Revolution, Independence, and Upheaval in
American Society, 1776 - 1783
THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AND
THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
THE SHOT HEARD ‘ROUND THE WORLD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ikO6LMxF4
THE ONSET OF THE WAR, 1775 - 1776
From the onset of the Revolutionary War,
there was little or no reason for optimism
in the Continental Army. Here’s why:
1. England had the most powerful Army and
Navy in the World.
2. All Native American tribes were inclined to
support the English.
3. All enslaved men and women were inclined
to support the English.
4. Approximately one in three people
counted himself or herself as a Loyalist.
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AMERICAN CIRCUMSTANCES
Meanwhile, Americans were at a
tremendous disadvantage in terms of
organization.
1. The Continental Army had little money.
2. Americans distrusted standing armies.
3. There were almost no trained soldiers.
4. The equipment the soldiers carried was
poor, and there were few factories or
markets to make or procure more.
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The advantages the colonists held
going into the war was a short list;
however, they proved to be
substantial in terms of fighting the
conflict over the course of time.
1.
2.
3.
Geography proved to be
enormously important in this
war, and Americans knew the
lay of the land. This allowed
for strategic victories both in
small scale guerrilla style
skirmishes and in larger
conflicts – like Saratoga, or
Yorktown.
The Americans were a vast,
rural society, and in many
instances, rural populations
were the most patriotic. This
meant that winning New York,
Philadelphia, or other cities
was not enough.
Allies: France, Spain, and
Holland would all support the
Americans when war erupted.
ADVANTAGES OF THE COLONISTS, 1775
The Centrality of Boston in the Onset of the War for Independence
PART I. THE UNDECLARED WAR FOR
BOSTON
Since Boston was the focal point
of many of the English attempts
at subjugation – the Intolerable
Acts in particular – it became
the first front in the war. When
the Continental Congress
affirmed the Suffolk Resolves, it
virtually guaranteed a violent
rebuttal from King George III,
and the Battles of Lexington and
Concord, in the spring of 1775,
were exactly that. The response
of the Crown to the Declaration
of Rights and Grievances and
the Suffolk Resolves – which
came virtually simultaneously,
was prompt. The King was
resolved that since diplomatic
measures and proactive
government had not squelched
the rebellion, then “Blows must
decide…”
THE PRIMACY OF BOSTON IN THE REVOLUTION
The onset of the war with
England came in April of 1775,
when it was ordered that John
Hancock be arrested and that
stockpiles of military weapons
held by minutemen militias
should be seized. Samuel
Adams was also to be arrested
that day. Outside the city, the
famed silversmith Paul Revere
and his accomplice, Dr. William
Dawes, awaited a signal from
the Old North Church bell tower.
When the signal was given,
Revere and Dawes set to
warning minutemen of the
invasion. The cache of weapons
was reapportioned for the day,
and the soldiers prepared for
combat with a formidable
opponent.
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON & CONCORD
At Lexington, the British Army had
believed that they would apprehend
both John Hancock and Samuel
Adams. They did not. Instead, a
skirmish between a few dozen
American militiamen and the regular
British Army ensued. The British fired
“The Shot Heard ‘Round the World”
here, and eight (8) Americans died.
Nine more men were injured
The Battle of Concord was more
substantial. The arsenal there had
been completely emptied by the
minutemen, who were staged at the
North Bridge – the entry into the
town. During this battle, the
Continental Army used guerrilla
tactics and were largely successful at
repelling the British invasion, driving
the soldiers out of the region and
back to Boston, and giving chase
against a retreating British foe.
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD
The English occupying force in
Boston was more than just aware of
the Continental Army preparing in
the heights of the city. George
Washington would be appointed as
the commander of the force – a
ragtag group of poor men, free
blacks, enslaved men, and bounty
collectors who had virtually no
military training. One in five was
either enslaved or a free AfricanAmerican. For now, though, the men
were without his leadership.
For English General Thomas Gage,
the challenge was to defend the city
– which was now flooded with
loyalists seeking protection – without
escalating the conflict any more. He
realized the armed militia were
gathering outside the city, but was –
by necessity – forced to equivocate
and proceed with caution.
AN UNDECLARED WAR FOR ENGLAND
THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL
After the militia had ignored
Thomas Gage’s order to disarm and
disperse, he placed the
responsibility of routing the men
out of the high ground on fellow
officer William Howe. What
resulted was bloodshed on a scale
never seen in New England. Howe’s
men carried out a full frontal
assault on an entrenched position
on the high ground, which resulted
in carnage. Nevertheless, it proved
victorious. The Continental Army
did not have the resources or
ammunition to maintain their
position; hence, after inflicting
horrifying injury upon their enemy,
the men retreated. The Battle of
Bunker Hill, it has not been
forgotten by historians, was
actually fought on Breed’s Hill.
