Radio Script #341
Little Talks On Common Things
June 9, 1957
This is the time of year when boys and girls in our junior high school have been thinking about the kind of course they wi II choose to complete their high school education. Most of them must make a preliminary choice when they enTer the ninth grade, the last year at junior high. The choice muST be defini Te when they enter the first year at sen i or high schoo I.
The choi ce these young peop Ie mu.st make is between the co liege preparatory course and one of the other courses designed for those who are not going to college. Li steni ng to thi s program toni ght must be a number of persons who know some boy or gi r I now in juni or high school, a young person whom you can i nf I uence to make the right choice.
There are certa i n Iy some boys and girl s who ought not to choose the co liege preparatory course. One ought to be sure that his chi Id is mentally capable of pursuing a college program, with its concepts of abstractions, its demand for the correlation of knowledge, and iTS value judgments. But in this respect it is easy to make a mistake. Many a boy whom his teachers have thought too dul I to go TO co liege has, by perseverance and hard work, earned a co liege degree, and too many toys with high intelligence quotients have failed in college. If my 35 years as col lege teacher and administrator have taught me anyThing, it is that I ack of abi Ii ty is not the ch i ef cause of fa i lure in college. What predominantly causes fai lure is lack of motive. When a young man or young woman believes that the game is not worth the candle, when he or she has no drive for the task, di saster looms.
Never before in our national history has there been such a demand for college trai ned youth. More and more of them are goi ng to college every year. But we are sti II missing a lot of them who ought to go. But it is no use To drive them there. It is our job, rather, to he I p These boys and gi r Is understand, while they are still in junior high school, that a college education assures them of considerable advantage in our modern, highly competitive society, but that those four years in college mean, not four years of sophisticated loafing at a kind of academi c country club, but four years of hard work, four years spent in the mastery of ideas, in persistenT use of man’s sharpest instrument, his brain. If a boy or girl loafs through high school, the chances are thaT he or she wi II try to loaf through college. There was a time when that could be done. But today 1 when every college is fi I fed to overf lowing, when in our best col leges three out of every four app I i cants must be turned away, when there is always someone else ready to take the loafer’s place, loafing through college isn’t easy. So, tell these young friends of yours, unless they are ready TO show by hard work in their col lege preparatory course in senior high school that they have developed a habit of academic work, any college to which they may apply wi II be very skepti ca I about the i r i ntenTi on to work hard in co liege.
What about the fi nanci a I barrier to a college education? Must a young person gi ve up the dream of college because of I ack of money? want to di scuss that subjeCT with you next week. But tonighT I promised you the story of Asa Redington’s experiences at Yorktown, so let us now return to that leading ciTizen of WaTe rvi II e, as he appeared in the Revo I ut i onary Arf!rY in 1781.
Toward the end of August in 1781 Asa Redington’s regiment sai led from Annapolis for the mouth of the James River in Virginia. It was not the first Time Asa had been at sea in one of the old tubs of Revolutionary days, and he was probably nOT too much surprised when the sloop, its hold laden with hogsheads of tobacco, sprang a leak and had to make harbor somewhere on the Virginia shore.
Asa was nOT qui te sure of the name of the p I ace, but thought it was ca lied Porpoise Harbor. There the sloop was abandoned as unseaworthy. Asa’s regimenT pitched their tents on the shore and, as soldiers have done in thousands of years of warfare, lived off the country. In th i s case the I i vi ng was good, for Asa said of it: “We procured plenty of provisions from the farmers around us and lived like he roes for about a week, when we aga i n emba rke din anothe r 0 I d hulk and set sai I for the mouth of the James River, which we reached in two days.”
Asa comments That the sight which greeted them when they reached the James River was the impressive array of the French Fleet under a commander whom Asa ca lIs the “Count de Grape”. Asa meant the Count de Grasse, who’ had agreed wi th George Washington That his fleet would set up a nava I blockade of Yorktown, whi Ie the troops of de Grasse’s ships went ashore to join the other French forces under Lafayette.
In order to inTerpret Asa Redington’s comments on his subsequent days near Yorktown, let us see what history has to say about That last great action of the Revolution. De Grasse’s fleet arrived off Yorktown on August 30. Lafayette’s force, augmented by the troops from deGrasse’s ships, hemmed in Cornwa II i s by land. Then on September 5 the Briti sh made a desperate effort to relieve Cornwal lis. A British fleet under Admiral Graves appeared off shore, and de Grasse sai led OUT to give battle. After one sharp, indecisive action, the two fleets maneuvered for advantage, unt i I Count Barras, wi th a French squadron from Newport, suddenly reinforced de Grasse’s fleet. Before such superior numbers, Graves was forced to retreat, leavi ng the French in command of the sea off Yorktown.
