Episode 5022: WarRoom Christmas Day Special 2025

Summary

Bannon’s War Room – Christmas Day Special 2025 (Episode 5022)

Date: December 25, 2025
Host: Steve Bannon
Guests: Patrick K. O’Donnell (Military Historian), Trevor Comstock (Sacred Human Health)

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Overview: Main Theme and Purpose

This Christmas Day episode of War Room centers on tradition and history, blending wellness with a deep-dive into America's founding crucible: the military realities and near-miraculous endurance of the Continental Army in 1776. It features a segment on personal and family health with Trevor Comstock, then shifts to an annual tradition—Patrick K. O’Donnell’s “Combat History of Christmas”—which meticulously recounts pivotal events from the earliest days of the American Revolution, focusing especially on the army’s retreat across New Jersey, the dire winter at the Delaware, and Washington’s legendary Christmas night attack at Trenton. The goal: to remind listeners of the sacrifices made for American freedom, even during the holiest and most familial time of the year.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction and Traditions

• Christmas Reflections:
  Steve Bannon opens with gratitude for the War Room audience and underlines the tradition of “The Combat History of Christmas,” a segment tracing back 15 years (starting at Breitbart Radio) ([01:07]).

  “It’s been a real tradition…the combat history…to show you that…even during the most sacred time of the year…there are Americans that patriots that have had to sacrifice the ultimate.” — Steve Bannon ([06:56])

• Well-being and Health:
  Trevor Comstock discusses Sacred Human Health’s holiday offerings and health routines ([02:22]).

  • Announces a product launch and explains the ingredient philosophy behind their tallow moisturizer, intended for both men and women.
  • Stresses the importance of using natural, nourishing products versus mainstream synthetic alternatives.

  “We just wanted to give the raw natural ingredients that actually work to nourish your skin.” — Trevor Comstock ([04:44])

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2. The Combat History of Christmas: Setting the Stage

• Historical Framing:
  O’Donnell and Bannon place the American Revolution alongside Christianity as a foundational event ([11:37]), stressing its importance for both American identity and as a model of endurance during hardship.

  “The American Revolution is probably the most significant event other than the birth of Christ and life of Christ.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([11:37])

• The Revolution in Three Phases (Bannon’s Framework):

  1. Revolution of Ideas/institution building (pre-1775)
  2. War of Independence (1775-1783)
  3. Nation-building (through early 1800s)
  • The critical role of gunpowder and local grievances, e.g. the fishermen of Marblehead suffering impressment and taxation ([11:37-14:31]).

  “Every revolution…prior to 1775 was crushed by the Crown. They saw an opportunity to…defang the revolution by seizing gunpowder supplies.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([13:32])

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3. Research and Historical Perspective

• Years of Research:
  O’Donnell shares the arduous research that went into his acclaimed books “Washington’s Immortals” and “The Indispensables”—about 11–12 years total ([17:14], [22:08]).

  “I immerse myself in the history…I try to immerse myself in the story of the men that I write about as well as their opponents…I don’t have an agenda…My only agenda is to tell the story and put you there in their time.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([22:10])

• Importance of Primary Sources:
  O’Donnell emphasizes letting participants of the past tell their stories through letters, journals, and firsthand accounts.

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4. 1776: America’s Existential Crisis

A. The British Invade New York: Overwhelming Odds

• The British assemble the largest expeditionary force in modern history at Staten Island: two-thirds of the Royal Navy, 65–70% of the British Army, plus 10,000 Hessian mercenaries ([25:25]).

  “The British had no intention of letting this thing go…to deliver a death blow to this republic in the first hundred days of its life.” — Steve Bannon ([24:42])

B. The Catastrophic American Defeat at Brooklyn

• The British outflank Washington’s army at Brooklyn (August 1776), nearly destroying the main Continental force ([30:20]).

• O’Donnell recounts the stand of the Maryland regiment—“Washington’s Immortals”—at a site contemporary historians called “an American Thermopylae” ([19:00]).

• The perilous evacuation across the East River—America’s “Dunkirk”—is only made possible by John Glover and the Marblehead men. Providential fog and adverse winds prevent the British from striking ([32:49]).

  “One of the greatest evacuations in military history, right under the noses of…a massive Royal Navy…and this massive juggernaut in front of them…The fog, the providential fog, comes at exactly the right time.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([33:12])

C. Retreat Across New Jersey: The Army on the Brink

• After losing Manhattan, the battered American army fights a series of rear-guard actions, perpetually outmaneuvered and forced to retreat ([36:14]).

• Washington’s greatest achievement: preserving the army as a “being in the field,” knowing its destruction would end the revolution ([28:52], [36:14]).

  “That’s the one institution we’ve got. If we lose the institution of the Continental army…the Revolution’s over. It’s finished.” — Steve Bannon ([28:57])

D. Pressure, Betrayal, and Providence

• Enormous political pressure mounts on Washington from Philadelphia and his own rivals, especially General Charles Lee ([43:54]).

• Lee’s capture by British dragoons is described as providential—removing Washington’s most toxic rival at a critical moment ([44:42–46:43]).

