Bannon's War Room - Episode 5022： WarRoom Christmas Day Special 2025

00:00:00.000 O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransomed captive Israel, that mourns in all the exile here, until the Son of God appears.

00:00:26.260 Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel, whom thou shalt come to thee, O it is the Lamb.

00:00:46.260 O come, O come, O day of spring, come, and cheer us here, it's by thy advent here.

00:01:00.260 Disperse the gloomy clouds of night.

00:01:05.260 Okay, welcome. It's Thursday, 25 December, the year of our Lord, 2025. It's Christmas Day. Christmas morning, in fact.

00:01:15.960 I want to welcome everybody here to the War Room.

00:01:19.280 We've got our traditional, I guess we've been doing it for a dozen years now, over at Breitbart Radio and Breitbart Radio News and the War Room with Patrick O'Donnell.

00:01:31.460 It's the combat history of Christmas. We're going to get to Patrick in just a moment.

00:01:35.980 Trevor Comstock. It's a day people spend with family a couple of days.

00:01:40.980 You know, you've got Boxing Day tomorrow. We have Raheem do Boxing Day, as we always do.

00:01:44.220 Another tradition of the War Room. So Raheem Kassam does Boxing Day. 0.54

00:01:49.200 We'll be back for the Saturday morning show.

00:01:52.880 Trevor, so people, you know, on Christmas Day, able to kind of step back, catch their breath, spend time with family.

00:02:02.640 I've been such a big supporter of what you guys are doing at Sacred Human Health.

00:02:07.460 Talk to me about what you guys have been working on and where people over the next couple of days can go

00:02:12.820 and get some more information to really, you know, take care of the most important thing, your family, yourself, but also your health, sir.

00:02:22.880 Yeah, great to see you, Steve. Merry Christmas and Merry Christmas to the War Room Posse.

00:02:27.760 A couple of things I wanted to mention. Number one, we are rolling out a new product very soon here.

00:02:32.080 We had to make a couple of changes to the label, but it's basically finalized at this point.

00:02:36.420 So I'm excited to talk about that. But also, I just wanted to mention that we ran our Christmas sale last week just so people could get their orders in time for today.

00:02:46.720 But with that said, too, we are going to extend it all the way through today and tomorrow.

00:02:51.840 So just make sure to use code CHRISTMAS at checkout for 20% off any one-time order.

00:02:57.280 I wanted to mention that before I forget.

00:02:58.720 And then with that, too, you know, our tallow moisturizer has, since we launched, been extremely popular, as I mentioned, quite a few times.

00:03:07.580 And we continue to sell out. We did recently sell out, but I wanted to say that we are now back in stock.

00:03:13.480 We have our team working around the clock to make sure that orders are being fulfilled.

00:03:17.600 So for those who don't know as well, because we still get a lot of questions around it,

00:03:22.080 the tallow moisturizer is handmade with the two ingredients, which is the 100% American grass-fed and finished beef tallow.

00:03:28.180 And then we pair it with the raw manuka honey. So that's it. There's no preservatives in it.

00:03:33.180 There's no seed oils or synthetic junk. And the tallow is pretty remarkable just because it's almost identical to the natural oils that your skin produces.

00:03:41.420 So it absorbs much more deeply as opposed to just sitting on top of your skin, which unfortunately is the case with a lot of other skin care products on the market.

00:03:48.920 And then to take it a step further, it's also loaded with vitamins like vitamin A, D, E, as well as K, which your skin essentially needs to stay healthy and radiant.

00:03:57.120 So that alone makes it a pretty powerful product.

00:04:01.140 But also one of the questions we get asked a lot is just, you know, who it's intended for.

00:04:05.180 It is intended for both men and women. I use it every day. Obviously, I love it.

00:04:10.020 But it works great in scenarios for things like dry skin.

00:04:12.700 Also, if you have like eczema or a little bit of skin irritation, redness, as well as just daily skin hydration.

00:04:19.340 And again, you can use it pretty much anywhere, you know, your face, your hands, your body, your neck, pretty much anywhere where you want to use it.

00:04:26.920 And then we pair it with the raw manuka honey, which is a naturally occurring antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and healing property.

00:04:33.900 So like I said, it's amazing if you have a little bit of seborrhea or redness on your skin or even eczema.

00:04:39.580 It brings that down a lot. We've had a lot of great reviews for people that use it for that intention.

00:04:44.880 But again, if you do want to compare it to your standard skin cream or product, oftentimes, you know, if you see products on Amazon or Walgreens, those can be beneficial in their own right.

00:04:55.360 But more oftentimes than not, they just contain a ton of synthetic and artificial ingredients as well as chemicals that can damage your skin barrier over time.

00:05:03.240 So we just wanted to give the raw natural ingredients that actually work to nourish your skin.

00:05:08.520 And again, it has those great anti-inflammatory properties as well.

00:05:11.840 So it's a pretty powerful product. The reviews and the feedback we've been getting has been amazing.

00:05:17.000 I'm really happy about that product. And as I had mentioned, too, we got something really unique coming out soon here, which I'm excited to talk about.

00:05:23.940 But I just want to touch on the tallow with the time that I had.

00:05:27.360 Yeah. By the way, the reviews, that's where I want everybody to go to the site, spend time over the holiday weekend all the way through.