Cornwallis’ fate was now sealed. De Grasse sent ships up Chesapeake Bay to b ring the fu II STrength of the forces unde r Wash i ngton and Rochambeau to Wi 1- liamsburg, where they were all assembled by September 24. On the 28th the whole force of 9,000 Americans and 7,800 French marched from Williamsburg to begin the siege of Yorktown. On the 30th they forced the British to abandon their outer fortifications, thus permitting the attackers to bring up siege guns capable of hammering all parts of the river line by October 9. On the 14th an American regiment under the command of A lexander Ham; Iton captured ten important redoubts on the right of the British line. Seeing his position to be hopeless, Cornwa I lis planned to escape by p u I ling hi senti re force across “the York Ri ver) but nature interfered. A heavy storm forced him to abandon the plan, and on October 17 he opened negotiations for surrender. The papers were signed on the 18th and finally on the 19th of October, 1781 the British force of 8,000 men laid down thei r arms.
Such is the account of “the historians. Now let us see what this al I looked like, whi Ie it was happening, from the viewpoint of a common soldier in Washington’s army. Asa says that, soon after his regiment’s arrival, they were employed in dragging up heavy cannon to be used in the siege of Yorktown; then they ma rche d to j oi n the o”the r troop s wh i ch we re as semb lin g be fore the town. I t was then early in October. !’We were at once set to work”, wrote Asa, t;making fasci ne ga Ileries preparatory to the .si ege.” Now what were fasci ne ga Ileri es? Fasci ne is a word deri ved from the Latin Tffasces”, the bund Ie of sti cks or fagots wh i ch was one of the symbol s of authori ty in repub I i can Rome. In f’ledi eva J and early modern warfare the word was applied to a long bundle of sticks tied together and used in bui Iding earthworks. What Asa Reding”ton and his comrades were doing was bui Iding earthworks behind which the attacking batteries could functi on.
Fasci ne was a I so used ins trengthen i ng the upper face of a trench, as is made clear by Asa’s next assignment. H3 says, “I was one of a trenching party that marched on the ground about 9 o’clock one dark night. Besides my knapsack, gun and bayonet, I took on my shoulder a bunch of fascine and an entrenching shovel. We began digging where a line of white pine strips had been laid on the ground to mark the course of the trench. We formed in line, “three feet apart, laid down our arms and knapsacks, and began to break ground. The soi I was light and sandy and we made quick work of the job. By daylight we had thrown up a mound of earth I1’Ore than’ half a mi Ie long, drgging a trench four feet deep and eight feet wi de, comp I ete I y coveri ng us from Sri ti sh she I Is.”
Do you remember the phrase in the Star Spang led Banner, ‘~bombs b ursti ng in air”? Of course Francis Scott Key wrote those lines about the War of 1812, but what he meant occurred also in the Revolution and is made clear by the following comment of Asa Redington’s: “During the night, whi Ie we were digging, the British sent up many skyrockets, which burst high in the air, giving a great light. Their purpose was to discover any intruder, but somehow they fai led to see us unti I day light, when the fact of our comp leted trench confronted them.!f
Now let us see what Asa says about the capture of the critical positions, the two redoubts: “The enemy had two redoubts some di stance from the ma i n batteries, which constantly annoyed us with their cannon. Orders were given to storm those redoubts in the night. The one nearest the French lines was assigned as thei r task, and the other was to be assaulted by the Americans under Colonel Ham; Iton. Both parties rushed to the attack at about the same moment on a dark night. was with Hami Iton’s party and entered the works with him. The enemy had time to fire only one volley, which did little execution. think we lost on lye i ght men. The works were qui ck I y carri ed and a II the enemy in them, except a few were captured. We were not permi tted to load a musket, but depended wholly on the bayonet. The French were not as lucky as we were. They met with stronger resi stance, lost many men, but fi na II y won the posi ti on. f!
