1775

 

__________

 

“A good deal of the reality has been filtered out.”

 

Bruce Catton

__________

 

 

BRUCE CATTON, writing in an introduction, in 1958, says:

 

    We had our American Revolution nearly two centuries ago, and the years have done something to it. The legend remains, and the statues and the grassy earthworks and the great body of tradition, but a good deal of the reality has been filtered out. When we look back we see Washington crossing the Delaware on a cold winter night, or kneeling in prayer in the snow at Valley Forge; we see the Minuteman, or the lanky Virginia rifleman picturesque in fringed buckskin; but somehow it all seems to be out of a pageant, and neither Washington nor the men who followed him quite come alive for us.

 

It was a struggle, furthermore, that was fought out by people very much like ourselves; which is to say that they were often confused, usually divided in sentiment, and now and then rather badly discouraged about the possible outcome of the tremendous task they had undertaken. (48/7-8)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: It has always been my belief that this is the problem – that the life of human beings has been leached out of most history, leaving us with statues in a park, not real people. It is our job to bring the people back to life.

First shots of the American Revolution: Lexington, April 19.

 

*

 

JOHN ADAMS in later years “declared that about one-third of the American people were ‘Tories.’” (56/188)

 

*

 

AS EARLE, “up to the Revolution boys reached man’s estate at sixteen years of age, became taxpayers, and served in the militia.” (226/190)

 

*

ACCORDING to Harry Ammon, 

   The utopian vision of the revolutionary age cannot be reduced to a simple formula. Never spelled out in specifics, it was voiced in the form of broad maxims such as the belief that republican governments were superior to all others, that social institutions were subject to natural law, that all men were created equal and that the object of government was the preservation of liberty. (24/vii)

 

    According to John Adams, “America was designed by Providence for the Theatre, on which Man was to make his true figure, on which science, Virtue, Liberty, Happiness and Glory were to exist in Peace.” (24/viii)

 

*

 

April 19: Lancaster and Plumb set the scene at Lexington (I am reminded of the confusion at Kent State in 1970, over who or if anyone gave an order to fire.)

 

    Lexington’s Captain John Parker on the Green, and Major John Pitcairn on the road estimated the situation, and each took appropriate action. Parker, heavily outnumbered, ordered his two companies to disperse. The Marine, under instructions to disarm quietly any militia encountered, swung his men from column into line, trying to oblique beyond Parker’s left flank, ordering his men “on no account to Fire or even attempt it without orders.”

 

    Someone did fire. Just whose finger tightened on the trigger will probably never be known, although Pitcairn’s own report to [Gen. Thomas] Gage strongly suggests that the shot came from an American straggler near the edge of the Green. Several British volleys crashed out, and smoke coiled heavily about Buckman’s Tavern and the Harrington house, over the Green itself. For a moment, the troops got out of hand, broke ranks, rushed toward houses from which they swore shots were coming. Pitcairn and his officers shoved and bullied their men back into formation, firing ceased and the militia scattered as Colonel Smith came on with the grenadiers. (48/95-96)

 

 

    Redcoat forces pushed on toward Concord, and then retreated again, one recalled marching through “a Veritable Furnass of Musquetry.” (48/99)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: My students were slow to understand the idea that the shots fired at Lexington and Concord were “heard round the world.”  It worked to ask them what they thought Emerson meant:

 

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

   Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled,

Here once the embattled farmers stood,

   And fire the shot heard round the world. 

 

    The badly mauled British had no choice but to retreat, as patriot forces continued to gather in growing numbers.

 

    Andrews says “the panting troops found shelter in Boston. Out of 1,800 nearly 300 were killed, wounded, or missing.” (2/70)

 

*

 

IN THE COLONIES, regiments are being organized to serve to the end of the year, labeled the “Eight-Months Army.” (48/103)

 

*

 

May: John Adams is “cautioned by the Philadelphia Sons of Liberty not to utter the word independence. ‘It is as unpopular,’ they said, in ‘Pennsylvania and all the Middle and Southern States as the Stamp Act itself.’” (2/54)

 

*

 

May: After reading an old story in American Heritage (“The Good Soldier White”), regarding the experiences of an American soldier named Joseph White, I went looking for additional information. White enlisted at age 18, in 1775, and served till 1777, when, feeling he had done enough, he returned home to Massachusetts. 

    In 1833 he set down some of his experiences in what he titled A Narrative of Events, as They Occurred from Time to Time, in the Revolutionary War. Wherever White is quoted, the spelling and syntax are his own. 

    White joined as a “bombardier” in May, but one day an officer in his regiment “came to me and said, I understand that you are a good speller, I told him I could spell most any word. Why cannot you come and be my Assistant said he. … He said it paid five shillings per week, besides his rations, and mine would be the same, which he would pay…” 

    White consented, bought an officer’s coat, and noted that the buttonholes and hat were trimmed with “gold lace.” 

