Chapter 6 War & RevolutionJohn Buxton’s “He returns Home Victorious”

• After British troops seized Patriot Armories at Charlestown & Cambridge in September 1774, twenty thousand colonial militiamen sometimes called Minutemen, mobilized to safeguard military depots in Concord and Worchester. By April of 1775 the British would go after these stashes. Warned by Paul Revere and others, a small force of minutemen opposed the British at Lexington and a larger one at Concord: while returning to Boston the British were repeatedly ambushed and had many casualties. British Lieutenant colonel Franklin Smith reported on the battles of Lexington and Concord and stated that some of the wounded British soldiers were scalped or otherwise “ill treated’ by the Minutemen at Concord.

• The 2nd Continental Congress was called together in Philadelphia in May of 1775, and while still in secession the British attacked American Fortifications on Breeds Hill where the Red Coats lost 1,000 soldiers in taking the Hill. John Adams, in Congress demanded that an Army be raised in defense of liberty, but Moderates, such as John

Dickenson pushed for one last attempt at peace, so The Olive Branch Petition was Passed, Which declared Loyalty to the King.

• King George, lacking the subtlety of a strategist, did not play against the divided Colonists, refused to accept the petition and issued the Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition. Even before the King’s reply came back to the Colonies , the radicals had won support to Invade Canada, with the hope of bringing in a 14th colony to rebellion.

• During the 1st year of the war most colonists remained deeply Loyal to the King…. In Philadelphia, for Instance, the City was divided with Merchants Who remained loyal, While Artisans and laborers, and Scot-Irish immigrants aligned with the “patriot” Cause. In January 1776 Thomas Paine Published “Common Sense” a call for Independence and Republicanism. This helped to agitate more to the rebel cause, but it was the war itself that forced many to choose.

“Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

• In June 1776, Richard Henry Lee Presented the resolution for Independence, and a committee of 3 was appointed to write a Declaration. Ben Franklin, John Adams, & Thomas Jefferson were chosen, But Ben & John Dumped the Job on the youngest member, Thomas. Jefferson Justified the claim for

independence by blaming the

rupture on George III rather than

on Parliament.

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it….

• The odds were against the colonies. The British were a great Industrial power with the greatest Navy. It also had a Standing Army of 48,000 trained troops, and officers, thousands of German Mercenaries, Tens of thousands of Loyalists and Many Indian tribes that opposed colonial expansion.

• Washington had Approximately 18,000 poorly trained troops, no Navy, and thousands of untrained Militiamen who were only available for short periods. They were more used to fighting Indian Style and where the British had to hold the country, The Colonist only had to outlast the British.

Overwhelming British troops Landed in New York and forced Washington’s troops to retreat to Manhattan Island…. Washington could have been completely wiped out, but General Howe paused and allowed Washington

time to find enough boats to escape. Eventual running to New Jersey and then

to Pennsylvania where they camped for the

winter.

• In the Winter of 1776, Washington’s troops took advantage of the British tradition of retiring during winters, by surprise attacks in Trenton , New Jersey by crossing the Delaware River at night December 25, to capture Hessian Mercenaries in Trenton and another small victory in January 1777, at Princeton.

The British Strategy for the war was to divide the New England states from the Southern states. General Burgoyne was to take his troops from Canada and march them down to Albany

New York and meet up with other British troops in a three pronged attack. Along the Way, American General Gates & Benedict Arnold attacked Burgoyne’s men Indian Style Until

Burgoyne men reached Saratoga, and the Colonial Militia converged upon them. It was an embarrassing defeat for the British. The Victory was a turning point in the war because Ben

Franklin was in Paris negotiating with the French to help fight with the Colonies. The Victory at Saratoga Helped convince the French that The Colonies could win the War, so the French

agreed to join in. France considered the alliance with the colonists because it saw an opportunity to get revenge upon the British for the defeat in the French & Indian War.

• The Franco-American treaty of Alliance of February 1778 Specified that neither France nor the United States would sign a separate treaty with Great Britain, before American Independence was secured.

• Wars are devastating to the citizens of a country under siege. Citizens were Conscripted (forced) into labor or military service, land and Resources were looted by both sides as they marched through a territory. Drunk and disorderly troops harassed or raped women and girls. Depending upon who was in position of a territory, Loyalists or Patriots may have been forced to flee. Wherever the armies went, families lived in fear.

