"Your Hometown Revolution." This is where listeners send in their hometowns, and I explore the closest Revolutionary War activity tied to that place. Because no matter where you’re listening from, chances are the Revolution happened closer than you think.
Today, we’re heading to Fort Lee — the northern gateway of New Jersey’s Revolutionary story, where the war nearly ended before it truly began. This is the hometown of listener Patrice.
In November 1776, the Continental Army stood on the edge of collapse.Fort Washington had fallen. Fort Lee was next. And as British forces under Cornwallis closed in, General Nathanael Greene ordered a desperate evacuation that sent Washington’s troops on a freezing, miserable retreat across New Jersey.
But this wasn’t surrender—it was survival.If the British plan had succeeded, the Revolution might have ended before it truly began. Instead, Washington broke the rules of 18th-century warfare, refusing to take winter quarters and turning retreat into opportunity.
In this episode of The New Jersey History Podcast, we trace the collapse that became the catalyst—the defeat that kept the Revolution alive—and how the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 1776 transformed hopeless retreat into renewed resistance.
🎙 Recorded in partnership with Revolution NJ — preserving the stories of our state’s fight for independence.
#NewJerseyHistory #AmericanRevolution #FortLee #GeorgeWashington #RevolutionNJ #NJHistoryPodcast
Email: njhistorypodcast@gmail.com
Socials: https://linktr.ee/njhistorypodcast