My name is Mike Vanderboegh. I'm from Alabama and I’m a Three Percenter. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, we take our name proudly from the three percent of the American Colonists who took the field against the forces of the King during our Revolution. They were supported actively by perhaps another ten percent of the population with perhaps another twenty percent who agreed with the revolutionaries’ goals but didn’t do a whole lot to make them happen. On the other side, there was another third who sided with the King and yet another third who were willing to blow with the wind and take what came.
But the Three Percent? Well, the Three Percent were fighters. It is appropriate that we are met here today on one of the most important battlefields of that war -- a battlefield where two of North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried -- and a battlefield where the Three Percent fought and died and ultimately lost the battle but won the war.
The battle at Guilford Court House would not have been possible without four men -- two Americans and two British -- two of whom weren’t even here. Forgive me if I take a detour into history here, but if history hardly ever exactly repeats itself, it often stutters in similar patterns, and there are lessons in this story that are relevant today, and perhaps, in the near future.
First let me set the stage. Long frustrated by Washington’s refusal to be destroyed in a decisive battle in the north, British commander Sir Henry Clinton sailed south and after a brief siege captured Charleston South Carolna on May 12 1780. More than five thousand Three Percenters were captured and the revolutionary cause lost tons of precious supplies. Clinton then sailed back north to his mistress, leaving his number two, Lord Cornwallis, to complete the conquest of the Carolinas.
With him were two men whose actions would decisively shape the battle here at Guilford Court House -- Patrick Ferguson and Banastre Tarleton. On August 15, Cornwallis met revolutionary forces under the vain and incompetent General Horatio Gates at Camden South Carolina and whipped them with the help of a cavalry charge around the American flank and rear by Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton, the son of a Liverpool ship owner, merchant and slave trader, had squandered his inheritance and fled England in 1775 for America, seeking to make a name for himself and restore his fortune.
Tarleton’s nicknames among the Three Percent were “The Butcher” or “Bloody Ban.” He had earned the reputation after his Green Dragoons had slaughtered hundreds of surrendering Virginia Continentals at the Waxhaw Massacre in late May 1780. In his attempts to suppress guerrilla bands in South Carolina such as Francis Marion’s, Tarleton alienated the citizenry and made the guerrilla’s work easier by numerous acts of cruelty to the civilian population.
By his many cruelties and massacres Banastre Tarleton set the stage for the campaign -- he alienated even Loyalists and angered the Three Percenters and gave them a thirst for justifiable vengeance.
The second of Cornwallis’ officers to shape the Guilford Court House battle was Major Patrick Ferguson. As brilliant as Tarleton was cruel, the Scottish officer was an early advocate of light infantry tactics and the designer of the Ferguson rifle, a remarkable breech-loading flintlock. Ferguson was chosen by Cornwallis to recruit Loyalist militia in the Carolinas and Georgia and intimidate any colonists who favored American independence.
Initially, Ferguson had great success, but if he was brilliant, even though he had been the Colonies for three years, he still did not understand the American character. On September 10, 1780, Ferguson issued a challenge to Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would “lay waste to their country with fire and sword.” He later issued a second call for Loyalists to join him lest they be “pissed upon by a set of mongrels.”
Needless to say, this did not go over well with the Patriots. Even for the “Over the Mountain Men” who lived in what would later be east Tennessee and who had been reluctant to get involved in previous battles to the east such an insulting threat could not be ignored. Tarleton had proven to them what the British meant by laying “waste with fire and sword.” And calling such proud and independent men a pissing set of mongrels was an absolute guarantee of a fight. Go into any country bar in the South today and use similar words and see what happens.
By the afternoon of October 7, the Three Percenters caught Ferguson and his little army at Kings Mountain, surrounded them and destroyed Ferguson’s force, yelling “Give ’em Tarleton’s quarter” meaning, no quarter at all. Ferguson and 244 of his Loyalists were killed and the rest, more than 800 men, were all wounded or captured. The Patriots lost 29 killed and 58 wounded. The destruction of Ferguson’s command and the looming threat of Three Percenter militia in the mountains caused Cornwallis to fall back temporarily to South Carolina. Many Loyalists who had been thinking about joining the previously victorious British promptly changed their minds. Kings Mountain, by the numbers an insignificant battle in the larger war, was a pivotal moment, thanks to the brutal, ill-considered and arrogant actions of Banastre Tarleton and Patrick Ferguson.
Ferguson never left Kings Mountain, but Banastre Tarleton had yet to be taught his lesson. That would come at the battle of Cowpens and would be driven home by the third of our four key players who shaped the Guilford Court House battle, Daniel Morgan.
Dan Morgan was one of the most gifted tacticians and combat field commanders of the American Revolution. Born in New Jersey, Morgan left home at the age of 16 after a fistfight with his father, eventually settling in Virginia. A big man, poorly educated but practical and charismatic, he was a natural leader. Early in his life he worked clearing land, in a sawmill and as a teamster. During the French and Indian War, he was given four hundred and ninety nine lashes for punching an arrogant British officers -- a punishment that would have killed a lesser man. Dan Morgan paid the British back for every lash.
In June 1775, Virginia decided to send two companies of riflemen to add the Continental cause. Morgan was chosen to lead one of them and he mustered 96 men in ten days and assembled them on the green in Winchester on the 14th of July. Morgan then marched them 600 miles to Boston Massachusetts in only twenty one days, arriving on the 6th of August 1775. Captured at the ill-fated attack on Quebec on the eve of the new year, 1776, Morgan was finally exchanged in January 1777. Whatever the trade was, the British got the worst of the deal.
Promoted to colonel and placed in charge of the 11th Virginia Continentals, he trained his men in light infantry tactics. Later he was given command of the Provisional Rifle Corps, a light infantry unit of 500 picked riflemen.
At the battle of Freeman’s Farm, New York, during the Saratoga campaign, Morgan’s riflemen killed every officer in British General Simon Fraser’s advance party in the first exchange of fire, and forced a British retreat. Later the British came on again and Morgan’s men broke up formation after formation and charge after charge with accurate rifle fire from the woods on the far side of the field.
