The Redcoats Are Coming

Author says: what if the fateful warning had not reached Monticello in time for Thomas Jefferson to escape? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

informed that the Virginia legislature was temporarily in session General Cornwallis sent Colonel Banastre Tarleton and some infantry into Charlottesville to capture the rebel leadership, but they exceed their orders, burning wagons loaded with uniforms for Nathanael Greene's troops and in the smoke-filled confusion Governor Thomas Jefferson was shot and killed before he could flee to safety.

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icon to follow us on Facebook.In death he would join the growing ranks of revolutionaries murdered by British redcoats. Most prominent amongst them was Samuel Adams and John Hancock who had also failed to receive a similar warning when Paul Revere was thrown from his horse on his ill-fated "midnight ride".

That Jefferson too could be deprived of his inalienable rights to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" was a grim irony of the anarchist charter he had authored just five years before.

A hypocritical slave-owner and misogynist who failed to live up to his own standards, he had also proven ineffectual at implementing them. During his two years as Governor, he had become hugely unpopular in office. And having failed to mobilize the militia, he had already announced his intention to step down and handover effective power to the Continental Army. Serious historians would judge him as a "philanthropic cock" that lacked the substance and depth of thought as a political scientist.

Instead of becoming the revolutionary thinker he had always imagined, his martrydom led to the elevation of his status as a fighting patriot icon. A colossal neoclassical sculpture standing astride New York Harbour.

Author says original content has been repurposed to celebrate the author's genius © American Sphinx, Joseph J. Ellis (1998) and also sourced from Wikipedia. To view guest historian's comments on this post please visit the Today in Alternate History web site.

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