attack." at the beginning of the revolutionary war, george washington relied mainly on tactical strategies. archives sponsored this hour-long event. for today is george washington's surprise attack, a new look at the battle that decided the fate of america by phyllis -- -- decided the fate of america, by philip thomas tucker. he has authored more than two dozen books in the past two decades and written over 60 scholarly articles. he is recognized for his efforts to unearth and bring to life forgotten events and figures in the annals of american history. many of his books recount events of the civil war, with others detailing the texas revolutionary period, the revolutionary war, irish history, and the efforts of early african american military regiments. after earning his phd eight st. louis maneuvers -- university, dr. tucker took a position as historian with the department of defense and specialized in air force history. in addition to this book, some of his early books are "exodus and "kathyamo" williams: from slave to female buffalo soldier." lisle -- join me in welcoming dr. tucker to the national archives. [applause] >> thank you. i appreciate it. thank you for that great introduction. i'm happy to see everyone has made it out under these cold and snowy conditions. thatinteresting to mention even today we can understand what a difficult task washington had when you look at the ground and the terrain where all of this took collect, the campaign of trenton, especially the river crossing the delaware and the march down to trenton. how here inmagine d.c. and everywhere else we complain about the weather -- the recent st. patrick's day snowfall -- for good reason, it causes us inconveniences and problems, but if you look at it in perspective -- i'll be honest, i complain more than anybody else -- if you put it in perspective, it's interesting to walk outside and just imagine washington's crossing of the delaware, which everyone knows about. that has really been focused heavily on, but the real trial was even after the river crossing, which was a nine-mile march at night through the snowstorm through new jersey to trenton. if you can just imagine, we go through the ordeal of going to a car to an establishment, experiencing the winter, it is almost inconceivable for us today to imagine what it was like, especially when these men were ill trained and ill clothed and didn't even have protective gear for their flint locks. what really makes this even more impressive is the simple fact that the men who followed washington across the delaware, it was more than a giant leap of faith. here was commander washington who had not won a single battle up till the time of christmas 1725.er it was a huge leap of faith that these men, generally young men, but men of all ages, for them to follow this commander who nearly lost the war for america because he fought to conventionally, but yet, there leap of faith was to look at him as a revered leader. he was the leader in terms of strength of character and willpower. what was really amazing was for them to willingly follow him in that great blind leap of faith, not only in crossing the delaware and night, but also the nine-mile march to trenton. again, this was a commander who had never won a battle. if anything goes wrong at trenton, we have a full brigade of elite soldiers under a commander who had never lost a battle. to say the least, it was taking a considerable risk, not to mention a gamble. the reason why i embarked upon this book, i wanted to try to take a new look, as much as possible, at one of the most famous episodes of american history. this isn't easy to do. it's quite challenging. that is one reason why many shy away from the more famous episodes or more famous battles in american history, especially the american revolution, under the assumption that nothing more can be said, and it has already been written about and explored in great detail. i've kind of learned over the years that if you dig deep enough and going to primary research, you can get a new look on almost any event in american history. fertile,d is always and it's almost a tragedy to think that there is that assumption among a lot of people that it's effortless to embark upon a study of a famous episode . of example, the alamo, a lot historians have shied away from that for that reason. trenton has kind of fallen in the same category. luckily, i was able to utilize skills from past books and apply them to the trenton story in order to take a new look and try to get a new perspective about not only the battle of trenton but also about washington and his men. i began the book not with my own words but a great quote that i found during my research looking at "the maryland gazette," the newspaper published out of maryland". after washington and the french allies secured victory at yorktown in october 1781, washington came back and passed through annapolis. him,ity fathers greeted and of course, had a lavish affair for him. -- a committee published words of a presentation to him, and it really put everything in perspective. 