00:05:36.960 You know, we got four days here is to make sure people get access to the information and also read the reviews.

00:05:44.120 The strength of the whether it's Warpath Coffee or Sacred Human Health or Meriwether or I know we tell people, put a review up.

00:05:51.520 Tell us what you really think. And then we share it with we share it with the war and posse.

00:05:55.940 But it's the reviews that that that sell these products, because people go to the site, they see the information and then they see the reviews.

00:06:02.360 It's just it absolutely just just blows them away. So one more time, where do where do folks go?

00:06:07.360 Where do folks go, Trevor? Yeah, definitely.

00:06:09.980 So you can go to sacredhumanhealth.com. And as I had mentioned through today and tomorrow, you can just use code Christmas at checkout for 20 percent off any one time order.

00:06:19.220 If you do subscribe, you're locked into the 10 percent discount for life until you cancel.

00:06:23.560 But like you mentioned, Steve, feel free to check out the reviews.

00:06:26.420 There's a ton of them and a lot of feedback from the War Room Posse specifically.

00:06:32.360 Thank you, brother. I appreciate you. Merry Christmas. Thanks for doing this this morning.

00:06:37.280 Yep. Merry Christmas.

00:06:38.780 And a Merry Christmas and a Merry Christmas to you, the audience every year.

00:06:43.480 Patrick O'Donnell, how many we've been doing this for, what, 12 years?

00:06:48.240 Because it started at Breitbart.

00:06:49.300 At least, Steve, I think it's longer to go into that because I think it's longer than that.

00:06:52.920 I think it's 2010 or 11 that it started.

00:06:56.240 Sophia, yeah, so 15 years. Had all blends together, right? 15 years.

00:07:00.360 It does. We did it on Breitbart News Radio and then we carried it over into the War Room.

00:07:05.940 And so it's been a real tradition, the combat history.

00:07:07.960 Chris, and what we try to accomplish here to show you that in really the most sacred time of the year,

00:07:12.660 one of the most sacred times besides Easter, when families are coming together and something so family oriented

00:07:17.820 that there are Americans that are patriots that have had to sacrifice the ultimate during those times

00:07:23.820 and that the conflict, kinetic activity does not stop, you know, just does not stop because of the Christmas season.

00:07:32.660 In fact, sometimes it intensifies and we've got some amazing examples you use.

00:07:37.320 You know, Ken Burns came out with the American Revolution and I don't think it had as large an audience as the Civil War or others.

00:07:47.460 I think Civil War is the one I kind of hold it up to.

00:07:49.880 And I think part of the reason is that they didn't really market to MAGA.

00:07:54.560 I think they went out of the way, PBS went out of the way.

00:07:56.900 I mean, they went on a couple of bro podcasts, but that's a misconception the media has that that gets to MAGA.

00:08:02.620 It gets to some young people, right, which is great, but they didn't really go and make an effort on the MAGA media.

00:08:10.280 And I realize it's controversial.

00:08:12.000 You know, historians like yourself, particularly people that are focused on the era,

00:08:17.000 have a lot of questions about some of the accuracy of it, some of the technical details.

00:08:22.960 And I know how busy you are going around the country with your books.

00:08:26.360 So I thought about you right away because two of your books are absolutely, to me, central,

00:08:31.180 particularly the first part of it, which is what we'll talk about now, the beginning of the war

00:08:38.700 and probably the most intense, concentrated part of the combat, which is from, I guess, late August all the way to Christmas Day

00:08:45.620 and shortly thereafter in the first year, or I guess the second year of the war, but the first year of our independence.

00:08:51.460 Have you had a chance to, have you had a chance to, because I know you had a bunch of buddies that worked on it.

00:08:56.920 Have you had a chance to see it?

00:09:00.080 Only the first episode, Steve.

00:09:02.500 And I was a huge fan of the Civil War and this just didn't grab me.

00:09:08.740 It didn't grab you as much.

00:09:10.420 So let's talk about that.

00:09:12.060 The first episode, I think the first and second episode really focused a lot on about what we traditionally talk about.

00:09:20.860 And here's what I think, at least I think they accomplished one thing, is that we keep trying to tell people that there was a war going on.

00:09:29.800 A war had commenced before politically we actually got organized enough to declare war.

00:09:36.760 I mean, the Declaration of Independence is essentially telling an empire and a king that we, this is your bill of indictment.

00:09:46.900 We find you wanting, and we're declaring independence from that.

00:09:50.460 And that is essentially, yes, it is a declaration of independence, but the way we're going to do this is that we understand we're going to have to fight for it because we have been really engaged in combat since over a year beforehand, which is April of 1775.

00:10:09.100 And you had both Lexington and Concord, and then you had, you had Bunker Hill.

00:10:16.100 Do you, in that respect, I think they did a pretty good job, at least in bringing that out, that this was a continuity.

00:10:22.820 You actually had conflict on top of a political crisis.

00:10:25.940 Because the way I see the revolution, maybe you differ, I'd love to hear your opinion, is that it came in three phases.

00:10:34.080 Number one was the American Revolution itself.

00:10:37.000 The American Revolution was not really the combat or the fighting.

00:10:41.140 The American Revolution was that 20 years that led up to the American people deciding that institutionally, and as a people, we had to have our own sovereignty, we would break off from the British Empire.