When he took command of the
Continental Army two weeks
after the Battle of Bunker Hill,
Washington was aghast at the
undisciplined soldiers he
inherited. The men were
without training; the camp was
fouled by human excrement and
disease; the soldiers were sickly,
malnourished, and inflicting
great harm upon one another –
indeed, friendly fire incidents
resulted in deaths and injuries
on an almost daily basis.
Nevertheless, Washington had
taken a command he could work
with in the near future – and set
to work on the liberation of
Boston. Men were already at
work capturing and dragging
the guns of Fort Ticonderoga
into place atop Boston’s
heights.
WASHINGTON IN COMMAND
THE FORGOTTEN FIFTH
A Declaration of Independence and of War
THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR ERUPTS IN FULL
By the spring of 1776, Gage, and
thousands of loyalists had
determined that the evacuation of
Boston was merited, and had fled
for Nova Scotia. The conduct of
the war was left to the Howe
brothers: General William Howe
and his brother, Admiral Richard
Howe. These men found allies in
the elite, loyalist communities of
New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania; moreover, many of
the backcountry farmers of the
Carolinas were English
sympathizers, as well. The men,
however, failed to acknowledge
that the support of the people
was lukewarm; the people were
low in number, and that the
boorish behavior of the English
soldiers and Hessian mercenaries
was not winning any friends for
the English cause.
HOWE THE ENGLISH PLANNED TO WIN THE WAR
After a frustrating attempt to
capture Charleston, South Carolina
resulted in an embarrassing defeat
for Henry Clinton’s men. Unable to
muster much support from loyalist
bands in South Carolina, and
seemingly cursed by the tides and
lay of the land from which they
launched their attack, the British
packed up ship and reorganized in
New York. That summer, the
British arrived in New York with an
army of over 30,000 men – more
than the entire population of the
city. They did not seek, however,
to destroy the loyalist stronghold –
for, they liked Americans in
general. Instead, they wanted to
provide an enormous show of force
and embarrassingly defeat the
fledgling leader – George
Washington. Washington, who had
rushed his Continental Army south
to meet the British, was
overwhelmed and forced to retreat.
THE BATTLE FOR NEW YORK CITY
After escaping the British Army in
New York – and it is fairer to note
that he was simply allowed to retreat
from New York – Washington led his
army west: across the Hudson River
into New Jersey, and then across the
Delaware River and into
Pennsylvania. As the autumn of
1776 descended into winter, the
Howe’s began to settle into their
winter encampments. Still reeling
from the loss of New York City and
worried that once enlistments ran
out for the Continental Army few of
his men would re-up and even fewer
would be recruited to the ranks,
Washington was eager to score a
victory before settling in for the
winter. On Christmas Night, in the
middle of a blizzard, Washington
and his men crossed the Delaware
River to strike Trenton. The British
and their Hessian mercenaries were
caught entirely off their guard, and
surrendered. Just nine days later,
another victory was gained at
Princeton, NJ. The increase in
morale made the attacks entirely
worthwhile for the Army.
THE BATTLE OF TRENTON
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect
of the war for the Americans who had
volunteered to serve in the Army –
infected by the “Spirit of ’76” – was
the complete disregard for the
funding of the Army by the Congress
and the states alike. During the first
hard winter of the war, which
Washington and his men spent in
camp near Morristown, NJ, the
Congress was unable to provide food
or supplies for his army from
Congress. When the Continental
Congress authorized Washington to
take the provisions by force from
nearby farmers and community
members, Washington opted not to –
he was conscious of the harm the
English Army was doing itself by
treating American citizens as brutally
as they had, and he would not repeat
their error in judgment.
FUNDING THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
GRAFT AND CORRUPTION IN THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
The historian Charles Royster, in his work, A Revolutionary People at
War: The Continental Army & American Character reveals the extent
of corruption and war profiteering during the War for Independence:
“Soldiers probably suffered much more directly from the graft of
contractors or suppliers… Americans repeatedly sold defective
food, clothing, gunpowder, and other supplies to their own army.
Wagoners drained the brine from barrels of pickled meat to lighten
their loads, then charged at the full weight for shipping spoiled
meat; meat-packers drained the brine and replaced it with water –
which kept up the weight but ruined the meat; barrels of flour
arrived at camp with the flour in the middle scooped out; cobblers
used odd scraps to make shoes that looked good when new but
quickly fell apart; the army received blankets that, when opened,
revealed that each blanket was only a fraction of the proper size;
gunsmiths cheated the government when hired to repair arms; large
quantities of gunpowder were “bad and not to be depended on.”