Asa te lis us how sh i rkers or cowards were treated in his regi ment. t-e wrote: trA man named Lewi s, a sergeant in our regiment and a fi ne port Iy looki ng man, rather given to boasting of his powers, was one of our attacking party under Hami Iton. At the enemy’s first fire Lewis dropped to the ground and sang out, ‘Oh, God, I am a dead man.’ Wi thout heedi ng him at al I, we passed ri ght over him to the assault. After we had won the fight and some order had been restored, men were sent back to pick up the dead and wounded. Lewis was not to be found, but the next morning he showed up, safe and sound, without a scratch on him. This was too much to be passed over in si lence. Our company commander, Captain Chase, ordered a large wooden sword, which was slun~ to Lewis’ side with a cord line, and without other arms he was compelled to pass through the American I j nes under guard, and exp I a into every off i cer he passed, ‘I wear th is for cowardice’. This was cutting punishment indeed. Lewis was immediately taken sick and in about a week he was dead.”
At one point in his memoirs Asa Redington refers to the general who. after the war, was to become an important citizen of Maine, the proprietor of the vast Waldo lands~ and the bui Ider of a mansion at Thomaston. I refer of course to General Henry Knox. When Asa noticed the general, that dignitary was undignifiedly flat on his back. But let Asa tell it in his own words: ~’One afternoon, sitting in The redoubt we had captured from the enemy, one of their shel Is fel I not six feeT away, whirled on the ground and rol led along with the fuse spurting fire. Every man of us, including General Knox, threw himself flat on the qround.
In a few seconds the shel I burst without injuring anyone. As it fel I it destroyed a lantern which was slung to the side of the man next to me, but it left the man unharmed. I had been on my stomach. When I turned over and raised my head, the first thing I saw was the big stomach of General Knox~ who lay prone on his back. Knox picked himself up, shook off the dirt from his fat side and lauqhed hearti Iy.”
With his own eyes Asa Redington saw the white flag raised by the British on October 17, indicating their readiness to talk terms of surrender. Then on the 19th came the great capitulation. Let us see how Asa Redington described it:
“The Br it ish marched out on the great road. On one side of that road were formed the French troops, on the other side the Americans, the two lines facinq each other. The British, formed in platoons, marched between these lines with shouldered arms. They were hearty looking men, but appeared very cross and sullen. The lines extended fully half a mi Ie. The British passed throuqh to the end, grounded their arms, and retired unarmed back to Yorktown, feeling, I think, very cheap. We were given strict orders to speak not a single word, nor make any gesture of triumph, and that order was strictly obeyed. Rt
Asa Red i ngton rema i ned at Yorktown for two weeks afte r the s urrende r, as one of the guards keeping order in the badly shel led town; then on board a French frigate he was transported to Annapolis. On board small pox broke out and raised havoc with the men. Asa and 70 others who had not yet come down with the disease, but, like everyone else on board, had been exposed to it, were put ashore in Virginia, where they made their way overland. As one by one they took sick and several died, they made their way through Baltimore and Wi Imington to Phi ladelphia, where Asa, now himself stricken with sma I I pox, was sent with two companioas, Turner and Lord, to a hospital. With sma I I sacks of straw thrown on the floor for beds, the three soldiers were placed side by side with Redington in the middle. When Asa regained a few moments of consciousness the next morning, he learned that both Lord and Turner were dead. Somehow Asa clung to life and was able to leave the hospital in February, four months after the surrender at Yorktown. Then WiTh four companions he made the long, arduous trek overland to join his old regiment, now stationed at Saratoga, New York. He arrived at Saratoga in March, 1782 and remained there, on the very ground of Burgoyne’s surrender five years before, unti I November.
The following March, when Asa was back again at West Point, news came of signing of the treaty of peace between England and the United States. Certainly Asa cou I d now go home, but it was not so soon to be. He te I I s us: TfSoon after we received news of the treaty, the men who were engaged for the duration of the war were discharged and returned to their homes. But those of us who had made three year en Ii stmenTs must rema in unti lour terms exp i red.”
So from West Point Asa was transferred to Princeton, where he was in November, 1783, when Washington broke up his quarters there, and went to West Point to make his farewel I address to the Army. Then Asa tel Is how his army career at I ast came to an end. rlSo Wash i ngton set his face towards Mount Ve rnon in Vi rgi n i a. My regi ment went at once to West Poi nt, where on “_December 23, 1783 I was di scharged from the Army of the United States, of America.”
We I I, there you have ita I I — the story of a pr i vate so I d i er in George Wash i ngton ‘s army of the Revo,1 ution. No wonder Watervi lie, Ma i ne is proud of such a man.
Year: 1957