00:10:51.180 The second part of that, the War of Independence, was an actual war, because Britain wasn't just letting us wander away.

00:10:58.500 We actually had a conflict that took, what, about eight years to actually decide on the battlefield how that, you know, which direction that was going to go.

00:11:07.680 And then the third part, which I call the nation building, and my belief is that went all the way up to the Battle of New Orleans in 1850,

00:11:15.280 that the British finally threw in the towel and said, okay, I guess we're not going to stop these guys from being independent.

00:11:21.180 But give us your perspective.

00:11:23.860 We've got a couple of minutes here in the first block.

00:11:25.820 Your perspective of that very first part and leads us to the Christmas at the Christmas on the shores of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, sir.

00:11:37.120 This is the most, you know, the American Revolution is probably the most significant event other than the birth of Christ and life of Christ.

00:11:46.320 It's an immensely important event.

00:11:50.540 And as you state accurately, the war itself is only part of it.

00:11:57.060 And the actual revolution begins much earlier with the Stamp Act and other things.

00:12:05.620 But there's a series of things and grievances that cause the colonists to break from Great Britain.

00:12:18.100 And, I mean, there's a lot that I get into with the Indispensables, for instance, which is one group of Americans that are up in Marblehead.

00:12:26.220 And their great grievance is they're fishermen, but they're being taxed to death.

00:12:33.180 And most importantly, from their perspective, their boats are being seized, or actually their boats are being boarded.

00:12:41.120 And men are being taken aboard and kidnapped and basically put into the Royal Navy against their will.

00:12:48.620 This is called impressment.

00:12:49.780 And this is a major grievance that takes place.

00:12:54.740 A major event, you know, within this, there are a number of atrocities that really magnify the American Revolution.

00:13:07.640 And, you know, these, the impressment issue is one.

00:13:11.180 There's the Boston Massacre as another.

00:13:14.180 And then things accelerate.

00:13:16.040 And in 1773 and 74, there is a true revolution of ideas that are, at the time, groundbreaking, Steve.

00:13:28.280 I mean, we're talking about the idea of freedom and liberty, which they base, you know, they look at John Locke's theories, but they also bring in ancient Greece and other things.

00:13:39.580 And an American version of freedom and liberty kind of emerges at this point.

00:13:47.260 One thing that is extremely significant that was not brought out was the importance of gunpowder.

00:13:55.060 And what I mean by that is disarmament.

00:13:56.800 And you can be, you know, you can have all the revolutionary ideas that you want, but if you were defenseless against a major empire like the crown, every revolution, every uprising, which occurred prior to 1775, was crushed by the crown.

00:14:18.920 And they saw an opportunity to basically disable or defang the revolution by seizing gunpowder supplies.

00:14:29.020 And that is a very, very important point.

00:14:31.340 Hang on.

00:14:32.580 We're going to talk about how Lixing and Concord was about gunpowder.

00:14:36.700 We're going to take a short commercial break.

00:14:37.840 The greatest combat historian of his generation, Patrick K. O'Donnell, joins us for, I don't know what, the 15th annual, The Combat History of Christmas.

00:14:49.140 Short commercial break.

00:14:50.000 Back in the morning.

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00:16:33.500 To the War Rooms, the Combat History of Christmas.

00:16:36.100 Patrick, I want to put up for the audience, I want to put up the two books, because you wrote, you went in, in the combination of The Indispensables and Washington's Immortals, two books, both huge bestsellers.

00:16:55.000 How many years in research and writing, if I, because you did those, I think, back to back.

00:16:59.980 If I have to take Patrick K. O'Donnell's life and the segment of the life of what you did in both in research and the construction of the book and then the writing of the book, how long was it?

00:17:13.980 It was a long, it was a long period.

00:17:16.000 I started Washington, The Mortals in 2010, and that was published in 2015.

00:17:24.840 So it was a good, maybe it was 2009.

00:17:27.560 It was a good six years before that book was, I should say it was 2016 that it came out, not 2015.

00:17:35.580 So it was a good six or seven years that I spent with Washington's Immortals. 0.99

00:17:40.880 It was a, it was a book that began with a tour that I took with my battalion commander, the Willie Buell, who was in Belusia with me in 3-1.

00:17:53.520 And he was, Council of Foreign Relations, he was the colonel that was there, one of their, the fellows.

00:18:02.680 And he said to me, you want to go to the Met?

00:18:04.220 I said, no, let's do a combat tour of the Battle of Brooklyn.

00:18:07.720 And, you know, it's, it was one of the coolest things is to be able to, to walk the ground of a, of a critical battle with somebody you had been in battle with, especially a man that really kind of understood history and tactics, strategy.

00:18:22.500 And we walked through, um, Greenwood Cemetery where the, the Rolling Hills are, you know, the site of some of New York's finest and most infamous, uh, characters.

00:18:33.660 But it was also a, uh, the, a great battle that took place.

00:18:37.440 The Battle of Brooklyn, um, begins at Greenwood Cemetery in the Heights.

00:18:42.080 And this, this is where Washington troops, um, initially are pinned down by the British as a massive flanking maneuver is going behind them, led by Cornwallis and Lord Howell and Clinton.

00:18:55.840 And, uh, you know, to their utter dismay and horror, they realize that they're being flanked.

