“One of the great truths of history is that no past event was preordained,” wrote David McCullough in American Heritage. “Every battle, election, and revolution could have turned out differently at any point along the way.”

Proof of that observation is the number of times that John Glover and his Marblehead regiment saved George Washington and the fledgling American army from disaster, described so well in this issue by historian Patrick K. O’Donnell.

Their courage and sacrifice made a crucial difference in winning the American Revolution, and enabling us to live in a free, democratic, and prosperous country.

How do we repay this incalculable debt?

Surely, not by bulldozing the house that Glover retired to after his years of incredible struggle and sacrifice.

Glover returned to Marblehead “Broken & Shatter’d to Pieces,” as he put it. The war cost him “the expense of my little fortune, earned by hard labor and industry; to (the) sacrifice ...and total ruin of a family of young children.” 

To honor the courage and contributions of John Glover and the men who followed him in the fight for American freedom, this house must be preserved.

Nancy Schultz, the chair of the Swampscott Historical Commission, is one of the leaders of the effort to save Glover’s house. We asked her to tell us about the house and the efforts to save it, which she does in this issue in “Home of John Glover Threatened with Demolition.”

We also turned to one of our favorite authors, Patrick K. O’Donnell, to give us an overview of why Glover is so important. He is a leading military historian and the author of