Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool

All Episodes

Previous Next

Dec. 24, 2022 - Bannon's War Room

47:47

Episode 2399: A WarRoom Christmas Special

Participants

Main voices

patrick k odonnel

30:59

steve bannon

10:17

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Show episode speakers

Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		Good King Wenceslas the proud, on the feast of Stephen, When the snow lay round the house, deep and crisp and even, Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, When the poor man came inside, gathering winter fuel.
		Hear the page and stand by him, and he'll boast it telling.
		Younger peasant, who is he?
		Where and what is his welling?
		Sire, he lives awkwardly camped beneath the mountain, right against the forest fence by St.
		Anne's.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, Merry Christmas.
		It's 25 December in the year of our Lord 2022.
		I want to thank everybody, Real America's Voice, our second hour here of our Christmas Day special.
		We welcome back an old and dear friend.
		We've done this now for so many years, the combat history of Christmas, in particular, the one that's probably in American history, the most famous and maybe the most important of all the Christmas Day struggles we've had, and that is the Battle of Trenton and everything dealing With the Revolutionary War.
		Patrick K. O'Donnell, the best combat historian of his generation.
		And what I love about your books, Patrick, by the way, Merry Christmas.
		Thank you for joining us here on Christmas Day.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		We've been doing this for at least a decade.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		At least a decade.
unidentified		The old Breitbart radio show and then here in the War Room for the last couple years.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Patrick, one of the things I think people, and the reason they love your writing and they love your books, You know, your books are, a lot of them have a tremendous amount of oral history to them.
		You go and you interview members of the Greatest Generation who do books on World War II.
		You went and interviewed people in the Korean War for your great book on the Chosin Reservoir.
		Actually, in person, you embedded, as a writer and a journalist, with a marine rifle squad in Fallujah to do this kind of first-person account of the harrowing Battle of Fallujah, which is one of the more bloody battles in American history that people really don't know that much about.
		But in The Revolutionary War, you also do tons of archival research for your two great books.
		That you did is I think back to back on the revolution obviously you didn't couldn't interview anybody so you went back and you did archival research but it's got the same drama in it as if you had Interviewed people.
		Talk about just the research, the amount of research you do, particularly for your two books on the Revolution, which were just incredible, right?
		And we had you on the show and we'd do specials, and I got so much incredible, positive feedback from the War Impostor, including so many people that wrote reviews on Amazon and just loved the books.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		I really appreciate War Impostor.
		They're tremendous.
		Salt of the Earth, great Americans.
		I love coming on your show.
		It's always an honor.
		The, all the, all the books that I've written, I've written 13 now, um, are all, it's hand done.
		I do all of the research myself.
		It's painstaking too.
		I, um, I spent years in the archives, uh, doing the research for these books.
		I walk the ground that the men that I write about fight, where they fought, um, for the civil war book, for all the revolutionary war books.
		I know.
		Every aspect of the ground that I write about, because I've been there.
		And what's amazing about the battles that I write about is listeners can go to these places now, this hallowed ground, and walk in the footsteps of these great patriots.
		For The Indispensables and Washington's Immortals, I did use the great oral history archive that nobody really has ever tapped until my first book, Washington's Immortals.
		And that was the pension application files that if you were lucky enough to survive the American Revolution, you could go down to the local courthouse and swear under oath what you saw and did.
		These great patriots, if they were lucky enough to survive the American Revolution, they went under oath in front of a local judge and swore what they saw and did during the American Revolution.
		Sometimes it's at a high level, sometimes it's very granular.
		I was able to take that granular oral history and insert it into the books.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hang on one second.
		I never got this part from you in all the years of doing the story.
		That's how you got, because it reads like your other books and that you have almost first-person accounts, there actually were first-person accounts in the pension application.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		There were.
		And they were oral histories because they were transcribed by the local clerk in the local courthouse.
		These men had to prove that they were there.
		So they provided a lot of extraneous detail, a lot of lush, granular detail about what they saw and did in many cases.
		Sometimes it's at a high level.
		Many times it's very granular.
		And it's extraordinary stuff, Steve.
		It's dialogue in many cases.
