American Revolution
1779
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British attempts to increase taxation in the American colonies to help pay the debts run up during the Seven Years War (1756-1763) had led to increased discontent. Believing that a firm display of force would show the colonists their place, the British had been shocked when open warfare erupted in 1775. The small army stationed in the colonies was obviously incapable of putting down the rebellion, so a huge army was sent from England in the summer of 1776. The powerful British force easily pushed the American army led by General George Washington out of New York City but a solid core of rebels remained even after a bloody retreat across New Jersey.
Hoping to deal the rebellion a fatal blow, Lieutenant General William Howe planned to capture Philadelphia, the largest city in the colonies and the base of the Continental Congress. In addition, it was decided to launch a second expedition from Canada that would seize control of the Hudson River, separating Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Massachusetts from the remaining nine colonies. Although Washington failed to prevent Howe from occupying Philadelphia in September 1777, the members of Congress had been safely evacuated and the rebel army remained intact. A surprise attack on the main British camp at Germantown in early October failed because of an overly complex plan. However, the army that had marched down from Canada under Lieutenant General John Burgoyne had been captured at Saratoga on October 17 by Major General Horatio Gates, which convinced France to enter into a formal alliance with the American colonies, thus completely transforming the strategic situation. When troops were taken from the American colonies to protect other colonies, Philadelphia had to be abandoned. Left with a much weaker army, Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton, Howe’s successor, was forced to retreat during a battle at Monmouth Courthouse the following year. The British found themselves locked up in New York City, while the American army lacked the ships and cannon needed to assault the city. Fearing stalemate, Clinton dispatched a force of British, Hessians and Loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell to Georgia, and he captured Savannah on December 29, 1778, thus giving the British a foothold in the southern colonies.
Stony Point
It would be inaccurate to state that nothing happened in the north during this time. Clinton had sent eight thousand men up the Hudson River to lure Washington out of the fortress at West Point. When he chose to remain safe in the fortress, the troops built several forts to expand British control of the area. One of the forts was at Stony Point, ten miles away from West Point and 35 miles south of New York City. Seeing that the British had not constructed a particularly solid fort, Washington assigned Major General Mad Anthony Wayne to lead 1,200 light infantry in a nighttime assault on the fort. Since the British garrison numbered 700 men, Wayne’s force appeared to be too small for the task. However, Washington had noticed that fort’s defences near the river were weak, Wayne’s troops were ordered to not load their muskets in order to avoid accidentally warning the British. A diversionary force was sent to occupy the British on the land side of the fort, while the main force stormed the fort from the river side on the night of July 15. Although Wayne was wounded early in the attack, his officers kept control of the troops and quickly captured the surprised garrison. American casualties were 98 against 94 British and 472 prisoners.
Roughly a month later, Major Henry ‘Light Horse Harry’ Lee captured Paulus Hook, New Jersey on August 19, during a night time assault. Although he only suffered a handful of casualties, he took over 150 prisoners, more than half of the garrison, further weakening British control of New Jersey.
Penobscot
Loyalist refugees had fled Massachusetts to the unsettled area between New Hampshire and Quebec, which is now Maine. The British commander of Nova Scotia sent 700 redcoats to build a fort at Penobscot Bay to protect the Loyalists, reaching the area on June 12. Work on the fort started immediately and the pace was intensified in July when news arrived that rebels in Boston were planning to launch an expedition against the fort. A force of 1,000 militiamen landed on July 26 and besieged the British fort. However, word had been sent to New York City and when a British fleet appeared on August 12, the outnumbered American ships tried to escape by sailing up the Penobscot River. Several ships were lost during the pursuit and the rest of the fleet was trapped and destroyed in front of the rapids at Bangor. Almost half of the militia were either killed or captured.
Savannah
Campbell was reinforced by troops from Florida under Brigadier General Augustine Prevost in early January, and Prevost strengthened British control of the colony by building forts between Savannah and Augusta, which bordered South Carolina. However, Major General Benjamin Lincoln led a large rebel army into Georgia to recapture Augusta. Instead of facing Lincoln, Prevost decided to distract him by invading South Carolina. He reached Charleston on May 12, but discovered that Lincoln had left a stronger garrison than expected, so he returned to Savannah. Meanwhile, the summer heat had convinced Lincoln to attack Savannah by sea in cooperation with a French fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Charles Hector, comte d’Estaing. Caught off-guard by the appearance of the French fleet outside Savannah on September 2, Prevost called in all of his forces and began fortifying Savannah. Even so, the British might have been forced to surrender but an over-confident d’Estaing agreed to a twenty-four hour ceasefire, and nine hundred British reinforcements slipped into the city before the ceasefire expired, increasing Prevost’s force to 3,700 men. The nature of the terrain meant that the city could not be shelled by the ships, but batteries would have to be constructed, which gave Prevost time to further strengthen his fortifications.
The bombardment finally started on October 4 but after four days it had made little impact, so d’Estaing decided to launch a direct assault, since both the British fleet and the annual hurricanes were expected. Lincoln was extremely reluctant but agreed to a plan where South Carolina militia distracted the British while one column of two thousand regulars attacked a key redoubt and another column of two thousand regulars advanced along the edge of the swamp to strike at the enemy’s rear. The attacks were supposed to be launched at the same time, but confusion developed and the rebels were beaten off after heavy fighting. British casualties were roughly 100 while allied casualties were more than 800, so there would not be another attempt. D’Estaing sailed back to France, while Lincoln returned to Charleston to prepare for an inevitable invasion.
