Transcript

During the Revolutionary War, God performed many miracles on behalf of American army

>> Stephen McDowell: Welcome to America's Providential History Podcast, where we talk about the real story of America and explore the hand of God in our history. Now, here's your host, Stephen McDowell. Hello. Glad you're joining us for this edition of America's Providential History Podcast. Today we're going to begin to look at God's miraculous hand in the American Revolution. You know, during the Revolutionary War, God performed many miracles on behalf of the American army because God desired to see America win its struggle for freedom, become a nation, fulfill its purpose of being a light and an example to the nations of the world, to become a nation. The first nation birthed in Christian liberty to show the world the fruit that comes from a nation that would seek to obey God. And so God supported the cause of American liberty. Certainly, many people were praying, as we've talked about in previous podcasts, God listened to those prayers. But God, in his providential plan for mankind to spread his liberty around the world, was doing something unique in the birth of the United States. And we see so many incidences where God was at work moving to support the cause of American liberty. God's miraculous intervention was recognized by the people at the time. George Washington, the commanding general of the Continental army, wrote on August 20, 1778. He was looking back over the first three years of the war and the events that had taken place. And he said that the hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all of this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. George Washington said, it's very clear that God has been at work. His hand has been so conspicuous. It's interesting that with that statement, Washington indicts a lot of, of modern academia because they fail to acknowledge the hand of Providence in the events of the war. And he said, if you don't see it, you're worse than an infidel that lacks faith and more than wicked that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge it. Some years later, September 28, 1789, he wrote another letter, saying that the man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude toward the great author of the universe, whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf and many other. The Founding Fathers recognized God's hand in the events of the American Revolution. And so we want to begin to look at just some of that miraculous intervention of God and in the events, of the war. One of those events occurred not long after the signing of The Declaration of Independence and that, that official beginning of the United States of America. It was in August of 17, 77 when this incident took place. Now during fighting on Long island in New York, British General Howe and his army of 32,000 men had inflicted heavy losses on the Continental army who they greatly outnumbered but had not succeeded in capturing or destroying the army. So Howe then prepared to attack the American troops on Brooklyn height. They numbered perhaps 8,000 men. So they were outnumbered four to one. So the British army had surrounded Washington's troops in a great semicircle. Washington was put his back, was pushed to the nearly mile wide East River. So he was really completely hemmed in. Now here we see one of the first amazing things that occurred during this conflict. Because General Howe held this position for two days and did not attack. Had he struck, victory would have been certain for the much superior British force today. To this day it's not known why he did not press his advantage. Well, Washington, greatly outnumbered, realized well to fight would mean certain defeat, the likely end of the war. So he wasn't going to fight. Surrender was unthinkable. So as difficult as it would be, he decided he was going to retreat across the East River. Couldn't. All the land routes were blocked. The only way that he might escape is through the, by the East River. Now the Continental army could have been easily surrounded by the British even in the river because the British navy had many ships down at Staten Island. But providentially adverse weather conditions kept those British ships from sailing up the east river, completely surrounding Washington, meaning his defeat and the likely end of the war. But because of that adverse weather, Washington could seek to execute his plan to take his troops and retreat in the secret during the night across the East River. And so to make sure the British didn't discover the retreat, Washington evacuated his army in great secrecy, even withheld the knowledge from his troops, only letting, a few people know of his plan. The first thing he did is sent orders for every rowboat, sailboat and sea going vessel in the area to be collected at 8 o' clock on the night of August 29, 1776. The evacuation of Washington's troops began. The day before, about a thousand men had come over to reinforce Washington's army. He lost about 1,000 men in that initial conflict with Britain on Long Island. And part of these reinforcements included Glover's regiment of Massachusetts fishermen. These men, some of the best mariners in the world, manned the boats that were evacuating not only the troops but all their supplies. Guns, carts, cattle and horses. Well, the heavy rain was falling as the evacuation began, and the adverse winds which had hindered the British ships from coming up the east river continued. So in this weather, the sailboats were of little use, and only the few rowboats were employed in the retreat. But at the rate that they were going at which the oarsmen could work, a successful evacuation, certainly seemed impossible before the dawn of the next day.

