01:512:205 Lecture 8: Chapter 8
18 May 2018
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Chapter 8: America Secedes from the Empire, 1775-
1783
1. Introduction
1. Bloodshed at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775 was a clarion call to
arms and about twenty thousand minutemen swarmed around Boston to
coop up the British
2. The Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia the next month, on
May 10, 1775, and this time the full slate of thirteen colonies was
represented
1. There was still no well-defined sentiment for independence—merely a
desire to continue fighting in the hope that the king and Parliament
would consent to a redress of grievances; Congress hopefully drafted
new appeals to the British people and king
2. Anticipating a possible rebuff, the delegates also adopted measures to
raise money and to create an army and a navy (the appeals were, as
they expected, spurned)
2. Congress Drafts George Washington
1. Perhaps the most important single action of the Congress was to select
George Washington to head the hastily improvised army besieging Boston
1. The tall, dignified Virginia planter had never risen above the rank of a
colonel in the militia and his largest command had numbered only
1200 men (20 years earlier)
2. Although he lost more pitched battles than he won, the distinguished
Virginian was gifted with outstanding powers of leadership and
immense strength of character
3. He radiated patience, courage, self-discipline, and a sense of justice;
he was a great moral force rather than a great military mind—he
insisted on serving without pay, though he kept a careful expense
account amounting to more than $100,000
2. The Continental Congress, though dimly perceiving Washington’s qualities
of leadership, chose more widely than it knew—his selection, in truth, was
largely political
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3. Americans in other sections, already jealous, were beginning to distrust
the large New England army being collected around Boston; prudence
suggested a commander from Virginia, the largest and most populous of
the colonies; as a man of wealth, both by inheritance and by marriage,
Washington could not be accused of being a fortune seeker
4.
3. Bunker Hill and Hessian Hirelings
1. On the one hand, the Americans were affirming their loyalty to the king
and earnestly voicing their desire to patch up difficulties and on the other
hand, they were raising armies and shooting down His Majesty’s soldiers;
this curious war of inconsistency was fought from April 1775 to July 1776
before they plunged into independence
2. Gradually the tempo of warfare increased; in May 1775 a tiny American
force under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold surprised and captured the
British garrisons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, on the scenic lakes of
upper New York; a priceless store of gunpowder and artillery for the siege
of Boston was thus secured
3. In June 1775 the colonists seized a hill, now known as Bunker Hill
(actually Breed’s Hill) from which they menaced the British soldiers that
were in Boston at the time
1. The British, instead of cutting off the retreat of their foes by flanking
them, blundered bloodily when they launched a frontal attack with
three thousand men
2. Sharpshooting Americans, numbering fifteen hundred and strongly
entrenched, mowed down the advancing redcoats with frightful
slaughter; but the colonists’ scanty store of gunpowder finally gave out
and they were forced to retreat
4. Even at this late date, in July 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the
Olive Branch Petition, professing American loyalty to the crown and
begging the king to prevent further hostilities; after Bunker Hill, King
George III slammed the door on reconciliation
1. In August 1775, he formally proclaimed the colonies in rebellion; the
skirmished were now out and out treason, a hanging crime; the next
month he widened the chasm when he sealed arrangements for hiring
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thousands of German troops to help crush his rebellious subjects (six
German princes needed money and George II needed men)
2. Because most of these soldiers-for-hire came from the German
principality of Hesse, the Americans called all the European
mercenaries Hessians
5. News of the Hessian deal shocked the colonists; they felt that the quarrel
was within the family and why bring in outside mercenaries, especially
foreigners who had reputations)
6. Hessian hirelings proved to be good soldiers in a mechanical sense, but
many of them were more interested in booty than in duty; they were
dubbed Hessian flies as they were seduced by American promises of
land, hundreds of them finally deserted and remained in America to
become respected citizens
4. The Abortive Conquest of Canada
1. In October 1775 before a cruel winter, the British burned Falmouth
(Portland), Maine and in that same autumn, the rebels daringly undertook
a two-pronged invasion of Canada
1. American leaders believed, erroneously, that the conquered French
were explosively restive under the British yoke and a successful
assault on Canada would add a 14th colony, while depriving Britain of
a valuable base for striking at the colonies in revolt
2. But this large-scale attack, involving some two thousand American
troops, contradicted the claim of the colonists that they were merely
fighting defensively for a redress of grievances; invasion northward
was undisguised offensive warfare
2. The bold stroke for Canada narrowly missed success; one invading
column under the Irish-born General Richard Montgomery, formerly of the
British army, pushed up the Lake Champlain route and captured Montreal
and he was joined at Quebec by the army of General Benedict Arnold,
whose men had suffered on the march through Maine woods
3. An assault on Quebec, launched on the last day of 1775, was beaten off;
the able Montgomery was killed; the dashing Arnold was wounded in one
leg and scattered remnants under his command retreated up the St.
Lawrence River
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Document Summary
Chapter 8: america secedes from the empire, 1775- George washington to head the hastily improvised army besieging boston: the tall, dignified virginia planter had never risen above the rank of a colonel in the militia and his largest command had numbered only. 1200 men (20 years earlier: although he lost more pitched battles than he won, the distinguished. February against some fifteen hundred loyalists at moore"s creek bridge in north carolina, and the other in june against an invading british fleet in. Anglican aristocrats flocked: the king"s followers were in aristocratic new york city, charleston and. Pennsylvania and new jersey (pennsylvania farmers didn"t feed. General washington at bay: with boston evacuated in march 1776, the british concentrated on new. York as a base of operations, which was a splendid seaport, centrally located, where the king could count on cooperation from the numerous.
