America loves a hero. This is the story of a hero who was trained to speak, but instead acted. I love hero stories, don’t you?
“Give ’em Watts, boys” is where the story begins. I know it’s an unusual way to start a story, but this is an unusual story. What does it mean, Give ’em Watts, boys? For starters, the phrase “Give ’em Watts boys” was a Continental Army battle cry used after the Battle of Springfield, New Jersey, on June 23, 1780, during the Revolutionary War.
It became a rallying cry because it symbolized so many good things about America. He said that we were a people who would fight to the end, with what we had available, for as long as it took, for freedom, to win against tyranny and oppression.
Give ’em Watts boys is really a “painted story” about 2 men; Isaacs Watts and the Reverend James Caldwell (mainly James Caldwell).
Isaacs Watts was an interesting man. He grew up in a home of a committed nonconformist. His father, who was jailed twice for his disruptive beliefs, which he openly aired, was a maverick.
Nonconformists were so called in England at the end of the 17th century because they did not conform to the beliefs of the Anglican Church. Watts grew to become a noted hymn writer and theologian during this time. He wrote hymns and rewrote old hymns in more modern language, in fact about 750 of them.
In Ben Franklin’s printing days, it was rumored that Ben printed a hymnbook of all of Watt’s hymns, which was very popular with Protestant churches at the time.
“Give em Watts boys” is actually the title of a painting depicting the second character, James Caldwell. Reverend James Caldwell was pastor of a Presbyterian church in Elizabeth, New Jersey, which supplied more than 40 line officers to George Washington’s army of patriots, the Continental Army.
As history recalls, a fierce battle took place near this small New Jersey church. The British and their German-Hessian compatriots engaged the Continental Army and outnumbered them, almost 5 to 1. The battle was so fierce and prolonged that the Patriot army was running out of paper for its weapons. Wadding was needed to hold the gunpowder and musket ball in place and was usually made of paper.
Reverend Caldwell heard the cries for more wadding, from the brave and committed patriots. He mounted his horse, riding briskly toward his church building, where the pews held many of Watts’ hymnals. He collected the hymnbooks and rode back into battle, distributing the hymnbooks and yelling “Give ’em Watts, boys,” referring to Watts’ hymnals and the pages they could tear out of the hymnbooks and use as wadding for their weapons.
I know it’s Christmas time and this is not focused on Christmas. The moral of this story is really about acting rather than just talking, and that thought applies anytime. Reverend Caldwell did something (he acted, he didn’t just complain) in the middle of a heated battle that he was likely to lose. He didn’t know if his action would impact the outcome or not, but he did it anyway. Sometimes we have to consider doing it anyway.
You know what happened?
The Continental Army held off the British, who eventually turned around and left the army of Patriots with a freedom victory aided by Isaac Watts’ hymnals.