  “That’s about as providential as the fog coming in.” — Steve Bannon ([46:34])

• Internal division: only about one-third of the population were Patriots; the rest were Loyalists or neutral ([46:43]).

  “A insurgency that has the support of the population is almost impossible to defeat…They knew they didn’t necessarily have to win. They just needed to survive. And Washington was brilliant at this.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([47:21])

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5. Christmas Night 1776: The Turning Point

• The Continental Army (“down to 3, 4, 5,000 men”) is threadbare, exhausted, and demoralized, pushed to the brink ([48:09]).

• Glover and the Marblehead men again become pivotal—extracting the army over the icy Delaware not just for Washington’s famous attack, but first to survive ([48:36]).

  “One of my favorite quotes is about one of the men sees his brother and doesn’t even recognize him because he’s in complete tatters, shoeless. His face is filled with sores. The army is disintegrating.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([48:36])

• Washington’s decision to counterattack at Trenton—rolling “the iron dice of war”—emerges as both daring and essential ([49:25]).

  “Washington asks Glover if it’s even possible to get across the Delaware when it’s raging, a raging torrent, like, don’t worry, my boys can handle it. And they organized one of the greatest amphibious operations in history.” — Patrick K. O’Donnell ([49:10])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote | |------------|------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | [01:07] | Steve Bannon | “It’s a day people spend with family…But also your health, sir.” | | [11:37] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “The American Revolution is probably the most significant event other than the birth of Christ and life of Christ.” | | [13:32] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “They saw an opportunity to…defang the revolution by seizing gunpowder supplies.” | | [22:10] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “My only agenda is to tell the story and put you there in their time.” | | [24:42] | Steve Bannon | “The British had no intention of letting this thing go…to deliver a death blow…” | | [33:12] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “The fog, the providential fog, comes at exactly the right time.” | | [44:42] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “This is General Charles Lee who’s in an inn…and he is captured by elements of dragoons…” | | [47:21] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “They just needed to survive. And Washington was brilliant at this.” | | [48:36] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “One of the men sees his brother and doesn’t even recognize him because he’s in complete tatters, shoeless…”| | [49:10] | Patrick K. O’Donnell | “Don’t worry, my boys can handle it. And they organized one of the greatest amphibious operations in history.” |

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:22] – [06:37]: Trevor Comstock discusses health products and their philosophy.
• [06:38] – [17:14]: Opening of the Combat History of Christmas; O’Donnell’s book research.
• [17:14] – [22:08]: Research process; importance of primary sources.
• [24:42] – [36:14]: The British invasion; defeat at Brooklyn; the evacuation (“American Dunkirk”).
• [36:14] – [44:42]: Retreat across New Jersey; pressure and betrayals; Charles Lee’s capture.
• [48:09] – [49:25]: Conditions at the Delaware; preparing for Washington’s crossing and attack.

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a rich narrative of America’s near-collapse in the winter of 1776 and the extraordinary resilience, luck (“providence”), and grit that enabled the Continental Army’s survival and ultimate counterattack. By threading personal, political, and military history together, Bannon and O’Donnell remind listeners of the steep price paid for American freedom—sacrifices made even at Christmas, and how moments of crisis and “divine providence” shaped a nation. The annual ritual of telling this story on Christmas Day connects family, tradition, and patriotism for the War Room audience.

Transcript

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Rejoice, rejoice.

[Trevor Comstock]

Disperse the glory.

[Steve Bannon]

Okay, welcome. It's Thursday, the 25th of December, the year of our Lord 2025. It's Christmas Day, Christmas morning. In fact, I want to welcome everybody here to the War Room. We've got our, our traditional, I guess we've been doing it for a dozen years now over at Breitbart Radio and Breitbart Radio news and the War Room with Patrick K. O', Donnells, the Combat History of Christmas. We'll get to Patrick in just a moment. Trevor comstock, It's a day people spend with family. A couple days. You know, you got Boxing Day tomorrow. We'll have Raheem do Boxing Day as we always do, another tradition of the War Room. So Raheem Kassam does Boxing Day. We'll be back for the Saturday morning show. Trevor. So people, you know, on Christmas Day able to kind of step back, catch their breath, spend time with family. I've been such a big supporter of what you guys are doing at Sacred Human Health. Talk to me about what you guys have been working on and where people over the next couple days can go and get some more information to really, you know, take care of the most important thing, your family, yourself, but also your health, sir.

