This week’s episode from Hero Tales is the remarkable story of how George Rogers Clark and a few dozen backwoodsmen captured the Northwest Territory from the British during the Revolutionary War.  Theodore Roosevelt relates how Clark led his men through the icy floodwaters of the Wabash River to surprise the British outpost of Vincennes, among other outstanding acts of courage, persistence, and self-sacrifice.  Without this campaign, the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin might be part of Quebec to this day!

One of my favorite Founders is George Washington. There’s a whole mythology that sprung up around him, sure, but the reality is just as fascinating and more edifying. Two excellent biographies I’ve enjoyed are Joseph P. Ellis’ His Excellency, George Washington and Richard Brookhiser’s Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington.  He really was a man of strong personal character, overcoming defeat, discouragement, anger and temptation, and becoming the absolutely indispensible man of the Revolution and the years that followed.

Henry Cabot Lodge wrote the chapter on Washington for Hero Tales from American History.  We’re continuing our reading of this book in this week’s podcast, and you get it pretty much as I read it to our children — but with some sound effects added for fun.  You can download it right here!

(Fun Fact:  Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, was saved from bankruptcy when Washington donated $20,000 in canal stock to the tiny school.  Even today, part of the tuition bill for every W&L student is paid from interest on Washington’s original legacy!)