    On the evening of June 16, he would later write, “our whole army were drawn up in a circle, to attend prayers. After which, they marched toward Bunker Hill. I had a lame hand, and they would not let me go.” 

    On a different occasion, he was sent to George Washington’s headquarters, to deliver a message. The American commander made note of White’s youth, saying that he was “very young” to hold the position of assistant adjutant in an artillery regiment. 

    “I told him I was young, but was growing older every day, “White recalled, “He turned his face to his wife, and both smiled. He gave me my orders, and I retired.” 

    White himself made light of his service, to this point. He stayed with the army until the end of the year, but admitted, “I was a feather bed soldier all this time.” (See 1776.)

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: It might interest your students to point out that not all soldiers do heroic duty, even in wartime. This blogger joined the Marines in 1968 and volunteered (twice) in the summer of 1969, to go to Vietnam, but was never sent. 

    Instead, he did clerk duties in a supply unit at Camp Pendleton, California, until September 1970. 

    I used to tell my students, “I defended my country with a staple gun!” 

    In the Marines, we were tested and assigned our MOS (military occupation specialty). I had dropped out of college but still had good language skills. So, I spent my time in California filling out paperwork. In boot camp, I remember a recruit being assigned an MOS none of the rest of us recognized. 

    “Plumber,” our drill instructor said. 

    That Marine defended the country with a toilet plunger. 

    I read somewhere that General Eisenhower’s army in Europe had 50,000 cooks. So there are many men and women in the military, who never see combat at all, or only in brief moments.

 

* 

May 31: With war clouds gathering, George Washington wrote to Lord Fairfax, his former patron, now in England: 

Unhappy it is, though to reflect that a brother’s sword has been sheathed in a brother’s breast, and that the once happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative! But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?

 

*

 

June 7: Nicholas Cresswell, a young Englishman, is surprised by the way the colonials in Virginia act – while dancing.

 

Last night I went to the Ball. … Here was about 37 ladies dressed and powdered to the life, some of them very handsome and as much vanity as is necessary. All of them fond of dancing, but I do not think they perform it with the greatest elegance. Betwixt the Country dances they have what I call ever-everlasting jigs. A couple gets up and begins to dance a jig (to some Negro tune) others comes and cuts them out, and these dances always last as long as the Fiddler can play. This is sociable, but I think it look more like a Bacchanalian dance than one in a polite assembly. Old Women, Young wives with young children on the lap, widows, maids and girls come promiscuously to these assemblies which generally continue till mourning. A cold supper, Punch, Wines, Coffee and Chocolate, but no Tea. This is a forbidden herb. The men chiefly Scotch and Irish. I went home about two o’clock, but part of the company stayed, got drunk and had a fight. (300/101)

*

 

June 15: George Washington is chosen to lead the new “Continental Army.” Some had favored the selection of Gen. Artemus Ward, a son of New England. During a meeting of the Second Continental Congress, the day before, John Adams had spoken in favor of the Virginian, who he described as “a Gentleman whose Skill as an Officer, independent fortune, great Talents and universal Character would command the Approbation of all America, and unite the cordial Exertions of all the Colonies better than any other Person in the Union.”

 

    John Hancock made it official, noting that the vote in favor of Washington was unanimous. (48/111)

 

*

 

“I do not think myself equal to the command.”

 

 

June 16: George Washington responds to his choice to be commander of the new Continental Army:

 

Since the Congress desire, I will enter upon the momentous duty and exert every power I possess in their service and for the support of the glorious cause. But I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with. (Coe, Makers of the Nation)

 

 

    To his wife, George writes:

 

    You may believe me, dear Patsey, when I assure you in the most solemn manner that, so far from seeking this appointment, I used every endeavour in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family but from a consciousness of its being a trust too great for my capacity. (124/183)

 

    Washington then rode north, passing through New York City. Van Loon writes,

 

    The entire city turned out to see His Excellency.

 

    A company of the local militia acted as a bodyguard.

 

   A few days later the town turned out with equal enthusiasm to see the new governor, arrived that very moment from London, England.