[Trevor Comstock]

Yeah. Great to see you, Steve. Merry Christmas and Merry Christmas to the War Room posse. A couple things I wanted to mention. Number one, we are rolling out a new product very soon here. We had to make a couple changes to the label, but it's basically finalized at this point. So I'm excited to talk about that. But also I just wanted to mention that we ran our Christmas sale last week just so people could get their orders in time for today. But with that said, too, we are going to extend it all the way through today and tomorrow. So just make sure to use code Christmas at checkout for 20 off any one time order. I wanted to mention that before I forget and then with that too, you know, our tallow moisturizer has, since we launched, been extremely popular, as I mentioned quite a few times, and we continue to sell out. We did recently sell out, but I wanted to say that we are now back in stock. We have our team working around the clock to make sure that orders are being fulfilled. So for those who don't know as well, because we still get a lot of questions around it, the tallow moisturizer is handmade with the two ingredients, which is the 100American grass fed and finished beef tallow. And then we pair it with the Ra Manuka honey. So that's it. There's, you know, no preservatives in it, there's no seed oils or synthetic junk. And the tallow is pretty remarkable just because it's almost identical to the natural oils that your skin produces. So it absorbs much more deeply as opposed to just sitting on top of your skin, which unfortunately is the case for a lot of other skin care products on the market. And then to take it a step further, it's also loaded with vitamins like vitamin A, D, E as well as K, which your skin essentially needs to stay healthy and radiant. So that alone makes it a pretty powerful product. But also one of the questions we get asked a lot is just, you know, who it's intended for. It is intended for both men and women. I use it every day. Obviously I love it, I but it works great in scenarios for things like dry skin. Also if you have like eczema or a little bit of skin irritation, redness, as well as just daily skin hydration. And again, you can use it pretty much anywhere, you know, your face, your hands, your body, your neck, pretty much anywhere where you want to use it. And then we pair it with the Ramenuka honey, which is a naturally occurring antibacterial, anti inflammatory and healing property. So like I said, it's amazing if you have a little bit of separa or redness on your, on your skin or even eczema, it brings that down a lot. We've had a lot of great reviews for, for people that use it for that intention. But again, if you do want to compare it to your standard skin cream or product, oftentimes, you know, if you see products on Amazon or Walgreens, those can be beneficial in their own right. But more oftentimes than not they just contain a ton of synthetic and artificial ingredients as well as chemicals that can damage your skin barrier over time. So we just wanted to give the raw natural ingredients that actually work to nourish your skin. And again, it has those great anti inflammatory properties as well. So it's pretty powerful product. The reviews and the feedback we've been getting has been amazing. I'm really happy about that product. And as I had mentioned too, we got something really unique coming out soon here, which I'm excited to talk about. But I just want to touch on the tallow with the time that I had.

[Steve Bannon]

Yeah, by the way, the, the reviews, that's where I want everybody to go to the site, spend time over the holiday, you know, weekend all the way through, you know, we got four days here is to make sure people get access to the information and also read the reviews. The strength of the Whether it's Warpath Coffee or Sacred Human Health or Merryweather or any of we tell people, put a review up, tell us what you really think, and then we share it with, we share it with the Warren Posse. But it's the reviews that sell these products because people go to the site, they see the information, then they see the reviews. It just absolutely just, just blows them away. So one more time, where do, where do folks go? Where do folks go?

[Trevor Comstock]

Trevor yeah, definitely. So you can go to sacredhumanhealth.com and as I had mentioned, through today and tomorrow, you can just use Code Christmas at checkout for 20% off any one time order. If you do subscribe, you're locked into the 10% discount for life until you cancel. But like you mentioned, Steve, feel free to check out the reviews. There's a ton of them and a lot of feedback from the War Room Posse specifically.

[Steve Bannon]

Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Merry Christmas. Thanks for doing this this morning.

[Trevor Comstock]

Yep. Merry Christmas.

[Steve Bannon]

And a Merry Christmas. And a merry Christmas to you, the audience every year. Patrick K. O' Donnell how many we've been doing this for what, 12 years because it started, it's longer to go into that because I think it's longer.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Since 2010 then it started.

[Steve Bannon]

Sophia yeah, so 15 years. How it all blends together, right? 15 years it does it on Breitb News Radio and then we carried it over into the War Room. And so it's been a real tradition, the combat history. KRISTEN what we try to accomplish here to show you that and really the most sacred time of the year, one of the most sacred times besides Easter, when families are coming together and something so family oriented that there are Americans that patriots that have had to sacrifice the ultimate during those times and that the conflict kinetic activity does not stop, you know, just does not stop because of the Christmas season effect. Sometimes it intensifies and we've got some amazing examples you use. You know, Ken Burns came out with the American Revolution, and I don't think it had as large an audience as the Civil War or others. I think Civil War is the one I kind of hold it up to. And I think part of the reason is that they didn't really market to maga. I think they went out of the way, PBS went out of the way. I mean they went a couple of bro podcasts. But that's, that's a misconception the media has that that gets to maga. It Gets to some young people, right, which is great, but they didn't really go and make an effort on the MAGA media and realize it's controversial. You know, historians like yourself, particularly people that are focused on the. Have focused on the era, have a lot of questions about some of the accuracy of it, some of the. The technical details. And I know how busy you are going around the country with your books. I thought about you right away because two of your books are absolutely, to me, central, particularly the first part of it, which. Which is what we'll talk about now. This. The beginning of the. The beginning of the war and probably the most intense, concentrated part of the combat, which is from, I guess, late August all the way to Christmas Day and shortly thereafter in the. In the first year, or I guess the second year of the war, but the first year of our independence. Have you had a chance to. Have you had a chance to. Because I know you had a bunch of buddies that worked on it. Have you had a chance to see it?

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Only the first episode, Steve, and I was a huge fan of the Civil War, and this just didn't grab me.