Shortly afterward, at the battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777, Morgan was once again assigned to deal with Fraser’s forces. Fraser, the best field officer in British General Burgoyne’s command, was rallying his men when Morgan ordered him shot by rifleman Timothy Murphy. Murphy shot Fraser from a perch up in a swaying tree at a range of about 300 yards -- an incredible shot in that day. With Fraser mortally wounded, the British attack petered out.
This set the stage for the culmination of the Saratoga battle and the surrender of Burgoyne’s entire force. The British defeat at Saratoga brought the French into the war on the Patriot’s side. Tim Murphy, at Dan Morgan’s order, had fired the single most important rifle shot in the Revolutionary War.
Morgan soldiered on in the Continental cause, but was repeatedly passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress. Finally disgusted by the politics, in poor health, his legs and back in pain from the abuse he suffered during the Quebec fiasco, he was allowed to resign on June 30, 1779 and returned home to Winchester. After the disaster at Camden, when Horatio Gates left the battlefield ahead of his defeated army, Morgan decided to rejoin the army and see if he could help salvage the Patriot cause in the Carolinas.
When Gates was replaced by the new Department commander, Nathanael Greene, Morgan was ordered to take his light infantry force of about 700 men to the back country of South Carolina where he was to forage and harass the enemy while avoiding direct battle.
Cornwallis sensed an opportunity to defeat the rebel army in detail, so he dispatched Banastre Tarleton and his “British Legion” to track Morgan down and crush him.
Eager to avoid another Waxhaw or Camden, Morgan did something that was rare for a troop commander to do -- he sought the advice of men in his command who had fought Tarleton before, seeking from their experience and knowledge of the enemy the best way to defeat him.
Morgan found a way, and he spent the night before the battle circulating among his troops who were huddled around campfires trying to keep warm, explaining the plan and what was expected of them.
Making his stand at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17th, 1781, Morgan’s plan took advantage of Tarleton’s tendency for quick action and his low opinion of American militia, as well as the long-range killing power of his own riflemen. Positioned in three separate lines of battle, with his marksmen to the front, his militia in the second line and his regulars to the rear, each was shielded by foliage and dips and folds in the ground. Morgan took care that each line was within supporting distance of the other.
The marksmen were to fire until seriously threatened, then retire off to the flanks or through the militia in the second line. The militia were issued similar instructions. The sight of the militia “fleeing” would encourage Tarleton to order a charge, which would then smack up against the regulars with the marksmen and militia pouring fire into the British flanks from the wooded areas to either side.
The British took the bait and the tactic resulted in a classic double envelopment. In less than an hour, the British force of 1,076 men suffered 110 killed and 830 captured with more than 200 of those wounded. Tarleton barely escape with his life. His reputation he left on the battlefield.
When Tarleton reached Cornwallis and reported the disaster, Cornwallis placed his sword tip on the ground and leaned on it more heavily with each bit of bad news until the blade snapped.
Coming in the wake of the American debacle at Camden, and added together with the victory against Ferguson’s Loyalists at Kings Mountain, Cowpens was a surprising victory against a force containing British regulars and under a commander who had never before lost an engagement. The spell of “Bloody Ban” Tarleton was broken and Cowpens marked a psychological turning point of the war, encouraging the revolutionaries and demoralizing the British and Tories.
Cowpens set in motion a series of events that led here, to Guilford Court House, and to General Nathanael Greene, our fourth man to shape the battlefield, and ultimately, the war.
Nathanael Greene was born the son of a Quaker farmer and iron forger at Potowomut, Rhode Island in 1742. Though his father’s sect discouraged “literary accomplishments,” Greene educated himself in mathematics and the law and likewise promoted public schools in his home district.
“Learning is not virtue,” Greene once said, “but the means to bring us to an acquaintance with it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of frauds, the defeat of oppression, and the diffusion of happiness.”
In August 1774 Greene organized a Rhode Island militia company, which refused to elect him an officer because he walked with a limp. Greene went along anyway as a private. At this time he began to acquire many expensive volumes on military tactics and began to teach himself the art of war. Because of this, he was expelled from the Quakers.
On May 8, 1775 he was promoted from private to Brigadier General of the Rhode Island Army of Observation during the siege of Boston. Six weeks later, he was appointed a brigadier of the Continental Army. He must have been one hell of a private to deserve the jump to general. While at Boston, he observed the Battle of Bunker Hill and its aftermath but was not engaged.
In a letter Greene wrote to his wife Catharine about this time, he said “it had been happy for me if I could have lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem. But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel the bold invaders of the sons of freedom.” Yes, indeed, Nathanael Greene was a Three Percenter.
Washington thought highly of Greene, and used him in a number of important posts. By 1780, the Continental Congress had made some pretty awful choices to lead the forces of revolution in the south. They had chosen Robert Howe and he had lost Savannah. They then chose Benjamin Lincoln and he had lost Charleston. Then came Gates and he got whipped at Camden, effectively ending the American Southern Army as a fighting force, leaving the way clear for Cornwallis.
So when Gates’ successor was to be chosen, the Congress decided to leave it up to George Washington and he selected Nathanael Greene. When Greene accepted the post, he wrote, “I am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my life in the attempt.” He also said, “I hope this is the dark part of the night which is generally just before day.”
Greene went south to pick up the pieces, splitting his forces in order to force Cornwallis to split his. Shortly afterward, and contrary to Greene’s orders not to engage, Morgan gave him the great victory at Cowpens. Morgan fell back toward Greene, bringing his 800 prisoners from Tarleton’s force. Greene fell back toward the Dan River as well, using a special light infantry force under Colonel Otho Williams to screen his retreat. It was a close run thing, but finally all of Greene’s army was across the Dan and ready to give battle to Cornwallis.
Recrossing the Dan, Greene moved up to meet Cornwallis here, at Guilford Court House on the 15th of March, 1781, on ground that Greene had chosen as favorable to battle he wanted to fight.
Dan Morgan, finally crippled by illness was not here. He had been sent home to convalesce. But his men were here, standing on this battlefield which the “Old Waggoner” had done so much to shape.
Like Morgan at Cowpens, Greene arranged his force in three battle lines. Unlike Morgan, Greene was not able to hold his militia to the plan, for they panicked and ran, in part because Greene had placed his lines too far apart, out of supporting distance. But the Continentals fought stoutly, as did the Dragoons under Light Horse Harry Lee. In the end, Cornwallis had a horse shot from under him and he ordered his guns turned upon his own men who were mixed up with the Americans and giving way.
