American Revolution – Military Phase & International Turning Points (1775-1783)

Strategic Context and Need for European Support

• Independence (vote $07/02/1776$, public declaration $07/04/1776$) pursued not only for ideology but to convince Spain, the Netherlands, and especially France that the uprising was credible.
  • Continual wars of the late $1600$s–mid-$1700$s (King William’s, Queen Anne’s, Seven Years’ War, etc.) had made France wary of another costly loss to Britain.
  • Proof required on two fronts: (1) philosophical legitimacy in documents, (2) battlefield performance.
• Benjamin Franklin’s diplomatic charm offensive in Paris
  • Wore a fur cap to cultivate the myth of the “rugged frontiersman.”
  • Strategy: leverage curiosity → sympathy → alliance, but only if U.S. armies avoided collapse.

Comparative Strengths and Weaknesses at War’s Outset

• British advantages
  • Professional army & world’s foremost navy.
  • Larger population and industrial base $\Rightarrow$ deeper supply of money, men, matériel.
• British liabilities
  • $3{,}000$-mile supply line across the Atlantic.
  • Divided public opinion in Parliament; war weariness after earlier conflicts.
  • Vast Atlantic coastline impossible to blockade completely; piracy threats.
  • Need for “hearts & minds” incompatible with brutal counter-insurgency tactics.
• American situation
  • Continental Army mostly volunteers on 1-year enlistments; defections common.
  • Minimal navy, scant artillery, small economy.
  • Home-field advantage: interior lines, familiar terrain, supportive civilians.

Early Northern Campaigns ($1775$–$1776$)

Failed Invasion of Canada

• Congress authorized two-pronged push (June $1775$).
  • Gen. Richard Montgomery from Fort Ticonderoga via Lake Champlain.
  • Col. Benedict Arnold through Maine wilderness.
• Montreal captured (November $1775$); assault on Quebec City (night of $12/31/1775$) forced by expiring enlistments.
  • Montgomery killed, Arnold wounded, campaign collapses → retreat.

Siege of Boston and “Noble Train of Artillery”

• Fort Ticonderoga seized May $1775$ by Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys ⇒ captured $59$ British cannon.
• Col. Henry Knox (former bookseller, age $28$) hauled artillery $300$+ miles in winter using sledges & ox teams (Dec $1775$–Feb $1776$).
• Washington emplaced guns on Dorchester Heights $03/04/1776$; Gen. William Howe evacuated Boston $03/17/1776$ (St. Patrick’s Day) with troops & $1{,}000$ Loyalists to Nova Scotia.

British Plan for New York (Summer–Fall $1776$)

• Objective: seize NYC & Hudson corridor to isolate New England, then pacify Middle Colonies.
• Howe brothers’ joint army–navy force = largest expeditionary army Britain had ever launched abroad (≈ $30{,}000$ before Hessians).
• Mercenary policy: $18{,}000$–$30{,}000$ German troops hired for $£4.7$ million (mainly from Hesse) $\Rightarrow$ PR disaster; pushed neutrals toward Patriot side.

Battle Sequence

• Landing on Staten Island (June), advance to Long Island; Battle of Brooklyn/Flatbush $08/27/1776$.
  • U.S. losses ≈ $1{,}500$; saved by heroic rearguard of Maryland 1st Regiment (“Maryland $400$”).
• No annihilation: Washington evacuates $9{,}000$ men across East River under night fog.
• Fall of Manhattan; “Great Fire” $09/21/1776$ (likely Patriot arson despite Congressional veto on burning the city).
• Fort Washington lost; NYC remains British HQ until $1783$.

Intelligence, Espionage & Patriot Symbolism

• Washington needs intel $\Rightarrow$ ad-hoc spy ring.
• Capt. Nathan Hale caught, hanged $09/24/1776$; famous last words (paraphrase of Addison): “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”
  • Becomes martyr; boosts morale despite amateur tradecraft.

Trenton–Princeton Counterstroke (Winter $1776$–$1777$)

• Howe issues pardons; $5{,}000$ NJ residents (incl. signer Richard Stockton) swear allegiance to Crown.
• Thomas Paine publishes The Crisis No. 1 ($12/23/1776$): “These are the times that try men’s souls… sunshine patriots.”
• Washington crosses Delaware Christmas night ($12/25–26/1776$); defeats $1{,}400$ Hessians at Trenton, then British rear guard at Princeton $01/03/1777$.
  • Tactical gains ↔ strategic effects: renew enlistments, raise morale, force British pullback toward coastal New Jersey.

Philadelphia Campaign & Battle of Saratoga ($1777$)

Howe’s Chesapeake Flank

• British sail from NYC $07/23$, land head of Chesapeake, beat Washington at Brandywine $09/11$ & Germantown $10/04$; occupy Philadelphia $09/26$.
• Expected Loyalist surge fizzles.

Northern Front: Burgoyne’s Advance & Failure

• Gen. John Burgoyne leaves Montreal $06/17$ with $5{,}000$ regulars, $3{,}000$ Hessians, Iroquois allies.
• Retakes Fort Ticonderoga $07/06$ but slowed to $1$ mile/day in Adirondack/Hudson wilderness; supply crises.
• Forage party annihilated at Bennington $08/16$, St. Leger stalled at Oriskany $08/06$.
• Battles of Freeman’s Farm $09/19$ & $10/07$ (Saratoga): U.S. under Horatio Gates & Benedict Arnold inflict >1{,}200 British casualties vs. $500$ American.
• Burgoyne surrenders $6{,}000$ at Saratoga $10/17/1777$ ⇒ watershed victory, persuades France.