[Steve Bannon]

It didn't grab you as much. So let's talk about that. The. The first step of the first. I think the first and second episode really focused a lot on about what we traditionally talk about. And here's what I think, at least I think they accomplished. One thing is that we keep trying to tell people that there was a war going on. A war had commenced before, politically, we actually got organized enough to declare war. I mean, the Declaration of Independence is essentially telling an empire and a king that we. This is your bill of indictment. We find you wanting, and we're declaring independence from that. And that is essentially, yes, it is a Declaration of Independence, but the way we're going to do this is that we understand we're going to fight for it, because we have been really engaged in combat since almost over a year beforehand, which is April of 1775. And you had both Lexington and Concord, and then you had. You had Bunker Hill in that respect. I think they did a pretty good job, at least in bringing that out, that this was a continuity. You actually had conflict on top of a political crisis. Because the way I see the revolution, maybe. Maybe you're different. I'd love to hear your opinion, is that it came in three phases. Number one was the American Revolution itself. And the American Revolution was not really the combat or the fighting. The American revolution was that 20 years that led up to the American people deciding that institutionally and as a people, we had to have our own sovereignty. We would break off from the British Empire. The second part of that, the War of Independence, was an actual war because Britain wasn't just letting us wander away. We actually had a conflict that took, what, about eight years to actually decide on the battlefield, how that, you know, which direction that was going to go. And then the third part, which I call the nation building, and my belief is that went all the way up to the Battle of New Orleans in 1850. The British finally threw in the towel and said, okay, I guess we're not going to stop these guys from being independent, but give us your perspective. We've got a couple minutes here in the first block. Your perspective of that very first part and leads us to the Christmas at the Christmas on the shores of the Delaware river in Pennsylvania. Sir.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

This is the most, you know, the American Revolution is probably the most significant event other than the birth of Christ and life of Christ. It's an immensely important event. And as you state accurately, the war itself is only part of it. And the actual revolution begins much earlier with the Stamp act and other things. But there's a series of things and grievances that cause the colonists to break from Great Britain. And I mean, there's a lot that I get into with the Indispensables, for instance, which is one group of Americans that are up in Marblehead, and their great grievance is they're fishermen, but they're being taxed to death. And most importantly, from their perspective, their boats are being seized, or actually their boats are being boarded and men are being taken aboard as, and kidnapped and basically put into the, the Royal Navy against their will. This is called impressment. And this is a major grievance that's, that takes place the, a major event. You know, within this, there are a number of atrocities that really magnify the American Revolution. And, you know, these, the impressment issue is one, there's the Boston Massacre as another, and then things accelerate. And in 1773 and 74, there is a, a true revolution of ideas that are at the time, groundbreaking. Steve I mean, we're talking about the idea of freedom and liberty, which they base, you know, they look at John Locke's theories, but they also bring in ancient Greece and other things in an American version of freedom and liberty kind of emerges at this point. One thing that is extremely significant that was not brought out was the importance of gunpowder. And what I mean by that is disarmament. And you can be, you know, you can have all the revolutionary ideas that you want. But if you were defenseless against a major empire like the Crown, every revolution, every uprising which occurred prior to 1775 was crushed by the Crown. And they saw an opportunity to basically disable or defang the revolution by seizing gunpowder supplies. And that is a very, very important point.

[Steve Bannon]

Hang on. We're gonna talk about how Lixing and Concord was about gunpowder. We're taking a short commercial break. The greatest combat historian of his Generation, Patrick K. O', Donnell, joins us for I Don't Know what, the 15th annual the Combat History of Christmas. Short commercial break.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Back in the movie.

[Steve Bannon]

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[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Was long. It was a long period. I started Washington the Mortals in 2010, and that was published in 2015. So it was a good. Maybe it was 2009. It was a good six years before that book was. I should say it was 2016 that it came out, not 2015. So it's a good six or seven years that I spent with Washington's Immortals. It was a. It was a book that began with a tour that I took with my battalion commander, the Willie Buell, who was in Bellusia with me in three 1. And he was council Foreign Relations. He was the colonel that was there, one of their. The. The fellows. And he said to me, you want to go to the Met? I said, no, let's do a combat tour of the Battle of Brooklyn. And, you know, it's. It was one of the coolest things, is to be able to. To walk the ground of a critical battle with somebody you had been in battle with, especially a man that really kind of understood history and tactics, strategy. We walked through Greenwood Cemetery, where the rolling hills are the site of some of New York's finest and most infamous characters. But it was also a great battle that took place. The Battle of Brooklyn begins at Greenwood Cemetery in the Heights. And this is where Washington troops initially are pinned down by the British as a massive flanking maneuver is going behind them, led by Cornwallis and Lord Howell and Clinton. And, you know, to their utter dismay and horror, they realize that they're being flanked, and they pull back to a stone house or near it, many of the men, and they make a last stand. An American thermopylae takes place here, which buys an hour more precious in history than any other, as one contemporary historian said. And it's at this thermopoly that they prevented the junction of many wings of the British army and the Hessian forces from uniting and smashing the nascent revolution.

