Revolutionary War

1. Revolutionary War Lesson 6

2. Agenda • Background • METT-TC: Revolutionary War Overview • Characteristics of the Offense: Trenton • Characteristics of the Defense: The Cowpens • Principles of War: Yorktown

3. The Enlightenment • The Scientific Revolution had suggested that rational analysis of behavior and institutions could have meaning in the human as well as the natural world • Increasingly, thinkers challenged recognized authorities such as Aristotelian philosophy and Christian religion and sought to explain the world in purely rational terms • The result was a movement known as the “Enlightenment”

4. John Locke (1632-1704) • Studied the relationship between the individual and the state • Wrote An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1689 • Largely anti-authoritarian • Opposition is both on the level of the individual person and on the level of institutions such as government and church

5. John Locke • Individuals should use reason to search after truth rather than simply accepting the opinion of authorities or being subject to superstition • Proportion assent to propositions to the evidence for them • There must be a distinction between the legitimate and illegitimate functions of institutions • Based on those distinctions, there is a corresponding distinction for the uses of force by those institutions. • By using reason to try to grasp the truth and by determining the legitimate functions of institutions, the individual and society will flourish materially and spiritually

6. John Locke • Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) had described a social contract in which people in a state of nature ceded their individual rights to a strong sovereign in return for his protection • Locke offered a new social contract theory in which people contracted with one another for a particular kind of government, and that they could modify or even abolish the government • Great influence on Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence

7. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) • Many Enlightenment thinkers condemned the legal and social privileges enjoyed by aristocrats and called for a society in which all individuals were equal before the law • In 1762, Rousseau wrote The Social Contract arguing that members of a society were collectively the sovereign • All individuals would participate directly in the formulation of policy and the creation of laws

8. American Revolution: New Legislation • In the mid-18th Century, British colonists in North America seemed content with British rule, but in the mid-1760s things started to change • Trying to recover financial losses from the French and Indian War (1754-1763) and the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), the British passed a series of new taxes on the colonies • Sugar Act (1764) • Stamp Act (1765) • Townsend Act (1767) • Tea Act (1773) • Other offensive legislation included the Quartering Act of 1765

9. American Revolution: Colonial Response • The colonists responded with demands of “no taxation without representation,” boycotted British products, attacked British officials, and staged the Boston Tea Party (1773) • Consistent with Rousseau • In 1774, they organized the Continental Congress which coordinated the colonies’ resistance to British policies

10. American Revolution: Declaration of Independence • On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress adopted “The Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America” (The Declaration of Independence)

11. American Revolution: Declaration of Independence • “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” • Governments derive their power and authority from “the consent of the governed” • When any government infringes upon individual’s rights, “it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government” • Declared the colonies to be “Free and Independent States”

12. Declaring yourself to be “Free and Independent States” and making it so were two different things On April 18, 1775, British troops and colonial militia skirmished at Lexington and the American Revolutionary War had begun By the rude bridge that arched the flood, Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood, And fired the shot heard round the world. --Ralph Waldo Emerson Revolutionary War

13. METT-TC • Mission • Enemy • Terrain and Weather • Troops and Equipment • Time • Civilians

14. Mission • Colonists • Gain independence • British • Maintain colonies within the British Empire

15. British 24,000 soldiers Average soldier was 30 years old with 10 years service Muskets, bayonets, light field guns Two or three ranks of infantry supported by light field guns Powerful Navy (30 warships, 400 transports) More experienced, better led, more thoroughly disciplined and trained Howe knew generals from their Seven Years’ War record Enemy: Aug 1776 (Doughty, 38-39)

16. Terrain • New York City • Ice free port • Important to American communications along and across the Hudson River • Important to American morale • Location at the confluence of the Hudson and East Rivers would cause Washington to divide his forces among Manhattan, Long Island, and New Jersey (Doughty, 38)

17. New York City

18. Weather • Traditionally armies in the Revolutionary War era went into winter quarters • Washington would use this to gain surprise at Trenton in Dec 1776 • Valley Forge, Dec 1777 to May 1778

19. Colonists 28,000 soldiers Average soldier was 20 years old with less than a year of service Muskets, bayonets, light field guns Two or three ranks of infantry supported by light field guns Used simplified British tactics (experience from Seven Years’ War) No Navy Great disparity in quality between militia and Continental Army Many generals were imposed upon Washington by Congress or state governments Troops: Aug 1776 (Doughty, 38-39)

20. Troops: Colonists • Fearing that the creation of a regular army might ultimately deprive them of their liberty, they initially sought to win through inspired citizen soldiers (unskilled militiamen) • Failure of this premise led to creation of Continental Army (Doughty, 30)

21. Troops: Colonists • Continued apprehension caused leaders to pursue more evasive and delaying strategies and to rely on militiamen more than they wished • Continued dependence on militiamen and partisan caused leaders to • simplify marching and drilling • command more by persuasion and instruction than by coercion • integrate militiamen and regulars in tactical dispositions (Doughty, 30)

22. Time • Washington assumed command of the Continental Army on 2 July 1775 • Most of his men’s enlistments expired 31 Dec • It wasn’t until Feb 1776 that Washington had raised enough men, ammunition, and artillery to consider attacking Boston (Doughty, 35) • It took Washington and Rochambeau from 21 Aug to 26 Sept 1781 to march their armies from NY to VA prior to Yorktown (Doughty, 64)

23. Civilians: In General • Both sides understood from the beginning that they were fighting for the allegiance of a people and for the destruction or preservation of one state and the creation of another (Doughty, 30)

24. Civilians: Colonists • Had to defeat the British and control the loyalists without losing popular support or destroying the republican principles for which they fought (Doughty, 30)

