The words of
Thomas Paine resounded through the tiny tavern on the edge of the vast frontier:
- “Society in every state is a blessing”….
- ”The cause of America is in great measure the cause of all mankind”….
- ”It is not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies”….
- ”the long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it superficial appearance of being RIGHT”….
- ”Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived”….
- ”Give me liberty or give me death”….
……..and on they came. Sermon like. Not just words – but concepts bordering on the
abstract that had lain dormant for oh, so long. Ideas that would take root
in the fallow and harrowed hearts of those willing to listen. And once planted, the theory and opinion soon
transformed into conviction and belief. Common Sense would fuel a revolution.
Shortly, a document of
different tone was penned by Thomas Jefferson and its statement – a Declaration
of Independence
– was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. It too came to be read aloud in the meeting
places throughout our fledgling nation:
”We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these
are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
But not all chose to
hear. Britannia and her King were not
moved, nor were continental loyalists.
And America’s
revolutionary war, which had already seen shots fired in anger, settled in.
And so it came to pass that
an unknown patriot found himself hunkered down behind a zigzag rail fence on
the edge of a soggy cornfield. An unremarkable setting near a small, isolated
farming community cut out from the hardwoods surrounding. On either side of his position, the muskets
of a thousand like-minded companions rested along the fence. Waiting. Anticipating.
These were North Carolina
militiamen – untrained, citizen soldiers.
Pawns of war yet forever honored. The first line of defense positioned here by Commanding
Officer Nathanael Greene in hopes of taking some of the starch out of the well-trained,
hardened English regiments – units that would surely approach in ranks across
the cornfields. Further back, Greene
established two additional battle lines, the third line manned with the most
seasoned troops of the Continent.
The date is March 15, 1781. The morning sees a blanket of frost but as the
battle approaches the warmth of the sun pulls moisture from the ground. The wait continues as noon passes. Then, General Cornwallis gives the order and calls
to assembly echo over the fields as 2,500 of the King’s best troops form into
columns of crimson. Drums pounding, the
British advance towards the fence line with purposeful precision. At 150 yards, the militia open fire. The approaching ranks stagger and
briefly stop. But the gaps fill quickly
and the advance continues over the dead and wounded. At 50 yards, the British unleash a volley of
their own and their voices thunder as one as they rush forward with bayonets
lowered. Panic is sparked and spreads in the center
of the colonist’s ranks. Many turn. But not all.
The unknown patriot vaults the split rails and charges towards the
advancing Redcoats with a resolute fury of his own. And for a moment frozen in time he peers into
the unflinching, black eye of a British cannon……then a light.
The battle continued for
another hour and a linear mile of ground.
Onto the second line amongst the thicket and then the third. The battle ebbed and flowed. The aftereffect always unsure. At one point, Cornwallis ordered his
six-pounders be loaded with grapeshot and then fired upon his own positions as they
were being overrun. In the end, the
Americans relinquished the field and simply disappeared into the bordering
forest. Cornwallis had won the ground but
at a devastating price in terms of life and equipment. Casualties from which he would not recover. His fate sealed, Cornwallis surrendered his
army at Yorktown, Virginia, in October of 1781.
A war that had started in
1775 had finally come to an end some six years later. A span that had witnessed starvation and
hypothermia at Valley Forge, bloody assaults on Bunker Hill and then Breed's, the siege of Charleston,
the capture of Savannah. A conflict for
which the outcome was never certain until two armies locked in mortal combat near an
obscure courthouse at Guilford,
North Carolina.
Three lines. Two hours.
A linear mile of ground
Soon thereafter followed a
government and a new nation. Both created
within the framework of a Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
“We
the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense,
promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United
States of America.”
Pangs of birth – with the
passage of time the mind tends to forget as a matter of defense. But the abstractions are established forever
in the hearts of all mankind, cemented by the sacrifices of countless unknown
patriots.
