Joseph Reed

Apparently, he preferred to die on the spot rather than run away with his army.

Eventually, his adjutant, Joseph Reed, had to grab the reins of his horse and lead him away from the advancing enemy.

General Clinton landed his men, but he didn't pursue the enemy very far.

He was under direct orders to wait for the main force under General Howe to land.

They left off his military rank.

Well, this didn't please Washington too well, and by July 20th, um, Lord Howe's adjutant general, Lieutenant Colonel James Paterson, meets with Washington.

He tells him that Howe was given authority to grant pardons to those who laid down, who will lay down their arms and submit to British authority.

Washington rejected the idea and said, "For what? Those who have committed no fault will want a pardon?" So the meeting ends with no resolution, and war is basically pretty imminent still.

I'm like, "Hm." And then the pickets were able to engage briefly, but again, they were under-supplied, um, but they're driven back.

So Stirling's reinforced line is, um, basically under heavy artillery attack by morning, and they're bombing Sullivan's lines.

From Manhattan, Washington orders additional troops to cross the East River, and he crosses them over with his adjutant, General Joseph Reed.

Howe then basically secures the position behind the Continentals by 9:00 AM, and the large, and, and, and starts with a large cannon blast, which then starts Heist- von Heister's Hessians, uh, to charge forward with a frontal attack and bayonet charge, trapping Sullivan and his men, who are now engaged in a hand-to-hand combat.

But I sure would have been proud if he had found that I was.

Joseph Reed was an aide-de-camp to General Washington at the start of the war.

He also became a member of the Second Continental Congress and the first governor of Pennsylvania, although that position wasn't called governor at the time.

He was president of Pennsylvania, but it was changed later to governor.

Yeah, again, I think the real-life situation was even more desperate than the movie makes for several reasons.

Just as an aside, his aide at the time, the one that Hamilton replaced, was a guy named Joseph Reed.

And Reed actually got into trouble about two weeks before this movie happens because he was writing to General Lee and basically saying, yeah, I think Washington's an incompetent and I wish you were in command.

And Washington found out about that correspondence and that permanently ruined their relationship.