 

    The same company of the local militia acted as a bodyguard. (124/184)

 

 

    Van Loon offers description of the new American general, 44, his face marked by smallpox. “He stood six feet three inches in his stocking-feet. He weighed two hundred and twenty pounds but nevertheless was a fine horseman.” (124/185)

 

    For the rest, as long as you did what you were supposed to do you could be sure that he appreciated your efforts and would take your side if you got into trouble with some busybody selectman whose chicken-yard had been plundered by a couple of hungry soldiers. But God help you when you fell asleep at your post, when you discovered that you had urgent business in the rear as soon as a British man-of-war had got your range. He would bawl you out right then and there and once going he could curse like the marines. But that was alright. Sure it was alright. This was war. … Anybody ever hear of a war that was fought without swearing? And he would see to it that you got well fed if he had to pay for your grub out of his own pocket. Yes, that was right, too. He would not take a cent for his services. Said that he was rich enough and meant to make no money out of something he merely considered his duty. He had not wanted the job much anyway. He had a nice place down there in Virginia and all the land and slaves he needed. … All in all a fine gentleman. Not the sort you slap on the back. No, not exactly. But if he decided to go somewhere, you somehow or other decided that you would go there too. Leadership they called it. Well, he had it. (124/186-187)

 

    “So much for the man,” Van Loon writes. “What about the ‘situation?’ It was so bad it was almost funny.” (124/188)

 

*

 

June 17: The Battle of Bunker Hill is fought. McMaster writes: 

While the battle was raging Charlestown was shelled and set on fire and four hundred houses burned. Later, in October, a British fleet entered the harbor of Falmouth (now Portland in Maine), and burned three fourths of the houses. January 1, 1776, Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, set fire to Norfolk, the chief city of Virginia. The fire raged for three days and reduced the place to ashes. These acts were charged against the king in the Declaration of Independence: “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.” (97/162)

 

 

John Quincy Adams, just three weeks and three days short of his eighth birthday, remembers his mother taking him by the hand to a high hill, so they could watch the distant scenes of battle. He later wrote of her:

 

    For the space of twelve months my mother with her infant children dwelt, liable every hour of the day and of the night to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and carried into Boston as hostages. My mother lived in unintermitted danger of being consumed with them all in a conflagration kindled by a torch in the same hands which on the seventeenth of June (1775) lighted the fires of Charlestown. I saw with my own eyes those fires, and heard Britannia’s thunders in the Battle of Bunker Hill, and witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled them with my own. (226/171)

 

 

    Andrews says that British losses were 1,054, including 157 officers; American losses totaled nearly 500.

 

    Lancaster and Plumb insist that the Redcoats were carrying 120 pounds of equipment, including three days’ rations and blankets, as they made their first assault.

 

    They note,

 

this was a frontal attack against an entrenched force of unknown strength, despite the fact that Howe, under cover of the omnipresent fleet, could have landed his men at the base of the Neck and clamped a stranglehold about the American garrison. But custom, eighteenth-century military honor, and possibly a not too farfetched belief that the defenders could not stand against such a disciplined mass, decreed the head-on smash.

 

 

    With no one in overall command, Bunker Hill “was black with troops who had come on during the morning, but there they stayed, largely because there was no one to tell them where to go or what to do when they got there.”

 

British sources agree that the first ripping volley was delivered when the bayonet points, sharp in the sun, were less than fifteen paces from the lines. Bearskin caps flew in the air; bright uniforms were strewn over the trampled green of the grass. Then powder-blackened eyes in the redoubt, along earthwork and rail fence, looked out incredulously as the disordered wreckage of the attack went pounding back in angry flight to the beaches and the waiting boats.

 

    By late afternoon, the slopes of Breed’s Hill were red with a litter of scarlet and white, thickened by the failure of a second attack that had been smashed as utterly as the first. Eyes in Boston, eyes behind the defenses, watched the shredded companies re-form and wondered if any troops could rally after two such murderous smashings.

 

…Men in the defenses watched them form [for a third attack], start up those ghastly slopes once more, and, watching, slipped shaky fingers into cartridge pouches. Four rounds left? No, only two. Perhaps none. As before, they waited, clutching bayonet-less muskets. … There was one, perhaps a second, blast that shook the attackers, then silence from the works.

 

 

    The Americans were driven off the crest but retreated in some order.

    General William Howe had won for General Thomas Gage an utterly useless peninsula, and at horrible cost. … The total casualty list showed 1,054 dead and wounded out of some 2,300 who had gone in through the smoke and flying lead of the three attacks. And something intangible died in the British command on that June afternoon. No officer who witnessed the slaughter could ever get the memory of it out of his mind. Where drive and initiative were displayed by the British high command during the rest of the war, they usually came from someone who had neither toiled up the slopes that led from the beaches to Breed’s Hill nor watched others on that ghastly ascent. (48/107-110) 

Bunker Hill.

 

*

 

ACCORDING TO COE, at news of Bunker Hill, Washington had but one eager question, “Did the militia fight?” When told how well they had behaved, he replied: “The liberties of the country are safe.” 

    Coe describes the condition of the camps around Boston, prior to his arrival: 

    The discipline was lax. A visitor at camp heard this conversation. The speakers were a captain and one of his men.

 

     “Bill,” said the captain, “go and bring a pail of water for the men.”

 

    “I shan’t,” said Bill. “It’s your turn now, captain; I got it last time.”