Greene withdrew his army in more or less good order, intending to fight Cornwallis again on other ground of his choosing. After Bunker Hill, Greene had commented, “I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price we did Bunker Hill.” Here at Guilford Court House, he did. Greene may have left the field to the British and thus this was a tactical victory for Cornwallis, but it was a strategic defeat of the greatest magnitude. The battle had lasted just 90 minutes, but Cornwallis lost over a quarter of his men killed and wounded. A prominent war critic in British House of Commons exclaimed, “Another such victory would ruin the British Army!”
Cornwallis withdrew, and then decided to strike out for the Virginia coast, where he met George Washington and the French army and navy in the siege of Yorktown, from September 28th to October 19, 1781. And you all know how that turned out.
For his part, Greene turned south, maneuvering, failing to bring the British into another decisive battle, and losing a few small ones himself, but in the end the British were driven from the interior of the Carolinas and cooped up in Charleston where they sat out the rest of the war.
As Greene himself said, “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”
He also said these lines: “We are soldiers who devote ourselves to arms not for the invasion of other countries, but for the defense of our own, not for the gratification of our private interests but for public security.”
And this: “Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the Great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and rectitude thereof.”
I have taken the time to remind you all of the men who fought and bled and died here -- to remind you of the original Three Percenters. What can we learn from their stories? How can we take what they learned and put it to use today? Dan Morgan was uneducated, even coarse, a drinker and a gambler. Nathanael Greene was educated, studious, quiet and humble. Each was a genius -- Morgan the natural tactician and troop leader who saw the essential thing and battled toward it -- and Greene, the tactical failure but strategic thinker who as much as any other single man other Washington himself was responsible for the final victory. Neither had been a professional soldier, yet men followed both willingly because they knew that these leaders loved them, took care of them and would not spend their lives to no purpose. Each understood the weaknesses of their enemies and was able to exploit them. Neither man wanted war, yet when war came they plunged in, offering their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the altar of their country’s liberty.
But the Three Percent? Well, the Three Percent were fighters. It is appropriate that we are met here today on one of the most important battlefields of that war -- a battlefield where two of North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried -- and a battlefield where the Three Percent fought and died and ultimately lost the battle but won the war.
The battle at Guilford Court House would not have been possible without four men -- two Americans and two British -- two of whom weren’t even here. Forgive me if I take a detour into history here, but if history hardly ever exactly repeats itself, it often stutters in similar patterns, and there are lessons in this story that are relevant today, and perhaps, in the near future.
First let me set the stage. Long frustrated by Washington’s refusal to be destroyed in a decisive battle in the north, British commander Sir Henry Clinton sailed south and after a brief siege captured Charleston South Carolna on May 12 1780. More than five thousand Three Percenters were captured and the revolutionary cause lost tons of precious supplies. Clinton then sailed back north to his mistress, leaving his number two, Lord Cornwallis, to complete the conquest of the Carolinas.
With him were two men whose actions would decisively shape the battle here at Guilford Court House -- Patrick Ferguson and Banastre Tarleton. On August 15, Cornwallis met revolutionary forces under the vain and incompetent General Horatio Gates at Camden South Carolina and whipped them with the help of a cavalry charge around the American flank and rear by Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton, the son of a Liverpool ship owner, merchant and slave trader, had squandered his inheritance and fled England in 1775 for America, seeking to make a name for himself and restore his fortune.
Tarleton’s nicknames among the Three Percent were “The Butcher” or “Bloody Ban.” He had earned the reputation after his Green Dragoons had slaughtered hundreds of surrendering Virginia Continentals at the Waxhaw Massacre in late May 1780. In his attempts to suppress guerrilla bands in South Carolina such as Francis Marion’s, Tarleton alienated the citizenry and made the guerrilla’s work easier by numerous acts of cruelty to the civilian population.
By his many cruelties and massacres Banastre Tarleton set the stage for the campaign -- he alienated even Loyalists and angered the Three Percenters and gave them a thirst for justifiable vengeance.
The second of Cornwallis’ officers to shape the Guilford Court House battle was Major Patrick Ferguson. As brilliant as Tarleton was cruel, the Scottish officer was an early advocate of light infantry tactics and the designer of the Ferguson rifle, a remarkable breech-loading flintlock. Ferguson was chosen by Cornwallis to recruit Loyalist militia in the Carolinas and Georgia and intimidate any colonists who favored American independence.
Initially, Ferguson had great success, but if he was brilliant, even though he had been the Colonies for three years, he still did not understand the American character. On September 10, 1780, Ferguson issued a challenge to Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would “lay waste to their country with fire and sword.” He later issued a second call for Loyalists to join him lest they be “pissed upon by a set of mongrels.”
Needless to say, this did not go over well with the Patriots. Even for the “Over the Mountain Men” who lived in what would later be east Tennessee and who had been reluctant to get involved in previous battles to the east such an insulting threat could not be ignored. Tarleton had proven to them what the British meant by laying “waste with fire and sword.” And calling such proud and independent men a pissing set of mongrels was an absolute guarantee of a fight. Go into any country bar in the South today and use similar words and see what happens.
By the afternoon of October 7, the Three Percenters caught Ferguson and his little army at Kings Mountain, surrounded them and destroyed Ferguson’s force, yelling “Give ’em Tarleton’s quarter” meaning, no quarter at all. Ferguson and 244 of his Loyalists were killed and the rest, more than 800 men, were all wounded or captured. The Patriots lost 29 killed and 58 wounded. The destruction of Ferguson’s command and the looming threat of Three Percenter militia in the mountains caused Cornwallis to fall back temporarily to South Carolina. Many Loyalists who had been thinking about joining the previously victorious British promptly changed their minds. Kings Mountain, by the numbers an insignificant battle in the larger war, was a pivotal moment, thanks to the brutal, ill-considered and arrogant actions of Banastre Tarleton and Patrick Ferguson.
Ferguson never left Kings Mountain, but Banastre Tarleton had yet to be taught his lesson. That would come at the battle of Cowpens and would be driven home by the third of our four key players who shaped the Guilford Court House battle, Daniel Morgan.
