Hunker Down with Kes: What Were Those Guys Thinking!

I’m talking about Samuel Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren, JOHN HANCOCK, Penelope Barker, Thomas Jefferson…all the men and women who had gathered in quiet places to discuss hard questions about life, British rule, independence, and the future.

As these rebels grew more numerous, more determined, and louder, they began to meet in better surroundings; most notably Faneuil Hall and the Old South Meeting House in Boston, and the Pennsylvania State House (we now refer to it as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia.

I wonder what was running through the minds of those patriots standing on the famed Lexington Green in the early dawn on April 19, 1775, as the British Redcoats appeared out of the mist. One could only imagine their pounding heartbeats might have drowned out any thoughts at all! No one is sure who fired first, but there is not much doubt that turning back was going to be less of an option. 

And oh, how I wish I could have been at Bunker Hill in June of that year. Uh…uh…as long as I was way over on the backside away from the firing, maybe behind a brick wall. Seemingly every English soldier in the universe was charging up that hill once, twice…a third time! We held them off and held them off, until our meager supply of ammunition ran out. 

History records we were throwing rocks at them when they overran us.

We may not know what they were thinking…but we do know they were absolutely dead serious about it!

The fledgling Continental Congress certainly had their hands full. A third of the country wanted the protection and trade that accompanied being a colony of Britain. Others wanted a British government that would respect our rights. While still others felt the only recourse was war and total independence.

Talk about a mixed bag of thoughts and sleepless nights.

The summer of 1776 found them at the “fish or cut bait” stage. Acquiesce or fight. Give in or all in. Please understand, there were no crystal balls. It is a thin line between a leap of faith…and a lamebrain idea! And the British Army was the mightiest force on earth at the time.

Ben Franklin’s immortal words, “We must all hang together or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately” were more than a catchy phrase. It was a fact of life for those people!

Doubt and uncertainty were the order of the day; anxiety abounded on every side over what the future might hold. You can bet they were more worried about their own skin than what America might look like on July 4, 2026.

The Declaration of Independence is just about the last word on how to get a new country up and running. It plainly stated we were officially in this war as an independent and free nation. It led many to join the fight. It inspired. It uplifted. Its words have resonated down through the ages.

But it didn’t leave the British shaking in their boots. It made them mad. More resolute. And they knew how to fight!

After several American defeats across New York in the fall of 1776, with General Washington’s army retreating and retreating, I would imagine many of the patriots’ minds pondered on Franklin’s dire warning. Our six-month-old nation could not retreat forever, and survive!

You know what followed, Washington, and his ill-equipped, outnumbered, and beleaguered army, turned around on Christmas Day, 1776. In freezing temperatures and a fierce winter storm they crossed the ice-filled Delaware River at night and marched nine miles to Trenton, New Jersey, and won a stunning victory. 

Most of the American troops had no shoes, or ones that were falling apart. Many had rags tied around their feet. When it was asked how they managed to stay intact in the horrendous weather, the reply was, “We followed the bloody footprints in the snow.”

It wasn’t over, of course. Valley Forge was tough. As was Brandywine. It took five more years until the English forces under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.

But it is still the best “Birth of a Nation” story that I’ve ever heard!

It hasn’t been a perfect ride. I wish those Founding Fathers had put something in the Constitution about telemarketers and traffic jams. It would have been nice to have a clause that said we could not start another war until we had paid for the last one. Why didn’t they include a law that mandated that if The United States of America got more than ten thousand dollars in debt all Congressional paychecks were frozen until they balanced the books. 

And gosh, it looks like they could have outlawed political parties from the very beginning, and done the same thing with the designated hitter rule.

250 years is a long time. And it is a happy birthday for us. We should celebrate. We should be proud. We should be appreciative. We should wake up every day in complete awe!

To do anything less would seem like we have failed those outstanding early Americans…who were throwing rocks at bullets, and left their bloody footprints in the snow….

Respectfully,
Kes  
kesley45@aol.com