[Steve Bannon]

What I want to do is get the Washington mortals for the audience. Took you six, seven years to both research and write, and you got inspired by this. This combat tour you took with Willie. And people should remember you're going over the battlefield of one of the most important battles in the history of this country, because it almost stopped the history of this country in the first 90 days of this country's birth is. Is now in modern Brooklyn, correct? I mean, you're at Greenwood. Greenwood Cemetery is. A lot of people think that's the cemetery where the scene in the Godfather was taken. I think that it was actually in Calvary Cemetery, but it was made to be Greenwood Cemetery where it has so many of the. So many of the. Of the guys, the mobsters are buried. But you also have to go in downtown Brooklyn, but then go to the boss tweet the Indispensables, which I think you followed. Washington's Immortals about the regiment from Maryland. You followed that with the Indispensables. Right. About the guys from Marblehead.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

I wrote the Unknowns in between that. And that's my book on World War I.

[Steve Bannon]

Okay.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

And the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, the body bearers that brought back the most. The most decorated men of the aef. But when Willie and I stopped near the stone house, we found an old rusted sign that said here lie 256 Marylanders, Maryland heroes. And these men, through their effort, they were the only unit or one of the few units that had bayonets. Their bayonets, the bayonets of the revolution, the immortal 400 or Washington's immortals make this epic stand. But their mass grave is still yet to be found. And it was there that I thought, well, this is an amazing mystery, an amazing story. And sent the proposal in along with a book called First Seals. And my editor at the prior book said we want you to write World War II history. This book will never. One of my worst books was on the battle of Long Island. I'll never do a book on this. And long story short, I have another publisher and things are going great. And that was one of a tremendously best selling book. But it was a miracle book in many ways. It almost didn't happen.

[Steve Bannon]

If you took both of those together, Washington mortals and the indispensables and combined them of the years of research. Because you do primary research, you go back to the journals, you go back to the archives and the writing of it. How big a hunk of your life did it take?

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

It was about 11 or 12 years probably. And each one of the books I Write is intriguing.

[Steve Bannon]

12 years for two books.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Yeah. I love to journey to these places. I visit them, I walk in their steps, I go to their graves. I immerse myself in the history and I try to immerse myself in the story of the men that I write about as well as their opponents. So I try to tell as balance a story as I possibly can. And I let them tell their own story in their own words. So as you mentioned, Steve, primary sources. I don't have an agenda. My only agenda is to tell the story and to put you there in their time. What it was like to be in the boots of the Men that were fighting this or being they were fought against, or in some cases, it's also people on the home front that were waiting for their husbands to come home, dealing with massive starvation or not having any money for years or having people that are. The untold story in many cases is these guys go off to war. Nobody brings home the bacon, so to speak, and the creditors are still there waiting to be paid. And many of these men have their homes repossessed. I mean, it's a remarkable story of endurance. It's truly somebody that's interviewed thousands of World War II veterans. I think this is our greatest generation. And many of the World War II veterans I interview would say the same thing.

[Steve Bannon]

Let's go back. I want to. We got a couple of minutes in this segment. I want to tee up to get us to Christmas night, to the actual Christmas Day. But people are now just. And I think after we've been talking about this, putting it together, because everything you see on the 4th of July is about the Declaration of Independence, folks. The lawyers creating that incidental. It's amazing document. It's a fantastic document, but it is. A declaration of war is a bill of indictment against a king that has led his colony, his countrymen, to basically say, we're breaking off. We're going to be independent. We're not going to have some sort of partnership. We're not going to have a parliament here. We're going to be independent. But that immediately kicks off or takes up to the next level a war that's been going on for over a year. But Lexington, Concord and at Boston, at Bunker Hill, the very day that it signed, or right afterwards, the largest armada, which has kind of come from Nova Scotia because the British really did retreat for a while to see how this thing would play out. It comes into New York Harbor. Just explain to folks the scale and immensity of. The British had no intention of letting this thing go. I mean, they basically put together the largest military expedition, I think, in mankind's. In mankind's history. There have been other largers, maybe back in ancient times, but for modern times, because the Spanish Armada never really landed. This was one. And it was gonna. It was there to. To deliver a death blow to this republic in the first hundred days of its life. Just tell me about the scale of what landed at Staten island and really went to battle in Long Island.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

What I will say before that and before the Revolutionary War is something that is immensely important that I brought out in the indispensables, and that is something called the Articles of Association. And this is an obscure document that nobody hears about or thinks about, but it's in the fall of 1775, and it declares war, economic war against Great Britain. It basically boycotts their goods and we won't ship anything in or export to them. This is a seminal document that unites the colonies as well. It's not so much a path to revolution, but it's a path to being united against a common front, which is the greatest economic power and one of the greatest military powers at the time. And it's an incredibly important document. It also covers dependency. And the colonists realized that if they were dependent on British goods or dependent on gunpowder or whatever, that they would they would not have freedom. And that rings true today as much as ever. Dependency is a very important thing to avoid. As you mentioned, though, Steve, in 1776, they pull up with two thirds of the of the British fleet to Long island, most of their army, about 65 to 70%, as well as over 10,000 Hessian members or allies that they hire to crush the rebellion. It's a show of force. They are there to destroy and crush the rebellion. Initially, first they try to negotiate, but Washington and his lieutenants and battle captains realized that Lauren Howe really has no authority to actually have to hear their grievances or to recognize the independence of the United States.

