All language subtitles for One.Step.Beyond.S03E21.Night.of.Decision.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor

Come.

You'll witness things,

strange, unexpected, mysterious,

but not to be denied.

Join me now and take
one step beyond.

Around the lives of
all the great men,

history weaves romantic
and colorful stories.

Many are based on facts and
some are pure imagination.

There are many wonderful stories

told about the man who,

for one terrible and
momentous winter,

occupied this house.

But none is so little
known or awe-inspiring

as the events that took
place here one evening.

Our very existence
as well as our future

is largely dependent on that
remarkable night of decision.

Sure, sure, gypsy, we'll
all die sooner or later.

But what about those
supply wagons from Easton?

They bring in good salt
pork to fill our bellies,

fresh clothes to
put on our backs.

There will be no supply wagons.

I see only hunger,
suffering and death.

I see quite a bit of
suffering for you too, gypsy.

You were told to
stay out of camp,

you and your rag tail friends
with your tales of doom.

Be careful, boys.

Come on!

They'll be coming at
us through those trees.

Take cover, take cover.

Molly.

That's alright, I'll be
back before spring plant.

What'll they do to him?

The whip.

Valley Forge, December 1777,

the winter of despair
was just beginning.

Terrill.

At last.

Come.

The courier just
returned from Easton, sir.

Was there something
else, Lieutenant?

No, no sir.

Ho!

Do they expect us
to go on fighting

without food and supplies?

That is precisely
the point, Colonel.

I believe those supply wagons
were deliberately canceled.

Supplies are ample
but a large element

in the continental congress
would like us to give up.

This is a form of persuasion.

Persuasion?

The British are
tired of this war too.

Congress has been contacted
by agents of the British

with an offer that grants
every one of our demands,

everything except Independence.

And is congress ready
to settle for that?

A good many gentlemen
in the congress are.

In the face of it,
sir, why do you go on?

Are you ready to
give up, Colonel?

Lieutenant Lee?

What is that about?

Another one of
those gypsys, sir.

Fortune teller.

This one told some of the men

that the supply wagons
will never arrive.

By who's order is
he being flogged?

Major Warren, sir.

The order is countermanded.

Sir.

Certainly you don't
put any credence

in that sort of thing, Danforth.

Well, no, sir, but--

He could have learned
about those wagons

in a hundred different ways.

General, this group
that wants to quit,

just how important
are they in congress?

Very important.

They are still considerably
in the minority,

but they are making
themselves felt.

They even asked me for support.

You?

You refused of course.

Yes, yes I refused.

But I don't know
that I had the right.

Sir?

There are 12,000 men
here in rags, Colonel,

and starving.

Shouldn't they be consulted
about any settlement?

500 of them die every month
of disease and privation.

There is little
glory or satisfaction

in that kind of death.

But then of course,
there are the dead.

I wonder how they would feel

about our settling for anything
less than they died for.

I don't know which side of
the question you favor, sir.

To be honest, Colonel,

at this moment, I
do not know myself.

I do not know myself.

When will spring ever come?

God,

do I have the right to
decide the fate of so many?

Of so much?

Help me.

Help me.

Your god has come to your
aid before, he will again.

I am Otumcas, Chief of Shawnee.

Otumcas.

22 summers have come
and gone since we met.

Battle of Monongahela.

Yes, of course.

July 1755.

I was leading a
detachment of Virginians

under the command
of General Braddock.

Red coats stood tall in sunlight

like field of dry corn
waiting for harvest night.

Yes, it was a slaughter.

We lost half the entire
British colonial army that day.

All British officers in
field fell, dead or wounded,

all but you, Washington.

Yes, I remember well.

Otumcas fired at
Washington again and again.

15 bullets at the heart.

Not one found its mark.

It has caused
Otumcas much wonder.

I was very fortunate that day.

Not fortune.

The great spirit protected
Washington that day

for good and great purpose.

I wish I could believe that.

Believe it.

We're going back to our farms

where we can be of
some good to somebody.

You will be shot down before
you can get a hundred yards.

Maybe, but it's better
than slow starvation

for a lost cause.

We're going home, General.

We found out the gypsy was right

about those supply wagons too.

We're going home.

Alright, go.

Go.

If we have sunk to
the level of animals,

turning one upon another,

then perhaps our
cause is already lost.

They're coming
through the trees.

Pa, I meant to get to
the chickens sooner.

Jason hurt his knee
out by the crick

in the south pasture.

I'll get to it sooner tomorrow.

I have never considered
myself a mystic, mon general.

But I can find no
ready explanation

for what impressed that
Indian so profoundly.

What he said about that
battle was all the truth,

was it not?

My dear Lafayette,
he must have been

just a creation in
my own troubled mind.

He must have been.

There were no
footprints in the snow.

And Otumcas is
supposed to have died

in his own village
two years ago.

And what if he did?

What if he did?

That bullet hole in your cloak

would be proof of his belief
in your invulnerability.

His belief?

A man dead two years.

We're talking nonsense.

An hallucination,
caused by remembering

an impressive day in my youth.

How many battles have
you been in, mon general?

Scores, perhaps hundreds.

Bien.

How many times have
you been wounded?

Never.

This has been a day of madness.

First me, then you, the
gypsy's predictions,

visit from a dead Indian.

Yet...

