No mention of global warming, but after the first hurricane this summer, we'll hear all about global warming.
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Valiant Ambition
I'm reading Nathaniel Phlbrick's book by the same title, c. 2016. I had skimmed through this book some months ago.
The other day I was looking for a book that would provide a "travelogue" of sorts or a geographic description of the "water" geography of the New York area, from Long Island west to New Jersey. Then I remembered this book.
Unless you live there or study it closely, it is very difficult to understand the "water" geography of the New York area -- at least it is for me. It is absolutely fascinating.
Turned out to be a perfect book.
December, 1776: it appeared the war had been lost. Truly amazing what a few men were able to do.
Later, pages 62 - 63. Philbrick quickly and brilliantly provide vignettes of the men we all "learned" in elementary / middle school during those hellish days of 1776:
- George Washington: general of the Continental Army
- his adjutant general, Joseph Reed, who betrayed Washington,
- Major General Charles Lee: Washington's second-in-command
- Major General Nathaniel Greene: who lost Fort Washington; provided General Washington really, really bad advice on this one; MG Greene should have been dismissed after the Fort Washington disaster, but Geo Washington kept him; the former, a Quaker, was instrumental in persuading the Continental Congress for funds to re-build the army
- James Monroe, future president of the US, was a lieutenant during the retreat across New Jersey
- Thomas Paine, Common Sense, a year earlier; The Crisis, notes while retreating across New Jersey ("these are times that try men's souls")
- Alexander Hamilton: crossing New Jersey; 21 years old; an artillery captain from New York; he had been an undergraduate at what is now Columbia University, Hamilton was about to become one of Washington's most trusted subordinates
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