00:19:00.220 And they pull back to a stone house or near it, many of the men, and they make a last stand, uh, an American thermopoly takes place here, which buys an hour more precious in history than any other, as one contemporary historian said.

00:19:17.260 And it's at this thermopoly that they prevented the junction of many wings of the British army and the Hessian forces from uniting and smashing the nascent revolution.

00:19:30.460 But hang on.

00:19:31.040 I just, what, what I want to do is get the, is get the, Washington Immortals for the audience took you six, seven years to both research and write.

00:19:42.720 And you got inspired by this, this combat tour you took with Willie, but people should remember you're going over the battlefield of one of the most important battles in the history of this country, because it almost stopped the history of this country.

00:19:54.940 And the first 90 days of this country's birth is, is now in modern Brooklyn, correct?

00:20:00.760 I mean, you're at Greenwood, Greenwood Cemetery is, a lot of people think that's the cemetery where the scene in the Godfather was taken.

00:20:08.140 I think that it was actually in Calvary Cemetery, but it was made to be Greenwood Cemetery where it has so many of the, so many of the, uh, of the guys, the mobsters, uh, are, are, are buried.

00:20:20.320 But you also have to go to downtown Brooklyn, but then go to the, Boss, Boss Tweed, the Indispensables, which I think you followed Washington's Immortals about the regiment from Maryland.

00:20:31.560 You followed that with the Indispensables, right? 0.99

00:20:33.620 About the, about the guys from Marblehead?

00:20:35.420 I wrote, uh, the unknowns in between that.

00:20:39.080 And that's my book on World War I.

00:20:41.600 And, uh, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, the body bearers that brought back the most, the most decorated men of the AEF.

00:20:47.360 But when Willie and I stopped near the stone house, we found an old rusted sign that said, here lie 256 Marylanders, Maryland heroes.

00:20:56.980 And these men, through their effort, they were the only unit, or one of the few units that had bayonets.

00:21:04.440 Their bayonets, the bayonets of the Revolution, the Immortal 400, or Washington's Immortals, make this epic stand.

00:21:11.020 But their mass grave is still yet to be found.

00:21:14.520 And it was there that I thought, well, this is an amazing mystery, an amazing story.

00:21:19.480 And, uh, sent the proposal in, along with a book called First Seals.

00:21:23.400 And my, uh, editor at the prior book said, we want you to write World War II history.

00:21:28.840 This book will never, you know, one of my worst books was on the Battle of Long Island.

00:21:33.120 I'll never, uh, do a book on this.

00:21:36.580 And a long story short, I have another editor, another publisher, and, uh, things are going great.

00:21:41.540 And that was one of, uh, a tremendously best-selling book.

00:21:45.580 But it was a miracle book in many ways.

00:21:47.480 It almost didn't happen.

00:21:49.580 If, if you took both of those together, Washington Immortals and the Indispensables, and combined them of the years of research, because you do primary research, you go back to the journals, you go back to the archives, and the writing of it, how, how big a hunk of your life did it take?

00:22:07.900 It was about 11 or 12 years, probably.

00:22:11.080 And each one of the books I write is a journey.

00:22:13.380 12 years for two books.

00:22:14.460 Yeah, I, I love to just, I love to journey to these places.

00:22:19.020 I visit them.

00:22:20.620 Um, I walk in their steps.

00:22:22.340 I go to their graves.

00:22:24.020 I, I, um, immerse myself in the history.

00:22:26.940 And I try to immerse myself in the story of the men that I write about, as well as their opponents.

00:22:32.260 So I try to tell as, as balance a story as I possibly can.

00:22:35.980 And I let them tell their own story in their own words.

00:22:39.160 So as you mentioned, Steve, primary sources, I don't have an agenda.

00:22:43.280 My only agenda is to tell the story and to put you there, uh, in their, their time, what it was like to be in the boots of, of the men that they, that were fighting this or being, that were fought against.

00:22:56.420 Or in some cases, it's also people on the home brunt that were, you know, waiting for their husbands to come home, dealing with, um, you know, massive starvation or not, you know, not having any money for years.

00:23:10.160 Or having people that are, you know, the, the untold story in many cases is these guys go off to war.

00:23:16.620 Nobody brings home the bacon, so to speak, and the creditors are still there waiting to be paid.

00:23:24.040 And, you know, many of their, these men, uh, you know, have their, their homes repossessed.

00:23:29.920 I mean, it's, it's a remarkable story of, of endurance.

00:23:33.720 It's, it's truly, you know, somebody that's interviewed thousands of World War II veterans.

00:23:37.780 I think this is our greatest generation.

00:23:39.680 And many of the World War II veterans I interview would say the same thing.

00:23:43.520 Let's go back.

00:23:46.320 I want to, we got a couple of minutes in this segment.

00:23:48.080 I want to tee up to get us to Christmas night, to actual Christmas day.

00:23:52.760 But I, people are now just, and I think after we've been talking about this, putting it together, because everything you see on the 4th of July is about the Declaration of Independence.

00:24:04.560 Folks, the lawyers creating that incident, it's an amazing document.

00:24:08.240 It's a fantastic document.

00:24:09.420 But it is a declaration of war.

00:24:11.220 It is a bill of indictment against a king, uh, that has led his colony, his, his countrymen to basically say, we're breaking off.

00:24:20.080 We're going to be independent.