		An excellent example is one of the members of Fort Washington.
		is in my book.
		And this is, he's arguably the luckiest man alive that survived the battle before Washington.
		It was surrounded by the British.
		There were 3,000 troops there.
		These men, they ran them through a gauntlet, killed many of them.
		But he was able to survive by crossing the Hudson River with a rowboat.
		And he crossed the river And on the other side, he landed right near General George Washington, who had a spyglass in his hand and was watching the entire battle unfold.
		And what's extraordinary about the account is he describes how Washington had tears in his eyes as he sees his men being run through a literal gauntlet, where there are Hessian and British troops that are beating, kicking, stabbing with bayonets.
		The Revolutionary War soldiers that are taken prisoner at Fort Washington.
		But that's just one of the accounts in the books that I have that are from this oral history, great archive, that streamed through Washington's Immortals and the Indispensables.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I want to break it.
		Washington Immortals is about a regiment.
		That became immortal and made kind of the last stand or the stand of Thermopylae.
		The Indispensables are a group of almost kind of special forces, guys from New England or from Massachusetts, that end up kind of as special operators, special forces, and are the men that actually transport The unit, his unit, across the Trenton, across the Delaware River on that freezing Christmas of 1776.
		To put it in perspective, it just set the stage because people, everybody knows the Declaration of Independence, July 4th.
		It's revered in American history.
		We celebrate it every year in this huge celebration.
		There are movies made about it and plays.
		But in your book, when you get to Trenton, Christmas, people think that Trenton or that happened years afterwards.
		It was six months later, five months later.
		The revolution almost came to a halt because of the British expeditionary force that landed, I think, in August.
		And from August to to actually Christmas Day or Christmas Eve, it is one continuous strategic Retreat, is it not, Patrick K. O'Donnell?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Indeed, Steve.
		There are a number of great inflection points in the year 1776.
		And beginning in the summer of 1776, where the British take practically their entire navy, two-thirds of their navy and two-thirds of their army, to crush the rebellion with all-out force.
		They also hire tens of thousands of mercenaries or hired guns, if you will, allies, for politically correct term, from Germany, or which German states, and bring them into their army.
		And they're there to crush the colonists and the rebellion.
		They land in first Staten Island, and then at the Battle of Brooklyn or the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, this is a true inflection point of the Revolutionary War.
		It's one of the great battles that's not recognized, but it's up there with Gettysburg in the sense that here, in this inflection point, all could have easily been lost.
		The entire war was on the line.
		Washington had 10,000 of his troops in Brooklyn to defend the indefensible, which is New York City.
		It was surrounded by water, so the Royal Navy could land anywhere in New York at will.
		So therefore, it was practically indefensible, but Congress demanded that he at least try to defend it.
		He defends Brooklyn, and the battle goes disastrously for the colonists.
		And it's here that there is an epic stand on the level of the Spartans.
		It's an American Thermopylae.
		We're the bayonets of the revolution.
		The Maryland 400, or parts of the 1st Maryland Regiment under the 2nd in command, Mordecai Gist, makes a series of desperate charges against Cornwallis.
		Cornwallis becomes their adversary, Steve, for the entire war.
		And they make a series of charges against a position near a stone house where Cornwallis has basically outflanked most of the American army.
		But they open up a passageway that allows a large portion, thousands of Americans, to escape into their entrenchment.
		And this is a series of bayonet charges under GIST.
		It's a forlorn hope.
		Most of the men are blown to atoms by canister from the British guns, but they continue to make these charges that allow the Army to escape.
		And what I found so amazing is that this sacrifice, one of the great sacrifices in American history to save Washington's Army, the men of the Maryland 400 Are most of those men that made that charge are still unknown where they are buried.
		They suspect that some of those men are buried in and around where they fought, near that stone house, which has now been fully developed in Brooklyn.
		And others were captured and put on prisoner of warships in Brooklyn Harbor, and that is a It's basically a death sentence for these men.
		It was a floating concentration camp, and most of them died on board those ships if they were captured.
		They made those charges, though, which allowed the army to escape.
		And it's there that this inflection point takes place as well.
		The army is completely surrounded practically by water, which the East River to its back and to its front, there are tens of thousands of British and Hessian soldiers ready to destroy Washington's army.
		And he makes this incredible decision to, you know, he has to decide if he wants to stay or fight to the death or to escape.
		And he wisely decides to escape.
