Higher Purpose

In this week of July 233 years ago the British Army arrived on Staten Island. It was the beginning of a build-up of force that would see George Washington and the Continental Army turfed out of New York by the end of November.



The painting depicts the Battle of Long Island.

If the history of the United States' independence has a common thread, it is that so many of the fighting men believed they were there for something greater than themselves.

Membership of Washington's corps "...lead to...low pay, often rotten food, hard work, cold, heat, poor clothing and shelter, harsh discipline, and a high chance of becoming a casualty."

On Long Island and in Brooklyn in the summer of 1776 those men had no idea how bad matters would become before they improved. Years of fighting would pass before the promise of the Declaration was made real, yet they persevered despite the privations, the hardship and the death.

They saw something bigger.

Technorati: Kiss & Blog, Independence, 1776, Higher Purpose.