History 101: Week 6 (Professor Messer-Kruse)

Lecture 15: Revolution War and Society

I. How was it that the poorly armed and provisioned colonial army was able to defeat the British. Americans lost nearly every battle of the Revolutionary War. Still they forced the world's mightiest empire to capitulate. How?

II. The British Army:

A. Apparent numerical superiority. In the summer of 1776, the B.British amassed an army of 31,625 soldiers and 10,000 sailors - the single largest army England fielded in all of the 18c. C. American armies were far inferior to British arms on the open field of battle. 1. 18c. warfare based on massed, coordinated musket fire; disciplined bayonet charge; and large unit tactical maneuvers. In all these categories the less disciplined and drilled colonials could not match British regulars. D. British had virtually complete control of the sea and early in the war controlled virtually every major colonial city. E. Americans seemingly divided among themselves, both between whigs and tories, but also between colonies.

III. Many military historians have drawn the parallel between the American revolution and the Vietnamese revolution to explain why the English lost:

A. England, like the US had a superpower mentality of invulnerability. B. Both Americans in Vietnam and the English in America fought at a logistical disadvantage of great distance and difficult terrain. C. Both Americans in Vietnam and English in America had a condescending attitude toward their colonial allies (tories or S. Viet. army) that alienated their potential base of support. D. Both the Americans in Vietnam and the English in America persisted in attempting to crush their colonial revolutions long after the prospect of "winning" was hopeless. Why? Both powers feared a "domino effect" upon allies and colonies surrounding the revolution.

IV. But such analogies can be carried too far as there were significant differences:

A. Both the American colonists and the Vietnamese nationalists depended upon the material aid of superpowers hostile to their former colonial rulers. Unlike, the US in Vietnam, England was willing to face war with France and Spain to end their alliances with the American revolutionaries. B. Vietnam more of a civil war than the American Revolution. C. The US had a more flimsy claim upon Vietnam than England had upon its American colonies.

V. Washington's strategy: [the same strategy as Ho Chi Minh's in Vietnam]

A. Unable to directly challenge the British army and undertake offensive operations, Washington chose a defensive strategy: 1. Attrition: attacking of outposts and garrisons while avoiding battle with the main body of English regulars. 2. Potracted War: making the war a test of endurance in the hopes that the political winds would change in London and force a change in policy. 3. Defensive strategy: fortifying crucial areas making their capture by the British as costly as possible. 4. Alliance: surviving long enough as a viable army to attract foreign allies. B. But the paradox of Washington's postion was that the strategic defensive did nothing to remove British troops from American soil, which was after all, the key objective of a war for independence.

VI. This strategy not hatched all at once, but the product of trial and error.

A. The early victory at Bunker Hill in 1775, gave Washington and other generals a false sense of their military equality 1. Subsequently they launched a foolish invasion of Quebec soon afterwards that proved a total defeat. 2. Washington himself foolishly attempted to defend NY against the full British invasion force. a. After this, Washington understood that he must fight only with the defensive advantage, but also that he must avoid even a full confrontation with tactical defensive advantages. Washington's primary objective after the fall of New York was not the defense of any particular position, (though he used his forces skillfully to defend strategic areas as best he could) but his primary goal was simply the survival of his small army itself. b. Washington only accepted full frontal battle when the situation could not be avoided: (1) Brandywine Sept. 1777 when the English threatened to take Philadelphia, was the only time in the entire war that Washington accepted battle with the main British force. He did so because not defending the Continental capital would have deeply dispirited the American cause. All the other engagements were actually against detachments and portions of the British army.

VII. The English strategy was colored by their experience in European warfare and was ill-suited to the requirements of subduing the colonies.

A. English generals still thought in terms of conquering and controlling places (such as capturing Philadelphia and garrisoning New York) - such tactics were vital in Europe where cities were the centers of production and political life, but in the colonies, much production still came from the backcountry, politics were largely decentralized, and the army was primarily provisioned (badly) by soldiers themselves and by imports from France that were landed in obscure coves and bays along the coastline. 1. By holding some areas, such as New York, Phily, and southern towns, they hoped to provide safe havens for loyalists and attract loyalist forces to their cause. In typically British fashion they overestimated their own popularity and support among the Americans and theri loyalist armies never materialized. B. English generals never realized that they key to winning the war was destroying the Continental army rather than holding any particular territory. C. The English strategy of holding the Champlain-Hudson line and cutting the colonies in half was doomed from the start. June 1777 Gen. Burgoyne moved south from Montreal. 1. The English could never have mustered enough forces to actually seal off New England from the rest of the colonies. 2. The difficult terrain from Champlain to Albany afforded the Americans an opportunity to employ unconventional tactics that ultimately defeated the invasion force. a. obstruction of roads slowed British army to 1 mile/day. b. "Guerilla war": American irregulars harrassed the army and disrupted supply lines. c. British detachments searching for supplies were nearly wiped out on a number of occassions, particularly at Bennington, VT. By October, Burgoyne's army depleted by half. d. American General Horatio Gates took advantage of the English lack of supplies and weakened condition to make a stand at Bemis Heights overlooking the Hudson and ultimately forced Burgoyne to surrender at Saratoga.

