The Courage to Change the Plan

Today in Revolutionary War History — September 12, 1776

There is a particular kind of courage in reopening a question you thought you had settled. It means admitting that yesterday’s decision may no longer serve the people depending on you.

On September 12, 1776, George Washington and his generals faced that test. At a council of war in New York, they reconsidered their earlier decision to hold the city. The Revolution’s future depended on an army that could keep fighting—and holding its ground could put that army in danger.

The decision could change

The surviving council record, preserved in the Washington Papers and published by Founders Online, is strikingly spare. Washington read a letter from officers asking for reconsideration. Ten voted to reopen the earlier determination; three voted to adhere to it.

The document records a vote to reconsider. Its editors explain that this was apparently understood as approval to evacuate New York City. The council also agreed that 8,000 men were needed to defend Mount Washington and its dependencies. Leaving the city therefore did not mean abandoning every American position on Manhattan.

This followed the moment covered in “All My Bags Are Packed, I’m Ready to Go”: Congress had left the timing of evacuation to Washington’s judgment. September 12 brought a renewed military assessment of how to use that discretion.

An army was more than a position on a map

In his September 14 letter to John Hancock, Washington reported that the council’s majority considered removal necessary. He feared the British would get behind the Americans, sever their connection with the mainland, and leave them facing a dangerous breakout or eventual captivity as supplies ran short.

The same letter describes the difficulty of removing stores—and then turns to nurses. Their pay was too low to attract enough help. Sick soldiers were numerous, hard to move, and short of suitable places to receive care.

That detail holds my attention. The familiar portrait of command features a general studying a map. Here, command also meant worrying about who would tend the sick and where they would sleep. Strategy had to account for bodies, transport, supplies, and exhaustion.

The courage to reconsider

What I take from this day is a question about responsibility: when does loyalty to a decision begin to interfere with loyalty to its purpose?

We all know how a position can become personal. We defend a plan because we announced it. We stay with an approach because changing it would require an uncomfortable explanation. The longer we have argued for something, the harder it can become to examine it honestly.

A council of war does not offer a simple formula for those choices. Withdrawal carries risks of its own, and disagreement does not disappear because a majority votes. But September 12 gives us a useful example of leaders making room to reconsider while there was still something precious to preserve.

A decision deserves our commitment. It also deserves our continued attention.

Read the primary sources: Council of War, September 12, 1776, and Washington to Hancock, September 14, 1776, via the National Archives’ Founders Online. The reflections above are my interpretation of those documents.