00:24:21.100 We're not going to have some sort of partnership.

00:24:22.760 We're not going to have a part of parliament here.

00:24:24.120 We're going to be independent.

00:24:25.620 Um, but that immediately kicks off or takes up to the next level, a war that's been going on for over a year, but Lexington and Concord and at, uh, in a Boston at Bunker Hill.

00:24:35.900 The very day that it's signed or right afterwards, the largest armada, which has kind of come from Nova Scotia because the British really did retreat for a while to see how this thing would play out.

00:24:45.780 It comes into New York Harbor.

00:24:47.640 Just explain to folks the scale and immensity of the British had no intention of letting this thing go.

00:24:54.540 I mean, they basically put together the largest, uh, military expedition, I think in mankind's, in mankind's history, there've been other larger, maybe back in ancient times, but for modern times, because the Spanish armada never really landed.

00:25:10.340 This was one, and it was going to, it was there to, to deliver a death blow to this Republic in the first hundred days of its life.

00:25:18.520 Just tell me about the scale of what landed at Staten Island and really went to battle in Long Island.

00:25:25.360 What I will say before that and before the Revolutionary War is something that is immensely important that I brought out in the Indispensibles, and that is something called the Articles of Association.

00:25:36.740 And this is, this is an obscure document that nobody hears about or thinks about, but it's in the fall of 1775, and it declares war, economic war, against Great Britain.

00:25:49.220 It basically boycotts their goods, and we won't ship anything in or export to them.

00:25:55.460 This is a seminal document that unites the colonies as well.

00:26:00.120 It's not so much a path to revolution, but it's a path to being united against a common front, which is the greatest economic power and one of the greatest military powers at the time.

00:26:13.060 And it's a, uh, incredibly important document.

00:26:16.160 It also covers dependency, and the colonists realized that if they were dependent on British goods, or dependent on gunpowder, or whatever, that they would, they would not have freedom.

00:26:29.180 And that rings true today as much as ever.

00:26:33.260 Dependency is a very important thing to avoid.

00:26:38.340 As you mentioned, though, Steve, in 1776, they pull up with two-thirds of the British fleet to Long Island.

00:26:48.700 Most of their army, about 65% to 70%, as well as over 10,000 Hessian members or allies that they hire to crush the rebellion.

00:27:03.860 It's a show of force.

00:27:05.580 They are there to destroy and crush the rebellion.

00:27:08.760 Initially, first, they try to negotiate, but Washington and his lieutenants and battle captains realized that Laura Howe really has no authority to actually have, to hear their grievances or to recognize the independence of the United States.

00:27:25.860 This is, uh, and we're going to take a short commercial break here in a moment.

00:27:32.660 This force, which is, you know, the, the institution of the Royal Navy is amazing.

00:27:38.020 It's really helped create the British Empire.

00:27:40.160 It's one of the greatest institutions ever created by man, uh, for a time.

00:27:44.140 And the British Army, which was pound for pound, as tough as any professional army, plus, uh, 10,000 mercenaries.

00:27:52.520 And the, and the Hessians had a thing in the mind of the colonists that these guys were almost like monsters.

00:27:57.800 They were, they were, couldn't be defeated.

00:28:00.000 Their size, their, their equipment, they actually had helmets that made them look even bigger than they were.

00:28:05.240 That was all coiled to strike a blow to destroy the Continental Army and the militias around it and really end American independence, the independence movement.

00:28:14.140 In a, uh, in a, in a hammer blow in the first hundred days of our existence.

00:28:18.720 We're going to talk about that and how it led in a retreat all the way back to Pennsylvania and president and then general Washington ready to strike back on Christmas night.

00:28:28.660 Short commercial break back in a moment.

00:28:44.140 Talking 결국

00:28:46.220 Welcome back.

00:28:53.180 Patrick Cardell is with us.

00:28:55.000 Christmas

00:28:55.780 1776.

00:28:59.860 The beginning of Republic and almost the end of it.

00:29:02.880 So Patrick, take a couple of minutes and walk through the,

00:29:06.460 because the concept of uh the concept of washington at least was i hate i have to keep

00:29:14.060 this army intact if we lose the institution of the continental army uh no matter how small it is

00:29:20.980 uh the revolution's over it's just all it's finished right that's the one institution we've

00:29:25.300 got and he kind of took it over right after bunker hill when the continental congress realized you

00:29:30.780 needed virginia all in on this it couldn't just be new england or just couldn't be massachusetts

00:29:35.260 people should understand too the british army on the assault on on breeds hill and bunker hill it

00:29:42.260 was some of the toughest fighting that the british had ever seen in fact i think my understanding is

00:29:46.540 that the casualty rates of the british army on the day of the assault of breeds hill uh were higher

00:29:53.840 they didn't they did not lose on a ratio as many men until the first day of the psalm in world war

00:30:00.020 one which is still i think the most horrific day of combat in in any war um the so the british knew

00:30:07.020 we were tough hombres particularly from entrenched positions walk me through the catastrophic

00:30:12.380 defeat of the american army uh in at long island and brooklyn it's as you mentioned steve the um or

00:30:23.320 frame it bunker hill has a profound impact on lord howell's mind because he sees some of his best

00:30:30.540 um best lieutenant's captains that he is fighting with killed right in front of him uh as they are

