To Try Men's Souls - George Washington 1 (2 page)

As we wrote this book, there were many who were eager to help, and some who might not realize they were helping but nevertheless deserve our humble thanks. First and foremost our compliments to David Hackett Fischer. Our work is fiction. Fischer’s remarkable book
Washington’s Crossing
is the real history, and we urge you, if you have not already read it, to put it first on your reading list. Another work we highly recommend is Joseph Ellis’s
His Excellency: George Washington.
Both Ellis and Fischer are recipients of well-deserved Pulitzers. We also must compliment David McCullough with his monumental study of John Adams. To list all of our references for this book would be near to impossible, but the three mentioned above are good starters.

As to the actual team that has worked directly with us, there are so many we wish to mention. First off, the team with St. Martin’s who has published our previous novels on the Civil War and Pearl Harbor: our editor Pete Wolverton, his assistant Elizabeth Byrne and publisher Thomas Dunne. We are blessed to be working with you.

To our agent Kathy Lubbers who handles all the business aspects of a project like this, thus freeing us up to write, our sincere thanks. Also with the Gingrich team: Randy Evans, Stefan Passantino, Joe DeSantis, Vince Haley, Liz Wood, Chris Paul, Rick Tyler, and the remarkable Michelle Selesky were always on top of all the administrative details. And, the more than capable Sonya Harrison and her team: Lindsey Harvey, Bess Kelly, and Heather Favors.

Throughout the years Sean Hannity and Oliver North have helped in so many ways, and our gratitude must go out to them as well. A very special team is our close friends “WEB Griffin Sr. & Jr.” Long before we started writing they were already an inspiration and
through an interesting coincidence, “WEB Jr.” Bill Butterworth IV, long ago, was Bill Forstchen’s first editor and mentor when Bill started writing for
Boys’ Life
magazine.

Lt. Commander Chris McConnaughay and Captain Bill Sanders USN, were always ready with a critical eye in reviewing our work, especially if any nautical details needed attention.

An extraordinary group that must be cited here are the staff and volunteers at the Mount Vernon historical center. General Washington’s home is not a federally owned national park. It is owned and maintained by a private foundation. It is an endeavor worthy of the support of every citizen who wishes to honor the memory of the man who is “first in the hearts of his countrymen” and his beloved wife Martha. Resting there as well, Washington’s “servant” Billy Lee, who remained by his side throughout the war, a hero worthy of far more recognition. We especially want to thank James Rees, the director; Mary Thompson, the historian-librarian; and Sue Keeler, the extraordinary guide. We also want to acknowledge the amazing work of Gay Gaines who led the effort to raise over $100 million to build the extraordinary new educational center which every American should see to better understand their country’s origins. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association does a remarkable job of preserving the home and educating the nation about George and Martha Washington.

Our families, of course, had to “endure” this book as well. From Newt, as always, a heartfelt and loving thanks to his wife, Callista, and his daughters, Kathy and Jackie, and for Steve his beloved wife, Krys. For Bill, his ever-patient daughter Meghan, who learned long ago that “I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes” usually meant several more hours of waiting, and Dianne St. Clair, who as an English teacher reviewed our writings with a critical eye.

The problem with an acknowledgments page such as this is all the names not mentioned. To list all would result in a manuscript at least a chapter in length, so please do know that our thanks are with you.

We hope that this book will serve in some small way as an inspiration. Thomas Paine so correctly named his pamphlet,
The American Crisis
. It was indeed a time of crisis. America, however, rose to the occasion at a time when so many naysayers claimed that it was lost. There is a fascinating point about the study of history, and that is to understand the context of the moment in which an event transpires. Long after the crisis is past, a multitude will step forward to claim they had a part in it. Or that all along they believed “things would work out.” Or most telling of all, the doubters would exclaim that maybe their ancestors had “the right stuff,” but the current generation no longer has the guts to see it through.

Thus it was said in 1776, in 1863, in 1944, and thus we hear it said today.

We can glorify a past and, rightly so, call those of that time the “greatest generation,” but read carefully what contemporaries were writing and you will see how few truly did believe, at that moment, that we as Americans would see it through to victory. On that grim and terrible night of December 25, 1776, General Washington had but 2,500 men by his side out of a nation of more than three million. Those chosen few saved the Revolution and gave us a legacy of freedom. That spirit is still with us today, and we believe that even now we have a “greatest generation” who can and will face the same hardships if need be to insure freedom for the “greatest generations” yet to be born as Americans. That is the legacy we have written about. This is the legacy we must pass on to the America that we believe still can stand as the “shining city on the hill,” and that is indeed the best hope for all mankind.

THE MIRACLE THAT MADE AMERICA POSSIBLE:
WHY WE THINK THIS BOOK MATTERS FOR ALL AMERICANS

We first began discussing a Revolutionary War book about George Washington and the miracle of the American success about fifteen years ago.

Steve Hanser, Bill Forstchen, and I were all fascinated by the extraordinary leadership of Washington and the equally extraordinary success of his generation in creating the United States of America.

After years of reflection (and writing six history-based novels) we decided the Christmas Day campaign of 1776 would be the best place to introduce General George Washington to a modern audience. This was a campaign of extraordinary heroism, improbable good fortune, and involving a series of events that led Washington and others to conclude that the outcome was a miracle indicating Divine Providence was on their side.

