“Almost half a million Americans will give their lives to secure our liberty by World War II’s end.”
As we take time this to celebrate the Fourth of July with family, friends, food, and fireworks, let us take a moment to remember the incredible sacrifices that made our great nation’s birthday possible.
On July 2, 1776, in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, the Second Continental Congress declared independence from Great Britain. The following day, newly appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, former Virginia congressional delegate George Washington, formally takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge Commons, in Cambridge, Mass.
On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence – edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams – is finally approved.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
“And for the support of this Declaration,” the document states, “with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” 56 delegates will sign the Declaration, becoming traitors to the crown.
These were not just empty words; nine of the signers will not live through the war. Several are hunted, captured, and undergo brutal treatment by the British. Many will lose their homes, fortunes, wives, and even children. Jefferson himself narrowly avoids capture. It will take eight years of brutal combat and the lives of 25,000 American soldiers and militiamen before we defeat Britain and secure our independence.
Four score and seven years after Jefferson’s declaration is adopted, Union forces defeat Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in the Battle of Gettysburg. 50,000 Americans are killed, wounded, or captured in three days of fighting. On July 4, 1863, Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia abandons the bloody fields of Gettysburg and retreats towards Maryland. Pickett’s Charge the day before signified the “high water mark of the Confederacy,” but Union rifle and artillery fire crushed the ill-fated assault and put an end to Lee’s invasion of the North.
To the west, Confederate Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton and his 29,000 remaining troops surrender to Maj. Gen. (and the author’s many times great-grandfather) Ulysses S. Grant securing the capture of Vicksburg, Tenn., giving the Union control of the Mississippi River. It will be 81 years before Vicksburg once again celebrates the Fourth of July.
The defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg dealt a major blow to the Confederacy and signified a turning point of the Civil War. In two years, the Union would be restored and the Founding Fathers’ vision of equality would be one step closer to reality.
During World War I, the Marine Corps’ tenacious fighting during the Battle of Belleau Wood just days prior to our nation’s 142nd birthday would become the stuff of legend. Soon, Gen. John J. Pershing’s Allied Expeditionary Force, consisting of well over a million American troops, will engage the Germans in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, which will inflict over 120,000 American casualties in the bloodiest battle in American military history.
Nearly a month after D-Day, 1,100 guns fire a Fourth of July “salute” at German positions. One million American soldiers have landed at Normandy and are fighting their way across France in the “great crusade” against Nazi Germany. In the Pacific, Marines and soldiers have all but secured the island of Saipan and are drawing ever-closer to Japan. A year later, American Marines and soldiers have just defeated the Japanese at Okinawa after 82 days of fighting (75,000 killed or wounded) and liberated the Philippine Islands (some 80,000 casualties), and are preparing for the invasion of Japan that fortunately will be negated by the atomic weapon attacks at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. The war in Europe is over, and first American occupation forces arrive in Berlin.
Almost half a million Americans will give their lives to secure our liberty by World War II’s end.
President Abraham Lincoln declared during his Gettysburg Address that “from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
For over 241 years, millions of Americans have bravely fought and died, each generation securing the freedom enjoyed by the next generation with their blood. We stand on the shoulders of those amazing Americans that came before us and gave everything so that we could be free to celebrate this wonderful holiday in peace and prosperity.
So please, as you enjoy tonight’s fireworks, take a moment to consider the incredible cost that has been paid for you by so many others that came before us – and by those that currently serve in places most Americans couldn’t even identify on a map.
Happy Fourth of July.
