Down to The Last Strike     

   In baseball terms, for George Washington's team there were two outs and two strikes on the last batter. General Howe's forces were on the verge of a shutout. Game over. No tomorrow. 

   As Howe anticipated his last pitch (attack), with 8,000 opponents trapped in Brooklyn Heights, Washington needed to delay the game (retreat), but how to escape Howe?

   Washington's desperate strategy was to round up every fishing boat and sloop he could find. It was doomed to failure. Moonlight and splashing oars would surely alert the pursuers. 

   A rise of fog covered the East River. 

   In the morning, the British were astonished - their prey had vanished - their provisions, horses and cannons. There would be many extra innings, but never again would the British have opportunity to throw the last pitch. 

   At a crucial moment when Washington had done all he could, the hand of God intervened, so that neither sight nor sound betrayed the outnumbered colonial army. 

   Couldn't this be coincidence? The fog was just one of many examples of providential favor and repeated protection of the Revolution. Many settlers who sided with the cause gave God the glory. 

   Later, during the Constitutional Convention, when a union of states was not universally sought, Washington interrupted the debate to say:

   If to please the people, we offer what we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterward defend our work? Let us raise a standard to which the wise and the honest can repair; the event is in the hand of God!" 

           Jimmy