For me, one of the most enduring images brought to mind on Independence Day, is a bitter Christmas night five months later. That night, General Washington and 1000 men of the Continental Army crossed the Delaware River to assault Colonel Rall's Hessian mercenaries in the town of Trenton, New Jersey. The password that night was "Victory or Death."
This painting,* executed by the German-born American painter Emanuel Leutze, sums up, as no other work of art, the spirit of the American Revolution.
Yes, it's light out, the flag is wrong, and that certainly isn't a Durham boat, in which almost everone would indeed have been standing. But Leutze saw a bigger picture. From the almost Roman stance of the General, to the true American diversity of the crew: frontiersmen, uniformed Regulars, a free black man - and holding the flag, the young Lt. James Monroe.
Hours later, Monroe, under the command of Capt. William Washington, would have an artery staunched by Dr. John Riker, who had come out the night before to run off men he believed to be British. Later, as a Lt. Col., Washington would be instrumental in defeating the hated Banestre Tarleton's Legion Dragoons at the Battle of The Cowpens, instrumental in pushing Lord Cornwallis toward Yorktown.
There is much more to this story, best told in David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing
So let us celebrate the astonishing story of our nation and especially those who have always made it possible and continue to make it possible.
The painting is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Happy Fourth of July, my friend!
Beth
Posted by: Beth | 07/04/2005 at 03:15 PM