VIII. 1778 France and 1779 Spain joined the war.

IX. After the war turned to the South in 1780, the character of the war changed dramatically. Rather than facing a Continental army in the field as they did North of Virginia, the English faced small partisan bands that harrassed them at every turn. A. In response the English made the same mistake of attempting to meet colonial resistance wherever it cropped up, even when this meant dividing the main body of the army into smaller groups that General Greene and Lighthorse Henry Lee picked off one by one. 1. In 1781, Gen. Cornwallis makes the mistake of his life and in pursuit of the Continental army decides to abandon his supply lines and forage off the land. The Continentals retreated deep into Virginia and, stripping the land bare of any supplies for the pursuing redcoats. When Cornwallis was sufficiently exhausted of supplies, the Americans rallied and Washington led an additional 7,000 regulars from New York to join with Greene. Cornwallis limped to the shelter of Yorktown, a coastal town that he hoped would soon be supplied by the English navy, but the French navy arrived instead to seal off the approaches from the sea. On October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered his army to Washington.

X. IN the final anaylsis, the key to American victory was not the quality of the American leadership of Washington, Gates, Burgoyne or Greene, nor the skill of the Continental army, but was the irregulars, the lowly militia.

A. Contrary to American mythology, the militia man was not the ever-ready, ever-loyal and dutiful minuteman who was a farmer one minute and a crack-shot marksman the next. In reality, they were poorly armed, poorly trained, showed bad discipline to the point of insubordination, and probably weren't even very good shots. B. The militias contribution was away from the famous battlefields. Their crucial role, only dimly understood by the armies regular generals at the time, was political and logistical. 1. Political: every adult man was required to serve in the militia. Militia service became a touchstone of loyality to the rebellion. Because of militia service, and of the readiness of the militia to meet out punishments to members of their communities who failed to support them, it became impossible to be neutral during the war. a. By overcoming the natural instinct of people to take the least path of resistance, by forcing them to commit themselves to rebellion or toryism, the militias built support for the rebellion and squelched loyalist dissent. 2. Logistical: The widespread prescence of the militia: a. made it extremely difficult and dangerous for the British to operate in small groups or maintain small garrisons. b. harrassed British supply lines. c. provided a ready reserve for the regular army: "The Americans lose 600 men in a day and 8 days later 1200 others rejoin the army; whereas, to replace 10 men in the English army is quite an undertaking." - Baron Ludwig von Closen (of the French Expeditionary Force)

Lecture 16: The Creation of the First American Republic

INTRO: The American Revolution was not only a struggle for independence from England, but was also in many significant ways, a struggle for power among Americans themselves. Popular protest carried the Revolution to the point of arms and through the struggle common Americans organized and gained political power to a degree they had never had before. With the creation of the Association and the organization of popular nonimportation committees and popular militias, the Revolution was placed on a firm footing, but this popular mobilization threatened American elites as well as foreign ones. The struggle for control within America was fought out in three arenas:

C. In the State Constitutional Conventions over the structure of the state governments. D. In Congress over the struggle over the structure of the national government. E. In the farms, fields, streets and roads where popular protest movements confronted the new agents of national power over the question of the distribution of wealth in society.

But in the end, the social structure of America changed very little due to the revolution. In contrast to the French or other modern revolutions, the American revolution is notable in the continuity of its elite leadership throughout the period.

Nowhere is the imprint of these struggles more evident than in the two founding documents that launched American independent government: the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. The former was drafted at a point when the "spirit of 76" gave the upper hand to popular forces and radicals in Congress while the latter was the product of a time that saw the suppression of popular movements and the rise of conservatism and elite sceptics of democracy.

