Tuesday
"When Thomas Paine joined the 5,000 cold, frightened patriot soldiers in Washington’s emergency camp on the west bank of the Delaware, he immediately received new orders. Washington believed the author of Common Sense could help the revolutionary cause more with his pen than with a musket. So Paine set out on foot to Philadelphia and produced a pamphlet titled The Crisis, which began with a stirring call to arms. “These are the times that try men’s souls,” Paine wrote. “The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”
A rider carried the pamphlet to the Continental Army’s camp on the Delaware. Washington had decided to lead his men across the river late on Christmas night and surprise-attack the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. In preparation for that desperate crossing, he ordered his officers to gather their men in groups and read Paine’s words aloud." Wm. Hogeland, History.Net Full article
Post a Comment