THE TURNING POINT: SARATOGA
If 1777 seems awfully early
in the conflict for a turning
point victory, it is no less
surprising that the mortal
injury was self-inflicted. It
was the poor decisionmaking of General John
Burgoyne which brought the
English to this crossroads,
however, with an ambitious
plan that was poorly
researched, even more
poorly communicated, and
recklessly carried out in
territory which was as
unforgiving as it was
unknown to the British.
Burgoyne’s plan was to carve a
path of destruction through the
state of New York which would
isolate New England from the
remainder of the colonies.
Driving his army south from
Montreal towards Albany, it was
Burgoyne’s intention to meet both
Barry St. Leger – coming from
west to east from Mohawk lands
to the Hudson River Valley and
the soldiers of William Howe. The
plan, however, quickly fell to
pieces:
1.
Burgoyne had underestimated
the terrain – and over packed;
he was traveling luxuriously.
2.
The Native American allies
which Barry St. Leger had
been counting on failed to
emerge.
3.
General Howe had left New
York City and was completely
unaware of Burgoyne’s
predicament.
SARATOGA: THE TURNING POINT
It was Ethan Allen and the Green
Mountain Boys – from what today
we call Vermont – who stalled the
progress of Burgoyne and his men
as they attempted to “bushwhack”
their way from Montreal to Lake
Champlain and even farther south
towards Albany. A vicious
bloodletting ensued at
Bennington, and eventually,
Burgoyne and his men found
themselves surrounded by the
American Army led by Horatio
Gates. On the battlefield, Gates
shrank away from the action;
indeed, Benedict Arnold was the
most important leader during the
heat of the battle. But he did
receive Burgoyne’s surrender with
grace. With Burgoyne’s surrender,
the American colonists won
something greater than the victory
in battle – they won credibility.
Within the coming year, France,
Spain, and Holland would all
commit themselves to the
American War for Independence.
SARATOGA
Happily, England was despised
in Europe and had a host of
enemies who were more than
willing to help along the
American Revolution –
particularly when they came to
the realization that American
rebels were up to the task of
winning their independence. At
the top of the list of enemies
was France, followed in close
order by fellow Catholic nations
Spain and Holland. After
Saratoga, diplomats like the
Benjamin Franklin had a much
better time of it arguing that the
Continental Army would be able
to defeat the English – especially
with a well placed naval
blockade from the French and
the deep pockets of a couple of
European rivals at their disposal.
WINNING FORMAL RECOGNITION ABROAD
The winter of 1777-1778 was
dreadful by all accounts.
Foot soldiers lived in 14 x 16
cabins – a dozen to a fort.
Blankets, coats, and firewood
were all scarce. Requests for
provisions were denied, and
yet the men would remain
committed to the cause of
liberty for the United States.
The Prussian military leader
Baron von Steuben – a man
who had purchased his
military rank and still
exaggerated considerably in
seeking his position – was
responsible for introducing
military discipline to the
soldiers – reinforcing
Washington’s goals and
making soldiers out of men.
By the spring of 1778, the
army was transformed – even
if it remained undersupplied.
THE WINTER OF 1777 – VALLEY FORGE
CLINTON ABANDONS PHILADELPHIA FOR
NEW YORK
Once France entered the war
on the side of the American
colonists, Henry Clinton felt
unsafe in Philadelphia. The
city was too easy to
blockade, at the end of the
Delaware Bay. He hastily fled
for New York City. Although
the major cities in the North
were under British control,
very little else was under
British rule; the Northern
region of the colonies
remained in a stalemate.
The Second Southern Campaign and the Role of the French in
Winning Independence
WINNING INDEPENDENCE
While it would probably have been
impossible to win the
Revolutionary War without French
intervention, the French were
nevertheless a fickle ally. They
were fighting the war for their own
interests – just as the Americans
were – and only supported
Washington and his Continental
Army to the extent that it
advanced France’s goals for
participation in the contest.
Therefore, when it came time to
execute battle plans or coordinate
between land and sea, the French
Navy was often no where to be
found. They were in the
Caribbean, protecting their own
interests in the sugar islands there
from English attack. Washington
had to work around this – while
coopering with French
commanders on the ground in
America.
THE ROLE OF THE FRENCH
After having been repulsed in
their first efforts to capture the
port of Charleston in South
Carolina, a second initiative
carried out by Henry Clinton had
far superior results in the winter
of 1779 and 1780. The result
of this battle turned the course
of the war in the South.
