American Revolution, The (1952)

[Music] why come you here red coat your mind what Madness fills in our valleys there is danger and there's danger on our Hills oh here you not the singing of the bugle Wild and Free and soon you'll know the ringing of the rifle from the tree oh the rifles the rifle in our our hands they'll prove no to Rifle wake up the British are coming to Arms the regulars are Marching wake up wake up how do you awaken a mly collection of col are coming how do you convince New England Merchants Virginia Farmers Philadelphia Craftsman to wake up recognize their common grievances and fight for their common rights what do you say to stir 2 million of the king's subjects to a fight for Freedom what do you say Mr Sam Adams lately the host of a certain tea party if I am to have a master let me have a severe one I shall then be constantly disposed to take the first Fair opportunity of ridding myself of his tyranny [Applause] the Boston Tea Party Sam Adams replied to the teing but what of a dozen other trade restrictions these two have gone before Paul Riv and William dolls to ride throughout the countryside and arouse the people of all classes and and now with the dawn the red coats are Marching but what say you to this marching men of New England where will you take your stand on the bridge at Concord or on the Village Green at Lexington stand your ground men don't fire unless fired upon but if they mean to have a war let it begin here and here it does begin with a shot ground the world but heard nowhere with more enthusiasm than in certain capitals of Europe where England's enemies unite as they wait to see if the uprising will blossom into a revolution the revolution into a war and the war into the defeat of an Empire that is threatening to engulf the world and in London King George III the die is cast the colonies must either Triumph or submit but the die is not yet cast for in Philadelphia where the Second Continental Congress is meeting in Independence Hall there are still those who are not aware that they have common cause with a minut men I'm sorry Mr chairman but events will not wait upon the outcome of a debate and with a heroic resistance of Bunker Hill the American intention gradually takes shape and a war which has been confined to a sing single City and its neighboring Towns now spreads out to cross the New England Hills to a Wilderness stronghold for taand deroga the British Garrison sleeps confident in its possession of this key to the Hudson River Valley but a certain daring band of Vermont farmers do not sleep tonight they call themselves the Green Mountain Boys their leader Ethan [Music] Allen and so fourth men and guns fall to Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys this is the spirit the revolution wants if only there were a general to well these isolated Restless troops into a unified discipline Army a planter and onetime surveyor a leader of men who knows a thing or two about the way the British go to war and has a plan to relieve the burden on New England by attacking the enemy on his home ground and so an expedition is outfitted as well as a second continental congress can do so and sent toward the British stronghold in [Music] Canada meanwhile from dester Heights above Boston the big guns of taond deroga now look down upon British troops where Washington has besieged Lord how to the British commander it's an opportunity to escape the entire British Army ofac evacuates Boston and New England is temporarily relieved but Victory is soon followed with defeat weakened by extreme cold and the long Wilderness March Arnold's forces arrive at Quebec and are thoroughly beaten by the well fortified British the news of hard defeat travels to Philadelphia and sharpens the issue whether or not the hour has come to break with the mother country to some like Tom Payne everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation is time to part June 1776 a man from Virginia rises in the Congress all ears are intent resolved that these United Colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British [Music] crowd when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one now now with Thomas Jefferson's words the die is cast and Independence is declared throughout the land but to the inhabitants thereof it looks as though Liberty is going to be as short lived as the term of a Connecticut militia man for the little American Army is [Music] collapsing collapsing as the British Drive Washington away from the Hudson River defeating his troops at every encounter Long Island Brooklyn Harlem Heights White Plains and driving them in exhaustion behind the Delaware [Music] River now every night finds more men gone and finds the general Spirits lower many and uneasy hour when all about me are wrapped in [Music] sleep few people know the predicament Oran and few will know if any disaster happens to their lines from what cause it flows Christmas 1776 but across the river in [Applause] Trenton the Hess mercenaries in the service of the British celebrate the holiday but did these drunken mercenaries could be surprised the routing of the hessin convinces the British to return to the mouth of the Hudson and refreshes Washington's Army as it bivak for the winter but the severe New Jersey winter is enough to make the memory of a single Victory fade for memory will not keep a man warm or or give buying power to the worthless Continentals with which he is paid there is of course a paper the troops could read a crisis paper written by an Englishman whose loyalty is to the American cause these are the times the trimen souls the summer Soldier and the Sunshine Patriot will in this crisis shrink from the service of their country but the Green Mountain Boys are busy again blocking the path of General John beroy gentleman Johnny more poet than soldier who has set off down the Hudson River Valley in an attempt to join forces with Lord how and seal off New England from the other colonies but bergy has suddenly stopped in his tracks by Nicholas Herkimer at or escy by John Stark at Bennington held to the Hudson River Valley by American Guerilla tactics waiting for help from Lord how but Lord how evacuating New York by sea has gone south for the winter now let all New England turn out and crush bergoin and all New England does turn out as 12,000 men under Horatio Gates surround beroy at Saratoga New York finally the British general his best troops picked off by Yankee snipers surrenders his entire command a threat to New England is now gone but another threat is not so easily parried for Washington has gone in pursuit of how and engaged upon a campaign that has cost him dearly in Men in supplies and in the spirit to go on Valley Forge the winter of 77 compy the baron F Stan a hard Prussian Taskmaster for untrained Americans has taken an interest in this strange Revolution others have taken an interest the French consent to Benjamin Franklin's proposal for an alliance but at Washington's Valley Forge headquarters there is a new concern a certain General Cornwallis has appeared off Charleston South Carolina calling forth the support of thousands still loyal to the king of England but unorganized bands of backwoodsmen harass his army delaying his attempt to row up the colonies from the south pursuing him all the way into Virginia meanwhile Washington must protect the Hudson but despite an important victory at Monmouth New Jersey he arrived at White Plains New York with little to hope for in the way of final Victory the French have not yet been heard from but late in 1780 a highly placed Courier a young Frenchman who has caught the significance of what is going on in America Comes By Night to Washington's headquarters the mar de Lafayette to see General Washington the Marquee de Lafayette with Affairs of of utmost importance to communicate to the general the milom a fleet of 40 ships and an army of 6,000 men now for the first time George Washington who has led a few thousand ragged men through six long years of war will command an army 1781 a large Force force of American and French troops heads Southward a strong French Fleet is headed for Chesapeake Bay Green is up from the South Lafayette is in Virginia when Stan and Mad Anthony Wayne are standing by Virginia everything points to Virginia and corn Wallace a brief stop at a place General Washington calls home then back to the March the decision must come now or [Music] never Cornwallis has moved out on a narrow Peninsula there's a chance he may get away by sea but he fears that York town is a defensive post which is forever liable to become a prey to a foreign enemy with a temporary superiority at Sea the French under Admiral degrass now have that superiority at Sea and Cornwallis pleads for help if you cannot relieve me soon you must be prepared to hear the worst Yorktown October 19th [Music] 1781 Cornwallis surrenders to Washington and though the Treaty of peace is to take 2 years to come the colonists are all awake now awake to their common responsibility the responsibility of forging a nation not it is hoped an ordinary Nation but a broad place a special place a place where an idea can take refuge Freedom hath been hunted round the globe oh receive the fugitive and prepare in time an asylum for mankind from the world of TI beside this Western sea will form a new Dominion a land of liberty