- 1. Revolutionary War Part 2 U. S. History Mrs. Rieffel
2. 1775: The War Begins The Rides of Paul Revere and William
Dawes (4/18) The Battles of Lexington and Concord (4/19) Ethan
Allen and the Green Mountain Boys Seize Fort Ticonderoga (5/10) The
Second Continental Congress (met in Philadelphia, 5/10) Washington
named Commander in Chief (6/15) Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on
Breed's Hill) (6/17) Benedict Arnold's failed attack on Quebec
(12/30) 3. Christ Episcopal The Old North Church
- Christ Church, with its tall steeple, was an important building
in the life of Paul Revere. As a young boy, Paul was a bell-ringer
here--- even though his family attended a different church each
Sunday and probably did not approve of his job. Later, this was the
church that became famous for the two lanterns that gave the signal
that the British were coming by sea. Longfellow called this church
"The Old North Church", but in Paul's day
- it was called Christ Church.
Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of
Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Hardly a
man is now alive Who remembers that famous day and year.He said to
his friend, "If the British march By land or sea from the town
to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North
Church tower as a signal light,-- One if by land, and two if by
sea; And I on the opposite shore will be, Ready to ride and spread
the alarm Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country
folk to be up and to arm." 4. The Midnight Ride of Whom? Paul
Revere became a figure of popular history and legend, however,
because of his ride on the night of Apr. 18, 1775, to warn the
people of the Massachusetts countryside that British soldiers were
being sent out in the expedition that, as it turned out, started
the American Revolution. William Dawes and Samuel Prescott also
rode forth with the news. Revere did not reach his destination at
Concord, but was captured by the British; nevertheless, it is
Revere who is remembered as the midnight rider, chiefly because of
the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Actually, Dawes didn't make
it to Concord either. When Revere was captured, Dawes got lost in
the dark, strange countryside. The only one to complete the
mission, as you put it, was Dr. Samuel Prescott, a young M.D. from
Concord who had been visiting his girlfriend in Lexington & had
met up with Revere and Dawes as they rode out of Lexington towards
Concord. He was far more familiar with the landscape and was able
to evade the redcoat patrol. Dr. Prescott was 23 years old when he
rode to Concord that fateful morning (it was the AM by the time
Paul and William Dawes ran into him). He arrived in Concord by 1
AM, and warned the town of the regulars approach. Revere was
captured on the way, but Prescott got through with the news. After
the war broke out, he joined a privateer as the ship's surgeon, and
wound up captured off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1776, with the
rest of the crew. He died in prison that year, at the age of 24,
and is thereby largely forgotten in our history books. His portion
of the midnight ride is arguably more important than the portion
that Revere rode. 5. The War BeginsApril 19, 1775 As tensions
between the colonists and the British grew, a split developed and
widened between those taking sides in America as the loyalists
(colonists remaining loyal to the king) and the patriots (those
opposing British laws). Near midnight, April 18, 1775 General
Thomas Gage (British commander-in-chief) sent his soldiers toward
Lexington. He wanted to seize patriot arms and ammunition stored in
Concord. Paul Revere and William Dawes rode ahead to warn the local
minutemen, or patriot volunteers, who would be ready to fight at a
moments notice. At dawn 70 minutemen met 770 English Redcoats on
the village green at Lexington. Militia leader John Parker faces
Br. Gen. Pitcairn and 8 minutemen are killed and 11 wounded.The
British again engaged in fighting at the bridge north of Concord
before retreating to Boston. 6. Battle of Lexington 7. First Blow
for Liberty! 8. Putnam leaving his plow 9. A View of Concord
- Map of the initial area of struggle: The Shot Heard Round the
World
10.
- General Gage learned of the collection of military stores at
Concord and determined to send a force of Redcoats to destroy them.
His preparations were made with the utmost secrecy. Yet so alert
and ubiquitous were the patriot eyes in Boston that when the picked
British force of 700 men set out on the night of April 18, 1775,
two messengers, Paul Revere and William Dawes, preceded them to
spread the alarm throughout the countryside.
- At dawn on the 18th of April when the British arrived at
Lexington, the halfway point to Concord, they found a body of
militia drawn up on the village green.Some nervous finger whether
of British Regular or American militiamen is unknown to this day
pressed a trigger .The impatient British Regulars, apparently
without any clear orders from their commanding officer, fired a
volley, then charged with the bayonet.
- It was The Shot Heard Round the World!
- The militiamen dispersed, leaving eight dead and ten wounded on
the ground. The British column went on to Concord, destroyed such
of the military stores as the Americans had been unable to remove,
and set out on their return journey.
