Not Rated | 30min | Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, TV Series | Episode aired 21 February 1961
During the American Revolution, Gen. George Washington is suddenly visited by visions that convince him the revolution will be successful. However, he is also troubled by visions that tell him there will be a great civil war that will occur after his death, and he doesn't know how to stop it.
Director: John Newland
Writers: Merwin Gerard, Lawrence B. Marcus
Stars: Robert Douglas, Richard Carlyle, Donald Buka
During the American Revolution, Gen. George Washington is suddenly visited by visions that convince him the revolution will be successful. However, he is also troubled by visions that tell him there will be a great civil war that will occur after his death, and he doesn't know how to stop it.
Director: John Newland
Writers: Merwin Gerard, Lawrence B. Marcus
Stars: Robert Douglas, Richard Carlyle, Donald Buka
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Come, you'll witness things strange, unexpected, mysterious, but not to be denied.
00:22Join me now and take one step beyond.
00:28Among the lives of all great men, history weaves romantic and colorful stories.
00:34Many are based on facts, and some are pure imagination.
00:39There are many wonderful stories told about the man who for one terrible and momentous
00:44winter occupied this house.
00:49But none is so little known or awe-inspiring as the events that took place here one evening.
00:57Our very existence, as well as our future, is largely dependent on that remarkable night
01:06of decision.
01:07Sure, sure, Gypsy, we'll all die sooner or later, but what about those supply wagons
01:12from Easton?
01:13Will they bring in good salt pork to fill our bellies?
01:18Fresh clothes to put on our backs?
01:24There will be no supply wagons.
01:28I see only hunger, suffering, and death.
01:36I see quite a bit of suffering for you too, Gypsy.
01:39You were told to stay out of camp.
01:41You and your ragtail friends with your tales of doom.
01:44Be careful, boys.
01:45Careful!
01:46They'll be coming after us through those trees.
01:49Take cover!
01:50Take cover!
01:52Oh, Molly.
01:55That's all right.
01:57I'll be back before spring clouds.
02:00What'll they do to me?
02:03Now wait.
02:05Valley Forge, December, 1777.
02:10The winter of despair was just beginning.
02:22Terrible.
02:25At last.
02:28Tom.
02:32The courier just returned from Easton, sir.
02:45I'm sorry, sir.
02:48I'm sorry.
02:51I'm sorry.
02:54I'm sorry.
02:57I'm sorry.
03:00I'm sorry.
03:08Was there something else, Lieutenant?
03:10No.
03:11No, sir.
03:23Who?
03:24Did they expect us to go on fighting without food and supplies?
03:29That is precisely the point, Colonel.
03:32I believe those supply wagons were deliberately canceled.
03:35Supplies are ample.
03:37But a large element in the Continental Congress would like us to give up.
03:41This is a form of persuasion.
03:43Persuasion?
03:46The British are tired of this war, too.
03:50Congress has been contacted by agents of the British
03:54with an offer that grants every one of our demands.
03:58And is Congress ready to settle for that?
04:01The good many gentlemen in the Congress are.
04:04In the face of it, sir, why do you go on?
04:07Are you ready to give up, Colonel?
04:22Down, Lee.
04:25What is that about?
04:28It's another one of those gypsies, sir.
04:30A fortune teller.
04:31This one told some of the men that the supply wagons will never arrive.
04:34By whose orders is he being flogged?
04:36Major Warren, sir.
04:37The order is countermanded.
04:39Sir.
04:47Certainly you don't put any credence in that sort of thing, Danforth.
04:50Well, no, sir, but...
04:52He could have learned about those wagons in a hundred different ways.
04:57General.
04:59This group that wants to quit.
05:02Just how important are they in Congress?
05:05Very important.
05:08They're still considerably in the minority, but...
05:11They're making themselves felt.
05:17They even asked me for support.
05:20You?
05:21You refused, of course.
05:23Oh, yes.
05:24Yes, I refused.
05:26But I don't know that I had the right.
05:29Sir?
05:30There are 12,000 men here in rags, Colonel.
05:33And starving.
05:35Shouldn't they be consulted about any settlement?
05:39500 of them die every month of disease and privation.
05:43There is little glory or satisfaction in that kind of death.
05:56But then, of course...
05:59There are the dead.
06:03I wonder how they would feel about our settling for anything less than they died for.
06:11I don't know which side of the question you favor, sir.
06:17To be honest, Colonel...
06:20At this moment, I do not know myself.
06:26I do not know myself.
06:56When will spring ever come?
07:04Oh, God.
07:07Do I have the right to decide the fate of so many?
07:13Of so much?
07:19Help me.
07:23Help me.
07:27Help me.
07:37Your God has come to your aid before.
07:40He will again.
