The Fog Of War (Bible Verses That Made America) Day 3 of 5

From Bible Verses That Made America by Robert Morgan

August 29, 1776

After their humiliation in Boston, the British fleet retired to Canada to lick their wounds and repair their vessels, then sailed straight for New York City. Washington also moved his troops to New York and began building siege works along Brooklyn Heights.

When British ships, carrying thirty- two thousand troops, sailed into New York, their masts tilting with the tides, they looked like a forest of trees swaying in the wind. One observer said, “I thought all London was afloat.”[1] It was “the largest, most powerful force ever sent forth from Britain or any nation.”[2]

Washington didn’t stand a chance.

The British invasion began before dawn on Thursday, August 22, and within days the Revolutionary Army was trapped in Brooklyn across the East River from Manhattan and facing annihilation, which would have ended the War less than two months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Late on the afternoon of August 29, Washington gave the order to retreat. The escape of nine thousand weary, rain-soaked troops across a mile-wide river was a desperate gamble. If the British caught on, the entire army would be decimated. Many of the men wrote their last wills and testaments on the spot. Just after nightfall the weakest warriors headed for the ferry landing as the retreat began.

Immediately the weather became an ally. A strong northeast wind kept British ships from venturing into the area; yet at about 11:00 p.m. the wind died down, allowing Washington’s hastily assembled armada to cross the river without danger. Sympathetic New York sailors and fishermen mobilized, loading soldiers, horses, wagons, cannons, and all manner of equipment onto boats.

Wagon wheels were wrapped in cloth to muffle their sounds on the cobblestones and not a word was spoken. The soldiers were told not to cough or make any sounds, and orders passed through the ranks by whispers. Campfires were kept burning to deceive the enemy.

All night, boats silently ferried the army back and forth across the river, yet when the sun arose, a large portion of the army was still trapped. But a fog had rolled in during the night, thick as velvet, shielding the remaining evacuees, and it remained until the evacuation was completed. One soldier wrote:

In this fearful dilemma fervent prayers went up to Him who alone could deliver. As if in answer to those prayers, when the night deepened, a dense fog came rolling in, and settled on land and water. . . .Under cover of this fog . . . Washington silently withdrew his entire army across to New York.[3]

When the fog lifted, the Americans were gone. Historian David McCullough wrote, “The immediate reaction of the British was utter astonishment. That the rebel army had silently vanished in the night under their very noses was almost inconceivable.”[4]

James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

The “fervent prayers” of the army were answered. Thirteen years later, General Washington took the presidential oath of office at the old Federal Building in lower Manhattan, just a few moments’ walk from the spot he had stepped ashore in 1776, divinely shielded by the fog of war.

America was forged by men and women who believed in fervent prayer. That adjective has largely been lost to us today. It means earnest, warm, persistent prayer. Imagine the silent but strong prayers rising to heaven from Washington’s desperate army. The Lord responds to prayers like that, for the Bible says, “The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective”.

__________

[1] Thomas Balch, Papers Relating Chiefly to the Maryland Line During the Revolution (Philadelphia: Seventy-Six Society, 1857), 40.

[2] David McCullough, 1776 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), 148.

[3] J. T. Headley, The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution (New York: Charles Scribner, 1864), 169.

[4] McCullough, 1776, 191.

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