		And that falls upon the men in the Indispensables, the Marblehead Mariners.
		As you mentioned, kind of an early sea-like unit in the sense that they were the most skilled mariners in the colonies.
		They were experts at
		It's fishing engines and also they traded around the world They were the best men at the sea at the time because they fished what's known as the Grand Banks, which is about a thousand miles outside of Boston to just to fish cod primarily, but these treacherous waters built men of iron and they were able to to basically navigate any kind of waterway and they needed it all that night because
		The night of August 29th, 30th was a disaster.
		The river was running high.
		They had a nor'easter before that.
		And it was an impassable situation where they tried these small boats.
		It was an American Dunkirk, if you will.
		They had 10,000 men in the army.
		...and only given about two or three hours notice.
		They were told that they were going to initially fight, and then they were told that they were going to have to evacuate... Patrick, hang on right there.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		I want to leave it with their extracting, the great sacrifice that gave them time.
		All heading towards these strategic retreats, all heading towards Pennsylvania, crossing the Delaware River in retreat, then coming back on Christmas Day.
		the combat history of Christmas all next in the world.
unidentified		Christmas is the year of the Lord.
		Christ is born for this.
		Christ is born for this.
		Good King Wenceslas the Founder.
		Okay, welcome back, Merry Christmas.
		We have our honored guest, Patrick K. O'Donnell.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		So Patrick, in this vast retreat to Pennsylvania, walk us through what we barely get out.
		And you're right, every time, it's like he barely gets away.
		He barely gets away.
		The hand of divine providence comes in.
		Talk about how we got out of the American Dunkirk.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		The hand of divine providence definitely takes place here.
		It's an unfolding disaster, Steve, that night.
		The tides are all bad.
		The river is running very high because there was a nor'easter.
		It's storming out.
		They can't get the wind to work right for the sails initially.
		But with all their skill, they initially try to call off the operation, but they can't find Washington that night, fortunately.
		And they continue to press on.
		Luckily the wind changes a little bit and then the men with their oars, their navigational skills, are able to navigate this treacherous current and start to make nearly a dozen crossings.
		That's how many times they have to go across, back and forth, to pick up the men.
		First the artillery, the wounded, and the horses, and then they bring over more, and it's back and forth, right under the noses of the British fleet, which is A little bit further down the East River.
		But miraculously, the tide and the waters don't allow that British fleet to sail up the river, fortunately, because they would have destroyed all these small boats.
		And the men continue to cross against all odds.
		But it's a race against time, Steve, because dawn is coming and with it, light.
		And as soon as the British know that they're retreating, they will launch an all-out attack on the Continental Army in Washington.
		And at that point, you know, a miracle takes place.
		A fog sets in at exactly the right time to screen the movements of the Army as it's crossing the river, and the British cannot see that we were crossing.
		And almost to a man, everybody gets away, which is, it's truly One of the greatest evacuations in military history.
		We are able to escape right under the eyes of the larvae.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Because of the American Thermopylae, he buys enough time to get to the Palisades at Brooklyn, right there where the Brooklyn Bridge is footed today.
		Because of the fog and because of the heroism of the Marblehead Men, he's able to extract into Manhattan.
		But Manhattan is also one colossal all the way through White Plains.
		Isn't Manhattan one colossal just retreat to this to this advancing, you know, the best army in the world at the time, coupled with the best Navy in the world?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		It is.
		And two weeks later, the British land in Manhattan at Kips Bay near Murray Hill now today.
		And the army shatters.
		It's the Marylanders who make this epic stand.
		As one historian at the time said, they bought an hour more precious in our history than any other through that epic charge near that stone house.
		And then it's the marble headers that also stand with Washington.
		And there's an amazing scene where Washington himself is literally catatonic on his horse as the British in this massive force lands at Kips Bay and with fixed bayonets is Only 400 yards away from the Commander-in-Chief.
		Somebody literally has to take the bridle of his horse and get him off the field.
		He's willing to sacrifice himself to continue to lead his men in his army.
		But fortunately, the Marylanders, the Marbleheaders, and others buy the army just enough time to escape through what's now Central Park and a place called McGowan's Pass.
		And they make their way to fortifications At Harlem Heights, and there's a brief sort of window of hope.
		The Battle of Harlem, which is fought near, in Harlem, and they were able to defeat some British light infantry, which is kind of a remarkable thing.