Previously, Patriots had held the
city, and Loyalists worked in
disorganized guerrilla bands to
fight against them. Now,
Loyalists held the city of
Charleston, and the American
militias were forces to take up
guerrilla tactics. Several bloody
battles ensued between smaller
groups of soldiers. It is here
that Francis Marion – “The
Swamp Fox” – won his
reputation. The film “The
Patriot” is a wildly exaggerated
story which caricatures Marion.
THE FALL OF THE CITADEL AND CHARLESTON
Another of the more
outstanding leaders of the
roaming bands of patriots in
the South was Thomas
Sumter, who led his own
group of irregulars into battle
in the backcountry of South
Carolina against bands of
Loyalists. The most famous –
and bloody – battle in this
region was at King’s
Mountain. There, Sumter
refused to even allow the
Loyalists to surrender to his
forces, surrounding them and
picking them off one by one.
The vicious nature of the
fighting in the backcountry
was a grim reminder of how
horrible war is – even as more
formal rules of engagement
were in place between the
more organized armies in the
conflict.
THE BATTLE OF KING’S MOUNTAIN
THE REGULAR ARMIES IN THE SOUTH
Meanwhile, in the conflicts between the
Continental Army and the British,
Americans led by Horatio Gates – the hero
of Saratoga – had suffered crushing
defeats, the worst of which was at
Camden, South Carolina. Gates would be
replaced by the younger and more
energetic Nathanael Green.
Although Green’s Army could not defeat
the larger and better trained men of Lord
Charles Cornwallis, they were determined
to lead him on a merry chase before
retreating. Perhaps his most important
contribution was to instill greater
discipline in his own men, who had been
guilty of much plunder and mistreatment
of locals. Green attempted to make
reparations and even went so far as to
propose pardons for loyalists and create
alliances with local tribes. Gift-giving
schemes won over all but the Creeks.
Green would then devoted himself to a
strategy of self-preservation. He would
make Cornwallis chase his army from
sunup to sundown.
COWPENS
Green dispersed several of the
groups at his command to harass
the English lines and create
disorder. At the battle of Cowpens,
American riflemen under the
command of Daniel Morgan stood
their ground against an oncoming
enemy attack in a meadow in South
Carolina, and although largely
outnumbered, they repulsed the
British. So frustrated was
Cornwallis after this disheartening
loss, that he decided to launch an
offensive to capture Nathanael
Green’s Army – but he would have
to catch them first. And Green and
his army would prove to be elusive.
THE BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURTHOUSE
The Battle of Guilford
Courthouse ensued in the
spring of 1781, when Cornwallis
and his army finally caught up
with Nathanael Green’s men and
forced them to fight. The
conflict was bloody and both
sides would suffer staggering
loses. The Americans would
escape and retreat yet again,
though, leaving Cornwallis
disgusted. Ultimately, he and
his men would head north,
hoping for better luck in
Virginia. There, luck would not
improve.
TREASON AT WEST POINT
As Lord Cornwallis was tracking
northwards, in pursuit of Nathanael
Green’s men, a treasonous scandal
was coming to light in the North.
Benedict Arnold, hero of the Battle
of Saratoga and one of the key
figures in procuring the guns of
Ticonderoga at the outset of the
war, was discovered consorting
with the enemy – attempting to give
the keys to the fort at West Point to
the British. Although the plot was
discovered and put to a halt, the
blow to morale which resulted from
the discovery of treachery from one
of the most revered leaders of the
cause was painful. His name is now
associated the worst treason.
SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN, 1781
The Decisive Final Maneuvers – Washington, Rochambeau, De
Grasse, and Cornwallis at War in Virginia
WASHINGTON AND ROCHAMBEAU
General Rochambeau and George
Washington did not see eye to eye
regarding strategy as the war came
to its conclusion in the 1780 –
1781. Indeed, Washington believed
that an assault on New York City – a
stronghold of the loyalists and
Great Britain’s army and naval
strength – was a high priority.
Rochambeau, however, though
Washington’s plan superfluous, and
believed that following
Washington’s command would be a
bit like the tail wagging the dog.
He had already sent orders to the
French naval commander Admiral
De Grasse to make haste for the
Chesapeake – for the combined
force would attempt to corner and
siege Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.
VICTORY AT YORKTOWN, 1781
The Continental Army, led by Washington –
along with French soldiers under the
command of Rochambeau, cornered
Cornwallis’s men on the peninsula near
Yorktown. With Admiral de Grasse en
route to the Chesapeake, the army would
surely be cornered and a siege would
result in his eventual surrender. Although
Henry Clinton attempted to intercept the
French Navy before they reached the
Chesapeake, his action was too late, and
siege began in earnest in the summer.