The events that transpired on the Christmas Day campaign——crossing the Delaware at night, marching miles through snow and ice in a severe storm with an army (one third of whom had no boots and had wrapped their feet in burlap bags) leaving a trail of blood as they marched, and then surprising a professional Hessian unit that
should have been ready and waiting for them——came together to suggest a miracle in Washington’s mind and in the minds of many contemporary supporters of the American Revolution.

We decided this time not to write our normal active history in which we change one critical decision in order to show how other things might have been changed because history is not automatic or inevitable or predetermined.

After studying and thinking through the Christmas Day Trenton campaign, we concluded that it was so improbable and indeed so miraculous that any change would only diminish it. We decided that given the current threats to American civilization from both without and within, the time was ripe for a novel that told the story of that miracle to help bring Americans back into contact with their Founding Fathers and with the faith and courage that made that founding possible.

Indeed, the real events of those twenty-four hours were so difficult——and the successful outcome so improbable——that it is almost impossible to improve on a simple retelling of that great courage in the face of overwhelming adversity.

There is much to learn from great historic nonfiction works, and as professional historians all three of us deeply enjoy reading well-researched and well-written history. However there are also human moments, personal encounters, insights, and relationships, which can best be conveyed in a fictional setting. We felt that a fictional account would help Americans today get some sense of the exhaustion, the desperation, and the determination of their ancestors.

America is a country of miraculous opportunity for all.

America is a country where for four hundred years events occurred which can only still be termed miraculous.

The poorest American has an opportunity to rise. The newest immigrant has an opportunity to rise. The son of a first-generation immigrant can and has become president.

One of the greatest weaknesses of modern America has been the
collapse of the teaching of American history in our schools, and the loss of this sense of what a miraculous country America is and how fortunate we are to be Americans. The modern education establishment has deliberately ignored American-history and minimized the importance of learning about America. Yet America is essentially a cultural concept. Americans can come from anywhere but they learn to be American. A key part of being American is the memories we have of Thanksgiving, of Washington crossing the Delaware, of Lincoln at Gettysburg, and of the millions of Americans who have risked their lives for this country to be free and safe. We believe that this kind of accurate history about who we are and how we got here should be reinstated in our schools and taught to every student and to every first-generation immigrant.

We have to begin by acknowledging the extraordinary work of David Hackett Fischer. His
Paul Revere’s Ride
and
Washington’s Crossing
are two of the great modern studies of the American Revolution. No student of this period can read these two books without a sense of awe at his research, his understanding, and his writing ability. We write in his shadow.

The shock of American political and military effectiveness in
Paul Revere’s Ride
explains much of the British failure to understand their opponents. It also explains a lot of the reasoning behind the Second Amendment’s commitment to the right to bear arms. The Founding Fathers knew full well that without local militia they would have been subjected to British tyranny and would have been powerless to oppose it.

The meticulous intelligence, planning, and execution of the Christmas Day campaign is captured flawlessly in
Washington’s Crossing
. As a work of nonfiction, it is without peer for those who would understand this great achievement.

We have been informed by Fischer’s great works, but we were inspired by an entirely different source.

We were inspired to write
To Try Men’s Souls
by a wonderful film
we saw at the Mount Vernon education center. This magnificent new museum uses film in very pioneering ways to reintroduce George and Martha Washington to modern audiences.

It is a sad commentary on the anti-American-history bias of our modern school systems that students today have far less knowledge of Washington than their parents and grandparents. The Mount Vernon education center is beginning to fill that void.

The film about the decision to cross the Delaware makes clear what was at stake, how deep the odds were against American success, and how desperate Washington’s decision to gamble was.

He commanded an army that had been defeated steadily from September 1776 on. It had been driven from Brooklyn across Manhattan to White Plains and then south past the Palisades and across New Jersey. It had shrunk from 30,000 to fewer than 2,500 effectives. There were another 2,500 in camp, but they were so sick they could not fight.

Morale was collapsing, and as enlistments expired, virtually everyone was choosing to go home. Without victory the army would disintegrate. As Washington warned his officers: “If we do not win soon there will be no army left. When there is no army left the rebellion will be over. When the rebellion ends we will all be hung. Therefore we have little to lose.”

Crossing the ice-choked Delaware at night in three different places, and then marching in the dark to Trenton to surprise a professional Hessian military unit (among the finest in Europe) was an act of absolute desperation.

Some of the desperation was captured in the password for that night: “Victory or death.” Washington understood this was potentially the last gamble of the Revolution.

Washington also understood the importance of morale and the power of a small number of determined people. Therefore he had Thomas Paine’s new pamphlet,
The American Crisis
, read to his men as they boarded the boats that night.

One of the most interesting characteristics of the American Revolution
is the wide range of personalities engaged. From the permanently optimistic Ben Franklin, to the disciplined John Adams, to his fiery cousin Sam Adams, to the intellectual Virginia planter Thomas Jefferson, there was an extraordinary diversity of personalities and backgrounds brought together in response to the perceived threat of British tyranny.

There may have been no greater contrast than that between General George Washington and the gifted propagandist Thomas Paine. Paine was from the poor neighborhoods of London. He was a natural revolutionary, deeply resentful of the wealthy and secure. Washington was probably the largest landowner in the colonies; a man of impeccable rectitude, considerable formality, and an intense, disciplined work ethic.