The American Revolution, Episode 5: The Soul of All America

The winter that should have finished the Continental Army is the one that turned it into an army.

Episode five of the Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt documentary The American Revolution, screened in full at New Canaan Library as part of the six-episode run for America 250. Covering December 1777 to May 1780: Washington’s men endure Valley Forge on short rations and shorter clothing, with sickness high and morale collapsing to the edge of mutiny — and with Nathanael Greene and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Washington rebuilds them into a disciplined force. On the British side, Clinton replaces Howe and is ordered to give up Philadelphia for New York as France enters the war and a new Southern Strategy takes shape. The reorganised Continentals pursue, fighting a drawn battle in New Jersey; a first coordinated French-American assault on Newport fails, and General John Sullivan blames d’Estaing for it.

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