The action was a who’s – who of the
Revolutionary War, with Washington,
Rochambeau, Lafayette, Anthony Wayne
and Baron von Steuben all playing
important roles in the maneuvers.
Meanwhile, aiding Cornwallis was the
traitor Benedict Arnold. The outcome,
however, was predictable enough.
Cornwallis surrendered October 19, 1781.
Although this would be the last major
conflict point during the Revolutionary
War, there were many smaller scale events
to follow, and major diplomatic missions.
IN THE AFTERMATH OF YORKTOWN
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Fighting continued between bands of Loyalists and Patriots – less
organized units of men who fell upon each other in the
backcountry – particularly in the South.
Bloody warfare continued on the Frontier, often involving Native
American tribes with varying degrees of interest in the outcome
of the larger conflict. British military outposts and forts in the
West would be occupied all the way through the War of 1812…
The British continued to occupy most of the major cities in the
American colonies: Charleston, New York, Savannah, and to a
lesser degree Philadelphia.
The Parliament, however, passed legislation to stop funding the
Revolutionary War efforts in March of 1782, effectively calling a
cease-fire from afar.
NEGOTIATING THE TREATY OF PARIS, 1783
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Benjamin Franklin, the elder statesman of the new
American Republic; John Adams the patriotic if prudish New
Englander, and John Jay, the aristocratic New Yorker, were
assigned with the task of negotiating the Treaty of Paris.
The Congress gave the men the power to negotiate, but
insisted that they tie themselves and their allegiance to
France – instructions which were dismissed out of hand by
all three men.
They insisted upon the pre-condition that the United States
would be treated as an independent nation from the
beginning of the negotiations.
TERMS OF THE TREATY OF PARIS, 1783
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Independence for the United States of America.
All English possessions from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi
River was ceded – the Northern boundaries approximately the
same as the present borders with Canada, the Southern
boundaries at Florida.
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Americans were granted fishing rights off the coast of
Newfoundland.
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The British agreed to evacuate all forts in the Northwest Territory
– today’s Ohio River Valley. (They did not.)
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Americans promised to pay on their debts to England and to
restore the property of the Loyalists who had fled the United
States or had their belongings seized. (They did not.)
How the United States Changed Socially, Politically, and
Economically due to the Outcomes of the Revolutionary War.
MAJOR IMPLICATIONS OF THE
REVOLUTIONARY WAR ON SOCIETY REDEFINITION OF LIBERTY
Given the language of the
Declaration of Independence and
other Revolutionary tracts
distributed around the time of the
War for Independence, it is
surprising that the topic of
abolition of slavery did not receive
any greater consideration than it
did during the period. Indeed, the
British had a far superior offer for
enslaved people during the war –
emancipation for service in the
armed forces. But whether they
served with the Continental Army
or for the British, black soldiers
would be paid less and placed in
the most dangerous and laborious
positions. Some slaves fled for
urban centers where they might
“pass” as free blacks; others joined
Native American tribes. Those
who joined the British roles were
generally forced to emigrate to the
Caribbean, Canada, Britishcontrolled Florida, or to colonial
possessions in Africa, like Sierra
Leone. American blacks were
rarely guaranteed emancipation.
THE PLIGHT OF THE ENSLAVED
The traditional argument
that you cannot cast
judgment upon the
Founding Fathers because
their beliefs were a product
of their times does not hold
well in light of the many
Americans who recognized
the irony and hypocrisy of
celebrating independence
and liberty in a nation which
endorsed slavery. British
soldiers taunted, “How is it
that we hear the loudest
yelps for Liberty among the
drivers of Negroes?” James
Otis, Thomas Paine, and
Benjamin Rush – along with
the African-American poet
Phillis Wheatley – all
recognized the crime
against humanity.
Washington freed all of his
slaves upon the death of his
wife. Certainly the Founding
Fathers missed an
opportunity to act boldly
and righteously in order to
end slavery in America.
MANUMISSION AND EMANCIPATION
Loyalists were exiled from the
American colonies – at least for a
period of years – and faced
crippling economic losses.
Against the stipulations of the
Treaty of Paris of 1783, most
loyalist property had been seized
and sold. Reparations, although
promised, were rarely paid in spite
of some earnest protests by
Americans. Of the estimated
100,000 loyalists who left the
American colonies, most went to
the islands of New Brunswick or
Nova Scotia, or some other part of
Canada. Others went to islands in
the Caribbean. For those who
opted to emigrate to the Mother
Country, they soon found that
whatever their status in the
American colonies, it was greatly
reduced in England – many would
perish in poverty on the island.
THE FATE OF LOYALISTS IN AMERICA