by Bob Sparrow
I had just written a blog about our annual backyard Margaritaville party last weekend to post this week, when I remembered that this is the week of our nation’s 250th birthday and that certainly deserves my attention. So, Margaritaville can wait.
Most of you are probably not familiar with the name, Lydia Darragh, I know I was not prior to this week, when I went looking for unusual stories about the birth of our nation.
In 1777 Lydia was a 48-year-old, Irish immigrant Quaker, pacifist, mother of five, living in British-occupied Philadelphia, who became a Patriot spy. The British had occupied her home and sat in her living room and planned an attack on Washington’s troops. This attack, if successful, could have very well meant the difference between winning and losing the Revolutionary War and us remaining under British rule. For a final meeting to plan the attack, the British officers tell Lydia and her husband to remain in their bedroom – their children have already been sent away to stay with relatives. After the officers start their meeting, Lydia sneaks into a nearby closest where she can hear them planning the details of the surprise attack. Their plan includes using 5,000 men, 13 canons, several baggage wagons and 11 boats on wheels. Eleven boats on wheels??? Yes, this was a unique feature that Lydia remembered and helped those she told the story to, to believe her. The boats were going to be used to cross rivers in their attack.
She overhears and remembers every detail of the attack, so the next day she asks the British officers, living in her home, if she can visit her children, who are at relatives’ home and stop to pick up a bag of flour to feed her children. She is granted a pass from the British officer who believes this is a harmless woman just trying to provide for her family. She has to walk several miles on a cold December day to visit her children. To complete the cover, she does go to pick up flour and dropping it off for the children, but then continues down the road to The Rising Sun Tavern, which was an informal message hub for the colonists. Once there, she finds a soldier she knows and trusts and tells him of the British battle plans. Because of the specifics of the plan and the details that she remembered and conveyed, her story was very credible.
The information was quickly passed on to General Washington, who now had plenty of time to prepare. The British, who thought they were surprising the colonists, walk right into a trap and were soundly defeated by Washington’s troops.
When the British commanders later analyzed the events of the battle they realized it had not been a surprise, and assumed that there was a leak in their ranks. They could not imagine that the information that lead to their defeat came from an unassuming female Quaker pacifist spy.
The British were pushed out of Philadelphia within the next year.
As I searched and read several interesting stories about the founding of this great country, it helped me realize that, yes, we seem to be a divided nation today, but we’ve been through worse and got through, and we will get through this.
Suzanne and I hope you all have a great 250 year celebration of the independence of this amazing country.