And yet I can remember very well

the words I wrote in
a letter to my brother

after that battle.

I said, "By the all powerful
dispensations of providence,

"I have been protected

"beyond all human
possibility and expectation."

Beyond all human possibility.

I agree.

My dear Lafayette,
you are an incurable romantic.

Mon general, I am a Frenchman.

Why should providence
choose me for favors?

That you will have
to ask providence.

But as for what, as Otumcas
or his specter infers,

perhaps it was for
this particular time

and this particular place.

To have the
stubbornness to continue

against the most
impossible obstacles?

Or to find the
courage to give up

while there's still
something left,

still something to be gained?

When I face the facts
with a cold eye,

I know and you do too

that if the British perservere,

we shall eventually be crushed
by sheer weight of numbers

and a bottomless Exchequer

unless your nation
enters the war

and that is a fact.

And can you promise me that
France will come to our aid?

I cannot promise that.

But I have every hope that--

Every hope?

What is your latest information?

If it's the same as mine,

all indications are
to the contrary.

At the moment, yes.

But...

This dispatch just arrived, sir.

What is it, mon general?

A short letter
from Major Williams

of General Gates's staff.

"As a friend and admirer,

"I feel it my duty to report

"that a letter to General
Gates from General Conway

"contained the
following paragraph.

"Heaven has been determined
to save our country

"where a weak commanding
general and bad councilors

"would have long
since ruined it."

But that is nothing but talk.

It is not even worth your anger.

And Conway, you
know what an old woman he is.

Everybody knows.

He is bitter and envious
of your position.

He try merely to make
the difficulties.

There's more.

"You will be interested to
know that General Conway

"has just been selected
Inspector General."

Conway Inspector General?

Conway will now be spokesman
to the congress for the army.

Conway will plead our
course for supplies.

Conway will advise congress

as to the wisdom
of my strategies.

Conway.

I will have to address my
appeals for help to him.

Well, they've made their
message plain enough.

I accept their wish for a
stronger Commanding General.

No.

General Washington, you
are permitting your emotion

to rule reason.

You have become a symbol
of the revolution.

If you turn your back on it now,

it will spell
nothing but disaster.

I am not responsible for
the image others create of me.

But you are responsible
to your best self.

General Washington,
as my friend,

please do not act
in haste and anger.

Lee.
- Sir?

Every officer on my
staff is to be here

for an urgent meeting
at nine sharp.

Yes sir.

This is not merely peak.

No?

I think you are very tired.

Tired of fighting the congress,

the intrigues, inequities,

in addition to all
that, the responsibility

of waging a war
on so many fronts,

is more than any one
man should have to bear.

You are no longer able
to see things clearly.

General Washington, I will
regret this more than I can say

but I realize that once
you have made a decision,

it is hopeless to
try and dissuade you.

I trust my decision
will not affect

our personal feelings
for one another.

Nothing could do
that, mon general.

Thousands of men wanted
to desert weeks ago.

Anyway, I can't say I blame
the old fox for quitting.

If I were the richest
man in the colonies

and had a beautiful farm
where I could take my--

Good evening, gentlemen.

I would like each
of you to consider

ways and means of
building the morale

of the men under your command,

projects to keep them busy,

to achieve the highest
level of preparation

for our spring campaign.

Spring campaign?

But I thought--

You thought what, Major?

Well, I assumed that
your plans were, that is,

I assumed that your mood was--

Pardon me, sir.

But we are despairing
of the future.

If you know something,
if you are free

to tell us the basis of
this sudden optimism.

Some news about
the French perhaps.

News of a victory in the north.

There is no news,
Colonel, good or bad.

We must make our own good news.

But I can say I am now confident

that this war will
end in our favor.

And with complete victory.

Victory?

But surely, General--

The meeting is
adjourned, gentlemen.

I tell you I...

My friend, you know
that I am as hard-headed

and practical a man as you
have ever known, but...

I was sitting here, like this,

I put back my head,

and closed my eyes,

but it wasn't just a dream

because when I opened
them it was still there.

I saw our nation victorious.

I saw it grow in size and power

to become the major force
for good on this earth.

I saw it.

A dream,

a vision.

I know it will come to pass.

In my heart, I know it.

A dream?

Vision?

Whatever it was that George
Washington experienced,

it has today become all fact.

You won't find anything about it

in the ordinary history book,

but it has appeared in print
in a number of versions,

a number of times during
the past 150 years.

All versions agree
that Washington dreamed

the revolution
would be successful.

And that the infant
nation would grow

until its boundaries stretched
from Canada to Mexico

and from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.

And that there would
be a bitter civil war

between the northern
and the southern states

to be called The Union
and The Confederacy

and that The Union
would emerge victorious.

He dreamed all this,
supposedly, and more.

But what is absolutely no dream

are the facts of the
Battle of the Monongahela.

On this, all versions
and all historians agree.

There were three bullet
holes through his hat,

two horses were
shot from under him,

and there was a bullet
hole through here,

through here, through here,

and another one,

right through there.

Hundreds of French
and Indian rifles,

firing at almost
pointblank range,

throughout that long
and dreadful afternoon,

and nothing touched him.

Nothing.

Well, those are the facts.

The incredible facts about the
mystery of George Washington,

like Chief Otumcas, will
always cause us much wonder.