1781, ands in october this was quite a few years after the battle of trenton. , they emphasized the successes at trenton and princeton that laid the cornerstone to our freedom and independence. i think those words really put it in perspective, the importance of what washington accomplished. i think what we forget an often overlookeddddddddddddddddd -- , of course, we celebrate every fourth of july, the declaration of independence for good reason, but we also fail to understand the declaration of independence meant nothing if you couldn't back it up with battlefield victories. the words were just hollow. that was the importance of trenton. basically, by the victory he ,ecured, saving the revolution and in essence, saving the declaration of independence. again, the words meant nothing if america was going to go down in defeat militarily. to be honest with you, when i embarked upon the book, i didn't have the highest opinion of george washington as a military commander. it is pretty well-known and established fact that he relied much on conventional tactics, which is what the other side used. weren't in harmony with the soldiers that he had. they weren't properly trained or equipped. he would inevitably run into defeats simply because he was emulating the ways of the british military commanders, which was a mistake. abouts what is unique trenton. he had suffered so many defeats in the new york campaign in the summer and fall of 1776, and after learning again and again that these conventional tactics were obsolete and not working, he became a lot more open-minded out of desperation about what was needed, a new way of fighting a conventional opponents. of course, the obvious answer -- what we see with trenton is your irregularrfare -- warfare. this was perfectly in keeping with the quality and makeup of the men that served under him. that style of combat was more in keeping with their past experiences, especially westerners from pennsylvania and maryland who are veterans of indian warfare. all in all, the tactical plan that washington utilized was nothing short of brilliant and saved the revolution and reversed the tide. he was able to develop this plan in part because of the lessons warfare.lar one shining example was the raid on an indian encampment north of today's pittsburgh on the allegheny river. this was a brilliant strike in 1756. it bestowed quite a few tactical lessons about the importance of and hitting the opponent when they least expect it, which of course was the exact scenario at trenton. the greatest challenge to do work like this -- again, i was very fortunate to find a very good publisher, and we were able to come out with a very good -- the greatest challenge was how to present one of the most famous episodes in a newan history in perspective. how can we look at it in a new way? everybody knows the traditional story of the battle of trenton and washington's crossing. every school child in america knows it. with thel brought up traditional story that involves a lot of stereotypes. one way to try to present a new look was to look at different perspectives. this is toy to do primary evidence. that's like newspapers, like "the maryland gazette." they became so valuable. accounts areldier published in some of these colonial newspapers. as a rule, historians have not tapped into these. they remain a very good resource. way to look at washington's army and the battle of trenton in a new perspective is by looking at another aspect that is seldom looked at, which is the ethnic perspective. we are all brought up to believe the tradition that washington's army was made up of the typical , basicallyer army anglo-saxon, soldiers of british descent, but when you look closer, you learned that it is a much different story. one of the most surprising largetions is such a percentage of washington's army consisted of irish and scots irish. when i mentioned irish, i mean irish catholics, and scots irish are from northern ireland, protestants. foundationhe steady of the revolutionary army from beginning to end. such was the case at trenton. economic factors that deemed the situation inevitable. the irish were some of the most impoverished sellers in america. a great many were indentured servants. that is how they came to america in the first place. they attained free passage from ireland under the condition, of course, that you had to work off the cost of passage in america. a lot of them were indentured servants. one way to aspire higher in american life when you are at the very bottom was to join the military. we had a very large percentage of irish and scots irish up to his high as 40%, maybe even more. another angle i tried to use was to take a new look at the hessian soldier. there are more stereotypes than probably any other fighting men in america during the revolution. of course, the typical stereotype is the evil monsters, the nazis of that day. in truth, this was the product of a lot of colonial propaganda. it was a good way to get recruits into the army, to embellish the evilness of your enemy, but when you look more closely at the hessians at trenton, they were basically farm boys, very religious, a lotnist. of them were from the peasant class. ironically, they were not that much different from basically the class of most of washington's men. if you look at some of the evidence, they are not quite the monsters that america propaganda made them out to be. what is most revealing, if you look into hessian diaries and letters, it's amazing how they are appalled by what they see in america in terms of slavery. of course, that is something they didn't have in germany. it's amazing how totally appalled they are with the mere concept of one human being owning another. inanted to put the hessians a proper perspective on a lot of different levels. that required -- that is part of the new look. another way by which to take a new look at trenton was to explore the tactical roots and evolution of