John Paul Jones
The infant American navy had its first naval victory when John Paul Jones captured HMS Serapis on September 23, although his ship Bonhomme Richard soon sank. His small squadron of five warships had been sent to attack shipping near Scotland and the east coast of England to lure British warships into chasing him in preparation for a combined French-Spanish invasion fleet. The Serapis and an escort had been guarding a convoy of merchant ships, which were able to escape, although both British warships were forced to surrender after hard fighting. Unknown to Jones, illness had spread through both the French and Spanish ships, so the invasion had been abandoned on September 3.
However, the majority of American warships and privateers focused on raiding British commerce in order to deny supplies to the enemy and strengthen the army. Realizing that his army could not be risked in fruitless attempts to hold parts of the colonies, Clinton launched raids against ports along the east coast to destroy privateers and their support networks.
The Sullivan Expedition
Despite Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga and the failure of the diversionary expedition in the Mohawk Valley in 1777, Tory rangers worked with members of the Iroquois Confederacy to raid Patriot settlements on the frontier between British Canada and the American colonies. The northern areas of Pennsylvania and New York were frequent targets. The main rebel army had been occupied shadowing the British army, but in 1779 it became clear that Clinton would not leave New York. In fact, the capture of Savannah had caused him to change his strategic focus to the Southern colonies. Although New York had borne the brunt of numerous raids, the raid on German Flatts and the Chery Valley Massacre in the fall of 1778, showed that the situation had escalated out of control. With Clinton’s attention turned southwards, Washington felt that he could spare enough troops to punish the Iroquois. Major General John Sullivan was given command of the expedition and told to destroy Iroquois settlements in order to deny them the resources for future raids. Sullivan led almost 4,000 Continentals through Iroquois territory (modern upstate New York) and burned more than forty villages. Heavily outmatched, the Iroquois, Butler’s Rangers and the one British regiment assigned to the area fell back. When they made a stand at Newton on August 29, they were outnumbered three to one, so the battle was short. Although there were few casualties on either side, the defeat confirmed that the American expedition was simply too powerful to resist. The expedition failed to capture Fort Niagara, the base for the Indian raids, so Patriot settlements experienced further raids the following year, but the Iroquois Confederacy never recovered its former power.
Since it took a month for messages to arrive from England but responses required two to three months to reach their destination, Clinton felt overwhelmed by Germain’s micro-management. At the same time, Washington refused to be drawn into battle until he was certain that he could win. Clinton tried to arrange for recently returned Cornwallis to take his position but had to be satisfied with him assuming the role of second-in-command. As more and more senior officers returned to England, believing that the war was lost, Clinton did little to inspire confidence among his staff. The situation did not improve when reinforcements finally arrived on August 25. The 3,800 men were considerably fewer than the promised 6,600 and almost a thousand were sick with a fever that soon infected Clinton’s own troops. Meanwhile, it was hoped that an invasion of the Carolinas would prove more effective. In particular, it was believed that countless loyalists were waiting, and given the small number of reinforcements, loyalist recruits were desperately needed. Leaving a garrison in New York City, Clinton sailed with 8,500 soldiers for South Carolina on December 26, 1779.
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John Paul Jones (1959)
Directed by John Farrow, starring Robert Stack and Bette Davis
Although Jones had won the young republic’s first naval victory during the American Revolution, he is not popular with the new government and leaves the United States to serve in the navy of Catherine, Empress of Russia.
Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes-Christopher Hibbert, Avon Books, New York City: 1990.
It does a good job of presenting the British approach to the war. While the numerous first hand accounts give the flavor of people’s speech and their attitude towards the situation, a more coherent examination of the strategies employed by the major commanders would have been helpful.
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789-Robert Middlekauff, Oxford University Press, New York: 1982.
As the title states, the book examines the period before the revolution, devoting many pages to discussions of the atmosphere in both England and the colonies, showing the gradual progression of the intellectual debate and the increase in violence against customs collectors. Middlekauff examines each colony and the relationship between its respective governor and assembly, which reflects impressive research but may appear to be too much background for those interested in an account of the American Revolution. Aside from a number of good maps, the author also provides chapters that discuss the lives of the soldiers, how they were recruited, led, supplied, and the quality of medical treatment; the fledgling navy, life for civilians.
Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution-A. J. Langguth, Touchstone, New York City: 1989.
Langguth begins in 1761, near the end of the Seven Years’ War, showing the growing conflict between the crown’s representatives and an increasing number of colonists who desired greater freedoms. The book is a straightforward chronological examination of the period 1761-1783 with each chapter looking at either an influential individual or a significant event. Brief yet excellent biographies of the main actors of each period are provided. It is a bit weak in some areas, particularly the Philadelphia and Saratoga campaigns, although he does a decent job with the New York campaign. Since the book is called the Patriots, the author is more interested in discussing the actions of the leading patriots and the intricacies of maneuverings in Congress, than the details of military campaigns. In fact, more time is spent discussing the farewell extravaganza held by the British officers for Howe than the battle at Brandywine. The southern campaign is essentially ignored, aside from brief mentions of Gates’ defeat at Camden and Morgan’s victory at Cowpens. The vicious partisan warfare is not even mentioned, but Arnold’s betrayal receives an entire chapter.
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