• Wars are fought with weapons and soldiers but also with food, gun powder, and other supplies. All of which costs money…. Something the colonial armies were lacking. The Government had to borrow money from wealthy supporters and the French, but also they Mostly relied upon printing large sums of unbacked paper money which created the biggest inflation problem in the history of the United States. Farmers rejected currency and either bartered or accepted only Gold, (many merchants were happy to sell to the British over American armies because their currency had a stable value. Women would form mobs to charge upon stores and take what they needed because they could not afford the inflated costs. Ordinary Americans , the artisans and farmers bore the biggest cost of the war

• In the Winter of 1777, the British retired in Philadelphia, to the comfort of fine food, lodging and wines, which were generally paid for with gold and silver. The American “Continental” army holed up in Valley Forge about 20 miles away. Supplies were in short order because no one would accept the paper currency offered to pay for it. Thousands of Soldiers either deserted, or died during this winter. But those that survived were trained by the Prussian Baron Von Steuben, Who was not really a Baron and could speak much English but he was able to train the colonists into a real fighting unit by the end of the winter.

• The British concentrated their campaign in the South with the expectation that they could use Loyalists to administer territories that they captured.

Associated Loyalists were ferocious Tory guerrilla organization, it was overseen by a Board of Directors that included its founder and real

commander, William Franklin, last Royal Governor of New Jersey and son of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin also raised the King’s Militia Volunteers,

whose chores included cutting wood for the British Army.

• General Nathanial Greene was a Self educated warrior who was so proficient that George Washington said that if anything were to happen to him, General Greene should take the command. General Greene said of his tactics: “ We Fight, Get Beaten, and fight again.”

• Significant to the final victory of the Americans was Washington’s Strategy of feigning an attack on New York to distract half of the British Forces up there, while secretly sending a French Army from Rhode Island to Virginia, where, with the help of the French Navy, and the French military, General Washington was able to chase The British General Cornwallis into the Yorktown Virginia peninsula. Cornwallis was hoping to catch the British fleet, and escape, but The French fleet outnumbered the British so the Brits were unable to escape and forced to surrender.

• General Cornwallis was so insulted by the embarrassing defeat at the hands of George Washington, that he feigned illness and had his second in command surrender his sword. When Lord North heard the news of Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown, Virginia He exclaimed, “ Oh God! Its all over!” King George wished to continue but was convinced that it would be a financial disaster to do so. For the next 18 months only small skirmishes occurred, by loyalists and Indians kept the war going.

• The situation for the British In 1781, was not good in other fronts: The combined French & Spanish Fleet threatened Britain’s sugar Islands, while the Dutch Merchants were stealing world markets from the English merchants, and the newly form European League of Armed Neutrality was demanding an end to the British Blockade of France.

• A peace treaty ending the war was stalled for nearly two years after the surrender at Yorktown because France and Spain were hoping for a major naval victory that would give them a territorial concession. The British made a treaty offer to the United States that was worth the American’s ignoring their treaty agreement with France and signing a separate treaty. The Americans did agree to allow British merchants to collect their prewar debts and recommend that state governments restore confiscated Loyalist property. The British agreed to cede the land South of the Great Lakes and West of the

Appalachian Mountains over to The United States.

• As the war turned in favor of the Patriots, Loyalists faced disaster more than 100,000 fled the country to Canada, Britain or the West Indies. Many of these properties were confiscated and some were sold to pay for war debts…. Some States such as Massachusetts had in their constitution , that property rights should be protected. Most states seized only a limited amount of loyalist property.

• Given that the Revolution was based on the idea of Life Liberty & Property and that all men are created equal, It did seem contradictory to many men, the existence of slavery, and in the northern states following the war, there was a movement to end slavery: Abigail Adams said “ It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me – to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have.” By 1800, every northern state had provided for gradual termination of slavery. The process was slow for most of the states because of the preference for white property rights. Freedom did not mean equality though as even in Massachusetts, the state that abolished slavery outright in 1784, had laws forbidding marriage between whites and blacks or mulattoes .

• Even in Virginia, there was a strong debate on emancipation . In 1800 a slave by the name of Gabriel Prosser and his co-conspirators traveled the Virginia countryside stirred up a revolt where 200 slaves in Richmond were to set fires, capture arms and kill whites…. Prosser and his followers were ratted out and were caught and hanged before anything could be carried out. Virginia’s legislature used this as an excuse to shut down the Emancipation debate in Virginia.

• The movement for Life, Liberty & Property led to other changes in Post War America. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, ended the tax benefits and other perks belonging to the Anglican church, by writing and passing the 1786 “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom,” which made all churches equal before the law and granted direct financial support to none.

•The End Chapter 6.