A few more tense days pass, and more ships continue to pour into the harbor. Washington sends messages to the Continental Congress with regular updates: 110 ships, now 150, now over 200. Meanwhile, Washington tries to put his army on a footing for the impending battle. On July 2, he writes a general order to be read to all troops. It’s about as rousing a call to arms as could be put into words: The time is now near at hand, which must probably determine whether Americans are to be … consigned to a state of wretchedness, from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn
...more
