Chapter 08 - America Secedes from the Empire

I. Congress Drafts George Washington

1. The Congress selected George Washington (43 years) to lead the hastily improvised army besieging Boston. He had never risen above the rank of a colonel in the militia. He was gifted with leadership and a strong character. He was a moral force rather than a military mind.
2. His selection was largely political. Already wealthy he couldn't be accused of being a fortune-seeker. He was from Virginia and as an aristocrat he could be counted on to check the "excesses of the masses."

II. Bunker Hill And Hessian Hirelings

1. The clash of arms continued on a contradictory basis. On one hand, Americans were emphatically affirming their loyalty to the King and earnestly voicing their desire to patch up difficulties
2. On the other hand, they were raising armies and shooting down his majesty's soldiers.
3. May 1775 - A tiny American force under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold surprised and captured the British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point (New York)
   • They secured a store of gunpowder and artillery for the siege of Boston.
4. June 1775 - Colonists seized a hill, now known as Bunker Hill (actually Breed's Hill) British blundered bloody when they launched a frontal attack with 3,000 men Americans mowed down the British but they ran out of ammo and they ran away. It was defeat but the Americans won because the British would have no army left in America
5. July 1775 - The Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, professing American loyalty to the crown and begging the King to prevent further hostilities
6. But following Bunker Hill, the King slammed the door to all hope of reconciliation.
   • Because most of these soldiers-for-hire came from the German principality of Hesse, the Americans called all Euro-mercenaries Hessians.
   • Hessians hirelings proved to be good soldiers but many wanted money than duty.

III. Burgoyne's Blundering Invasion

1. London officials adopted an intricate scheme for capturing the vital Hudson River Valley in 1777. The main invading force, under an actor - playwright - soldier, General John Burgoyne, would push down the Lake Champlain route from Canada. General Howe's troops in New York could advance up the Hudson River to meet Burgoyne near Albany.
2. Colonel Barry St. Leer would come in from the west by way of Lake Ontario and the Mohawk Valley. While the British stopped to construct a sizeable fleet, the tireless Arnold assembled and fitted out every floatable vessel. They were destroyed and winter was descending. General Burgoyne had to start anew from this base the following year.
3. Burgoyne had begun to bog down North of Albany. In a series of sharp engagements, in which General Arnold was again shot in the leg at Quebec, the British army was trapped. Unable to advance or retreat, Burgoyne was forced to surrender his entire command at Saratoga on October 17, 1777, to the American General Horatio Gates.

IV. Revolution In Diplomacy

1. Rebellious Americans wanted an end to colonialism and mercantilism. They supported free trade and freedom of the seas. Summer 1776 - The Continental Congress had drafted a Model Treaty to guide the American commissioners, it was about to dispatch to the French court.
2. John Adams described its basic principles:
   • No political connection
   • No military connection Only a commercial connection
3. After the humiliation at Saratoga in 1777, the British Parliament belatedly passed a measure that in effect offered the Americans home rule within the empire. On February 6, 1778, France offered the Americans a treaty of alliance.

V. The Colonial War Becomes A Wider War

1. England and France thus come to blows in 1778 and the shot fired at Lexington rapidly widened into a global conflagration. In 1780 the imperious Catherine The Great of Russia took the lead in organizing the Armed Neutrality.
2. The Americans deserve credit for having the war going until 1778, with secret French aid. In June 1778 the withdrawing redcoats were attacked by General Washington at Monmouth, New Jersey.

VI. The Abortive Conquest Of Canada

1. An assault, launched on the last day on 1775, resulted in the death of Richard Montgomery and the wounding of General Benedict Arnold
2. French-Canadian leaders showed no real desire to welcome the plundering anti-Catholic invaders. In January 1776, the British set fire to the Virginia town of Norfolk.

VII. Thomas Paine Preaches Common Sense

1. Loyalty to the empire was deeply engrained, many Americans continued to consider themselves part of a transatlantic community in which the mother country played a leading role. Gradually the Americans were shocked into recognizing the necessity of separating from the crown. In January 1776, the King's health was deteriorating.
2. Common Sense (1776) - one of the most influential pamphlets ever written. Its author was the radical Thomas Paine; became a best seller.
3. He went a long way to convey the American colonists that their true cause was independence rather than reconciliation with Britain, without independence they could not hope for foreign assistance.