[Steve Bannon]

This is we're going to take a short commercial break here in a moment. This force, which is, you know, the institution of the Royal Navy, is amazing. It's really helped create the British Empire. It's one of the greatest institutions ever created by man for a time in the British army, which was pound for pound, as tough as any professional army, plus 10,000 mercenaries. And the Hessians had a thing in the mind of the colonists that these guys were almost like monsters. They couldn't be defeated. Their size, their equipment, they actually had helmets that made them look even bigger than they were, that was all coiled to strike a blow to destroy the Continental army and the militias around it and really end American independence, the independence movement in a hammer blow in the first hundred days of our existence. We're going to talk about that and how it led in a retreat all the way back to Pennsylvania and then General Washington ready to strike back on Christmas night. Short commercial break.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Back in a moment.

[Steve Bannon]

Welcome back. Patrick K. Odell is with us. Christmas 1776, the beginning of Republic and almost the end of it. So, Patrick, take a couple of minutes and walk through the because the concept of the concept of Washington at least was I have to keep this army intact. If we lose the institution of the Continental army, no matter how small it is, the Revolution's over. It's just all. It's finished, right? That's the one institution we've got. And he kind of took it over right after Bunker Hill, when the Continental Congress realized you needed Virginia all in on this. It couldn't just be New England or just couldn't be Massachusetts. People should understand, too, the British army on the assault on Breed's Hill and Bunker Hill, it was some of the toughest fighting that the British had ever seen. In fact, I think my understanding is that the casualty rates of the British army on the day of the assault of Breed's Hill were higher. They did not lose on a ratio as many men until the first day of the Somme in World War I, which is still, I think, the most horrific day of combat in any war. So the British knew we were tough hombres, particularly from entrenched positions. Walk me through the catastrophic defeat of the American army at Long island in Brooklyn.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

As you mentioned, Steve, or frame it. Bunker Hill has a profound impact on Lord Howe's mind because he sees some of his best, best lieutenants, captains that he is fighting with, killed right in front of him as they are attacking Bunker Hill. If it hadn't been a shortage of gunpowder, the. The Americans may have very well held the Hill, but they run out of gunpowder and they're eventually overrun after mass, after several assaults. But it's these massive casualties that really influences how, in an attempt to preserve His Majesty's troops as well as the German allies that he has. So he's trying to conduct blanking maneuvers whenever possible and avoid another Bunker Hill or direct frontal assault. And this is where the Washington immortals play a key role in the sense it buys them, you know, important time. And then there's not. Not much daylight left to assault the fortifications that are the American fortifications at Brooklyn Heights. Had, you know, Howe done that, it's very possible that they might have carried the day, you know, and basically crushed the rebellion. There was about 10,000 troops that were in Brooklyn, and then, oh, by the.

[Steve Bannon]

Way, at the Stone House at the Thermopylae, because you had the American Thermopylae right there with this regiment from Maryland. They bought them time. But just so people understand, still, the line at Brooklyn Hill was being pushed back. Your back is to the water. Those are familiar with New York, understand Brooklyn, particularly the Palisades, which is where Brooklyn Heights, where I used to live when I was at Goldman, right After Harvard, the magnificent part of town to live. You look over to Manhattan, to Lower Manhattan, to Wall Street. There's all these 70 and 80 story buildings today. That body of water, the East River. The American army was backed up. There was no Brooklyn Bridge. There was no Brooklyn Bridge at the time. There's no way to get off. There's no way to get off the Long island, which ends right there in Brooklyn. There's no way to get off. So they bought time to regroup. But when you say regroup, your back is right there to a body of water and you've got the rural Navy sitting right there. The most powerful navy in the world is anchored right off the battery in law in Lower Manhattan. Correct?

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Indeed. And this is where just some miraculous things take place. There's a massive nor' Easter that pelts both armies. And it keeps. I mean, the British lines keep. They use a siege tactic which is popular today, and they keep advancing their trench line closer and closer to the fortifications. But there's massive amounts of rain coming down, pelting both armies. And it's here that the three chimneys, it's a mansion in Brooklyn Heights that Washington decides. He talks to his top officers and says, should we fight or should we flee? And he wisely decides to flee. But it's a very tough decision because a, you know, you've got to cross a mile long east river with the. The British, the Royal Navy right at your back, potentially. And. And then you've got a massive juggernaut of over 25,000 British and Hessian troops that are about to pounce on your position. And it all has to be done, you know, secretly. And it all has to be done with, you know, gathering hundreds of small boats. It's. It's the American Dunker. And it falls upon the shoulders largely of John Glover and the Marblehead Regiment, who I write about in the Indispensables. And they organized with, with only hours of time, one of the greatest evacuations in military history, right under the noses of, you know, a massive Royal Navy in the east river, as well as this massive juggernaut in front of them. And here, you know, the great miracles in American history and world history takes place. The fog, the providential fog comes at exactly the right time as dawn comes. And the rays of dawn illuminate the east river and illuminate, potentially, the operation to evacuate the American that Glover is desperately trying to pull off. They go back almost a dozen times, you know, with these small boats to bring off the wounded, to bring off the equipment. And the men and, and dawn comes in the fog, then screens the remaining boats as they, they escape and bring off nearly everybody. One of the greatest.

