ELD-ND Battlefield Staff Ride

During two weeks in the summer of 2021, ten Midshipmen, led by three Marine officers, traveled along the East Coast to follow some of the nation's most important and inspiring Revolutionary War battles. The historical lens the team used was that of the (at-the-time) radical revolutionaries' insurgency in overthrowing the mightiest empire and military in the world, while comparing it to some of our country's other counterinsurgencies in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. 

The great paradox of the American Revolution is that the Continental Army won relatively few battles yet ultimately prevailed in the war. Viewing much of the war as a colonial insurgency helped explain much of the paradox. It also helped the group better understand U.S. military history while developing themselves within the military profession. 

From Boston, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Trenton, to the Southern partisan campaign in South Carolina, to the final battle of Yorktown, this group of young midshipmen patriots learned first-hand the daring exploits of General Washington and his inspiring leadership through the harrowing years of the country's first war. The trip's final stop was the Maryland State House in Annapolis where Washington resigned his commission and delivered an emotional speech, in which he saluted the bonds of fellowship that had sustained him and his soldiers over the course of the war. The group finished with a final lunch at Middleton Tavern, where Washington himself once drank ale, Huzzah!

"We discovered that the Delaware crossing on Christmas 1776 was not only a testament to the leadership of George Washington, but more importantly to the determination and courage of the colonial soldiers to press on in the most dire circumstances." - Zach Genereaux, Class of 2022

Read the article, "GEN Washington: An Insurgent We Admire"