07:46I am Otunga, Chief of Shawnee.
07:51Otungas.
07:5322 summers have come and gone since we met.
07:58Battle of Monongahela.
08:00Yes, of course.
08:03July, 1755.
08:06I was leading a detachment of Virginians under the command of General Braddock.
08:11Redcoats stood tall in sunlight like field of dry corn waiting for harvest night.
08:17Yes, it was a slaughter.
08:20We lost half the entire British Colonial Army that day.
08:24All British officers in field fell, dead or wounded, all but you, Washington.
08:32Yes, I remember well.
08:35Otungas fired at Washington again and again.
08:39Fifteen bullets at the heart.
08:42Not one found its mark.
08:45It has caused Otungas much wonder.
08:50I was very fortunate that day.
08:53Not fortunate.
08:56The Great Spirit protected Washington that day for good and great purpose.
09:04I wish I could believe that.
09:07Believe it.
09:09Believe it.
09:40October, 1945.
10:01We're going back to our farms where we can be of some good to somebody.
10:04You'll be shot down before you can get a hundred yards.
10:06Maybe, but it's better than slow starvation for a lost cause.
10:13We're going home, General.
10:15We found out the gypsy was right about those supply wagons, too.
10:19We're going home.
10:21I go.
10:22Go.
10:24If we have sunk to the level of animals turning one upon another,
10:27then perhaps our cause is already lost.
10:32They're coming through the trees!
10:36Ah-ha!
10:38I meant to get to the chickens sooner, only...
10:41Jason hurt his knee up by the creek in the south pasture.
10:44I'll get to it sooner than one.
10:47I have never considered myself a mystic, Mon General.
10:51But I can find no ready explanation for what impressed that Indian so profoundly.
10:56I'm going to have to go.
10:59I'm going to have to go.
11:02I'm going to have to go.
11:05I'm going to have to go.
11:08I'm going to have to go.
11:11I'm going to have to go.
11:14I'm going to have to go.
11:17What he said about that battle was only proof, was it not?
11:20Oh, my dear Lafayette, he must have been just a creation in my own troubled mind.
11:25He must have been.
11:27There were no footprints in the snow.
11:30I know Tom Carson is supposed to have died in his own village two years ago.
11:33And what if he did?
11:35What if he did?
11:36That bullet hole in your cloak
11:39would be proof of his belief in your invulnerability.
11:43His belief?
11:44A man dead two years?
11:47We're talking nonsense.
11:50A hallucination caused by remembering an impressive day in my youth.
11:54How many battles have you been in, Mon General?
11:57Oh, scores. Perhaps hundreds.
11:59Eh bien.
12:01How many times have you been wounded?
12:04Never.
12:07Oh, this has been a day of madness.
12:10First me, then you.
12:13The gypsies' predictions.
12:16A visit from a dead Indian.
12:20Yet...
12:25And yet, I can remember very well the words I wrote in a letter to my brother after that battle.
12:32I said,
12:34by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence,
12:39I have been protected beyond all human possibility and expectation.
12:45Beyond all human possibility.
12:50I agree.
12:52My dear Lafayette,
12:54you are an incurable romantic.
12:57Mon General, I am a Frenchman.
13:03Then why should Providence choose me for favors?
13:06That you will have to ask Providence.
13:09But,
13:11as for what,
13:12as Otunka or his specter inferred,
13:16perhaps it was for this particular time,
13:19and this particular place.
13:24To have the stubbornness to continue against the most impossible obstacles?
13:33Or to find the courage to give up?
13:36Well, there's still something left.
13:39Still something to be gained.
13:43And I face the facts with a cold eye.
13:47I know, and you do too,
13:50that if the British persevere,
13:53we shall eventually be crushed by sheer weight of numbers and a bottomless exchequer.
14:00Unless your nation enters the war.
14:02And that is a fact.
14:05And can you promise me that France will come to our aid?
14:08I cannot promise that.
14:11But I have every hope that...
14:12Every hope?
14:14What is your latest information?
14:17If it's the same as mine,
14:20all indications are to the contrary.
14:23At the moment, yes.
14:26But...
14:30Dispatch has arrived, sir.
14:35What is it, General?
14:37A short letter from Major Williams of General Gates' staff.
14:46As a friend and admirer,
14:50I feel it my duty to report that a letter to General Gates from General Conway
14:57contained the following paragraph.
15:00Heaven has been determined to save our country,
15:05or a weak commanding general and bad counselors would have long since ruined it.
15:11That is nothing but talk. It is not even worth your anger.
15:15And Conway...
15:17You know what an old woman he is. Everybody knows.
15:21He is bitter and envious of your position.
15:25He tries merely to make the difficulties.