[Steve Bannon]

Isn't it almost provident? Isn't almost providential. So many of the things that happen, the coincidence that, that you can even get this army, and particularly with, with no real vessels, I mean, they kind of put this together. The last. This is a hundred times more improbable than Dunkirk. Correct. With Dunkirk, they were sending sailboats over and little motorboats and pleasure boats. Here you've got these, the Marblehead men in a handful of boats and you gotta do it all night. And if you don't extract this entire army, the war could be over right then.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

And oh, by the way, the wind never favored the Royal Navy to go up the east river behind the defenses. And they would have, if it did, they would have blown apart this small little fleet that John Glover had that was bringing off the, the army, the, the 9,000 or plus men that were coming off, you know, at Brooklyn. It's an incredible story of.

[Steve Bannon]

So you're on, you're, you're on Manhattan now. And really from September, I guess this is mid, late September all the way till, I guess around early December, mid December, you're basically on one big sweeping move. Manhattan across the Hudson to New Jersey and then all the way down. And you're fighting rear guard actions, but you're never winning a battle, right. You're just trying to stop your losses and really get the hell out of there. It never collapses into a full route. But. And that's one of the things I think what Washington did that was so brilliant, keep an army intact when you're just getting pummeled. But the British are really feel like they're chasing a hound right now. Correct.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

What happens is they land about two weeks after the Battle of Brooklyn, the evacuation takes place on the night of December 30th, 29th 30th. They escape to Manhattan and then there's a lull where there's a.

[Steve Bannon]

No, no, no, no, Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Not December 30th. No, not December 19th. Brooklyn in the.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

I, I said September, I believe. I thought, I thought, I meant September. September, September. The middle of September. They lay land at Murray Hill in and around there, and they attack Manhattan and they, the army disappears basically again. And you know, there's. Washington is horrified. It's only the, the Mart. The Marylanders, what's left of them, and the Marblehead troops and some Others that stand and fight. But much of the army is, is it flees. And they make their way towards Harlem Heights where they have another defensive line. And, and there is one glimmer of hope at the Battle of Harlem Heights, where elite British troops, the. Their light infantry moves out. And it's here that American riflemen basically surprise these British troops. In the Battle of Harlem Heights is an American victory, a small victory against these, you know, the empire's some of their best troops, but after that, it's just pretty much one defeat after another. And you know, there's some. The, the, the British have a massive advantage in the fact that their fleet can land anywhere and Washington has to defend the indefensible, which is Manhattan, which can be pretty much attacked from any point. And there's another amphibious landing where, you know, it's October, it's roughly around the middle of October. And a small group of riflemen under Edward Hand, about 25 men, are behind a log pile and they're able to repel much of the invasion before. And it's a, it's a bright spot because they land in an area that's actually kind of an island. The British land in an island area that, that floods during high tide. And so they're sort of separated from the mainland and then they're being picked off by, by Washington's riflemen and then they decide to land a few days later at another point. And you know, it's John Glover that has as an important role as a rear guard along with his brigade, and they retreat to White Plains and there's another epic, epic battle. And it's here that the Hessians play a key role under Johan Rall. And it leads to another tremendous defeat which is at the, at The Battle of Fort Washington, where nearly 3,000Americans are captured by the Hessians and most of it is a result of. Of a traitor within the fort. The adjunct leaves about a week before the battle begins with the plans of the fort, the dispositions of where everybody is actually located, and they know where the weak spots are. And the Hessians once again lead the assault. Under Johan Rall, they pierce the defenses at Fort Washington and, you know, nearly 3,000Americans are, are captured or killed.

[Steve Bannon]

Wow. And so then the decision is made to. The decisions made to get out of New Jersey as quickly as possible and to get across the Delaware to Pennsylvania. How does that go?

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

This is the situation where these are the times that dry men's souls, as they say. This is Thomas Paine's famous treatment. This is where everything is going wrong. And it's really initially decided by the British themselves. They attack Fort Lee, they cross over the Hudson river, they seize Fort Lee very quickly, and Washington is absolutely alarmed. They they need to quickly, you know, evade the British as quickly as possible. And they're they're basically moving the army as fast as they can across New Jersey to the safety or at least the perceived safety of the Delaware River. But most importantly, there are friendly farmers in Pennsylvania that can feed the Continental army, which is yes, you know, it starts at about 20,000 men and it's it's going down quickly in numbers to 4 to 5,000 across the jersey.

[Steve Bannon]

Hang on one second. We'll come back. We're going to talk about how those four or five thousand, the hard cores, actually survived, got back across the river on Christmas to deliver a hammer blow. Short Commercial break Back in a moment.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

Far and near.