		But other than that, there's not a single real bright spot in 1776.
		It's pretty much one defeat after another, as you mentioned, Steve.
		And it's the men that are making their way to their first, they decide to not abandon Fort Washington, which is a mistake.
		They lose 3,000 Continental troops in that fort alone.
		And Battle of White Plains takes place, and it's a retreat then across the Hudson River and then into Pennsylvania.
		And it's the British that are pursuing pretty much at every step.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		They're felling trees to prevent... They roll back all the way through New Jersey.
		I mean, from White Plains, they cross the Hudson into New Jersey and just all the way back down till they get to the Delaware.
		And he makes a decision, General Washington makes a decision that they won't stand really and fight Or no big engaged conflicts that eventually wants to get across the Delaware and regroup in Pennsylvania?
		Is that the thinking at the time?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		That's right, Steve.
		They want to get to Pennsylvania because they have the safety potentially of the river, even though if that freezes over, that's a potential problem as well.
		They can get right across.
		But there's also a supply issue.
		I mean, all armies fight on their stomach.
		And supply always determines battles.
		Supply for the Continental Army was the farms of Pennsylvania, which were friendly to the Continentals.
		So they had to get to Pennsylvania to supply the Army and reform.
		But Washington had a major problem on his hands.
		The enlistments for the Army were expiring.
		They first expire in December, and then many expire in January 1st.
		So Washington, whose army in New York City at its height in the summer was around 20,000 troops, is now down to a small kernel of itself in roughly, you know, 4,000 to 5,000 troops.
		And it's dissipating fast because the enlistments are about to expire.
		The mood in the country is also disastrous.
		One British victory after another has many Americans jumping ship to the British side.
		And this is true in New Jersey, in particular, where the British had conquered large swaths of New Jersey.
		And people that even signed the Declaration of Independence now are signing oaths of allegiance to the British.
		It was an absolutely horrible time economically.
		We had hyperinflation where money was, you know, it cost a fortune just to feed yourself.
		And it was a very, very, it was the darkest days as many have brought out.
		And it's here that Washington designs his great counterattack or counteroffensive.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		He had to resign.
		Number one, he's losing his army.
		He's down to four or five thousand men.
		The enlistments are coming up.
		But he's also, there's a lot of questioning.
		You said, I think it was New Jersey, one of the New Jersey representatives had already signed an oath, had signed the Declaration of Independence, signed the Oath of Allegiance.
		To the British, because New Jersey had essentially fallen within a couple of weeks.
		But he also was having a testy relationship with Congress, with the people that empowered him.
		I mean, there was a lot of talk going on even from some other generals.
		People have been, you know, That it had been victorious in other places, that Washington, there was a lot of talk about, was Washington up for this?
		Did he really understand how to manage?
		He had fought in the French and Indian War and been a hero there, but there was a lot of questions about General Washington.
		Was he fit for command to do this?
		I mean, there was a lot of backstabbing going on at the time, and he was bleeding out support even in Philadelphia among the The leaders of the continental government?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Absolutely, Steve.
		This is a situation where you have the knives came out for Washington.
		There was a real question whether or not he could lead his rivals.
		There were many.
		There were several that that had experience and they were fully prepared to step in and they were in fact, you know, having back channel talks with Congress to replace Washington.
		And one of his great rivals is captured by Bannister Tarleton and other men from the British Legion.
		And he's brought out the, he's basically taken away as a potential rival, which is a great, in many ways, it's a great sort of miracle that Washington doesn't have that situation.
		He's able to focus on the entire, the revolution in its entirety.
		He writes Lund Washington and one of his relatives that If we don't act soon, the game is pretty much up.
		He realizes that the Revolutionary War is about to end, if they're not able to be successful.
		And the British, for their part, to occupy New Jersey, they have to put up a series of fortified posts, or posts.
		Sometimes they're fortified, sometimes they're not.
		And one of them, furthest towards the Delaware River, near Washington's army, was the post at Trenton.
		And it was under a great colonel, Colonel Johan Rall.
		The storybooks that we hear from childhood always put the Hessians as drunk on Christmas and everything else.
		These were experienced soldiers.
		Johan Rall had been fighting his entire life since he was born.
unidentified		He was born into the regiment and had been fighting.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hang on one second.
		We're going to take a short commercial break.
		We're going to return.
		We're going to go to Trenton.
