Rescuing the Revolution ― Unsung Patriot Heroes and the Ten Crucial Days of the American War for Independence

The war for independence from Great Britain was the product of bold and imaginative leadership on the part of George Washington and his fellow generals, miscalculation by the enemy, and the fortuitous effects of weather as it related to the movement of troops and battlefield conditions. But those storied triumphs were also due to the heroic feats of people less well known to history who remain the “unsung heroes” behind our nation's struggle for independence during its darkest days.

David Price is a historical interpreter at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania. Under the auspices of the Friends of Washington Crossing Park, he conducts guided interpretive tours at this Registered National Historic Landmark and site of the Continental Army's crossing of the Delaware River in 1776, focusing on the “Ten Crucial Days” of the American Revolution and other historical aspects of the park. He holds degrees in political science from Drew University and Rutgers University–New Brunswick, and was a nonpartisan research analyst with the New Jersey Legislature for 31 years. A member of the Crossroads of the American Revolution Association, the Museum of the American Revolution, the Old Barracks Association, and the Princeton Battlefield Society, he lives very near the route traversed by Revolutionary War soldiers through Maidenhead Township in New Jersey, known today as Lawrence Township. The latter was so named in 1816 to honor Captain James Lawrence, a naval hero of the War of 1812 whose dying words are among the most celebrated in American military history: “Don't give up the ship!”