Dan Morgan was one of the most gifted tacticians and combat field commanders of the American Revolution. Born in New Jersey, Morgan left home at the age of 16 after a fistfight with his father, eventually settling in Virginia. A big man, poorly educated but practical and charismatic, he was a natural leader. Early in his life he worked clearing land, in a sawmill and as a teamster. During the French and Indian War, he was given four hundred and ninety nine lashes for punching an arrogant British officers -- a punishment that would have killed a lesser man. Dan Morgan paid the British back for every lash.
In June 1775, Virginia decided to send two companies of riflemen to add the Continental cause. Morgan was chosen to lead one of them and he mustered 96 men in ten days and assembled them on the green in Winchester on the 14th of July. Morgan then marched them 600 miles to Boston Massachusetts in only twenty one days, arriving on the 6th of August 1775. Captured at the ill-fated attack on Quebec on the eve of the new year, 1776, Morgan was finally exchanged in January 1777. Whatever the trade was, the British got the worst of the deal.
Promoted to colonel and placed in charge of the 11th Virginia Continentals, he trained his men in light infantry tactics. Later he was given command of the Provisional Rifle Corps, a light infantry unit of 500 picked riflemen.
At the battle of Freeman’s Farm, New York, during the Saratoga campaign, Morgan’s riflemen killed every officer in British General Simon Fraser’s advance party in the first exchange of fire, and forced a British retreat. Later the British came on again and Morgan’s men broke up formation after formation and charge after charge with accurate rifle fire from the woods on the far side of the field.
Shortly afterward, at the battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777, Morgan was once again assigned to deal with Fraser’s forces. Fraser, the best field officer in British General Burgoyne’s command, was rallying his men when Morgan ordered him shot by rifleman Timothy Murphy. Murphy shot Fraser from a perch up in a swaying tree at a range of about 300 yards -- an incredible shot in that day. With Fraser mortally wounded, the British attack petered out.
This set the stage for the culmination of the Saratoga battle and the surrender of Burgoyne’s entire force. The British defeat at Saratoga brought the French into the war on the Patriot’s side. Tim Murphy, at Dan Morgan’s order, had fired the single most important rifle shot in the Revolutionary War.
Morgan soldiered on in the Continental cause, but was repeatedly passed over for promotion by the Continental Congress. Finally disgusted by the politics, in poor health, his legs and back in pain from the abuse he suffered during the Quebec fiasco, he was allowed to resign on June 30, 1779 and returned home to Winchester. After the disaster at Camden, when Horatio Gates left the battlefield ahead of his defeated army, Morgan decided to rejoin the army and see if he could help salvage the Patriot cause in the Carolinas.
When Gates was replaced by the new Department commander, Nathanael Greene, Morgan was ordered to take his light infantry force of about 700 men to the back country of South Carolina where he was to forage and harass the enemy while avoiding direct battle.
Cornwallis sensed an opportunity to defeat the rebel army in detail, so he dispatched Banastre Tarleton and his “British Legion” to track Morgan down and crush him.
Eager to avoid another Waxhaw or Camden, Morgan did something that was rare for a troop commander to do -- he sought the advice of men in his command who had fought Tarleton before, seeking from their experience and knowledge of the enemy the best way to defeat him.
Morgan found a way, and he spent the night before the battle circulating among his troops who were huddled around campfires trying to keep warm, explaining the plan and what was expected of them.
Making his stand at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17th, 1781, Morgan’s plan took advantage of Tarleton’s tendency for quick action and his low opinion of American militia, as well as the long-range killing power of his own riflemen. Positioned in three separate lines of battle, with his marksmen to the front, his militia in the second line and his regulars to the rear, each was shielded by foliage and dips and folds in the ground. Morgan took care that each line was within supporting distance of the other.
The marksmen were to fire until seriously threatened, then retire off to the flanks or through the militia in the second line. The militia were issued similar instructions. The sight of the militia “fleeing” would encourage Tarleton to order a charge, which would then smack up against the regulars with the marksmen and militia pouring fire into the British flanks from the wooded areas to either side.
The British took the bait and the tactic resulted in a classic double envelopment. In less than an hour, the British force of 1,076 men suffered 110 killed and 830 captured with more than 200 of those wounded. Tarleton barely escape with his life. His reputation he left on the battlefield.
When Tarleton reached Cornwallis and reported the disaster, Cornwallis placed his sword tip on the ground and leaned on it more heavily with each bit of bad news until the blade snapped.
Coming in the wake of the American debacle at Camden, and added together with the victory against Ferguson’s Loyalists at Kings Mountain, Cowpens was a surprising victory against a force containing British regulars and under a commander who had never before lost an engagement. The spell of “Bloody Ban” Tarleton was broken and Cowpens marked a psychological turning point of the war, encouraging the revolutionaries and demoralizing the British and Tories.
Cowpens set in motion a series of events that led here, to Guilford Court House, and to General Nathanael Greene, our fourth man to shape the battlefield, and ultimately, the war.
Nathanael Greene was born the son of a Quaker farmer and iron forger at Potowomut, Rhode Island in 1742. Though his father’s sect discouraged “literary accomplishments,” Greene educated himself in mathematics and the law and likewise promoted public schools in his home district.
“Learning is not virtue,” Greene once said, “but the means to bring us to an acquaintance with it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of frauds, the defeat of oppression, and the diffusion of happiness.”
In August 1774 Greene organized a Rhode Island militia company, which refused to elect him an officer because he walked with a limp. Greene went along anyway as a private. At this time he began to acquire many expensive volumes on military tactics and began to teach himself the art of war. Because of this, he was expelled from the Quakers.
On May 8, 1775 he was promoted from private to Brigadier General of the Rhode Island Army of Observation during the siege of Boston. Six weeks later, he was appointed a brigadier of the Continental Army. He must have been one hell of a private to deserve the jump to general. While at Boston, he observed the Battle of Bunker Hill and its aftermath but was not engaged.
In a letter Greene wrote to his wife Catharine about this time, he said “it had been happy for me if I could have lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem. But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel the bold invaders of the sons of freedom.” Yes, indeed, Nathanael Greene was a Three Percenter.