French Alliance & Other Foreign Aides

• News reaches Paris; Treaty of Alliance signed $02/1778$.
  • France now supplies fleets, armies, credit $\rightarrow$ turns rebellion into global war.
• Notable volunteers
  • Marquis de Lafayette: becomes Washington protégé, leads troops from $1777$.
  • Polish engineers Thaddeus Kościuszko (fortifications) & Casimir Pulaski (cavalry).
  • Baron von Steuben (Prussia) drills Continentals at Valley Forge with simplified Blue Book manual.

Valley Forge Winter ($1777$–$1778$)

• $20$ mi NW of occupied Philadelphia; $~11{,}000$ soldiers endure cold, disease, scant rations; $2,000$ die.
• Crucible of professionalization: von Steuben’s training, unified camp hygiene & organization.

Monmouth & Shift North to South ($1778$–$1780$)

• British replace Howe with Henry Clinton; evacuate Philadelphia June $1778$, march across NJ.
• Battle of Monmouth $06/28/1778$ in $100°$ heat: tactically inconclusive; demonstrates upgraded American discipline.
  • Legend of “Molly Pitcher” (Mary Ludwig Hays) bringing water & manning cannon.
• Benedict Arnold, hero turned traitor
  • Given command of West Point $1779$; plots to hand it over for promotion & $£$$. Major John André captured; Arnold escapes to British, becomes brigadier general; André hanged $10/02/1780$.

Southern Theater (Savannah $1778$ → Yorktown $1781$)

• British strategists pivot, hope for Loyalist density & cash-crop value.

Chronology

• Savannah taken $12/29/1778$; Augusta $01/1779$.
• Franco-American attempt to retake Savannah (Oct $1779$) fails; $\approx1000$ Allied casualties.
• Charleston falls $05/12/1780$: $5,500$ Continentals captured (worst U.S. surrender until $1862$).
• Clinton returns to NYC, leaves Gen. Charles Cornwallis with $8,000$ men & harsh “no-quarter” policy (partly via Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton – “Butcher”/“Red Raider”).
• Brutality breeds Patriot guerrilla response: Francis Marion “Swamp Fox,” Thomas Sumter “Gamecock,” Andrew Pickens.

Key Battles

• Camden $08/16/1780$: Cornwallis routs Horatio Gates ⇒ Gates disgraced.
• Kings Mountain $10/07/1780$: Patriot over-mountain men kill/capture entire Loyalist force, execute some for prior atrocities.
• Cowpens $01/17/1781$: Daniel Morgan’s double-envelopment crushes Tarleton; Cornwallis forced into “race to the Dan.”
• Guilford Courthouse $03/15/1781$: Cornwallis tactical win but $\approx25\%$ casualties ⇒ strategic loss.
  • Withdraws to Virginia seeking resupply.

Yorktown Campaign (Summer–Fall $1781$)

• Cornwallis fortifies Yorktown peninsula; expects relief from Gen. Clinton.
• French fleet (Adm. de Grasse) wins Capes of Chesapeake $09/05/1781$, blocks sea escape.
• Washington + Rochambeau march $400$ mi from Hudson to Virginia; combined $17{,}000$ besiege $8{,}000$ British.
• Continuous artillery $10/06–17$; parallel trenches advance.
• Cornwallis surrenders $10/19/1781$; British band reputedly plays “The World Turned Upside Down.”
  • Marks practical end of hostilities; minor skirmishes persist to $1783$.

Human & Material Costs

• American dead ≈ $25,000$ (≈ $1\%$ of $2.5$ million population) – second-highest per-capita after Civil War.
• British/Hessian casualties comparable; economic strain contributes to later fiscal crisis in Britain.

Treaty of Paris $1783$

• Negotiators: Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Jay.
• Terms (signed $09/03/1783$)
  • Britain recognizes United States independence.
  • Borders: Atlantic $\rightarrow$ Mississippi River (west); Great Lakes/Canada (north); $31^{st}$ parallel (south – Florida stays Spanish/British-controlled).
  • Fishing rights off Newfoundland; evacuation of troops; restitution for Loyalist property (largely unenforced).
• British delegation so resentful they refused to sit for the commemorative painting.

Thematic Reflections & Continuities

• Strategy of survival over decisive victory: Washington’s guiding doctrine; echoed later by insurgent forces worldwide.
• Public relations as warfare
  • British use of Hessians & “no-quarter” tactics backfires, flipping neutrals.
  • American use of martyr narratives (Hale), propaganda (Paine), symbolic paintings (Crossing the Delaware) nurtures national identity.
• Logistics & environment shape campaigns: Knox’s cannon trek, Burgoyne’s wilderness slog, French fleet at Yorktown show decisive impact of supply lines & terrain.
• Internal fissures: Loyalist vs. Patriot civil war especially pronounced in the South; foreshadows future U.S. sectional conflicts.
• Internationalization: Franco-American alliance transforms local revolt into world war, previews balance-of-power diplomacy of $19^{th}$-century Europe.
• Ethical ambiguity: guerrilla warfare, prisoner executions, Tarleton’s & Marion’s atrocities highlight moral complexity of revolutionary violence.

Looking Forward

• With independence secured, new dilemmas emerge: crafting governance for a populace wary of centralized power (Articles of Confederation), integrating war-time ideals (liberty, equality) with contradictions (slavery, loyalist displacement), and stabilizing post-war economy.
• Next lecture promised to explore “fumbling attempts” at republican government in the $1780$s and intellectual debates over state vs. federal authority.