General Mifflin prematurely withdrew his troops due to mistaken orders

Yet here now we see another miraculous occurrence, because at 11 o' clock that evening, the northeast wind that had been raging for three days amazingly stopped and the water became so calm that the boats could be loaded with extra weight. Gentle breeze also blew in from the south and southwest, which favored the continental progress across the river to New York, Manhattan. Yet as the adverse weather changed, a, new problem was created. Because the clouds cleared, full moon came out, and with that, the British were sure to see the movement of the American troops. But miraculously, the Americans retreated all night without being heard or seen. Certainly God's hand was upon the army, and as was stated in their newly ratified Declaration of Independence, their firm reliance on the protection of divine providence was proving invaluable. Well, during the predawn hours of Friday, August 30, through mistaken orders, General Mifflin prematurely withdrew his men. And who were the covering party for, the retreat? They are on the front lines so that, the British wouldn't think anything funny was going on. And mistakenly, orders were sent and they left the front lines before they were supposed to, because they were supposed to be the last ones evacuated. However, providentially, Mifflin ran into General Washington, who knew that they shouldn't be there, shouldn't be removed, or them return. Get back quick. So, they were gone about 45 minutes from their post. But during that time the British had not even noticed. Well, the retreat continued throughout the darkness of the Freedom. But as the sun began to rise, many troops were yet to be evacuated. When, with the rising of the sun and, the British beginning to be able to see what happened, death seemed imminent. But here again, another astonishing miraculous thing occurred. Major Benjamin Talmage, who was still on Long island, recorded what happened in his memoirs, writing, as the dawn of, the next day approached, those of us who remained in the trenches became very anxious for our own safety. And when the dawn appeared, there were several regiments still on duty. At this time a very dense fog began to rise out of the ground and off the river, and it seemed to settle in a peculiar manner over both encampments. I recall this Peculiar providential occurrence. Perfectly well. And so very dense was the atmosphere that I could scarcely discern a man at 6 yards distance. We tarried until the sun had risen, but the fog remained as dense as ever. In fact, the fog remained until the last boats left Long Island. Now, another miraculous event occurred during this retreat as well. Washington Irving, who wrote a biography on the life of Washington, records this incident in his book. he said that near the ferry where the troops were being evacuated, a family lived, who favored the British cause. This was a Tory family. In fact, many, probably perhaps a third of the Americans were Tories. They sided with the British in our struggle for, for independence. And so upon seeing the army's embarkation, the lady of the house sent one, one of their servants to alert the British. Hey, what was going on? Well, the servant was able to slip through the American lines. But when he reached the British guards, he began to tell them, look, what's going on? You need to go. The American armies are evacuating, need to send some troops there. But he was the guard. The outpost looked at him, funny, like they couldn't understand what he was saying. And that's because they couldn't because these soldiers that he ran into were German speaking mercenaries from Prussia. See, the world was. World War was so unpopular in England that they had to. King had to hire troops from other countries to go and fight so they couldn't communicate. The Germans thought, well, what do we need to. This guy's, what's he saying is kind of suspicious. So they took him and put him, locked him up and put, or put under guard as a suspicious person until the next morning. Well, early the next morning when a British officer came by, he began to question him. And then when he heard the news, the American, evacuation, some red coats were sent to confirm the report. Well, they cautiously approached the continental camp only to find it was completely empty. Well, British troops were hurried to the river. As they came down to approach the river, the fog just mentioned before began to lift. Just enough for them to see four boats on the East River. And the only boat near enough to be captured contained three vagabonds who had lingered in the camp to plunder it. Otherwise, 8,000 men with nearly all their supplies had miraculously retreated to New York. And George Washington was in one of those very last boats, that escaped. American general Nathaniel Greene called the withdrawal from Long island the best affected retreat I ever read or heard of. This extraordinary retreat was one of the most improbable and important events of the war, many attributed the fortunate series of events to a peculiar providence. So we see in this incident, all we could conclude is surely God was defending American, liberty. So that's one of many miraculous events, that occurred.

