected in those of Rousseau and the leading minds of Paris.Having financed and legitimized a revolution against a monarchy in the name of the rights of men, it should not have come as a surprise when the Estates General took the same view [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]