11. Gages March Back to Boston
- By this time, the alarm had spread far and wide, and both
ordinary militia and minutemen had assembled along the British
route. From behind walls, rocks, and trees, and from houses they
poured their fire into the columns of Redcoats, while the
frustrated Regulars found few targets for their accustomedvolleys
or bayonet charges. Only the arrival of reinforcements sent by Gage
enabled the British column to get back to the safety of Boston. At
day's end the British counted 273 casualties out of a total of
1,800 men engaged; American casualties numbered 95 men, including
the toll at Lexington. What happened was hardly a tribute to the
marksmanship of New England farmers it has been estimated 75,000
shots poured from their muskets that day but it did testify to a
stern determination of the people of Massachusetts to resist any
attempt by the British to impose their will by armed force.
- Some of the troops deserted and joined the Americans on the way
back to Boston.20 soldiers went unaccounted for.
12. Militia, Minutemen, & the Continental Army
- Militiaexisted in the colonies long before the American
Revolution. With the exception of Pennsylvania, colonies required
most able-bodied men to own weapons, to be willing to be called for
periodic training, and to defend their communities from attack,
primarily by Indians. This was the colonial militia. Minutemencame
into being in the wake of the crisis in Boston, in 1774.
Essentially, they were a reorganized militia, rid of any vestiges
of loyalty to the crown, and trained, far more extensively than
they had been previously, so that they could "turn out" at a
minute's notice. The Continental Armywas an invention of Congress
and the command of George Washington. When Washington arrived
outside Boston in the aftermath of the battle of Bunker's Hill, he
immediately began to train the diverse forces he found there into a
regular army. This group became the Continental Army. The militia
continued to exist and fight throughout the revolution with mixed
results. Continental Army officers tended to deride its
effectiveness, probably with reason, at least in the early years of
the war. But at Saratoga, in the South, and in New Jersey during a
1780 campaign, they were essential fighting forces. By the end of
the war, Washington and others in the Continental command were
using the militia as support for the regular army, and they were a
crucial component in the ultimate victory.
13. Ethan Allen & the Green Mountain Boys
- Other militia forces under Ethan Allen of Vermont and Benedict
Arnold of Connecticut seized the British forts at Ticonderoga and
Crown Point, strategic positions on the route between New York and
Canada. These posts yielded valuable artillery and other military
stores. In a bold pre-dawn raid on May 10, 1775 a small group of
rebels led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold surprise the token
force at Ticonderoga.
- The commander, roused from sleep supposedly by Allen's famous
command to "Surrender in the name of the great Jehovah and the
Continental Congress." The cannon that were there will be hauled
down to Boston in winter on sledges to put along Boston
Heightspointing at the throat of General Howe.
14. Hauling the guns to Boston 15. Benedict Arnold
- He became (1778) commander of Philadelphia, after the British
evacuation, and there married Peggy Shippen, whose family had
Loyalist sympathies. In 1779 he was court-martialed because of
disputes with civil authorities. He was cleared of all except minor
charges and was reprimanded by Washington; nevertheless he was
given (1780) command of West Point. He had already begun his
treasonable correspondence with Sir Henry Clinton in New York City,
and he arranged to betray West Point in exchange for a British
commission and a sum of money. Some of the seeds of his treachery
were planted during his recuperation from that wound at Saratoga.
Arnold started to become embittered by what he saw as a lack of
recognition for his military genius on the part Congress and the
Continental Army. Just a year and a half after his gallantry at
Saratoga, Arnold offered his services to the British. Specifically,
he planned to hand over the keys to West Point, a crucial American
fort on the Hudson which Arnold commanded.
- The plot quickly unraveled. Arnold's contact with the British
army, Major John Andre', was captured by American forces with
letters implicating Arnold in his boot. Andre' was hanged. Arnold
escaped to the British on a frigate calledVulture ---one vulture
receiving another, Thomas Paine wrote in one of
hisCrisispapers.
- In 1781 in the British service he led two savage raids: one
against Virginia and the other against New London, CT before going
into exile in England and Canada, where he was generally scorned
and unrewarded.
16.
- The unfortunate death of Major Andre, Oct. 2, 1780. Engraving
by Goldar, 1783, from drawing by Hamilton.
17. 18. Second Continental Congress
- George Washington grew increasingly exasperated with the
Continental Congress' inability to help him as he and the army were
being chased from New York and through New Jersey in the fall of
1776. Congress, however, had more than a few problems of its own.
The Declaration of Independence had shown that representatives of
the thirteen colonies could come to an agreement on a single vital
issue. But always crucial to Congressional thinking was the problem
of how to create an effective union, without creating an
overpowering central government like England's.The Articles of
Confederation were introduced in Congress in July of 1776 as a
means to this end. For the next year, the issue of how the states
would govern themselves was arduously debated in Philadelphia
before it was finally passed in 1777. Another 4 years went by
before these same articles were ratified by all the states.
