Two hundred fifty years ago, a small, unlikely army of farmers, tradesmen, and citizen-soldiers stood up against the most powerful empire in the world — and won us the freedom we still live in today.
This July 4th, we remember the Continental Army who endured Valley Forge’s brutal winters, the Minutemen who answered the call at a moment’s notice, and the everyday patriots — men and women alike — who risked everything they had for an idea that had never been tried before: that people could
govern themselves.
And we remember how young so many of them were. History is full of teenage soldiers who never got the chance to grow old — boys as young as 13 and 14 carried muskets and drums into battle at places like Gettysburg less than a century later, giving everything before their lives had really begun. Freedom
has never been free, and it’s been paid for again and again by kids who should’ve still been kids.
250 years later, their sacrifice — young and old alike — is still the foundation everything else is built on. Grateful for their courage, and grateful to be an American today.
Happy 250th, USA.