XI. State Constitutional Conventions: During the course of the political struggle against England of the early 1770s, some colonial assemblies were suspended by the crown or pushed aside by popular rump bodies organized to demand repeal of the contested Parliamentary acts. Colonial elites that had long held power in these assemblies either found themselves bypassed or found themselves joined by irregular delgates nominated by popular acclamation. Every state experienced struggles between old elites and those lower classes long excluded from power and wealth. In all but one state, these struggles were ultimately won by the conservatives, but the temporary triumph of the marginalized in Pennsylvania illustrates well that the democratic impulse was one that came from the common people and not from the famous leaders of the revolution.

A. More than half a year before Congress declared independence it (Nov. 1775) Congress called upon states to draft constitutions and establish governments.

B. For example: Pennsylvania. 1. Pre-revolutionary political control rested in three most eastern counties and in the city of Philadelphia and was an oligarchy of Quaker merchants and lawyers. Western Penn. disenfranchised by vastness of its districts and lower classes in Eastern Penn. disenfranchised by fifty pound property requirement. a. Only 335 of 3,4523 men in Phily in 1775 qualified.

2. Grievances of W. Penn: a. no representation b. tax burden unfair (whiskey excise tax) c. no aid against Indians d. Proclamation line of 1763 seen as a Quaker merchant plot to control fur trade at their expense.

3. Grievances of E. Penn. (Phily artisans) a. merchant cabal attempted to monopolize retail trade by ending public auctions and closing public markets. Even banned street peddlers and fishing in navigable rivers.

C. Bicameralism vs. Unicameralism: Upper Houses in bicameral systems intended to represent the interests of property against the forces of democracy. 1. John Adams argued against allowing direct unicameral democracy because he thought it more prone to "make arbitrary laws for their own interest" and argued their should be a higher elite house that would be a check upon the branch of the legislature that represents "the people." a. Adams was also against changing the existing elite voting requirements for once one began to relax the requirements "there would be no end of it...women will demand a vote; lads from twelve to twenty-one will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has not a farthing will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions and prostrate all ranks to one common level." b. John Jay put things even more bluntly when he argued, those who own the country should govern it.

2. Radicals pushed through the most democratic constitution in America at that time. a. unicameral b. strict term limits c. universal white male Christian suffrage d. no governor/president - exec. council composed of one delegate from each county.

D. Penn.'s constitution was an inspiration to other American radicals. States where radicals had the upper hand emulated the example of Penn: 1. Vermont, declaring independence from NY in 1777, copied Penn. constitution. 2. But conservatives gained the upper hand in other states - NY, Mass., ML and S. Carolina retained high prop requirments for suffrage, upper houses with high prop. requirements, and strong executives.

Articles of Confederation

XII. Congress: June 1776, Congress appointed a committee to draft a constitution for the new independent nation. This document was not fully adopted until 1781, and then scrapped after just six years. A. The duty of drafting the first constitution was placed in the hands of John Dickenson, a conservative wealthy Philadelphian who had long opposed the rise of the radicals in his native Penn. 1. Dickenson's draft document centralized many functions in the existing Congress and gave to Congress a significant degree of power over and above the states. This was a natural outgrowth of his own struggles with the radicals in Penn. Dickenson, and other conservatives who faced strong challenges from popular insurgencies in their home states, looked to a strong central government as a way of continuing their rule from the top. 2. A coalition of northern radicals, who believed that their liberties were best guarenteed by their states (one of which was theirs and others that they were strongly contending for) and southern conservatives who firmly controlled their home states and saw national government as a risky surrender of their powers. The Congress watered down Dickenson's draft until it was little more than a League of Friendship between the states.

XIII. Powers of the Art. of Conf. government: A. exclusive power to declare war, and negotiate treaties B. exclusive power to maintain army and navy C. responsibility for Indian affairs. D. responsibility for revolutionary war debt. E. exclusive power to set standard for coinage, weights, measures, and to conduct the postal service.

XIV. But the Art. of Conf. government lacked powers as well: A. did not deal with individual citizens but with states alone B. Congress dependent upon states for execution of their laws. C. No power to tax or regulate congress. D. Art. III reserved all powers not expressly delegated to congress to the states.

XV. But the Art. of Conf. were hamstrung by the requirement that amendments required unanimous consent of the states. No amendment was to the A.C. was ever ratified.

XVI. The Art. of Conf. took four years to ratify. The primary reason for the holdup, the largest controversy was the question of the western lands. Six states had enormous and conflicting land claims west of the Appalachian Mts. based on their sea-to- sea charters. (NY based its claims on even more dubious Iroquois land titles). Six states had no western land claims. They refused to ratify a general government until the other states reliquinshed their claims to the federal government. Finally, a quarter million square miles of land was deeded to the Congress and in March 1781, ML ratified.

ID: NOTES-101.6.

Copyright © 1999 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System