Book Review: The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldiers and Sailors Who Shaped the Country, Founded the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware

Patrick K. O’Donnell has written 13 narrative histories of the war, many of them best-sellers, based on diaries, interviews with participants and experts, records in obscure libraries, and personal experiences that reveal little-known details that fundamentally change the understanding of events even among academic experts. The Indispensables was another milestone in scholarship on the American Revolution when it was published in 2021, and should be read by everyone to understand how remarkable and relevant these events remain today.

This book focuses on a previously overlooked group of deep-sea fishermen from the Marblehead-Beverly area of ​​Massachusetts, without whom the Revolution would never have succeeded. The cover features a corner of Emanuel Leutze’s famous 1851 painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” in which these sailors use poles to push back the ice to attack Britain’s Hessian allies at Trenton, New Jersey, on the night of December 25-26, 1776.

Washington desperately attempted to send three groups across the border, but the other two failed to overcome seemingly impossible challenges (including a violent storm during their attempt and extremely difficult terrain if they actually landed on the other side). No wonder the rallying cry for the operation was “Victory or Death.” Even those of us who have written about this turning point in the revolution will be impressed by the many new details.

Many from Marblehead played critical roles during and after the Revolution, some becoming Washington’s personal guards. Other leaders from the area included Brigadier General John Glover, later Vice President Elbridge Gerry (for whom “gerrymandering” is named), and Dr. Nathanael Bond (who saved the army by vaccinating it against smallpox). Based on their experiences fishing dangerously in the Grand Banks area near Newfoundland, Canada, Marbleheaders also laid the foundation for the Continental Navy, which became the U.S. Navy.

One of the most surprising elements of their history is that the Marblehead Regiment was so diverse, including blacks and Native Americans. A muster roll described a third as light-skinned, a third as dark-skinned, and a third as unmarked. In deep sea fishing, everyone depended on the other for survival, so performance in crisis, not background, was of paramount importance.

“Their differences would prove their strength as they would work together as a team to overcome seemingly impossible situations, united by their belief in a cause greater than themselves,” O’Donnell wrote.

At the time of the Revolution, Great Britain actually dominated the slave trade (it did not ban slavery in its colonies until 1833, while Massachusetts abolished it in 1783).

Turning points in the early revolution
When the American colonies passed a law in 1774 banning all trade with Britain, it was the first step toward war. Realizing they desperately needed more gunpowder for a military confrontation, the colonists began hiding it, firearms, and cannons in Lexington and Concord. As O’Donnell documents, there remains much confusion about who fired the “shot that went round the world” and other details of these early battles.

A recurring theme in the book is how often the outcome of the war could have been changed by small events, such as the way both sides reacted to the first shots or the direction in which British reinforcements turned at a fork in the road leading to the two towns.

The struggle to obtain sufficient gunpowder continued throughout the war, as domestic production and importation remained extremely difficult and the Americans were largely dependent on marbleheaders to smuggle it past British ships or to capture the ships carrying it, often against great odds. Part of the problem was paying the sailors while the privateers got rich.

Washington and Glover gradually built up a navy and, combined with brilliant tactics at Bunker Hill, forced the British out of Boston in March 1776. The British planned a new base on Manhattan Island and the Americans rushed to defend this attempt from all sides, even though it seemed impossible and was undermined by the large Loyalist population. However, the British never fully trusted the Loyalists, so this advantage was never exploited.

“Ultimately, a large portion of the British Army, along with Hessian allies, some 32,000 troops and almost half of the Royal Navy, over 70 warships and more than 500 transports would participate in the largest invasion of North America in history,” O’Donnell wrote.

In August, Crown forces began defeating the Patriots in battle after battle. After the Marblehead Regiment reinforced Washington on Long Island, the Americans were driven back to fortifications in Brooklyn. Washington’s ability to repeatedly expose himself to fire and not be killed led his soldiers to believe that their cause was willed by God.

“A single British ship on the East River could cut off the retreat to Manhattan on the nearest beaches, where the river was a mile wide and known for its treacherous currents, while the Washington faced a victorious, well-disciplined army nearly three times the size of its own,” O’Donnell wrote.

In a chapter entitled “American Dunkirk,” he describes how the Marbleheaders accomplished the seemingly impossible task of transporting not only the 9,000 patriot soldiers, but also their horses, ammunition, some cannon, and baggage on one short summer night in heavy rain that had been falling for two nights and had covered the far bank with mud. Of course, this not only left them with no means of defense in case of attack, but the boats were not suitable for these tasks, as was the case with the crossing of the Delaware on Christmas Eve. Had they not succeeded, the Revolution would have ended abruptly.

Fighting continued on Manhattan throughout August and September, and Colonel Glover’s Marblehead Regiment played a crucial role in repelling British and Hessian attacks against mostly militia, who usually retreated quickly. In the chapter “The Forgotten Battles That Saved Washington’s Army,” the author shows how the Americans fought back courageously despite superior numbers and a shortage of gunpowder, increasingly using guerrilla tactics. They reached White Plains, 25 miles north of Manhattan, with the Marbleheaders as their rear guard. After the Americans were defeated there, despite inflicting heavy losses on the British, their battered army retreated to New Jersey, where it prepared for the winter of 1776.

Many of the contracts expired on New Year’s Day 1777, so Washington decided to make a desperate attempt to save the revolution by counterattacking Trenton’s Hessians, which is described in detail in the final chapters.

British historian Gorge Trevelyan summed up their efforts as follows: “It is doubtful whether ever so small a number of men, in so short a time, have achieved greater or more lasting results for the history of the world.”