00:30:37.900 attacking bunker hill if it hadn't been a shortage of gunpowder the um the americans may have very well

00:30:46.900 held the hill uh but they run out of gunpowder and they're eventually overrun after mass after several

00:30:52.520 assaults but it's these massive casualties that really influences how in an attempt to preserve

00:30:59.860 his majesty's troops as well as the german allies that he has so he's trying to conduct blanking

00:31:06.740 maneuvers whenever possible and avoid another bunker hill or direct frontal assault um and this is where

00:31:14.820 the washington's immortals play the key role in the sense it buys them you know important time and

00:31:21.660 then there's not not much daylight left to assault the fortifications that are the american fortifications

00:31:28.340 at brooklyn heights um had you know how done that it's very possible that they might have carried the day

00:31:35.960 um you know and and basically crushed the rebellion there was about 10 000 troops that were in brooklyn

00:31:43.500 and and then oh by the way in in in in in at the stone house at the thermopoly because you had the

00:31:50.460 american thermopoly right there with this regiment from maryland they bought them time but just so

00:31:55.460 people understand still the line at brooklyn hill was being pushed back your back is to the water

00:32:00.400 those are familiar with new york understand brooklyn particularly the palisades which is where

00:32:04.880 brooklyn heights where i used to live when i was at goldman right after right after harvard

00:32:08.640 the magnificent part of town to live you look over to manhattan to lower manhattan to wall street is

00:32:14.200 all these 70 and 80 story buildings today that body of water uh the east the east river the the american

00:32:21.680 army was backed up there was no brooklyn there's no brooklyn bridge at the time there's no way to get

00:32:26.480 off there's no way to get off the uh the i the the long island which ends right there in brooklyn there's

00:32:32.940 no way to get off so they they bought time to regroup but when you say regroup your back is

00:32:38.860 right there to a body of water and you've got the rural navy sitting right there the most powerful navy

00:32:44.220 in the world is anchored right off the battery and law and lower manhattan correct indeed and this is

00:32:50.880 where just some miraculous things take place there's a massive nor'easter that pelts both armies

00:32:56.120 and it keeps uh i mean the british lines keep they use a siege tactic which is popular in the day and

00:33:04.420 they keep advancing their trench line closer and closer to the fortifications but there's massive

00:33:10.900 amounts of rain coming down uh pelting both armies uh and it's here that if the three chimneys it's a

00:33:18.020 mansion in brooklyn heights that washington decides he you know he he talks to his his uh you know his

00:33:26.560 top officers and says should we fight or should we flee and he wisely decides to to flee but it's it's

00:33:35.180 not it's a very tough decision because a you know you you've got to cross a mile long uh east river

00:33:42.640 with the the british the royal navy right at your back potentially uh and and then you've got a

00:33:50.500 massive juggernaut of over 25 000 british and hessian troops that are about to pounce on your position 0.70

00:33:57.900 and it all has to be done you know secretly and it all has to be done with you know gathering um

00:34:05.780 hundreds of small boats it's it's the american dunker and it falls upon the shoulders largely of

00:34:12.400 john glover and the marblehead regiment who i write about in the indispensables and they organized

00:34:18.340 with with only hours of time one of the greatest evacuations in military history right under the

00:34:25.600 noses of you know a massive royal navy in the east river as well as this massive juggernaut in front of

00:34:33.020 them and here you know one of the great miracles in american history and world history takes place

00:34:39.440 the the fog the providential fog comes at exactly the right time as dawn comes in the rays of dawn

00:34:46.620 illuminate the east river and illuminate potentially the operation to evacuate the american the glover's

00:34:54.820 desperately trying to pull off they go back almost a dozen times you know with these small boats to

00:35:00.820 bring off the wounded to bring off the equipment and the men and dawn comes in the fog then screens

00:35:07.300 the remaining boats as they they escape and bring off nearly everybody one of the greatest isn't it

00:35:13.860 almost provident isn't almost providential so many of the things that happen that coincidence that

00:35:19.960 that you can even get this army and particularly with a with no real vessels i mean they kind of put

00:35:26.400 this together the last this is a hundred times more improbable than dunkirk correct with dunkirk

00:35:33.260 they were sending sailboats over and little motorboats and pleasure boats here you've got

00:35:37.600 these uh the marblehead men and a handful of boats and you got to do it all night and if you don't

00:35:44.400 extract this entire army it's the the war could be over right then and oh by the way the wind never

00:35:52.200 favored the royal navy to go up the east river behind the defenses and they would have if it did they

00:35:58.060 would have blown apart this small little fleet that john glover had that was bringing off the uh the

00:36:03.880 army the the 9 000 uh or plus men that were coming off uh you know at brooklyn it's an incredible story

00:36:11.980 of um so you're on you're you're on manhattan now and really from september i guess this is mid late

00:36:19.360 september all the way till i guess around early december mid december you're basically on one big

00:36:27.720 sweeping move manhattan across the hudson to new jersey and then all the way down and you're

00:36:34.560 fighting rear guard actions but you're never winning a battle right you're you're just trying

00:36:39.860 to stop your losses and really get the hell out of there it never collapses into a full route but

00:36:45.980 and that's one of the things i think what washington did that was so brilliant to keep an army intact when

00:36:50.360 you're just getting pummeled but the british are really feel like they're chasing a hound right now

