December 22, 2023 Sare Symposium
The Miracle of Christmas 1776
There is probably no single day in history more decisive for the creation of the United States than Christmas Day 1776. A few thousand ordinary individuals, ragged, largely barefoot, hungry, and as varied in ethnicity, nationality, race, religion, social and financial standing, as any group one could possibly imagine, united and achieved a remarkable victory that turned the tide of the war for the American Revolution. What was the character of these men? What united them despite their diversity and differences? What made them so dissimilar from the British soldiers and their mercenary armies, which had so ruthlessly crushed numerous other colonial uprisings? We will examine the exemplary case of the Marblehead Regiment, the soldier-mariners, who rowed Washington across the Delaware. This knowledge of our true roots is indispensable to returning ourselves and America to our true revolutionary identity. . .