rorkesdriftvc.com :: View topic

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:22 pm

Saw, 1776 : I seem to remember the British defeating the "rebel traitors" at Brooklyn, New York, Harlem Heights, Fort Washington, White plains..... Not a good year for you to pick! Oh, and Trenton, they were Germans!

Happy New Year!

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:56 pm

...Yer a hardy man Saw! I don't know. All of a sudden these past few years I don't look forward to the deep, dark, freezing months around here overlooking the Sound. I know we're supposed to go through a few ice ages in the next few million years. And I think I have excellent timing in seeing its beginning. And now I know why I read voraciously on Scott and Shackleton... Wink

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 9:30 pm

The strategic retreat from New York was a result of utter confusion on the part of the Rebel leadership. They mistakenly thought that New Jersey was the true target of the British movements and were unable to comprehend why any seemingly civilized nation like Britain would be interested in New Jersey since it wouldn't be needed for dumping toxic waste for another two centuries. Then they finally guessed that the focus was in fact Pennsylvania and the rest is history...

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 2:00 pm

So Saw should we all meet up in New Jersey and invite'em for a nice pint at Morristown and let bygones be bygones ?????????....George's dice rolled pretty good that day... Wink

.

Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 10:15 pm

Sounds like a pretty good plan, but iffen you're in Long Island, then you're a lot closer to Morristown then I am now. I expatriated to New Hampshire after growing up in Basking Ridge, where Gen. Charles Lee was caught with his pants down at Widow White's Tavern by Tarlton and also General Lord Stirling's hometown (the same Lord Stirling who stood toe to toe with the British for four hours on Long Island while the rest of Rebel Army escaped to fight another day). Were it not for Lord Stirling's stubborn leadership, it might have been a short war indeed!

When I was just a wee lad, on a tour of The Ford Mansion AKA Washington's Headquarters in Morristown, the museum curator handed me an old rifle and told me I could now tell my grandchildren that I had once held one of the two known (at the time maybe) examples of a real, live Ferguson Rifle. I bet they don't do that anymore! But I digress. This is, after all, a site dedicated to the AZW and I'm just a guest from away.

Purportedly at Bunker Hill after the second failed assault a British General exclaimed, "By God, they fight like Englishmen!". His aide, somewhat nonplussed, turned to him and said, "They ARE Englishmen."

Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 1:44 pm

Very good Saw...and as 'Englishmen" we demanded our rights!!! Such are how wars are made... Wink

..?
Anyway, if you're down in my parts you can go to Huntington and visit where Washington came to have a drink and see what was going on in LI.
But I'll warn you be prepared to see a plot of land with a plaque on it noting "Old George was here". There's a gas station right behind it... Cool