washington's battle plan, which was one of the most brilliant of the american revolution. what is interesting is to see that if you look back, it is a mixture of guerrilla warfare and where he isre watching this strike, this raid therenton -- i pointed to example of this raid on kittanning in which some of his cers, andanking offi what was important about that was showing the wisdom of catching your enemy by surprise, striking, marching to their and can mentor village at night -- or village atnt night. this was the key to success on the western frontier. useington wisely decided to that same plan for the strike on trenton. another way i presented a new view -- i've done this with other works -- it is essential, when you are a historian, we are armchair historians, if you will , but you have to go to the place where these events occurred. you can read all of the books in the world about the battle of trenton, and you can think that you know it alld or you have a good understanding of what reallyd and why, but you don't get a real good understanding until you go to literallylace and you walked the ground is much as you can. that includes the nine-mile route after crossing the delaware and going down to trenton. it helped immeasurably to get into trenton itself, the town, and to walk around and measure things off and to get an idea exactly what was happening and why. trenton, the capital is overgrown and congested and even has some precarious areas. i almost became the battle of trenton's last casualty one late saturday night in my research, but that is a whole other story or another book perhaps. it's essential to walk the ground and to see it. then you can get an understanding of what really happened. to really put the battle of trenton in perspective, you have to look at the overall war at the time, which was disastrous for america. america was actually at its lowest ebb. it almost look like the resistance effort was actually over. one of washington's ideas was in the new yorkrom city area down to new jersey, he was hoping the people of new jersey would rally to his army. unfortunately, to his shock, they did not. before that, the real blow came with the loss of new york city in september 1776. this was crucial because it was america's most vital port. it was also the key to british strategy. they had to have new york city, and then from there, they could bring in their supplies and reinforcements and deliver a death blow to the resistance effort. washington basically retreats all the way to the eastside of the delaware, and that is the last natural barrier before the british advance. the commanderm, to the how decided to go winter quarters, and that gave washington a new opportunity and lease on life, if you will. he was fortunate to have some very good marine years. -- mariners. most of these gentlemen were from marblehead, massachusetts, and they were experienced fishermen, watermen, and experts at withdrawing the army, as they had done from long island to manhattan island in the summer of 1776. these gentlemen were the key players that washington depended on to get his army on the other side of the delaware for the strike on trenton. what washington envisioned basically was another battle of b.c.,uh, which was 216 hannibal's greatest victory over the roman legion. romans,d nearly 50,000 and he threatened the very gates of rome. he did this with the classic pincer movement, two arms of his army basically crushing the enemy in between. this was very much on washington's mind, and at kittanning, there was also a pincher movement involved in striking and overwhelming the indian and cap meant -- enc ampment. of course, nothing was going to be realized until you had to get across the delaware. what compensated that was this that was theed stormy weather, rainy weather. it had warmed up previously, which caused ice and snow up north to melt, which meant the river was overflowing by the evening of december 25. we have quite a few myths about the crossing, of course, and a lot of that comes from the famous painting done in 1851. the model was the rhine river rather than the delaware, which is considerably wider than the delaware. however, the delaware at that time was roughly about 800 feet in width. he was very fortunate on two accounts and logistic terms. one was having the sturdy durham boats, which hauled freight up and down the river for years, and they could take around 50 men across. even more important than that was the flat boats and ferry boats they had commandeered. those were large enough and stable enough and sturdy enough for artillery. washington made the bold decision, which is more than a audacious,-- than which was to take his artillery across the river. henry knox was an amazing man. he was the son of scots irish immigrants. onlys the key player not commanding artillery but also in orchestrating the crossing along with john glover. what made getting the 18 guns across so important was that annonse of the weather, c are virtually weather resistant compared to flintlock muskets. the powder easily becomes damp, and quite a few were unable to fire. you always had a reliable source of firepower. for his pincher movement, after crossing the delaware, washington relied on two divisions. he divided his army in half. he stayed with the second division, with henry knox and john sullivan who commanded the first division. sullivan was an interesting character. he was the son of poor scots irish immigrants. with the two divisions, the goal was for them to strike simultaneously with a pincher movement to catch the entire hessian brigade in between the two arms of the pincher movement for a conecuh-like victory. get a very simplistic view of the battle of trenton from a lot of historians that presented it in a very basic areat -- the hessians surprised, overpowered, and they surrender. i tried to really devote a lot of time and effort into really understanding the complexity of reallytle from what happened and also from the point of view of the terrain, and also from a couple newly discovered german accounts, hessian acco unts. job was made easier because of the harsh weather, of wet quite a few of the muskets of the hessians. 