		We're going to go to the Hessians, their commanding officer.
		We're going to talk about Washington's brilliant counterstrike that saved the Revolution, saved the Revolutionary Army.
		Combat History of Christmas on Christmas Day in 1776.
unidentified		1776. We'll be back in a moment.
		1787.
		1789.
		1790.
		1791.
		1792.
		1793.
		1794.
		1795.
		1796.
		1797.
		1798.
		1799.
		1700.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Okay, welcome back.
		Merry Christmas.
		It's Christmas Day.
		We're here with our annual Christmas Day special.
		I think we've done this now for over a decade.
		Patrick here, Donald and myself.
		Patrick, so the knives are out for Washington.
		There's been one strategic retreat ever since this massive expeditionary force.
		People have to understand the Constitution wasn't even dry when they, they'd already formed it when they set sail to land here in August.
		The largest expeditionary force the British had ever put together.
		You had two-thirds of the British Army, you had a bunch of mercenaries that they had quote-unquote alliances with or signed up, and they had the Royal Navy which was the best pound-for-pound Navy in the world.
		And they were serious about keeping this colony because they understood they had a They had, you know, this and India combined gave them global power that, you know, even the Romans couldn't imagine.
		So they were not prepared to let this go lightly.
		This was as serious as you could possibly get and they sent their best troops.
		Tell us about Rawls and tell us about the Hessians that General Washington was going to do this master counterstrike against.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Rawls was a really an incredible commander.
		He was a He was the best in many ways of the Hessian soldiers, of the Hessian officers.
		Born into the regiment that his father had, you know, he was fighting at age five as a drummer boy and just continued to rise through the ranks.
		The man had spent his entire life in military life.
		Countless battles in Europe.
		Comes to the United States.
		And Johan Rahl is one of the first heroes of the American Revolution, at least on the British side.
		He's the hero of White Plains, where they lead a breakthrough at that battle, and he's the man in charge in front, leading his troops.
		These guys are seasoned troops.
		They're very well drilled.
		They follow orders to the death, and they're ruthless.
		And Rahl leads his troops at White Plains at the Battle of Fort Washington, which I talked about with Lawrence Everhart and the rowboat.
		He leads the breakthrough there.
		So he's really, truly one of the first great heroes of the American Revolution, at least on the British side.
		And Rahl is in charge of about a thousand men in his regiment to guard Trenton.
		And it's an outpost.
		And Rahl is under constant attack.
		It's the local militia that's attacking him.
		It's the Continentals from across the river.
		They make raids across the river and hit his outpost.
		And he is demanding, you know, countless times from his superiors, give me more troops because I need them.
		And he knows he's in desperate shape.
		The men of the Rahl regiment are literally They sleep with their muskets on their side and in their uniforms, in their cartridge boxes.
		They're constantly on alert.
		And they know that an attack is imminent.
		The British intelligence at the time warned Roll that an attack would come very soon from Washington's army.
		And a series of things take place on the night of Christmas that are quite interesting.
		The navigation of the river itself, it's a disaster.
		Washington asked John Glover if his men can get the army across the river, and he says, don't worry, my boys can handle it.
		That was the true statement, but the army was divided into multiple parts that night.
		There were three prongs to that offensive.
		The only men that got across that night were the Marbleheaders that brought the Army across.
		Every other aspect of the Army was failed to cross the Delaware River because it was filled with ice.
		It was fast flowing.
		There was a nor'easter.
		It was snowing that night, very heavily, and it was pelting the men with snow.
		There was a positive to this in the sense that it screened the movement of the army as it crossed.
		And Washington had a very tight timetable.
		They had to get the entire army.
		His portion was about 2,600 men, and then there were other elements that were trying to cross.
		Those other elements, as I mentioned, failed to cross because the river was too treacherous that night.
		He gets across, and then they're about 10 miles away from Trenton itself, and they have to make A March in the night through Trenton.
		Meanwhile, Raul is warned that there's potential for a an attack.
		And one of the great things that one of the great warnings is that he is.
		He's warned that this attack is imminent.
		He decides to to play checkers with a local loyalist that night.
		And.
		As Washington's army is marching in the snow towards Trenton, they encounter another force, which is completely out of place.
		There were about 120 men or so from the Virginia militia that had made a raid on their own, without any authorization.
		And many think that it was a raid to basically avenge losses that they had sustained earlier.
		And Washington is astounded that there's another American force on that other side.
		What's really incredible, and most historians believe, that that early force that landed and was repulsed by the Hessians leads Rawl to believe that that was the attack.