[Steve Bannon]

Combat history Christmas here in the war room on Christmas morning, a tradition that we do every year. So the army, which kind of had a lot of volunteers come to it at Cambridge after Bunker Hill and then moved down to New York to defend and make sure New York was looked at as the place you had to defend because they're going to try to cut the young American the United Colonies, I guess we were, at the time, in half by using the Hudson river to hive off New England from the mid Atlantic states. By the time they do defeat after defeat after defeat, and they get to the banks of the Delaware river and have to then extricate themselves into Pennsylvania so they can get fed the pressure on Washington from the Continental Congress. I mean, he was a renowned military leader during the French and Indian Wars. He was from Virginia. He was the head of the Virginia militia, a renowned, imposing figure, renowned personages from Virginia. But you had had for the last ever since August, you'd had nothing really, but defeats. What kind of pressure was he getting from Philadelphia?

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

He was getting enormous pressure and his rivals were basically chomping at the bit and then working behind the scenes to get rid of him, basically. And he had a number of them. And one of his rivals is it's for it's I think it's in a sense, fortuitous from an American historical perspective. His greatest rival is is out there basically campaigning for the job, you know, basically telling everybody how great he is and everything else. And then he is he is in New Jersey. He's not following orders from he's not really communicating with with Washington himself. And he is in a this is.

[Steve Bannon]

This is this is general this is General, this is, this is General Charles Lee.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

This is General Charles Lee who's in an inn and he is captured by elements of, of dragoons led by Banister Tarleton, Tarleton and others. And he's brought out, out of the inn and his bed clothes and then you know, he's basically, he's cashiered away. What's, what's interesting, we don't know, we didn't find this out until later on, is that he basically freely talks to the British high command about how, how they can beat Washington and the Continental army, but eventually he is, he's freed in a prisoner exchange and given another chance and doesn't do very well at the Battle of Monmouth.

[Steve Bannon]

I mean, you talk about Divine providence.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

It'S a plus though that he's captured because. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to talk.

[Steve Bannon]

No, but that's, that's, that's, that's. No, no, no, that's also providential. Right? I mean the rival and he's poisonous because he, he's sending, he's sending direct letters back to members of the, of the Continental Congress. Some of them who are not exactly excited that a Virginian's leading this effort. Right. They may think maybe someone from New England is more as ready for the fight. And people have to understand you're getting pounded. You haven't come close to a victory or close to holding your ground. Not understanding the strategy is that the whole purpose is to just keep the army, to keep the army intact, keep the army in being it's poisonous. And then he's captured because he kind of goes into an inn, he's a little arrogant, they don't put up the pickets, etc. He's captured by the British and so the ones at the time, other rivals come up later, but at the time when they could have possibly switched out away from General Washington, his number one rival is captured by, captured by the British and kind of taken off the battlefield. Right. That's about as providential as the, as the fog coming in.

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

It is, it is, Steve. And I mean this is a situation, people have to understand that this is our first Civil war. Not everybody was on board with the American Revolution. I mean, the classic breakdown is you have a third that were patriots, you know, a third that were loyalists that were loyal to the Crown and a third that were undecided. And then what you see in my book Washington's Immortals, where I really cover the 8 year old span of the American Revolution where none of it is, is you, is, can be Decided, because what's the important thing, right? It's, as you say, it's the. It's keep the army intact. A insurgency that has the support of the population is almost impossible to defeat. That's something that we've learned, you know, throughout the 20th century. In particular, this is a situation where they knew they didn't necessarily have to win. They just needed to survive. And Washington was brilliant at this. He was brilliant at prudence and not attacking when he knew that he didn't have the odds. He also was brilliant in his alliance buildings with foreign powers, but also within this very much divided United States in 1776.

[Steve Bannon]

Take us. We got about a minute before we go to break. Minute and a half before you go to break. Getting across the Delaware, you now backed up all the way to New Jersey. They realize they've got to get into Pennsylvania to basically restock and get fed. How did the marble men get them across the Delaware river not to come back later and attack, but actually to extract this army? Because it's down to 3, 4, 5,000 men. If you don't extract it, the war is over. Right. Then how do they do it?

[Patrick K. O'Donnell]

This is a situation, Steve, where the. The army is falling apart. You know, one of my favorite quotes is about one of the men sees his brother and doesn't even recognize him because he's in complete tatters, shoeless. His face is filled with sores. The army is disintegrating because of the enlistments are expiring, and Washington has to strike. And he strikes at the vulnerable Hessian outpost under Johann Rawl at Trenton. The problem is there's a river in the way again. And Washington asks Glover if it's even possible to get across the Delaware when it's raging, a raging torrent, like, don't worry, my boys can handle it. And they organized one of the greatest amphibious operations in history. And great turning points.

[Steve Bannon]

Incredible. Okay, we're going to take a short commercial break. When we get back. They made a decision. You know, Washington was very prudent and he knew about risk mitigation. But sometimes you get backed into a corner and you got to roll the iron dice, the iron dice of war. That's what happened on Christmas. Christmas night. We're going to take a short commercial break. The foremost combat historian of his generation, Patrick K. O', Donnell, joins us on Christmas morning. Merry Christmas. Gonna leave you with some Christmas music and be back in a moment.