's artilleryn, knox was roaring and played a key part in winning the day, especially when he placed on the guns -- placed the guns on the high ground just north of trenton. this high ground perch overlooked the entire town, which is basically in the valley of the delaware river. what has been forgotten about the battle of trenton was that it was never as simple or as easy as it seemed. the commander of the hessian brigade, hehessian led a daring counterattack after they left the village into an apple orchard. he led this daring counterattack back into king street and regained his headquarters and even captured two pieces of artillery he had lost earlier briefly and nearly won the day. the turning of the tide, in large part, was the lack of the hessians even being able to fire their muskets. this daring counterattack is often overlooked. it was in this counterattack where he received his mortal wound. he's killed by probably a pennsylvania musketman. i also found a very good account that we had one of the women of trenton who was obviously very irritated that there was a battle roaring around her house. she decided to pick up a musket and take some potshots at the hessians. one was effective. unfortunately, she shut down one captain. fortunately, we don't know her name, but it is a great account. i try to give her as much recognition as we can. the information is very sketchy. again, trenton was not just a battle. it's basically the turning point of the revolution. at this time, the american cause was in its worst shape. it was at the lowest point of american fortune. the key to ultimate victory in the war, of course, was the french, the historic enemy of the english, of course. after the americans lost new york city in september of 1776, of franceility bestowing recognition on the , in additionstates to military aid and manpower, was all but gone. in the king's cabinet there were toy vocal supporters recognize america's independence, but after the loss of new york, it looked like any chance of recognizing america was supporting the loser. this is where washington's victory is so important. it revitalizes what was necessary for america's ultimate victory, which was official french recognition, which came with the french alliances of 1778. thanks to that alliance, of course, you had the victory at saratoga, which was the key .urning point the american army by the time of saratoga was armed with mostly french weapons and powder. of course, saratoga led to yorktown. what we have with trenton is not only one of the most important political victories of the war, but also psychological victories of the war. the american people who had been defeated, after suffering so many reversals, the american spirit soared. again, this is washington's first victory. this is exactly what was needed for a nation that had seen too many defeats, and at times, had reached there will point -- thei r low point. what we have basically in this battle, it is certainly washington's finest hour. also, the finest hour of the american fighting man. again, they are rising to the challenge, and it could not have possibly been more one-sided. in washington's writings, he always mentions providence. when you read his works and study this battle, you almost see what he thought and other americans thought in regard to the victory, that it was almost a miracle, something bestowed by providence. a republicanr experiment like the new united states, you certainly need providence on your side and the blessings of providence. what washington rescued with his victory at trenton was actually the real birth of america in a lot of different ways. again, the declaration of independence were just hollow words, and you needed that battlefield victory, or it's over. there's no united states of america. i think one of the best you can findt about the battle of trenton -- i tried to include as many accounts as i could from the common soldiers, the men who served under washington -- some of the best words come from captain william hall of the 19th connecticut regiment after the battle of trenton. victory -- he basically writes, what men can't do when engaged in so noble a cause? was a universal feeling, not only washington but his man, and also the people of america. they saw the victory is almost god-given, which reconfirmed to them what they were doing was correct, and they were going on the right course. moral reaffirmation, if you will. sense, what washington want the battle of trenton was america, the dream of the great dream of the shining city on the hill, which was rescued. ,efore the strike on trenton the dream had all but died. i think that is why the battle needed a new look and needed to be presented in a new perspective and to be understood in a new way on multiple levels. again, our most mythical past is american revolution, and