 But regardless, he had to continue. He desperately needed a victory. Indeed, it was victory or death for the American cause, and nothing could change that fact. So as the men slogged through the cold for hours on end, I really wonder what they were thinking. Just three days before, the words of Thomas Paine's book, American Crisis, had been read out loud to the soldiers to boost the morale. And these were the famous words Paine wrote.