A Few Minutes with the Mayor – July 2014

This June marked the 70th anniversary of “D Day,” when a brave and mighty fleet of soldiers landed on Normandy’s beach, where virtually the entire first wave of Americans, 10,000 in all, was annihilated by enemy fire—one of the most difficult missions ever carried-out by our soldiers in any war. Just imagine where we’d all be today without their sacrifice… those young soldiers who gave their lives to save democracy.
In an earlier time, another mighty fleet echoes the scale and dimension of that action, a fleet whose arrival no one celebrated then, nor ever since. This fleet sailed west over the Atlantic from England; the year was 1776.
The new America had never seen anything like it. Imagine waking up in the morning along the Long Island Atlantic seacoast, looking out your window, and expecting to see a serene sunlit seascape with rolling surf. Instead, you see almost 500 wooden sailing ships… 30 of them battleships… over 300 supply ships… the rest support vessels… all proudly flying the Union Jack. Each of these state-of-the-art battleships was carrying 32 or more cannons, some capable of firing a 24 pound ball at a range of up to 2 miles. The cannons and their carriages weighed up to one and a half tons. The ships themselves were enormous for their day… 120 feet long with a beam of 40 feet.
This mighty armada carried 40,000 soldiers and sailors armed with 1,200 field artillery cannons, muskets, and other combat gear. New York City’s entire population numbered only half the armed forces aboard those vessels. Furthermore, General Washington’s civilian wartime army numbered only 10,000 men. When the British landed 22,000 soldiers on Long Island, Washington’s forces were severely outnumbered, a disparity made even greater when thousands of Loyalists joined the British.
King George III, in sending one of the greatest armadas ever assembled, intended to crush the American rebellion once and for all. No colony in history had ever successfully revolted and he wasn’t about to be the first monarch to have that stain on his reputation. The Americans would be taught a lesson! Poor George had no way of understanding the concept of liberty and democracy, each fueling a desire for independence so strong that all of Britain’s military power would be unable to suppress the revolution.
Nor could King George have known the genius that personified George Washington, whose forces were besieged and under retreat in New York. Washington’s maneuvers in retreating from New York and saving most of his forces remain one of the greatest military operations of our history.
This July 4th, we will once again celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. As we enjoy the beautiful setting at our majestic Courthouse, with our hot dogs and watermelon in-hand, we should remember earlier generations of Americans who faced harsh and unimaginably brutal conditions, who fought and sacrificed their lives so that we might live free of all tyrants.
One statistic alone gives a stark picture of their sacrifice. In New York alone, 11,000 prisoners died, many on board the infamous H.M.S. Jersey, a British ship in the harbor used to house prisoners. To save their lives, all they had to do was sign up to fight alongside the British. All refused! This, despite conditions so brutal that every day found weakened prisoners dying and their bodies being thrown overboard, making room for new prisoners. What a testimonial to their devotion!
On July 4, please bring your family and come out to our noon celebration on the Courthouse lawn and enjoy your holiday. And remember the sacrifice on the part of so many in our nation’s past—the crucible of freedom they forged assured us our democracy.
Editor’s Note: Statistics provided by our local historian, Tony Sepolpo.