00:36:56.120 correct what happens is they they land uh about two weeks after the battle of brooklyn this is

00:37:01.920 the evacuation takes place on the night of december 30th 29 30th they escape to to manhattan

00:37:09.240 and then there's a lull where there's no no no no not not hang on hang on hang on hang on hang on

00:37:14.460 not hang on hang on not december 30th no not december 19th you're i meant to say brooklyn in the uh

00:37:21.280 i i said september i believe i thought i thought i meant september september september uh middle of

00:37:27.100 september they land at murray hill in and around there and they attack manhattan and they uh the

00:37:36.340 army disappears basically again and uh you know there's washington is horrified it's only the the

00:37:43.520 marylanders what's left of them and the marblehead troops and some others that stand and fight but much

00:37:49.200 of the army is is uh it flees and they make their way towards the harlem heights where they have

00:37:56.440 another defensive line and and there is one glimmer of hope at the battle of harlem heights where

00:38:03.040 elite british troops the um their light infantry moves out and it's here that uh american riflemen

00:38:13.120 basically uh surprise these british troops in the battle of harlem heights is an american victory

00:38:20.860 a small victory against these you know the umpires some of their best troops but after that it's just

00:38:27.720 pretty much one defeat after another and um you know there's some the the uh the british have a

00:38:36.920 a massive advantage in the fact that their fleet can land anywhere and and washington has to defend

00:38:42.980 the indefensible which is manhattan which can be pretty much attacked from any point and uh there's

00:38:50.560 another amphibious landing where uh you know it's it's it's october it's roughly around the middle of

00:38:58.560 october and a small group of riflemen uh under edward hand about 25 men are behind a log pile

00:39:06.960 and they're able to repel much of the invasion force um and it's a it's a bright spot because

00:39:14.640 they land in an area that's actually kind of an island the british land in an island area that that

00:39:20.520 floods during high tide and so they're sort of separated from the mainland and then they're being

00:39:25.880 picked off by by washington's riflemen and then they decide to land a few days later uh at another

00:39:34.060 point and uh you know it's john glover that has as a an important role as a rear guard uh along with

00:39:43.000 his brigade and they they retreat to white plains and uh there's another um epic of epic battle and

00:39:51.640 it's here that the hessians play a key role under johan roll uh and it leads to another tremendous

00:39:59.600 defeat which is uh at the at the battle of fort washington where nearly 3 000 americans are captured

00:40:07.100 by um the hessians and most of it is as a result of of a traitor within the fort the abjent

00:40:15.980 uh leaves about a week before the battle begins with the plans of the fort the dispositions of

00:40:22.180 where everybody is actually located and they know where the weak spots are and the hessians once again 1.00

00:40:28.140 lead the assault under johan roll they pierce the defenses at fort washington and uh you know

00:40:35.400 nearly 3 000 americans are are captured or killed

00:40:39.800 wow and so then um the the decision is made to uh the decision is made to get out of new jersey as

00:40:51.640 quickly uh as possible and to get across the delaware to pennsylvania how does that go

00:40:57.180 this is the situation where um you know these are the times that try men's souls as they say

00:41:04.560 this is thomas paine's famous famous uh you know treatment this is where everything is going wrong

00:41:12.660 and it's it's really initially decided by the british themselves they attack fort lee they cross over

00:41:18.900 the hudson river they seize fort lee very quickly and uh you know washington is absolutely alarmed

00:41:25.400 they they need to quickly uh you know evade the british as quickly as possible and they're they're

00:41:33.220 basically moving the army as fast as they can across new jersey to the safety or at least the

00:41:39.420 perceived safety of the delaware river but most importantly there are friendly farmers in

00:41:44.780 pennsylvania that can feed the continental army which is yes you know it starts at about 20 000 men and

00:41:51.120 it's it's going down quickly in numbers to four to five four to five thousand crossing new jersey

00:41:57.240 hang on hang on hang on one second we'll come back we're going to talk about how those four or

00:42:03.100 five thousand the hardcores uh actually survived got back across the river on christmas

00:42:07.760 to uh deliver a hammer blow short commercial break back in a moment

00:42:12.500 for tis christmas time and we travel far and near may god bless you and send you a happy new year

00:42:29.100 combat history christmas here in the war room christmas morning the tradition that we

00:42:40.840 do every year so the army which kind of had a lot of volunteers come to it at cambridge after a bunker

00:42:49.000 hill um and then uh moved down to uh to new york to defend make sure new york was looked at as the

00:42:56.900 place you had to defend because they're going to try to cut the the young american um the united

00:43:02.960 colonies i guess we were at the time in half by using the hudson river to hive off new england from

00:43:08.820 the mid-atlantic states uh by the time they do defeat after defeat after defeat and they get to

00:43:15.340 the banks of the delaware river and have to then extricate themselves into pennsylvania so they can get fed

00:43:21.840 the pressure on washington from the continental congress i mean he was a renowned uh military

00:43:30.280 leader during the french and indian wars he was from virginia he was the head of the virginia militia

00:43:35.340 uh a renowned an imposing figure renowned uh personages from uh from uh virginia but you had had

00:43:45.020 for the last ever since uh august you'd had nothing really but defeats what kind of pressure was he

00:43:51.300 getting from philadelphia he was getting enormous pressure and his rivals were uh basically chomping

