08/11/2026
On August 11, 1776, George Washington did the unexpected, and it proves why he was the only man who could lead the Revolution.
Facing the largest invasion fleet ever assembled outside of Europe, a severe lack of prepared soldiers, and growing worry over when the attack in New York would begin, Washington had plenty of reason to be focused on much larger concerns. Instead, he wrote two letters.
Quiet days like this are when we see the “Father of Our Country” truly shine. His letter to Rufus Putnam, a brand-new colonel with a nearly impossible job, is a great example of Washington’s level head in the face of crisis. He wrote to Putnam on the 11th, “no delays that can possibly be avoided can happen.”
Putnam’s task: sink enough obstructions in the Hudson to slow a fleet nobody can outgun. Washington’s letter doesn’t waste a word on the odds, he makes clear that the job must get done. As a postscript, he shares good news. Congress sent two French engineers to help Putnam out. Washington may have been drowning in a crisis he couldn’t fix, but he still ran down every resource that might help, however small.
The second August 11th letter shows Washington’s incredible integrity. Days earlier, he’d had ordered suspected Loyalists in Queens County arrested and shipped out of the colony. Among them were two brothers who’d funneled £4,000 in gold to the British war effort. He had every reason, and every excuse, to let that arrest turn into something rougher.
Instead he wrote to the county committee that it “would give me much pain” if his orders were read as license to touch their property. That question, he wrote, rested entirely with the province’s civil authority. Not with him, and not with his army.
Nobody forced that letter out of him. He had the power in his hand to ensure retribution on men who had betrayed the United States. Instead, Washington advocated for restraint.
August 11th, 1776 holds no battles and no grand scenes. Just two letters, both carrying the same quiet proof that George Washington was the right man for the moment. In a city bracing for invasion, he pushed his engineers to move faster and, in the same breath, insisted that wartime necessity
