How the U.S. Army was born – and a free nation realized

A relic of the American Revolution is delicately ushered into the National Museum of the United States Army, at Fort Belvoir, Va. It’s the First Rhode Island Regimental Flag. “And if it could talk, the stories it would tell,” said Paul Morando, who has spent four years putting together this exhibit to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary. 

The flag – so faded you could hardly tell it’s a flag – was at Valley Forge, and then carried by soldiers at Yorktown. “This flag has not left the state of Rhode Island since 1784,” said Morando. “We actually had to change the law to allow this flag to come out of the state and be put on display.”

As precious as the flag may be, what catches the eye is the life-like figures of real people who won the war for America’s independence. “Our focus is on the individual soldiers’ experience, what they sacrificed and why they fought,” said Morando.

Beginning with Sylvanus Wood, who fought the British at Lexington and Concord – the famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” “It’s the moment of no return,” said Morando. “We are in it now, and it’s only going to get worse after this.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson has just published “The Fate of the Day,” the second volume of his planned trilogy on the Revolutionary War, beginning when American militiamen took the field at Lexington and Concord. “It’s the beginning of the war; it’s the beginning of the country, actually,” Atkinson said. “They are weekend warriors. They are soldiers who turn out once every few weeks to practice the manual of arms, to learn how to load a musket.” 

They were facing British forces – professional soldiers with professional officers. Atkinson said of the King’s military, “Men enlist in the army for life, usually.  So, these are troops that know their business.”

The headline in the local paper called what happened next “Bloody butchery.”  “It’s a long, brutal day for both sides, but particularly for the British,” Atkinson said. “There are bodies all the way from Concord to Boston.”

The Americans had sent a message. “The Americans show that even though they’re not the professional force that the British are, that they know how to fight, they know how to use weapons, and they know how to kill,” Atkinson said.

Two months later, the Continental Congress voted to replace the part-time militias with a full-time army.

Why, if the militias had given the British more than they could handle, was an army necessary? “For one thing, they’ve got jobs,” Atkinson said. “They’re farmers, they’re tradesmen. They’ve got families to take care of. You need to make this army into a force that can take on the British full-time.” 

It was June 14, 1775, the birth date of the United States Army. It would be, Atkinson said, “the central institution that is going to determine whether or not the United States of America really does become a country.”

The commander of the new army is known today as the father of our country. Morando said, “It’s hard to imagine what the Revolutionary War would have been like without George Washington.”

Atkinson called Washington “the indispensable man,” based on “his ability to stay the course, to believe in the cause, to transmit his belief in the cause to the soldiery.” 

Washington told his troops: “The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.” “He’s got a vision – he refers to generations yet unborn,” Atkinson said. “That would be us.” 

In the summer of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was just a piece of parchment.  Said Morando, “It was up to our soldiers to fight and secure that independence.”

In New York, a British force of 32,000 attacked Washington’s new American Army – the first battle after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Morando said, “A lot is riding on this. He understands that if he loses this battle, he possibly could lose the war and the revolution itself.”

The British troops came ashore on Long Island, where Washington had dug in.  “The British devise a plan in which they outflank him,” said Atkinson. “It’s a catastrophe. He nearly loses the whole game at this point.”

Washington barely escaped with his army, retreating across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. He wrote to his brother: “I think the game is pretty near up.” 

I asked, “What’s so ‘indispensable’ about that performance?”

Atkinson replied, “People were beginning to wonder, frankly, does this guy have the right stuff? He’s going to show that, among other things, he’s very bold, and when he is desperate, he’s dangerous.” 

In an act of daring immortalized in American history, Washington crossed back over the Delaware and caught the enemy by surprise. The British had lost their chance to destroy the American Army, and Washington would fight on for seven more years. 

B.J. Ervik directed a team of artists who recreated the sacrifice of those years, down to the bloody knuckles of Sergeant Major William Seymour recording the day’s events in his journal.  Ervik said, “I think that’s a very reflective moment for somebody who might have just been in battle for a few days, and has a moment to reflect on what he’s doing in life and what is happening around him.” 

Retired Army Lt. Col. Alayne Conway posed for the figure of Anna Lane, handing a cartridge to her wounded husband. Passing the ammunition, you can see in her eyes the British are coming.

“Wow! It’s pretty powerful,” said Conway. “I really see how strong she was.”

Leaders of today’s Army got a VIP tour of their origin story, leading up to an audio-visual display of the battle at Yorktown, Virginia, where British troops finally surrendered. Dismissed early in the war as amateurs, the soldiers of the American Army withstood every hardship and challenge – and stood victorious. 

Through 1,300 battles and skirmishes, the Army had outlasted the British Empire. As American Major General Nathaniel Greene was quoted as saying, “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”

Atkinson said, “One of the lessons we should take from the Revolution is we’re capable of doing extraordinary things and overcoming extraordinary odds to get where we want to go.”

I asked, “It was nasty, brutish, and long. Should we so revere this war?” 

“I think we should revere what came out of it, and we should revere the sacrifices that went into it,” Atkinson replied. “The creation of the American Republic – it’s one of mankind’s greatest achievements.  And how can we not be proud of that?” 

The last thing one sees upon leaving this exhibit is a quote from Founding Father John Adams, and it is addressed to us: “You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.”

READ AN EXCERPT: “The Fate of the Day” by Rick Atkinson

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Story produced by Mary Walsh. Editor: George Pozderec.