Washington thought highly of Greene, and used him in a number of important posts. By 1780, the Continental Congress had made some pretty awful choices to lead the forces of revolution in the south. They had chosen Robert Howe and he had lost Savannah. They then chose Benjamin Lincoln and he had lost Charleston. Then came Gates and he got whipped at Camden, effectively ending the American Southern Army as a fighting force, leaving the way clear for Cornwallis.
So when Gates’ successor was to be chosen, the Congress decided to leave it up to George Washington and he selected Nathanael Greene. When Greene accepted the post, he wrote, “I am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my life in the attempt.” He also said, “I hope this is the dark part of the night which is generally just before day.”
Greene went south to pick up the pieces, splitting his forces in order to force Cornwallis to split his. Shortly afterward, and contrary to Greene’s orders not to engage, Morgan gave him the great victory at Cowpens. Morgan fell back toward Greene, bringing his 800 prisoners from Tarleton’s force. Greene fell back toward the Dan River as well, using a special light infantry force under Colonel Otho Williams to screen his retreat. It was a close run thing, but finally all of Greene’s army was across the Dan and ready to give battle to Cornwallis.
Recrossing the Dan, Greene moved up to meet Cornwallis here, at Guilford Court House on the 15th of March, 1781, on ground that Greene had chosen as favorable to battle he wanted to fight.
Dan Morgan, finally crippled by illness was not here. He had been sent home to convalesce. But his men were here, standing on this battlefield which the “Old Waggoner” had done so much to shape.
Like Morgan at Cowpens, Greene arranged his force in three battle lines. Unlike Morgan, Greene was not able to hold his militia to the plan, for they panicked and ran, in part because Greene had placed his lines too far apart, out of supporting distance. But the Continentals fought stoutly, as did the Dragoons under Light Horse Harry Lee. In the end, Cornwallis had a horse shot from under him and he ordered his guns turned upon his own men who were mixed up with the Americans and giving way.
Greene withdrew his army in more or less good order, intending to fight Cornwallis again on other ground of his choosing. After Bunker Hill, Greene had commented, “I wish we could sell them another hill at the same price we did Bunker Hill.” Here at Guilford Court House, he did. Greene may have left the field to the British and thus this was a tactical victory for Cornwallis, but it was a strategic defeat of the greatest magnitude. The battle had lasted just 90 minutes, but Cornwallis lost over a quarter of his men killed and wounded. A prominent war critic in British House of Commons exclaimed, “Another such victory would ruin the British Army!”
Cornwallis withdrew, and then decided to strike out for the Virginia coast, where he met George Washington and the French army and navy in the siege of Yorktown, from September 28th to October 19, 1781. And you all know how that turned out.
For his part, Greene turned south, maneuvering, failing to bring the British into another decisive battle, and losing a few small ones himself, but in the end the British were driven from the interior of the Carolinas and cooped up in Charleston where they sat out the rest of the war.
As Greene himself said, “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”
He also said these lines: “We are soldiers who devote ourselves to arms not for the invasion of other countries, but for the defense of our own, not for the gratification of our private interests but for public security.”
And this: “Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the Great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and rectitude thereof.”
I have taken the time to remind you all of the men who fought and bled and died here -- to remind you of the original Three Percenters. What can we learn from their stories? How can we take what they learned and put it to use today? Dan Morgan was uneducated, even coarse, a drinker and a gambler. Nathanael Greene was educated, studious, quiet and humble. Each was a genius -- Morgan the natural tactician and troop leader who saw the essential thing and battled toward it -- and Greene, the tactical failure but strategic thinker who as much as any other single man other Washington himself was responsible for the final victory. Neither had been a professional soldier, yet men followed both willingly because they knew that these leaders loved them, took care of them and would not spend their lives to no purpose. Each understood the weaknesses of their enemies and was able to exploit them. Neither man wanted war, yet when war came they plunged in, offering their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor on the altar of their country’s liberty.
Remember too Dan Morgan's tactical innovation of three lines, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, but placed within supporting distance of each other so as to make a formation greater than the sum of its parts.
And their enemies, Tarleton and Ferguson, let us not forget what their stories teach us. Unlike Morgan and Greene who were uncommon representatives of the common man, Tarleton and Ferguson were representatives of the elite of the British Empire. To use the terms of Codevilla's recent essay in the American Spectator, Tarleton and Ferguson were members of the ruling class and Morgan and Greene were members of the "country class." What is the essence of their stories, these men of the British ruling class? That arrogance and pride, cruelty and rash aggression, are their own rewards. That evil contains the seeds of its own destruction if we few -- we Three Percenters -- are courageous enough to oppose it. And finally that ruling classes were the same then as they are now.
So here we are, today, two hundred and thirty years later, on the same ground, consecrated with their blood and their sacrifice, fighting the latest battle in the eternal struggle -- between liberty and tyranny -- between good and evil. We are here, hoping as the original Three Percenters did, that fighting will not be necessary to secure our liberty and property to our posterity, but fearing that it will be.
The candidates here today and those spread all across this nation, the offspring of the Tea Party movement, they represent the next to last hope for rolling back this tide of collectivism and tyrannical appetite with which we are confronted. They are Morgan's second line of resistance.
They are the next to last line of defense. We, the modern Three Percenters, ARE the LAST line of defense. This is as the Founders intended it.
And their enemies, Tarleton and Ferguson, let us not forget what their stories teach us. Unlike Morgan and Greene who were uncommon representatives of the common man, Tarleton and Ferguson were representatives of the elite of the British Empire. To use the terms of Codevilla's recent essay in the American Spectator, Tarleton and Ferguson were members of the ruling class and Morgan and Greene were members of the "country class." What is the essence of their stories, these men of the British ruling class? That arrogance and pride, cruelty and rash aggression, are their own rewards. That evil contains the seeds of its own destruction if we few -- we Three Percenters -- are courageous enough to oppose it. And finally that ruling classes were the same then as they are now.
So here we are, today, two hundred and thirty years later, on the same ground, consecrated with their blood and their sacrifice, fighting the latest battle in the eternal struggle -- between liberty and tyranny -- between good and evil. We are here, hoping as the original Three Percenters did, that fighting will not be necessary to secure our liberty and property to our posterity, but fearing that it will be.
The candidates here today and those spread all across this nation, the offspring of the Tea Party movement, they represent the next to last hope for rolling back this tide of collectivism and tyrannical appetite with which we are confronted. They are Morgan's second line of resistance.