		And he goes to bed that night believing that the attack already took place.
		No one would attack in the middle of a Nor'easter.
		No army would.
		But in fact, Washington's army of about 2,600 men are barreling down the River Road, which basically parallels the Delaware River on its way to Trenton.
		And even that night, there's an enslaved individual that goes to Rawl with a message that says, Washington's entire army is there.
		Rawl takes the message from that person, puts it in his pocket, and never reads it.
		And that morning, at dawn, the Americans strike.
		And they attack Johann Rahl's garrison.
		And they put up an amazing fight, initially, the Hessians.
		They have several cannon that are in place.
		They battle over those cannons.
		It goes back and forth.
	What's going on, though, is the men that crossed that river, the Indispensables, the book that I wrote about, the Marble Hunters, that brought the Army across, it's under, at this time, Colonel, or General John Glover, who leads his men down that river road, and without orders, he captures the most important real estate in North America, which is a bridge across Assompeak Creek.
	And that is Johann Rawls' really only escape route to the other garrisons that are out there.
	And with it, they are able to envelop the Hessian garrison.
	It's a double envelopment, which is a rare thing in the American Revolutionary War.
	What happens is most sides battles, and then when one side gets the advantage, they retreat, and the battle goes that way.
	In this case, it's a double envelopment, And Johan Rahl's entire garrison, or most of it, is captured.
	And Johan Rahl is mortally wounded during this encounter, and they capture the stacks of all the arms that the Hessians had, many cannon, and it's a great victory.
	But this is just one victory in the period of a course of 10 days that will change the American Revolution and world history forever.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hang on, before we get to that, I want to go back.
		Because his question later, to leave, and it took much, much longer to get everybody across than he thought, but to leave and then still be 10 miles away.
		And to know that you're in the middle of a snowstorm.
		I mean, you've made the odds so long itself.
		Obviously, they caught him by surprise and were able to win because of the fortitude of the men and obviously Washington's leadership.
		But before they actually engage in combat, It looks like, wow, the logistics on this thing could have been better.
		Yeah, you're going to surprise them, but, I mean, when you think of a 10-mile march, after you've already had all the fording, a forced crossing of a river in the middle of the night, freezing with ice, and how difficult it was to get everybody across, then 10-mile march.
		In a essentially a little mini blizzard or northeaster is not the way to show up and be ready to fight, correct?
		So, I mean, once again, people even were questioning, like, does Washington totally know what he's doing here?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Well, the thing is, Washington always had, he always liked to like complex plans.
		And this is one of them.
		He had multiple prongs with his army, which turned out to be a positive in the sense that there was redundancy.
		Those other two prongs failed to cross the river.
		But it is a 10-mile march.
		And Steve, let me just also highlight something else about the sacrifice of these soldiers.
		They had no winter clothing, most had no shoes, and most of these men had blood trails from their feet as they marched those 10 miles.
		This is an extraordinary hardship.
		Many of these men never get paid, or they get paid later on, if they even get paid.
		And they have to make this extraordinary sacrifice.
		They march the 10 miles, and then they fight.
		And it's truly an epic struggle in Trenton.
		It looks like, initially, Raul and his seasoned, disciplined men have the upper hand.
		But we bring across extra firepower.
		Henry Knox, this rotund bookseller from Boston, who's in charge of the artillery, General Knox, brings over About double the amount of firepower, maybe even triple, that the Hessians have, and they're able to overwhelm them.
		But the key is also the capture of the Assen Peak Creek Bridge, which is important because there's another battle that takes place a week later.
		It's the Forgotten Battle of Trenton.
		It's the Second Battle of Trenton.
		It's a movie, really, in many ways.
		The bridge at Assen Peak Creek is the crucial choke point.
		It's the crossing point of the creek.
		And the men of the Continental Army are holding it against all odds.
		And that afternoon, in early January, the Revolutionary War is once again an inflection point.
		If they're able to crack through and break through that bridge, they'll be able to break Washington's army in two and destroy it.
		But they hold the bridge against all odds.
		And Washington that night, As a decision to make, does he recross the river or does he attack forward at Princeton?
		Many think that it's Washington's idea to attack Princeton.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Hang on one second.
		I want to hold that.
		We've got one more segment to go.
		I want to hold on this.
		The very dramatic second battle of Trenton and how Washington finally pulled it all together.
		Combat historian Patrick K. O'Donnell joins us.
		Merry Christmas to everybody.
		Short commercial break.
		will be back in the world in just a moment.