 

    The men had no uniforms. Washington asked Congress to provide ten thousand hunting shirts. He thought that to clothe the soldiers alike would be a step towards making them act alike.

 

    [At one point, the commander learns his men have half a pound of powder each.] When that fact was told Washington, he was silent half an hour in dismay. The barrels in the magazines that should have held powder were filled with sand. Then a little powder was sprinkled on top. This was to deceive any British spy who might be seeking information. (Coe, Makers of the Nation)

 

 

    Andrews notes, in similar vein: “Congress, too, afraid of a standing army, would authorize only short enlistments.” (2/74)

 

    As for Washington’s situation at Boston, Andrews adds, “All fall and winter he was obliged to lie inactive for want of powder.” (2/75)

 

    Of Gen. Washington, Andrews says that he was qualified to lead because of his “wonderful self-control, sound judgment, lofty patriotism, and sublime courage” (2/73)

 

    He also describes Washington as “the most perfect human personality the world has known.” (2/157)

 

    “George had always been a good son,” Andrews says his mother once said; but we know from later historians that the two were not always on the best of terms. (2/159)

 

*

 

Fall: “The feeling of dependence on the mother-country and of loyalty to the king was deep-rooted and died hard.” (2/51)

 

“Congress declared that it had ‘not raised armies with the ambitious design of separation from Great Britain.’” (2/54)

 

*

 

December 2: Having struggled north, through thick wilderness and deep snow, in bitter cold, two American “armies” unite near Quebec, and prepare to capture the city. One of those two small forces was led by Gen. Benedict Arnold, who, with his men, had overcome incredible difficulties to make it this far. One Pennsylvania soldier described how he had watched comrades collapse from complete exhaustion. If a man stopped to help another up, he himself lost his footing.

 

At length the wretches raise themselves up ... wade through the mire to the foot of the next steep and gaze up at its summit, contemplating what they must suffer before they reach it. – They attempt it, catching at every twig and shrub they can lay hold of – their feet fly from them – they fall down – to rise no more.

 

    The second “army,” led by Gen. Richard Montgomery, has also battled its way through hard country, and captured Montreal, before moving on to Quebec.

 

*

 

December 25: New Hampshire, in forming a new state government, “totally disavowed” any desire for independence.

 

    Washington wrote that independence was not then “desired by any thinking man in America.”

 

   Pennsylvania “strictly” warned her representatives in Congress not to support any “proposition that may lead to separation.”

 

    Maryland soon follows suit. (2/53)

 

*

 

December 31: With a thousand men combined, Montgomery and Arnold finally launch an attack on Quebec. In the first blast of fire Gen. Montgomery is killed and his men lose heart. Arnold is wounded, and the Americans are scattered or captured.

 

 

NOTE TO TEACHERS: When covering Washington’s military career, I tried to include all these issues:

 

Terms to know included regiment, infantry, patriot, New England, revolution, “Spirit of 76,” Hessian, Tory, militia

 

We discussed leadership: What is it and how does one show leadership? (I have always liked the example of Alexander the Great and the story of water in the desert. His dejected army is retreating across India, and water is almost impossible to find.

 

Finally, several of his cavalrymen return with a helmet full of water they had found and gave it to Alexander. While his troops passing by watched, he poured it on the ground.

 

I asked my students why. 

 

Washington travels with minimal baggage, normally stays in a tent, like his troops, and takes no pay for serving.

 

I liked my students to know that as a boy, Washington studied 110 rules of conduct, including showing self-control. 

 

He was a big man, and in one case broke up a fight between two rival regiments by wading into the melee and grabbing two ringleaders by the throat and supposedly lifting them off the ground.

We also discussed his luck in getting his troops off Long Island, after placing them in such an untenable position in the summer of 1776. He was, however, a leader who set a good example, and was up for 48 hours without rest, making sure his troops were ready to sneak off the island in the dark and fog.

 

My classes seemed intrigued to think that had that retreat failed, Washington would likely have gone down in history as a failure or have been almost unknown. 

 

He was personally brave, once charging after retreating Redcoats on his horse, shouting, “It’s a fine fox chase, boys!” 

 

Washington was also lucky to be facing Lord Howe, a British commander, who dallied while the Continental Army suffered through the winter at Valley Forge, devoting his attentions to a “flashing blonde,” as one historian put it.

 

I thought it was important to note that he did not punish the losers in Revolution, those Americans who supported the British; he let the loyalists escape at Yorktown. 

 

His troops grew restless after Yorktown. Pay was often late. In March 1783 Washington called in his officers, for what one historian described as “probably the most important single gathering ever held in the United States.” There was talk of placing George on a throne, since Congress was seen to be failing the army. Washington pulls out a letter from a congressman, can’t seem to understand what he's looking at, and finally says, “Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in the service of my country.”

 

It is said he shamed the men who had even thought to ask him to elevate himself.