They are the next to last line of defense. We, the modern Three Percenters, ARE the LAST line of defense. This is as the Founders intended it.
Yet if we are to succeed, we must understand our own and each others' place in the battle line, and we must not be divided with too much space between us so that we cannot successfully support each other and turn back the attack of the enemies of the Constitution.
Much is being made in the state-run media this election cycle about candidates like Sharon Angle who have talked about the potential failure of electoral politics perhaps leading to "Second Amendment remedies." This plain statement of fact is ridiculed as "crazy." Our mutual enemies attack this common sense statement of fact as "extreme" and "crazy." The Founders who fought and bled and died here -- those Three Percenters -- would not have thought so. They knew themselves better than their ruling class knew them. Americans have always been an eminently practical people, and if the old political forms no longer suffice to protect their liberty, their property and their lives, then they will make their own arrangements.
Much is being made in the state-run media this election cycle about candidates like Sharon Angle who have talked about the potential failure of electoral politics perhaps leading to "Second Amendment remedies." This plain statement of fact is ridiculed as "crazy." Our mutual enemies attack this common sense statement of fact as "extreme" and "crazy." The Founders who fought and bled and died here -- those Three Percenters -- would not have thought so. They knew themselves better than their ruling class knew them. Americans have always been an eminently practical people, and if the old political forms no longer suffice to protect their liberty, their property and their lives, then they will make their own arrangements.
Indeed, our enemies make so much of this "Second Amendment remedy" precisely BECAUSE it is what they fear most. They do what they do in order to shape the battlefield to THEIR advantage. They know, or believe, that they can manipulate the political system. But they also KNOW that they cannot manipulate US, the Three Percent. This is why Bill Clinton denounced us by name back in April.
WE ARE WHAT THEY FEAR.
YOU are what they fear.
They do not fear the stupid party, the GOP, they know that they can handle them. But they fear that they cannot handle us. And they are right to fear.
Today’s Three Percent are the folks the Founders counted on to save the Republic when everyone else abandoned it.
And we will.
There will be no more free Wacos and no more free Katrinas.
THERE WILL BE NO FREE STOLEN ELECTIONS EITHER.
For we are the Three Percent.
We stand today on our forefather’s battleground, with their same resolve.
We will not agree to our own enslavement, no matter how soft and meeching the pleas and no matter what well-intentioned premises it is offered to us.
We will not disarm.
They cannot convince us.
They cannot intimidate us.
They can try to kill us, if they think they can.
But they should remember, we’ll shoot back .
We are not going away.
We are not backing up another inch.
And there are THREE MILLION OF US.
THREE MILLION.
And we will.
There will be no more free Wacos and no more free Katrinas.
THERE WILL BE NO FREE STOLEN ELECTIONS EITHER.
For we are the Three Percent.
We stand today on our forefather’s battleground, with their same resolve.
We will not agree to our own enslavement, no matter how soft and meeching the pleas and no matter what well-intentioned premises it is offered to us.
We will not disarm.
They cannot convince us.
They cannot intimidate us.
They can try to kill us, if they think they can.
But they should remember, we’ll shoot back .
We are not going away.
We are not backing up another inch.
And there are THREE MILLION OF US.
THREE MILLION.
And increasingly this is a fact that the enemies of the Founders’ Republic are coming to understand. For from Guilford Court House today to Afghanistan and Iraq, even to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, is written the promise, the threat, the credo -- WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
And they know this.
They know this.
And yet, and yet, this is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for many years and I cannot recall reading of such a thing. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, the one that they fought and died for here, on this very ground, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost. LOST.
But I tell you this: If that is so, we will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to take note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.
And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.
But just now, today, looking out across this battlefield park, reading and hearing of the mighty upsurge of the voices of like minds all over the 50 states, I believe we are going to win. And I’ll tell you why.
Our enemies of today's self-styled ruling class are full well as arrogant, prideful, cruel and voracious for other peoples’ lives, liberty and property as “The Butcher” Banastre Tarleton and the powdered wigs who sent him. But there is one thing that such people are most afraid of losing and that is their lives. They have no real principles, these collectivists, only appetites. They have no principles that they are willing to die for and are frightened to death by people who are and who do.
And they know this.
They know this.
And yet, and yet, this is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for many years and I cannot recall reading of such a thing. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, the one that they fought and died for here, on this very ground, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost. LOST.
But I tell you this: If that is so, we will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to take note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.
And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.
But just now, today, looking out across this battlefield park, reading and hearing of the mighty upsurge of the voices of like minds all over the 50 states, I believe we are going to win. And I’ll tell you why.
Our enemies of today's self-styled ruling class are full well as arrogant, prideful, cruel and voracious for other peoples’ lives, liberty and property as “The Butcher” Banastre Tarleton and the powdered wigs who sent him. But there is one thing that such people are most afraid of losing and that is their lives. They have no real principles, these collectivists, only appetites. They have no principles that they are willing to die for and are frightened to death by people who are and who do.
In the final analysis, the only solution for a tyrant's appetite is to punch his sharp teeth down his lying throat.
And that is the task of the Three Percent, regardless of what time and place they were born into.
So when the enemies of the Constitution and the Founders' Republic ask Tea Party candidates such as those here today about how "extreme" and "crazy" they believe Second Amendment remedies are, I hope they will say: "It does not matter if YOU think that they are extreme and crazy people. The fact of the matter is that they exist, and they do not believe that they are extreme or crazy. They do not seek to tell you what do, but they insist that you cease telling THEM what to do. My suggestion is to leave them the heck alone, lest your appetites get you in deep, deep trouble, for if you are able to corrupt the electoral process and collapse our ability to resist you politically, you WILL have to deal with them."
And I swear to you all today, upon the lives and futures of my children, they WILL have to deal with the Three Percent. And they will not like the cards they are dealt.
NOT ONE MORE INCH BACK.
We are the Founders' third line of resistance -- within supporting distance of the second line of politics -- and we will not fail.
WE WILL NOT FAIL.
Thank you.
61 comments:
Awesome Mike!
Pickdog
III
Amen.
Bravo!
Mile66, III
I like it, Mike.
Good job, keep it up. You represent us well.
Justin
III
What AWESOME words to wake up to. Thank you for this. I am so honored to know you, sir.