unidentified		Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light, what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that
		star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
		Let us ever more know Christ is born for thee, Christ is born for thee.
		Good King, whence hast thou stood, on the feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round our hearts deep and crisp and deep?
		Patrick K. O'Donnell joins us.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		We're at the bridge.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Can we hold it, Patrick K. O'Donnell?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		Steve, the stones of the Assom Peak Creek Bridge are still there.
		Portions of those stones.
		Hessian Barracks that's nearby.
		And this is downtown Trenton.
		And I hope after four years, they're finally getting together the interpretive signs that I've asked for.
		But this is one of the great battles in American history.
		It's a true inflection point of the war, much like Brooklyn, where all could be lost.
		If they could hold the bridge, they hold the army in the Revolutionary War together.
		And it's here at that bridge that it's a bloodbath.
		They send, Cornwall sends his best troops, the light infantry, and the grenadiers from the Hessians to try to assault the bridge multiple times.
		The bridge literally runs with blood as canister is fired upon these men as they try to seize the bridge.
		Washington himself is so close to the battle that his horse literally touches one of the planks On the handrails, on the bridge.
		That's how close he is.
		But remarkably, there are thousands, hundreds of bullets that are flying, lead balls.
		He's never hit.
		And this is something that's the case throughout the American Revolution.
		As he's leading from the front and holding his men together in a straight line.
		Washington survives, the Army survives because There is no more light.
		And it's in the morning that Cornwallis is rumored to have said, we'll bag the old fox in the morning, as they prepare to cross the Assam Peak and destroy the American army.
		But Washington is one step ahead.
		He has men with pickaxes and shovels feigning that they are digging in for the night, preparing for that assault, when in fact the fires are lit and the army is moving, towards Princeton, where there's another small garrison, which is in the process of moving towards Trenton.
		And they have what's known as a meeting engagement, where they clash on the road towards, basically on the road towards Princeton.
		And it's here that the Continental Army is disintegrating again.
		But Washington himself, which an 18th century general can do at that time, puts himself in the fray.
		And literally leads his men to victory.
		And they have a crushing victory at Princeton.
		Plan is initially to go to New Brunswick, where there is a massive war chest where the payroll of the British Army, which has about 50,000 pounds, which is an enormous fortune for the time, along with munitions and arms.
		But the Washington realizes that the army is exhausted and they move towards a fortified ground in New Jersey.
		And they sit out the winner there.
		And it's the 10 days that changed the course of the Revolutionary War.
		It's the indispensables in the barrel.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Did these 10 days, did the 10 days give Washington also a level of confidence that he finally had now that he had a couple of incredible victories against overwhelming odds?
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		It's not only confidence from Washington, but it's confidence across the world.
		Frederick the Great, others that recognize in the French, Spanish, recognize that, hey, these continentals, these Americans are here to fight.
		And they then, there are other battles that follow, Saratoga being the crucial one.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		The big one.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		But it changes world history, Steve.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		How did people get, real quickly, how did people get to your writings?
		How did people get to your books?
		I want everybody to get to know Patrick K. O'Donnell.
patrick k odonnel ▲ ● ▼		I'm on Gatter, at Combat Historian.
		Twitter as well, at Combat Historian.
		My website is my name, PatrickKODonald.com.
		The books are on Amazon.
		You can download them.
		They're e-books.
		They're also hardcovers and softcovers and audiobooks.
		Some of the older books are easier to get on e-books, though, or Kindle.
		But yeah, I'm out there on Gitter.
		I love the audience out there on Gitter.
steve bannon ▲ ● ▼		Patrick, Merry Christmas.
		Thanks for doing this again.
		We'll be back on Boxing Day.
		We'll be back on Monday here in the War Room.
		Thank you very much, Patrick.
		Really appreciate it.
		Merry Christmas.
		Merry Christmas to our audience.
unidentified		Merry Christmas to our audience.
		I'm dreaming of Christmas.
		I'm dreaming of Christmas.
		I'm dreaming of you.
		Of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know Where the treetops glisten and children
		Listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow.
		I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.
		With every Christmas card I May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white.
		I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know
		Where the treetops glisten and children listen to hear sleigh bells in the snow.
		May your days be merry and bright.

▲