The Glorious Cause: The War for Independence I. A Foolhardy Rebellion Americans should have lost the war: Britain richest + greatest military power in.
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Transcript The Glorious Cause: The War for Independence I. A Foolhardy Rebellion Americans should have lost the war: Britain richest + greatest military power in.
The Glorious Cause: The
War for Independence
I. A Foolhardy Rebellion
Americans
should have lost the war:
Britain richest + greatest military
power in world
100 warships to Am 1
Regular army vs. none
$ for mercenaries (Hessians)
1778: 50,000 B regulars + 30,000
Hessians vs. 20,000 Americans (at
greatest strength)
3
phases of war
3 major regions
3 kinds of forces
3 major British mistakes
4 kinds of war: colonial war
independence, civil war, world war,
war of ideas
II. War in New England: The Militia
at Lexington and Concord, 1775
Suffolk
Resolves new, revolutionary
government in Mass. (old one
dissolved)
Mass. Congress meets in Concord,
Committee of Safety stockpiles
arms
Early 1775: General
Thomas Gage ordered
to arrest provincial
congress
– Parliament believed
rebellion act of a small
group of conspirators
– Hoped to end conflict
quickly: couldn’t
imagine what war
would become
A. Lexington
18
April: 700 redcoats assemble to
march to Lexington and Concord
Colonists knew they were coming
(Revere) and Minutemen turn out
at Lexington (70 men)
Capt. John Parker (vet of F+I war) +
militia wait, when Brits don’t show break
up w/sigh of relief
Next morning, regroup: as Brits approach,
order militia to disarm flash-in-pan
shooting, B volley
Ams: 8 dead, 10 wounded; B: 1 wounded
B. Concord and the Road to Boston
Concord hides the equipment, withdraw
across the river
American reinforcements arrive
Americans decide to take the North
Bridge battle w/light infantry Brits fall
back
1st
atrocity of the war: 2 wounded B
regulars on bridge killed by “country
youth” w/an axe (out of fear)
B claim they were scalped circulate
rumors A mutilating bodies
The “Bloody Chute” (road back to Boston):
approx. 500 Ams fire from the woods
(“concealed villains”)
Final casualties: B 230, A 93
C. 1st British Mistake
Military officers underestimated Americans
of 3 fronts:
1) commitment to armed resistance
(protecting homes and families)
2) Skill of marksmen
3) Devastating impact of militia’s refusal
to play by rules of 18th C gentlemanly
warfare: guerilla tactics learned from
frontier warfare
– BUT: vast majority of American warfare was
traditional style warfare
III. War in the Middle Colonies:
Continental Army at Trenton, 1776
A. Washington Takes Command
Early success in NE generated
hope that Americans would not
need regular army, but by late
1776 knew that they did
Continental Army under
command of George Washington
– Seen as political move: other
commanders more qualified, but
need to bring the South into the
War
Theater
of war shifts to Middle
Colonies: B hope to split Mass and
VA
GW retreats to New Jersey after
defeat in NYC
As Americans cross Delaware into
PA, Hessians seize Trenton
Am troops reduced to 3,000
B. The Crisis
Thomas Paine, The Crisis:
“THESE are the times that try
men's souls. The summer
soldier and the sunshine patriot
will, in this crisis, shrink from
the service of their country;
but he that stands it now,
deserves the love and thanks
of man and woman. Tyranny,
like hell, is not easily
conquered; yet we have this
consolation with us, that the
harder the conflict, the more
glorious the triumph.”
Dec. 25: GW turns the tide takes 2400
men across the Delaware into Trenton
overrun drunk/hungover Hessians 918
prisoners, not 1 Am death
Not a glorious victory (have to retreat
soon after) but:
1) timely: morale surges, locals more
generous in support
2) GW realizes what kind of war
needs to fight: attrition (hit + run)
Generalship marked by poverty
(men, supplies, weapons) strategic
defensive
#1
objective: keep the army alive,
even if give up lots of territory
(major break w/military tradition)
– Understood that British public support
was faltering what are we fighting for?
Some believed that the Revolutionaries
were right: they shouldn’t be taxed
C. 2nd British Blunder
2nd
Major British blunder: fought war
in traditional manner: seized
cities/capitals, but only 5% lived in
cities
IV. War in the South: Guerilla
Warfare at King’s Mountain, 1780
A. A World War
British move South:
a) believe filled w/Loyalists and runaway slaves who will support them
b) switch strategy from regarding
Americans as misbehaving children
to foreign enemies (esp. after
entrance of French, 1778)
– French mainly help by redirecting
British attention to the West Indies
B. Civil War
Much
of the Continental Army
surrenders war carried out by
partisans
American Patriots vs. American
Loyalists (true civil war)
Thomas Jefferson (gov. of VA): turn of the
tide: King’s Mountain (border NC+SC),
Oct. 7, 1780
British left wing (Loyalists) hunting down
Patriots East Tennessee mountain men
rise up
Annihilate
Loyalists: 1000 British
casualties, 90 American
Took prisoners + tortured +
massacred some, mutilated +
urinated on Loyalist bodies
struck terror into British General
Cornwalis’ men defeat at
Yorktown
(did he intentionally walk into trap?)
C. 3rd British Blunder
Believed military victory would
retain American loyalty, but this
was first modern war of national
liberation:
Had to win their “hearts and
minds”
British raping + pillaging +
military rule greater resistance
+ mobilization
– Also declining Brit pop. support
AR was an insurgency
– Compare Vietnam/Iraq/Afghanistan