THANK YOU!
In your opinion, is eo12919 something we need to be concerned about? What about eo12425? Could these bu used to circumvent the 2012 election?
Damn, that was good.
"Fine speech"
Right on.
Eric
III
Mike,
I enjoyed the speech, but I was highly perturbed at the droning chatter, tapping on wristwatches, and impatient clucking around me.
I actually shushed a couple dipshits.
The same behavior was prevalent during the rally, as even many of the speakers decided that continually yammering their points in small groups was more important than listening supportively to the others.
It was my first rally, and I'll be looking forward to the next.
Jeff
III
Thanks, Mike. This will be the featured external article linked at The Price of Liberty. You said it all. :)
Mike,
You are a gifted analyst of the past and the present. Your speech is inspirational and truthful.
Rest, recover and rise again.
Thank You
Thank you!
Excellent! Thanks Mike!
Larry
III
Mike didn't mention that the event had run out of time, (lots of great speakers) giving him about two minutes to speak. This turned out to be a blessing. Mike took charge, and as the sun came out, the folks who'd really come to hear him speak were thrilled as he gave this entire talk standing upon the monument to General Nathanial Greene.
Well done Sir, well done.
III
UH FUCKIN" RAH!!
Perfect Mike, Perfect.
God bless America, and the Republic for which it stands, The Republic of the people!
Freedom and Liberty are our bread, our air, our water. Without any of these things, life cannot survive. Nor is worth living.
This is a fine speech and well indicates that you are a true son of 1776. I hope and pray that many will take heart from it and do all that is required in stalwart defense of our God-given liberties.
God bless you for your ceaseless labors on behalf of our beloved republic and God bless the 3%.
MALTHUS
Thanks Mike, again my situation would not allow me to be there. I spent the day reflecting and praying for you, those that were there, and those who "could not" be there.
I pray that your words and the words of the others that spoke on that hallowed ground would do their intended purpose....to add breath to the "patriot hearth" and ignite the flame of liberty for all. May the acquaintances made spark new life and dedication to the cause of Liberty and the tools to "RESTORE" the rule of law under the Constitution.
...just sitting here CHEERING from my chair!
Thank you Mike, Thank you Pete, and Thank You Bob! And I thank all of you, all of my brothers, all of the three percent.
- Miguel De La Flores
You gave a great talk on the monument in the park. Post some pics. It not the same when you can see all the POLICE watching all of us while Mike was speaking. I have to wonder, why they were there. Federal property would not allow for LEO to be there unless they asked them in or there is some xover agreement. Considering the LEOs on the ATVs and black Suburbans, in black uniforms, back in the trees and all around. Hope they enjoyed your historic III lesson as well as we did. Thanks for the flag signing and I pray for your continued strength, guidance, wisdom and wit.
TOM III
Amen, Mike.
Thank you for this posting, I wish I could have been there to hear you in person. I am a direct descendant of a 3 percenter who fought at both Kings Mountain and at Cowpens where he was wounded. He served under Capt. John Irwin and Col. William Bratton, eventually marrying into Irwin’s family. Whenever I hear these stories, I get choked up, and my determination is further set. What would he say to me now? What would he expect of us in our present predicament? Would I stand embarrassed before him, or would he recognize me as a brother? I can read your speech, and picture his face, asking if we will respond also to rout the evil of our present day. May we inspire our descendants to consider us in like manner.
Thanks Mike,
Fabulous speech.
The tyrants are making it very obvious what their plans are. They are pushing themselves into a corner where there is no way out. And their arrogance shall be their own doom. We will not have to look far to find them all.
Let us hope we have the will and the numbers to get the job done. For our future and our Republic.
Semper Fi, 0321
God bless you Mike.
Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.
Mike, your elloquence is a true gift from God. When the gloom and doom wears us down, your uplifting lessons reinvigorate our hearts for the comming fight. And there will be a fight. The collectivist bastards are too close to their goals to retreat now. I only pray that it comes before I'm too old to do my part. I won't have my grandchildren be slaves. I won't have them ask me why I didn't do something, before it was too late. Thankyou for your work. An Idaho Threeper.
Mike:
Good speech. Nice weaving of history and the present to make the point.
Was it covered by the local/regional/national media?
Gunner
By about 2:00EST today, you entire history lesson at the monument will be available on youtube along with some of the other speakers.
http://www.youtube.com/nccmwake
Thanks again, it was fantastic, the children I and will watch it together, tonight.
Mike:
Thanks for posting that picture of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
I'm sorry I missed the rally, but I just didn't have enough money to drive down there and back.
John Robert Mallernee
Armed Forces Retirement Home
Washington, D.C. 20011-8400
You thanked us for your speech. WE thank YOU! Jim Greaves, Thompson Falls MT
"Bring it on"
Sage words, Dutchman, sage words indeed.
And our enemies see it coming. The very actions they take and will take to forestall it will only hasten its coming.
God in Heaven help us all. It will be a terrible time. I expect millions will die. Perhaps tens of millions. Depending on the length of the war, the disruption may trigger the collapse of the world economy.
But maybe, just MAYBE enough of the supporters of statism will die in the process to put away that scourge for a few centuries.
Bad Cyborg X
"People who jump to conclusions seldom stick the landing."
I believe that you are the right man, in the right place at the right time, Mike.
We are everywhere.
As usual, this is eloquent, uplifting and inspiring - we'd expect no less from you.
That doesn't mean we take you for granted, however...
Thanks again!!
DD
Magnifique!!
I stand with you my friend and brother in the cause of freedom, and I do not say this lightly, we may not know when each others time has come, and may not be standing shoulder to shoulder, but for eternity the truth will bear record that we stood against liars, and murderers and thieves, and we died as free men.
Thank you for your bravery.
I agree...
"NOT ONE MORE INCH BACK!"
Thank you!!!
What a speech! I wish I could have been there to hear it in person.
Also, a great history lesson that probably won't be taught in the public schools.
Thank You Mike!
I was present at Greensboro and was delighted. The ambiance was spectacular. When you mounted the steps of the Nathaniel Greene monument and stood before the visage of our esteemed general the crowd hushed in ardent expectation, they were not disappointed. You gave us a taste of what America was really meant to be. Those who yearn to be free thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
Well said Mike....well said.