unfortunately, too much of this, especially in regards to realmgton, falls into the of washington chopping down the cherry tree. then you had the crossing of the delaware -- it's all just fits into the stereotypical, mythical legend that we've been taught and been led to believe. what i've really learned in doing this, i think what most really getwhen you into the stories like the battle of trenton, what you find out and what you learn is that the truth and the reality of the situation is 100 times better than the myths and the legends. that is why it is so important today to continue to try to do these new looks, new works. the best stuff can yet be done about any aspect of our great history, including the battle of trenton. thank you. [applause] >> i wonder if you could say a officialwo about the british explanation for their loss at trenton. >> that is a great question. of course, everything was blamed on the hessians. wasourse, the great irony it was the negligence of the higher ranking officers in the , especially cornwallis, who thought the war was over and called it a day for the most part by taking up winter quarters -- cornwallis was even going back home to visit his sick wife -- so, there was a healthy rivalry between the british and the hessians. the british were waiting for the chance for the hessians to fall on their faces, especially after they had been so remarkably successful throughout the new york campaign. they were just invincible truth they just never lost a battle. of course, the british damned t he hessians. worst of all was poor colonel wall who was killed, of course, at the battle of trenton. he got blamed by his own men. he became the scapegoat and the fall guy in order to preserve the reputation and image of the hessian officer corps. they all banded together, and of course, everything was his fault. when you look at it closely -- i emphasize that in the book -- the truth of the matter is altogether different. ll almost saved the day, and his pleas for reinforcements were just ignored. he at least three times begged his commander to send reinforcements, because he felt constructively -- he was a veteran commander, and his instincts were well honed -- he felt very vulnerable at trenton, that basically it was not post. -- was an outpost. requestsr as -- his for aid were ignored. he became the fall guy for everybody. he was the villain for the americans and the fall guy for , and even the fall guy for his own officers. of course, they did everything right, and the guy in charge was the big dummy, of course. i guess that is what i was going to ask about, the counterattack. i wonder whether or not his mortal wounding -- did you find it contributed to the defeat of the hessians in the counterattack? also, what time of day was the counterattack? thank you. >> the battle -- and the timing of the battle of trenton is always tricky because you're getting different times from different participants. of course, when you are in the battle, a 10-minute battle feels like 100 years. by most accounts, the battle lasted maybe 35-45 minutes. you brought up a good point. was mortally wounded, that was a key turning point of the battle. historically, that is usually the case. of any commander in battle, they usually lose a lot of confidence when he dies, isecially when the commander inspirational. when he received his mortal wound, that basically ended any chance for that counterattack to be any more successful. it was very timely for american fortunes for somebody to finally knock roll off his horse. any more questions? >> another person who is close in mythology is bonnie slaven. he joined washington at valley forge. was he all but inferred -- and important in trenton? >> bob steuben comes in later than the time we are dealing with, but there is a good analogy. he is part of the myth, too. there's the general assumption that the american army was nothing but a rebel and couldn't do anything until he comes along and trains everybody. you look at the battle of trenton, and you can see they are certainly capable of fighting well and winning without bob steuben. washington benefited from a great group of top lieutenants that were experienced indian fighters, french and indian war veterans, british army veterans, and even through the rank-and-file, especially the pennsylvania and maryland guys, arfaredian war for -- w experience. with so many of these irish, at least 40 percent of washington's army was irish by the battle of trenton, and a lot of the irish had served in the british army. some of these were deserters who had left the british army and join with washington. and of these were nco's, they were veterans. you can see that americans were fully capable of winning battles steuben.re bob you are right. there is kind of a stereotype involved with him. what they accomplished at trenton speaks for itself. yes? >> did trenton effect at hybrid effect at all how britain utilized troops during the rest of the war? >> that is a good question. it really didn't. they were just so confident and so convinced that whatever they correct that they did not learn -- they were not flexible. their system was inflexible, and they didn't readily or easily or quickly derive any lessons. you especially see that after trenton when the warships to the southern theater. pickens,ne reason why marion, and sumner, why they were so successful in south carolina -- this is after charleston's fall. they are so successful in part because the british are just continuing to perform