VIII. Paine And The Leaders Of "Republicanism"

1. Paine's protest not simply for independence but for the creation of a new kind of society, a (republic) where power flowed from the people themselves, not from a corrupt and despotic monarch. Republicanism was not originated from Paine. It appealed in the hands of the King and his advisors.
2. The colonists' experience with governance had prepared them well for Paine's summons to create a republic. Because political power no longer reject with the central, all-powerful authority of the King, individuals in a republic needed to sacrifice their personal self-interest to the public good. The collective "good of the people" mattered more than the private rights and interests of individuals.

IX. Jefferson's "Explanation" Of Independence

1. June 7, 1776 - Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that "these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." July 7, 1776 - The motion was adopted; the passing of Lee's resolution was the formal "declaration" of independence by the American colonies
2. Congress appointed a committee to prepare a more formal statement of separation; Thomas Jefferson was chosen to write it. July 4, 1776 - The Declaration of Independence formally approved by congress. He gave his appeal universally by evoking natural rights"" of mankind. He then set forth a long list of the presumably tyrannous misdeeds of George III. The Declaration of Independence soon became an inspiration to countless other revolutionary movement. Lafayette hung a copy on his wall in his home, leaving beside it room for a future French Declaration of the Rights of man

X. Patriots And Loyalists

1. The war of independence was a war within a war. Colonists loyal to the King (loyalists) fought the American rebels (Patriots) while the rebels also fought the British redcoats. Loyalists were derisively called "Tories," after the dominant political factions in Britain, whereas Patriots were called "Whigs" after the opposition factions in Britain
2. The American Revolution was a minority movement. Byrds of Virginia - neutral; Loyalists remain true to the King, Many people of education and wealth, of culture and caution, remained loyal.
   • Loyalists were older people, young people make revolutions
   • Loyalists were less numerous in New England

XI. The Loyalist Exodus

1. Rebels regarded loyalists as traitors. About 80,000 loyalists were driven out, or they fled. Their estates were confiscated and sold.

XII. General Washington At Bay

1. Fall 1776 - out generated and out numerated they were routed at the Battle of Long Island where Paine seized the raw recruits. By the narrows of margins and thanks to a favoring wind and fog, Washington escaped to Manhattan
2. Island General Home was Washington's adversary.
3. December 26, 1776, At Trenton, Washington surprised and captured 1000 Hessians who were sleeping off their Christmas celebration

XIII. Burgoyne's Blundering Invasion

1. London offers a complicated scheme for capturing the vital Hudson River Valley in 1777, which could sever New England from the rest of the colonies
   • Plan: General Burgoyne would push down the Lake Champlain route from Canada
   • General Howe's troops in New York, if needed, could advance up the Hudson and meet Burgoyne in Albany. A 3rd and much smaller British force commanded by Colonel Barry St. Leader would come in from the west by way of Lake Ontario and Mohawk Valley
2. However, Benedict Arnold after Quebec failure went back to Lake Champlain
   • British stopped to build a huge force, Arnold's "navy" destroyed, but gained time - winter set in and British had to go back to Canada and restart in Spring
   • Had Arnold not contributed the British most likely would have recaptured Ticonderoga and Burgoyne could have won
3. General Howe deliberately embarked for attack on Philadelphia instead of starting up Hudson. Washington transferred his troops to Philadelphia - defeated at Brandywine Creek and Germantown.
4. Washington retired for the winter at Valley Forge his troops were cold and hungry. Bon Von Steuben whipped troops in shape
5. Burgoyne's troops bogged down, rebels surrounded them and Burgoyne surrendered a Battle of Saratoga on October 17, 1777.

XIV. Revolution In Diplomacy

1. France was eager to get revenge on Britain, and secretly supplied the American throughout much of the war
2. The Continental Congress sent delegates to France; the delegates were guided by a "model treaty" which sought no political or military connections but only commercial ones.
3. After the Saratoga humiliation, the British offered the Americans a measure that gave them home rule - everything they wanted minus independence
4. After Saratoga, France finally was persuaded to enter the war against Britain
   • Louis XVI's ministered argued that this was the perfect time to act because if Britain can regain control, she might try to capture the French West Indies for compensation for the war.
   • Now was the time to strike, rather than risk a stronger Britain with its reunited colonies.
5. France, in 1778 offered a treaty of alliance, offering America everything that Britain had offered, plus recognition of independence
   • Americans accepted the agreement with caution, since France was pro-catholic but they took the needed help.