That's beautiful. Thanks.
Excellent! Ya make me proud! devildog in CO
III
My slow computer thanks you for the text rather than a stuttering u-toob video.
Here's a bit of editorial by a reasonable woman from Idaho:
Licking the 'hands which feed you'
Patrice Lewis
Posted: August 14, 2010
1:00 am Eastern
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=191097
Cheers.
Unlike, the firt Revolution, we now have millions of highly trained ex-military in this Country, traind on current weapon systems, who own the best made small arms in the World, who are free to train with these weapons as we please, and would not be afraid to use them if forced to. We all took the Oath, and all of us know it does not expire. So let these little Tyrant wannabe's make the fist move, we out gun them, we out man them, and WE ARE EVERYWHERE. III
Great speech, Mike! It stunk I did not get to hear it all. We had to get on the road. I'm bummed, I didn't get a chance to shake your hand, but I hope I will get to soon.
Here is most of Daniel Almond's Speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgpPv6inVeo
Extremely well said, Mr. V. And more needed than ever, at a time when Congress is packed with Democratic Socialist members on one side, and CFR one-worlder Newt Gingrich is rising again as an admired leader on the Right.
I woke up very depressed from thinking about everything, but your speech has renewed and invigorated me and given me back my hope.
God bless and protect you, and all of us.
III
Starve the Monkeys at RTC Rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtYnJ75Dp7o
Mike himself... one more vidoe to come...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpduc-bQyTA
Excellent speach sir, Thank you.
Glad that you made it home safe.
GOD BLESS THE REPUBLIC!
Dennis
III
Texas
Some video on Mike's speech written above.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl3XScyvCrk
Great "history" lesson Mike. I personally want to thank you for your steadfastness alongside us and giving us the knowledge that we are no longer the lone voice in the woods. We can and have been able to communicate with one another to form the modern day militia of the 3%.
Chris
Here's a link to some pictures thanks to the Flashpoint over at Carolina Shooters Forum.
http://picasaweb.google.com/AutoXdri...eat=directlink
Chuck
III
Well since I have now had the honor of having my screen name posted on Sipsey Street Irregulars, I will now post as EJR914. :-) I used to post under just, "E." Mike, I don't know if you saw it or not, but I also posted 9+ minutes of your complete speech at Greene's statue at the comment above. Feel free to use it until you get the complete video of the speech. After reading the part of the speech that I missed, and hearing the part that I did, I can say it was one hell of a speech, and you are quiet the historian that you claim to be. You're a great orator and I have much respect for you. I hope at the next rally I will be able to shake your hand and thank you for all that you've done for our movement. Thank you for everything that you do. I am honored to now have my screen name in a Sipsey Street Irregular Article. Well Hell it just made my day! :-)
Powerful words and truthful words. Let's hope it doesn't come to war, but if they want war, it will undoubtedly be the Second American Revolution that we will fight and win for our children and our children's children.
- G
III
Very good speech!
You know they are running and re-running the A/V in D.C, and hopefully shitting themselves.
Great job Mike, Thanks again!
ditto and ditto again - awesome speech sir. Thanks for posting the text version.
Here, here!
"And ... with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
Diamondback, III
I tip my hat to you sir, no finer speech have I heard. What honor you bring upon the patriots of this wonderful country. Thank you Mr Vanderboegh, God bless you.
And God bless our Republic!
"They know, or believe, that they can manipulate the political system. But they also KNOW that they cannot manipulate US, the Three Percent. This is why Bill Clinton denounced us by name back in April.
WE ARE WHAT THEY FEAR."
And they also fear, very much, that other group which Bill Clinton denounced by name back in April. Golly, I wonder why Billy Bob doesn't cotton to military and police being taught about the obligations of their oath, or being encouraged to actually read and learn the Constitution?
"Remember too Dan Morgan's tactical innovation of three lines, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, but placed within supporting distance of each other so as to make a formation greater than the sum of its parts."
Amen to that. Let's not divide and conquer ourselves, or insist on all of us being in one big mass. We are all in this together, but with each section doing its part according to its strengths and taking advantage of the weaknesses of the enemy. Different fronts, same war.
Awesome!
As someone else on another site commented on the "Second Amendment remedies", disarmed we will have no choice but to submit to the tyranny of collectivism.
Armed, we at least have a chance.
As Sun Tzu once wrote "Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."
Rifles in the hands of patriots will give the enemies of freedom pause – this also explains their incessant desire to disarm the law-abiding.
One other thing: As history has shown us time and time again, you should Never let the enemy choose place of battle – and that includes the rhetorical battlefield.
Don't let the collectivists choose the moral high ground with their self labeling as in the past with the word “Liberals”, providing the false notion they are for Liberty.
For all that is holy, use the word Leftist.
By the same token, forget about using their term of “Progressive” with it's implication favoring Progress.
To Quote Nathanael Greene: “Let these be your motives to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of frauds, the defeat of oppression, and the diffusion of happiness.”
The newest term that should be used to describe the leftists that would foist the tyranny of collectivism on the republic should be Oppressives – that is the best descriptive word for who they are and what they want to do.
PS - that was indeed a fine, fine speech Mike. Don't take my point above as meaning I didn't like it. It's one for the books. Well done.
And it is that spirit of resistance to tyranny that STILL, to this day, lives inside of every "sleeping American" that will save us, if anything will. Yes, many of those who would be the fighters if/when it comes to that are already awake, but many more can be woken up with history lessons like that. And the same goes for those among the population who perhaps cannot fight because of physical limitations, but who can support. They too can be woken up. It is not too late for that.
This is your greatest talent and strength - teaching currently ignorant Americans (made so intentionally by banning their history from public schools) about that history and giving them a glimpse into the hearts, minds, and souls of those who came before us.
There is no better way to awaken that tiny ember of fiery freedom that still lives in the hearts of the American people. The antidote to ignorance is truth and knowledge. The antidote to fear is the example of our forefathers and the realization that now it is our turn.
The antidote to "1984" is the Spirit of 76 (and 1775 too).
Keep doing what you do best.
Teach.
I heard Eric Lovely of the Endtimewatchman Radio, Say that over 1000 plus folks made it to the New Mexico open carry meet. Can You Tell me where the Video is for that, showing that crowd? Thanks!
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