conventionally and not adapting to the guerrilla threat. this was the case in both theaters till the very end of the war. they never, through their system and military organization, had the flexibility to make necessary tactical adjustments or strategic adjustments. feeling ite was this never ended. they were battling riffraff and rabble, no need to take them that seriously. the hubris among the high command and the leadership politically and militarily just never went away. end, they are still shocked by what happens at yorktown. they just can't believe that such a fate would befall a british army. that is even with the americans having the french allied army with them. i hope that answers your question. >> sir, thank you for your scholarship and your .resentation my question has to do with one of the central dilemmas in the american revolution. it was keeping a force in the field, the numbers of troops. noticed youarch, i went to the letters of the common soldier. i'm curious -- do you have any sense of what the number of who stayed with the army through the duration of the war might have been? to a lot of the militia who would join one big effort and then fall away, and in the short-term, one enlistment would be served and that would be it? >> those are very good questions. unfortunately, the numbers are all over the place. as you can imagine, recordkeeping in those days certainly wasn't the best, especially on a campaign, especially a losing one. washington, for example, in crossing the delaware, he actually had -- so many guys had deserted by that time that he had a very reliable, experienced cadre of 4500 men. these were seasoned officers. these were the best. these were the most diehard patriots. the soldiers from the summer of 1776, especially after the defeats in the summer at long island and then at fort washington, which fell in november, and other decisive setbacks, it caused a flood of desertions. nolan kept track -- no one kept track. even washington was shocked to see, what happened to my army? people just take off in the night and go back home. we always have a problem with reliable numbers in regards to the american revolution, unfortunately. i hope that answers your question. was, withstion i had regard to washington changing , just goingrenton to washington being the father of the country, he tends to be very enigmatic to us. warfarere guerrilla and -- warfare tactics that washington was used to, or did he have to develop the tactics out of pure desperation? >> that is a very good question and the subject for an entirely new book. there is an evolutionary process within washington. it is kind of hard for us to buty understand it today, as a typical virginia planter of the upper class, nothing seem to be more important than to be a gentleman. there was a gentleman's way of conducting warfare. things like surprise attacks and dawn raids weren't exactly what a gentleman commander really did . .e had the knowledge he had frontier experience, and also, he was a veteran of the french and indian war. of course, he barely survived a brat oxidant feed -- braddock's defeat. he knew all of these ways of using conventional warfare, but let's say his concept of being a gentleman got in the way. part of the problem for washington, he is basically conducting warfare conventionally, exactly like high-ranking british officers who had the same concepts of what it was to be a gentleman as he had, which is really strange irony where commanders on the opposite sides are basically thinking a lot alike. know, they are thinking alike militarily because they are both fighting conventionally, and they are thinking alike in terms of concepts of being a genuine. with the trenton raid, you simplyly see washington a desperation -- there is no were socourse -- times desperate, specially with , hestments about to run out has one last chance to secure a victory. all of the past strategies of conventional warfare had not worked. an irregular tactical plan based on concepts of guerrilla warfare and indian warfare. it was the last choice, and it was like the last opportunity to try to turn things around. for washington and america, it was exactly the right solution at the right time and right place. -- the realization to washington came belatedly, but it came. yes? staying on this topic of guerrilla warfare, i was under the impression that in new jersey, in the time leading up to trenton, that there had, in fact, been a number of what i would call raiding parties, guerrilla bands as the british were out foraging for food. their parties would from time to time be attacked. ofre was this history surprise attacks on the british, and they were actually pretty skittish as they went into trenton in winter quarters. am i right about that? >> yes, you are. that is a very good point. was aning washington insurgency in new jersey. it came very late. again, this came at the very right time. from anot organized central basis from washington. it was very spontaneous. it was automatic, almost after the british took control of new jersey. population,ed the which the gentleman mentioned, by excessive foraging and even some murders and rapes. that galvanized the local people to rise up. december, by christmas day, you're starting to see in new jersey finally -- this is much belatedly -- washington, of course, was hoping this insurgency would occur earlier -- but it finally comes to the fore. again, it is local commanders that are leading the way with these strikes. it is a natural response to occupation