25. Civilians: British • Argued that they were protecting loyalists from the tyranny of a few ambitious rebels • Various strategies • Intimidating the rebels with a show of force • Combining force and persuasion to break the rebellion without alienating a majority of the colonists • Enlisting the support of loyalists in a gradual and cumulative restoration of royal government (Doughty, 30)

26. Characteristics of the Offense Trenton

27. Characteristics of the Offense • Surprise • Concentration • Tempo • Audacity (FM 3-0, p. 7-4)

28. Trenton • The British followed up their success on Long Island with a series of landings on Manhattan Island • Compelled Washington to retreat, escaping finally over the Delaware into Pennsylvania with about 3,000 men. • Howe then went into winter quarters

29. Trenton • In December 1776, Washington determined to make a surprise attack on the British garrison in Trenton, a 1,400-man Hessian force • Hoped that a striking victory would lift the badly flagging American morale. • Reinforcements had raised Washington’s army to about 7,000

30. Trenton • On Christmas night (25-26 December) he ferried about 2,400 men of this force across the ice-choked Delaware. • At 0800 hours they converged on Trenton in two columns, achieving complete surprise. After only an hour and a half of fighting, the Hessians surrendered. • Some 400 of the garrison escaped southward to Bordentown, N. J., when two other American columns failed to get across the Delaware in time to intercept them. • About 30 were killed and 918 captured. American losses were only 4 dead and a like number wounded.

31. Trenton:Characteristics of the Offense • Surprise • Took advantage of British being in winter quarters and in poorly defended, dispersed locations • Bad weather and limited visibility • Christmas had reduced British security

32. Trenton:Characteristics of the Offense • Concentration • Washington led 2,400 men across the Delaware at McConkey’s Ferry above Trenton and then proceeded by two columns on different routes, converging at opposite ends of the main street in Trenton • Tempo • Washington’s forces attacked before the British could react

33. Trenton: Concentration

34. Trenton:Characteristics of the Offense • Audacity • Washington knew he had to do something to restore morale and act decisively before the 1776 enlistments expired • Risked poor weather, previous poor performance of troops, and dividing his force • In house to house fighting, American inspiration and initiative would counter British superior training and discipline

35. Characteristics of the Defense Cowpens

36. Characteristics of the Defense • Preparation • Security • Disruption • Massing Effects • Flexibility (FM 3-0, p. 8-2)

37. Cowpens: Preparation • Nathanael Greene was commander in the Carolinas and Georgia • Only a little over 1,000 Continentals and bands of ill-disciplined militia against Cornwallis’ 10,000 men • Had to create circumstances to achieve success

38. Cowpens: Preparation (cont) • Greene divided his army into two divisions which he posted to the northwest and northeast of Cornwallis’ camp at Winnsboro • Allowed him to better feed his own men, sustain the militia, and harass the British • Tempted Cornwallis to divide his main body, making it more vulnerable • Cornwallis did this in Jan 1781, sending 1,100 men (commanded by Tarleton) to attack Greene’s western division (commanded by Morgan)

39. Cowpens: Security • Greene’s strategy was luring Cornwallis away from his bases of supply • Morgan applied the “troops” portion of METT-T and recognized his militia was ill-disciplined • Deployed militia in two lines, 300 and 150 yards in front of his Continentals • He asked each militia line to fire twice before retreating behind the Continentals • A small force of 125 cavalry was posted in the rear to cover the exposed flanks

40. Cowpens: Disruption and massed effects • Americans executed as planned • Militia in the first lines checked the British cavalry and fired two effective volleys into the infantry before retreating behind the Continentals • British rushed after the retreating militia and became disordered • Continentals fired repeated volleys into the British • British disintegrated against American counterattack

41. Cowpens: Massed Effects

42. Cowpens: Results • Americans suffered 6.2% losses (12 killed and 60 wounded) • British suffered 90% losses • Cornwallis became obsessed with Morgan and turned to pursue him • Morgan retreated into Virginia (flexibility) • In a month Cornwallis had marched 225 miles without achieving decisive battle

43. Principles of War Yorktown

44. Principles of War • Objective • Offensive • Mass • Economy of force • Maneuver • Unity of command • Security • Surprise • Simplicity

45. Yorktown and Selected Principles of War • Objective • Trap and defeat Cornwallis’ army on the York Peninsula • Offensive • Two parallel siege lines followed by an assault • Mass • Allies had an overwhelming advantage in numbers (16,000 to fewer than 8,000)

46. Yorktown: Maneuver • From Aug 21 to Sept 26, 1781 Washington and Rochambeau (French) marched their armies from New York to Virginia • Simultaneously, De Grasse (French) sealed off the Chesapeake with the Navy • Objective was to trap and defeat Cornwallis’ army on the York Peninsula

47. Yorktown: Unity of Command • More appropriately, unity of effort • Joint (Army and Navy) • Combined (Americans and French) • Rochambeau (French) and Lafayette (French) cooperated on land with Washington • De Grasse (French) sealed off the Chesapeake with the Navy

48. Yorktown: Results • On Oct 19, the British surrendered and in Sept 1783 they formally recognized American independence

49. The United States • In 1787, Americans draft the Constitution of the United States which created a federal government based on popular sovereignty • The Bill of Rights in particular stressed individual liberties such as freedom of speech, the press, and religion • However, not everyone was granted full political and legal equality, only white men of property • Equality for all Americans would be an on-going struggle for many years, but still the early understanding of freedom, equality, and popular sovereignty in America would have broad implications throughout the world • Remember Emerson’s “shot heard round the world”

50. Next • Mexican War