Lecture 1: Forging an Army
The Battle of Bunker Hill (Breed's Hill),
(June 17, 1775)
Click here to read and see more aboutthe Battle of Bunker (Breed's) Hill Map of the battle |
While the Second Continental Congress pondered Paine's arguments and
then its own path towards independence, the American forces in the
field were already engaged in a war. Colonial militia still lay siege
to Boston; however, without artillery, however, the colonial troops
would never be able to force Gage to surrender. So General
Benedict Arnold and captured Fort Ticonderoga in New York in
May 1775,
and took possession of its cannons. However, getting the field
artillery to Boston, across hundreds of miles of forest and
mountains,
seemed an impossible task. As it turned out, Gage surrendered
without the threat of artillery following a bloody battle between
British troops and American militia. In June, General Gage issued a proclamation declaring all armed colonials traitors, but offered an amnesty to any rebel who surrendered to British authorities. When the militiamen ignored his order, Gage decided a show of force was necessary. On June 17, 1775, under cover of cannon fire from a British warship in Boston harbor, Gage's fellow officer, William Howe, led a force of twenty-four hundred soldiers against rebel-held Breed's Hill. In spite of the summer heat, Howe ordered his troops to advance in full dress uniform, with wool jackets and knapsacks. Howe also insisted on a "proper" frontal attack against American positions. From the top of the hill, Captain William Prescott's militiamen immediately opened fire on the unprotected redcoats. The result was a near massacre. The tables turned, however, when the Americans ran out of ammunition. Even battle-worn veterans were shocked by the carnage of the day. The British suffered more casualties that day than any other battle of the war. The Americans, who retreated to the safety of Cambridge, learned a costly lesson on the importance of effective supply lines. The British also learned a lesson from Howe's arrogant frontal assault against the "rude" colonial farmers: they would never underestimate the Americans again. |
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Congress Creates and Army
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While militiamen and redcoats turned Boston into a war zone, the Continental Congress took the first steps towards recruiting and supplying an army. The "regular" army that took shape was not really a national force. It was a collection of small state armies whose recruits preserved their identities as Marylanders or Pennsylvanians. While this army was expected to follow the war wherever it led, the Continental Congress still relied on each state's militia to join in any battles that took place within its borders. Congress chose George Washington, a veteran of the French and Indian War, as the army's commander. Washington took the task gravely, for nothing he saw before he betokened much hope. When he arrived in Boston on July 5, 1775, he witnessed a carnival atmosphere in the militia camps. Farm boys turned soldiers fired their muskets at random, often using their weapons to start fires or fire at geese flying overhead. In the confusion, they sometime shot and killed each other. The camps themselves resembled pigsties. The stench from the open latrines was terrible, and rotting animal carcasses were strewn everywhere. The men were dirty and infected with lice. General Washington was not surprise by this, and he sympathized with the farm boys who were away from home for the first time in their lives. Yet despite his sympathy for these young men, Washington acted quickly to reorganize the militia units, replace incompetent officers, and tighten disciplines within the camps. The British, meanwhile, laid their plans for the evacuation of Boston,spurred in part by the knowledge of Arnold's wagon train loaded with artillery nearing Massachusetts. In March of 1776, a British fleet arrived in Boston to carry away General Gage and his officers, the British troops, and about one thousand loyalists north to the safety of Halifax, Nova Scotia. By this time, command of His Majesty's war was in the hands of the Howe brothers--General William Howe, commander of the Breed's Hill attack, and Admiral Richard Howe of the Royal Navy. With the help of military strategists and the vast resources of the British Empire, the Howe's were expected to bring the rebellion to a speedy end and restore order to the colonies. |
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| British
Strategy in 1776 The Battle of Brooklyn Heights Battle of Harlem Heights |
In July of 1776, even as the Second Continental Congress published the
Declaration of Independence, the brothers Howe arrived in New York City
with a force of 30,000 men --soldiers (one third of them Hessian
mercenaries), workmen, and sailors--and
hundreds of ship--more men, in fact, than the total population of the
city! Overnight, Howe controlled one of America's largest port