troops that basically an areain any war where is conquered, and an occupational force moves in -- the force abuses the citizens. it is a natural development. fortunately for washington, it came at the right time. with how deciding to go to winter quarters, which took away the initiative, which allowed the grassroots resistance efforts to rise up. course,r quarters, of the troops are stationary, except for a small foraging party that goes out into the countryside. this is all coming together. again, this is one reason why washington is talking so much about providence and why you can look at trenton as a miraculous victory. after everything going wrong for america since the defeat at long island in the summer of 1776 and all of that fall, you finally see it the same time all of these good and starting to happen -- good things starting to happen. it's almost miraculous. they all develop spontaneously at the same time, and it all comes together perfectly and lays the stage and the foundation for washington to reap this amazing victory at trenton. ,> 15 years before trenton washington had been involved in a pearl harbor equivalent where he attacked the french, and that led to the french indian wars. i presume there was negative reaction to this guy starting a european war. did that encourage him to do surprise attacks or kind of disappointed him from doing surprise attacks in the future him from doing surprise attacks in the future? >> he was roundly vilified. the french labeled him as an assassin, of course, for his surprise attack on a small french party. you brought up the good point. thathad to be one reason it changed washington made him resistant to fighting with ular warfared irreg and to perform like this proper, gentleman commanding officer. what is interesting about your comment and about that thought is that you can see washington coming full circle, if you will, from the early lessons that you and thenn the frontier with the crisis for america in december of 1776. he finally comes. call. comes full circle. he then relies upon a technical solution that he knows has a very good chance of succeeding. that is a very good question . any more questions? thank you. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> you are watching american history tv, 48 hours of programming on american history every weekend on c-span3. follow us on twitter at @cspan history for information on our schedule and to keep up with the latest history news. wallacee at the henry a country life center, which is 50 miles south and west of des moines. this is the birthplace home of henry a. wallace. the wallaces of iowa consist of three generations. the patriarch was known as uncle ofry, and he was the founder "wallace's former magazine." his son was u.s. secretary of agriculture under woodrow wilson, and henry's son was born on this farm in 1888. he went on to become editor of "wallace's farmer magazine." he was asked by franklin roosevelt to serve as secretary of agriculture, which he did from eight years, 1933-1941. he was roosevelt's vice president. as u.s. secretary of agriculture, he is known for the adjustment act, which was the first time farmers were asked not to produce. at first, people cannot believe the things he was proposing regarding that, but then as prices went up, they started to listen to him. people still refer to him today as the genius secretary of agriculture. >> explore the history and literary life of des moines, iowa next week and on c-span2 possible tv and american history tv on c-span3. now you can keep in touch with current events from the nation's capital using any phone anytime with c-span radio on audio now. here congressional coverage, public affairs forums, and today's "washington journal." every weekday, listen to a recap of the day's on "washington today." you can also hear the sunday public affairs programs beginning at noon eastern on sundays. long-distance or phone charges may apply. , education was limited to the opportunity down the street at the local school, but now particularly for high school students, their learning is this bundle of digital learning services, some that are formal and paid for by the state, and some that are informal. the resources that students and parents find online. it is becoming important that states make sure that every family have access to a variety of full and part-time online learning and that districts remain open to those possibilities. >> digital learning in the future of u.s. education with ark monday -- vander night on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> 40 years ago, the watergate scandal led to the resignation of an american president. throughout this month, american history tv revisits 1974 and the final weeks of the nixon administration. this weekend, here the supreme court oral argument, united states versus nexen, as the watergate special prosecutor contests the president's claim of executive privilege over his oval office recordings. >> the president and maybe write theow he reached -- reads constitution, but he may also be wrong. if he is wrong, who is there to tell himself? -- tell him so? what becomes of our constitutional form of government? >> watergate, 40 years later, tonight at 8:00 eastern. >> each week, american history " brings youmerica archival films that help tell the story. arizona senator barry goldwater accepted his party's presidential nomination at the republican national convention in san francisco.

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