00:43:59.460 at the bit and then working behind the scenes to to get rid of him basically uh and he had a number

00:44:05.060 of them uh and and one of his rivals is uh he uh it's for it's i think it's in a sense uh fortuitous

00:44:15.040 from american historical perspective his greatest rival is is out there basically campaigning for

00:44:21.960 the job you know basically telling everybody how great he is and everything else and then he is

00:44:27.980 he is in new jersey he's not following orders from he's not really communicating with with

00:44:34.560 washington himself and he is in a um this is this is this is general this is general this is general

00:44:41.000 this is general charles lee who's in an inn um and he is captured by um elements of of dragoons led by

00:44:51.340 banister tarleton tarleton and others and he's brought out of uh out of the inn in his bedclothes

00:44:58.900 and then um you know he's basically he's castured away what's what's interesting we don't know we didn't

00:45:05.760 find this out until later on is that he basically he freely talks to the british high command about how

00:45:12.980 how they can beat washington and the continental army um but eventually he is he's freed in a

00:45:21.740 prisoner exchange and given another chance uh and doesn't do very well uh at the battle of monmouth

00:45:28.200 i mean you talk about divine province it's a it's a plus though that he's captured because

00:45:35.060 i'm sorry i didn't mean to talk no but that's that's that's that's no no no that's also

00:45:40.500 providential right i mean the rival and he's poisonous because he he's sending he's sending

00:45:46.140 direct letters back to uh members of the uh of the continental congress uh some of them who are not

00:45:52.900 exactly excited that a virginian is leading this effort right they may think maybe a someone from new

00:45:58.280 england is more as ready for the fight and and people have to understand you're getting pounded you

00:46:03.620 haven't come close to a victory or close to holding your ground not understanding the strategy is that

00:46:09.500 the whole purpose is to just keep the army to keep the army intact keep the army in being it's poisonous

00:46:14.940 and then he's captured because he kind of goes into an inn he's a little arrogant they don't put up the

00:46:20.040 pickets etc he's captured by the british and so the ones at the time other rivals come up later but at the

00:46:26.900 time when they could have possibly switched out uh away from general washington his number one rival

00:46:33.380 is captured by captured by the british and kind of taken off the battlefield right that's about as

00:46:39.040 providential as the uh as the fog coming in it is it is steve and i mean this is a situation people

00:46:46.460 have to understand that this is our first civil war not everybody was on board with the american

00:46:53.320 revolution i mean the the classic breakdown is you have a third that were patriots you know a third

00:46:59.800 that were loyalists that were loyal to the crown and a third that were undecided and then what you

00:47:04.720 see in my book uh washington's immortals where i really cover the eight year span of the american

00:47:12.000 revolution where none of it is is you is can be decided because what's the important thing right

00:47:18.820 it's as you say it's the it's keep the army intact a insurgency that has the support of the population

00:47:28.840 is almost impossible to defeat that's something that we've learned you know throughout the 20th

00:47:35.940 century in particular this is the situation where they knew they didn't necessarily have to win

00:47:41.900 they just needed to survive and washington was brilliant at this he was brilliant at prudence

00:47:48.700 and not attacking when he knew that he didn't have the odds he also was brilliant in his alliance

00:47:55.300 buildings with foreign powers but also within you know this very much divided united states in 1776

00:48:05.440 um take us we got about a minute before we go to break minute and a half before we go to break

00:48:12.880 getting across the delaware you're now back to bologna new jersey they realize they've got to get into

00:48:18.160 pennsylvania to basically restock and get fed uh how do the marble men get them across the delaware

00:48:25.180 river not to come back later and attack but actually to extract this army because it's down to

00:48:30.020 three four five thousand men if you don't extract it the war is over right then how do they do it

00:48:35.200 this is the situation steve where the the army is falling apart you know one of my favorite quotes

00:48:42.380 is about one of the men sees his brother and doesn't even recognize him because he's in complete

00:48:47.860 tatters shoeless his face is filled with sores the army is disintegrating because of the enlistments are

00:48:55.760 expiring and washington has to strike and he strikes at the vulnerable hessian outpost under

00:49:02.780 yohan rawl at trenton the problem is there's a river in the way again and washington asks

00:49:09.620 lover if it's even possible to get across the delaware when it's raging a raging torrent like

00:49:15.680 don't worry my boys can handle it and they organized one of the greatest amphibious operations

00:49:21.840 in history and great turning points incredible okay we're going to take a short commercial break

00:49:28.740 they made a decision you know washington was very prudent and he knew about risk mitigation

00:49:35.580 but sometimes you get backed into a corner and you got to roll the iron dice the iron dice of war

00:49:41.560 that's what happened uh on christmas uh christmas night we're gonna take a short commercial break

00:49:46.520 the foremost combat historian of his generation patrick k o'donnell joins us on christmas morning

00:49:52.240 merry christmas i'm gonna leave you with some christmas music and be back in a moment

00:49:56.740 and let us all rejoice

00:50:03.740 on christmas day

00:50:05.740 on christmas day

00:50:11.740 on christmas day

00:50:16.740 and let us all rejoice

00:50:23.740 On Christmas Day in the morning.

Bannon's War Room - December 25, 2025

Episode 5022： WarRoom Christmas Day Special 2025

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