cities. Why New York? The answer provides a key to Howe's strategy for supressing the rebellion. New York was a hotbed of loyalist sympathizers, as much of its trade depended on Great Britain. Britain's strategy, then, was to capture those port cities with the greatest loyalist sympathies: New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston. (Forget Boston!) One the British controlled New York, they would use it as a base of operations for their campaign to capture Philadelphia to the south. Howe, however, would have preferred to avoid a fight, so he sent a letter to George Washington asking him to lay down his arms. He addressed the letter to "George Washington, Esquire"--the typical address for a gentleman, but not appropriate for a commanding general. Washington refused to even open the letter. With his attempt to reach a peaceful conclusion, Howe set his forces up to fight Washington, who had transferred his 23,000 inexperienced troops from Boston to the outskirts of New York City shortly after Howe's arrival. There he began his defensive preparations. On August 22, 1776, General Howe moved his troops out, unopposed, toward the Brooklyn neck of Long Island. Many of Washington's green troops broke when fighting began five days later. Cut off and scattered, nearly all the American troops surrendered or ran. Washington himself might have been captured had General Howe pressed his attack, but instead, the British withdrew, content that they had made the Americans look foolish. Washington took advantage of Howe's delay to bring his troops to the safety of Manhattan Island, but that safety proved only temporary. On September 15, 1776, the British attacked again, sending his farm boys into flight. Angry and frustrated, Washington threw his hat to the ground and shouted: "Are these the men with whom I am to defend America?" Washington's army fled north, with the British in hot pursuit. In a skirmish that occurred at Harlem Heights, the American commander was relieved to see his men stand their ground, and even more relieved at the strange failure of the British to press their advantage. The British had only to follow his troops into Westchester county to deliver the crushing blow, but they did not. When the redcoats finally engaged the Continentals again at White Plains, the Americans managed to reach safety. Soon afterward, Washington marched his army across the Hudson River to New Jersey, and then further west, across the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. |
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The Battles of Trenton and Princeton
Click here to read more about Washington's overall strategy. |
Following European custom, General Howe
established winter quarters for his troops before the cold set
it. Redcoats and Hessian mercenaries made camps in the New York
area and Rhode Island that December, expecting General Washington to
make camp somewhere as well. But Washington, safe for the moment
in Pennsylvania, was too restless to settle in just yet.
Enlistment terms in his army would soon be up and without some
encouraging military success, he feared few of his soldiers would
re-enlist. Thus Washington looked eagerly for a good target to
attack--and found one. Across the Delaware River on the Jersey
side, two or three thousand Hessian troops held a garrison near the
town of Trenton. On Christmas night, amid a howling storm, General Washington led twenty-four hundred of his men made a daring crossing of the river and marched nine miles inland during a raging blizzard. The Americans arrived to find the Hessians--as Washington had predicted--drunk on Christmas "cheer" and asleep. The surprised enemy surrendered immediately. Without loosing a single man, Washington had captured nine thousand prisoners and many badly needed military supplies. Taking full advantage of the moment, Washington made a rousing appeal to his men to re-enlist. About half the soldiers agreed. The Battle of Trenton was a crucial victory, but Washington enjoyed his next success even more. In early January he again crossed into New Jersey from Pennsylvania and made his way forward to a British garrison at Princeton. On the way, his advance guard ran into two British regiments. As both sides lined up for battle, Washington rode back and forth in front of his men, shouting encouragement and urging them to stand firm. His behavior was reckless, for it put him directly in the line of fire, but it was also effective. When the British turned to retreat, Washington rashly rode after them, clearly delighted to be in pursuit for the first time in the war. The Trenton and Princeton victories raised the morale of the Continental Army as it settled into its winter quarters near Morristown, New Jersey. They stirred popular support as well. Americans everywhere referred to the two winter raids as a "nine-day wonder." Of course, Howe's army was still poised to march into Philadelphia as soon as spring arrived, and Congress still had few resources for Washington and his men. When Washington pleaded for supplies, Congress urged him to commandeer what he needed from civilians nearby. The general wisely refused. English high-handedness and cruelty had turned many people of the area into staunch supporters of the Revolution, and Washington had no intention of alienating them by seizing their livestock, food, or weapons. |
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