15:27There's more.
15:30You will be interested to know
15:33that General Conway has just been selected Inspector General.
15:40Conway, Inspector General?
15:43Conway will now be spokesman to the Congress for the army.
15:48Conway will plead our cause for supplies.
15:50Conway will advise Congress as to the future of the country.
15:54Conway...
15:57I will have to address my appeals for help to him.
16:03Conway made their message plain enough.
16:06I accept their wish for a stronger commanding general.
16:11No.
16:14General Washington.
16:17General Washington.
16:20General Washington.
16:23You are permitting your emotion to rule reason.
16:26You have become a symbol of the revolution.
16:29If you turn your back on it now, it will spell nothing but disaster.
16:33I am not responsible for the image others create of me.
16:36But you are responsible to your best self.
16:39General Washington.
16:41I have my friend.
16:44Please do not act in haste and anger.
16:50Lee?
16:51Sir?
16:52Every officer on my staff is to be here for an urgent meeting at 9 sharp.
16:55Yes.
17:16This is not merely a peak.
17:20No.
17:23I think you are very tired.
17:27Tired of fighting the Congress,
17:30the intrigues, inequities.
17:33In addition to all that,
17:35the responsibility of waging a war on so many fronts
17:39is more than any one man should have to bear.
17:45You are no longer able to see things clearly.
17:50General Washington.
17:54I could regret this more than I can say.
17:58But I realize that once you have made a decision,
18:03it is hopeless to try and dissuade you.
18:12I trust my decision
18:15will not affect our personal feelings for one another.
18:18Nothing could do that.
18:21Not at all.
18:48General.
18:50General.
18:52General.
18:53General.
18:54General.
18:55General.
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19:53General.
19:54General.
19:55General.
19:56General.
19:57General.
19:58Happy Veterans Day.
19:59Happy Veterans Day.
20:00You are of means and means of passage, Mr. Thresher.
20:01If the principal thing were a matter of discipline, that's as I see it.
20:03£1 000s of men wanted to desert weeks ago.
20:05Anyway, I can't say I blame the Gold Fox for quitting.
20:07If I were the richest man in the colonies and had a beautiful farm
20:09where I could take my..
20:11Good evening gentlemen.
20:13I would like each of you to consider ways and means of building the morale of the men under your command.
20:21Projects to keep them busy, to achieve the highest level of preparation for our spring campaign.
20:27Spring campaign? But I thought...
20:29You thought what, Major?
20:31Well, I assumed that your plans were... that is, I assumed that your mood was...
20:37Pardon me, sir, but we are despairing of the future.
20:41If you know something, if you are free to tell us the basis of this sudden optimism.
20:46Some news about the French, perhaps. News of a victory in the north.
20:51There is no news, Colonel, good or bad.
20:55We must make our own good news.
20:57But I can say, I am now confident that this war will end in our favor and with complete victory.
21:06Victory? But surely, General...
21:09The meeting is adjourned, gentlemen.
21:24I tell you why, my friend.
21:30You know that I am as hard-headed and practical a man as you have ever known.
21:35But...
21:39But...
21:44I was sitting here like this.
21:47I put back my head and closed my eyes.
21:54But it wasn't just a dream.
21:58Because when I opened them, it was still there.
22:03I saw our nation victorious.
22:07I saw it grow in size and power to become the major force for good on this earth.
22:14I saw it.
22:20A dream.
22:24A vision.
22:27I know it will come to pass.
22:31In my heart, I know it.
22:37A dream.
22:40Vision.
22:41Whatever it was that George Washington experienced, it has today become all fact.
22:47You won't find anything about it in the ordinary history book.
22:50But it has appeared in print in a number of versions.
22:54A number of times during the past 150 years.
22:57All versions agree that Washington dreamed the revolution would be successful.
23:02And that the infant nation would grow until its boundaries stretched from Canada to Mexico.
23:09And from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
23:12And that there would be a bitter civil war between the northern and the southern states.
23:18To be called the Union and the Confederacy.
23:22And that the Union would emerge victorious.
23:27He dreamed all this, supposedly, and more.
23:29But what is absolutely no dream are the facts of the battle of the Monongahela.
23:38On this, all versions and all historians agree.
23:42There were three bullet holes through his hat.
23:46Two horses were shot from under him.
23:49And there was a bullet hole through here, through here, through here.
23:57Through here.
23:59And another one.
24:02Right through there.
24:06Hundreds of French and Indian rifles firing at almost point-blank range throughout that long and dreadful afternoon.
24:16And nothing touched him.
24:18Nothing.
24:21Well, those are the facts.
24:22The incredible facts about the mystery of George Washington.
24:27Like Chief Otumpus, will always cause us much wonder.
24:57The End