Another miraculous event took place in December 1776 at the Battle of Trenton

Well, another miraculous event took place just a few months later at an incident that we know as the crossing of the Delaware and the Battle of Trenton. And so it was in December 1776, Washington found himself in a desperate situation. Well, he had of course retreated across the east river to, Manhattan during that fall that the British had pushed him out of New York, then through New Jersey, out of New Jersey. and Washington was desperate for some kind of victory or some kind of incident that would encourage the morale of the men. as in December 1776, it was many of the men who enlisted in the army enlisted for one year and their time was running out. And so defeat after defeat had brought the army and the nation's morale to its lowest point. And so Washington knew he had to make a bold stroke and do something. And so he thought, well, I'm going to go on the offensive. So in a desperate move, Washington decided to cross the Delaware river and the pre dawn hours into New Jersey. Of course, he'd been pushed back out of New Jersey by, by the British forces during the fall of 1776. So he decided he's going to cross back into New Jersey, going across the Delaware river in order to surprise the enemy. So he chose the early morning of December 26th to attack the Hessian garrison. Hessians were those German speaking soldiers. They were hired again by the English to fight their battle, to attack them courted at Trenton, because he knew that they were accustomed to drinking on Christmas and might help assure their deep slumber that early morning. So as the troops prepared to cross the Delaware River, a violent snow and hailstorm storm suddenly came up. Now, it certainly made it very difficult for Washington to cross, cross the river. In fact, you may have seen that famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. He's standing up on a boat and they're pushing, you know, ice aside as they go across the river. Now that was not certainly a historical depiction because Washington never stood up in a boat as they're going across a river especially filled with ice. But it's painted just to mark that, historic event. And so as they prepared to cross, that snowstorm came up and made it very difficult to cross. But it also worked in their favor by inducing the enemy's sentries to seek cover. And it reduced their visibility to near Zero. Well, the Americans entered Trenton so unexpectedly and, and with such surprise to the, hessians that about 1,000 prisoners were taken captive after only 45 minutes of battle. Only three Americans were wounded in the fighting. Two had died, but not in fighting. They actually froze to death on the march over. Henry Knox described the event saying, the hurry, fright and confusion of the enemy was not unlike that which will be when the last trumpet will sound. Well, this much needed victory helped raise the spirit of the army and the nation, strengthening them to continue their struggle for liberty. Knox wrote of the victory of Trenton. Providence seemed to have smiled upon every part of this enterprise. So here again we see another incident of God defending American liberty. You know, something that we're reminded of as we go through these stories of God at work and God moving miraculously and recognition by the people and by our leaders that God was at work. And they recognized why he was at work because they were standing upon, their God given rights and liberties, their rights as British citizens, their rights as Christians, and their rights as citizens of the earth, as Sam Adams wrote in a very famous tract. But this reminds us, of our national motto. Our national motto is In God We Trust. Now, it was our inofficial national motto, for from the very beginning, the settlement of Jamestown through the Pilgrims and William Penn and all the other incidents occurred in the colonization period, some of which we've covered in previous podcasts. But it became the official national motto in 1956. And so we see this, this phrase, in God We Trust, many places in our public life. You know, when, if you go into the U.S. house chamber in the United States Capitol building, up just behind the Speaker's rostrum, you can see the letters in gold in God we trust, reminding those 435 legislators when they sit in there and look up at that, this is who we as a nation have put our trust in. We've trusted in God. God has moved on our behalf. God has answered our prayer. Yes, God has disciplined us when we've disobeyed and directed us, and directed early Americans. But there is a sincere reliance upon God, upon the protection of Divine Providence, as our Declaration of Independence said, where they acknowledge, the laws of God and, the superintending care of God in their life. If you go into the Senate office building, there's a plaque in God We Trust. In fact, we can see that in many public buildings throughout the nation, in courthouses, on police force, you can even see it on police cars and license plates in God We Trust and God we trust has been put on our money since 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln said, we're going to put that on there. So by law now, in God we trust, you can find it on, every piece of money. Our national anthem, Star Spangled Banner, has four verses. We just usually just sing the first verse at sporting events and other things. But the first verse ends with a question. Does that star Spangled Banner yet wave over the land of the free and the home of the brave? This Francis Scott Key was asking the question because this was at the Bombardment of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. And he was on a British ship. Ship, watching the British, bomb the American fort. And so he asked that question in the first verse. In the last three verses, he answers the question that he asked. He says, o thus be it ever when freemen shall stand between their loved homes in the war's desolation Blessed with victory and peace, May the heaven rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation Then conquer we must when our cause it is just and this be our motto In God is our trust and the star spangled banner and triumph shall wave O' er the land of the free and the home of the brave. And so it's as we as a people have put our trust in God that we have seen God move on our behalf. He was at work preparing the seed of America, as we've mentioned back in Europe over many, generations, and brought that seed to America, planted that seed with a people with biblical worldview and a desire to follow and serve God. And he moved on our behalf, as we've, recorded in previous podcasts in our colonization period. And now we began to look at just some of the miraculous events during the American Revolution, where he moved to assure that we won this conflict because he desired, in the providence of God and in his plan to liberate mankind, America's played a unique role. And it's been part of God's plan and purpose, from the beginning. And so that's why he was at, at work. And so in God We Trust has been the sentiment of the American people from the very beginning. And I would encourage you, if you haven't listened to previous podcasts, to go and listen and you'll see how that trust in God has resulted in God moving mightily on our behalf many different ways. Well, there are many other miracles that occurred during the American Revolution, and we're going to take a look at some more of those in our next podcast. So I hope you'll join us then. If you want to read about this, I'd encourage you to pick up our book, America's Providential History. You can order a copy at our website, providencefoundation.com can be found pick it up at Amazon Books as well. and you can read, how God Has Moved to Advance His Purpose and read about these, miracles that have occurred. And we have many other books and materials, too. Lots of articles and videos that you can watch on our website, providencefoundation.com so I would invite you to visit today and I hope you can join us next week as we look at some more of the miraculous of events that occurred during the American Revolution. See you then.