Conducting and financing the war, establishing a foreign policy and
finding allies to the cause were paramount considerations to the
2nd Continental Congress.To finance the war, Congress resorted to
issuing paper money and certificates promising future payment for
goods and services. Both were quickly and steeply devalued.
A post-independence cartoon. America as a horse buckingits
British rider. 19. Battle for Bunker Hill June 17, 1775 In
Massachusetts, the patriot army was growing. Thousands of rebels
poured into New England ready to drive the British out of the
colonies, and more specifically, out of Boston.The rebel army took
position on Breed's Hill near Boston on June 16, 1775. Led by Col.
William Prescott and Gen Israel Putnam, they also intended to take
neighboring Bunker Hill. The British, however, attacked on June 17
before these plans were completed. Although the resulting battle
was for Bunker Hill, the fighting took place on Breed's Hill.The
British attacked the hilltop on three separate charges, with one
coming as close as forty yards before the patriots opened fire. The
rebels did not flee the hill until they had run out of bullets.
Though the British won, about 1,000 redcoats were killed, most of
them were not easily replaced officers. 20. The Death of General
Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775 by John Trumbull
21. Breeds Hill June 17, 1775 To conserve ammunition, they were
told by Prescott:, Dont fire untilyou see the whites of their eyes!
22. Boston Under Martial Law
- Boston Harbor:Royal American Magazine,January, 1774. A view of
Boston Harbor with several ships of war. Paul Revere line
engraving.
23. 1776: The Year of Independence Paine's "Common Sense"
published (1/15) The British evacuate Boston (3/17) Richard Henry
Lee proposes Independence (6/7) Declaration of Independence
adopted(7/4) Declaration of Independence signed (8/2) Arrival of
30,000 British troops in New York harbor British win the Battle of
Long Island (Battle of Brooklyn) (8/27-30) British occupy New York
City (9/15) British win the Battle of Harlem Heights (9/16)
Benedict Arnold defeated at Lake Champlain (10/11) American retreat
at the Battle of White Plains (10/28) British capture Fort
Washington, NY and Fort Lee, NJ (11/16) Washington Crosses the
Delaware and captures Trenton (12/25) 24. Thomas Paine: Vox
Populi
- Although talk of breaking with England had been started, still
it took a wildly successful pamphlet by unknown writer, Thomas
Paine to push the collective consciousness toward
independence.Common Sensespoke in plain English to the hundreds of
thousands of Americans who read it. "We have it in our power to
begin the world anew," Paine wrote.
Thomas Paine inspired the American Revolution with a prose that
spoke directly to the people.Common Sensewas devoured and debated
by Americans in taverns, reading clubs, parlors and street
corners.The American Crisis, Number 1 , the first in a series of
essays meant to boost morale and exhort the revolution, has perhaps
the most famous opening sentence in American literature: "These are
the times that try men's souls." The Crisisinspired the Patriots to
continue their struggles For these works, Paine neither asked for
nor received a dime in compensation. He donated all proceeds from
the sale of these pamphlets to the revolutionary cause. 25. The
Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776 John Trumbull 26. 'The
Declaration Committee':
- FERRIS: DECLARATION, 1776. 'The Declaration Committee':
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson meeting at
Jefferson's lodgings on the corner of Seventh and (High) Market
Streets in Philadelphia to review a draft of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776. After a painting by J.L.G. Ferris.
27. The Declaration of Independence
- Virginian Thomas Jefferson is credited with principal
authorship of the document, with help from John Adams, Benjamin
Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. The document affirms
Congress' July 2 decision to part with Great Britain.
- The first draft of Jefferson's Declaration of
Independencealready edited by John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger
Sherman and Robert Livingstonwas presented before Congress on June
28. 39 revisions were made on the text before it was adopted on the
4th of July, 1776.
- To some, Jefferson's language sounds like a
- creed for future generations of Americans.
- Others wonder if his stirring words will apply
- to all Americans, or just those most directly
- served by the all-white, all-male, all-propertied
- members of the 2nd Continental Congress. The well-fed,
well-read, well-bred, and well-wed
- guys who will invent the new government.
- Ben Franklin offered wit and serious revisions:life, liberty,
and property.was changed to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness since it sounded more noble and less greedy!
28.
- IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
- The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of
America
- When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them
with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of
mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that 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 . --That to secure these
rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form
of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of
the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light
and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn
that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are
sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and
usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is
their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards
for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance
of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains
them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of
the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of
an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be
submitted to a candid world.
29.
- He has refuted his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and
necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to
pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in
their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has
refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts
of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative
bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the
depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of
fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved
Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness
his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a
long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected,
whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have
returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State
remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion
from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavoured to prevent
the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the
Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to
encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of
new Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration
of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing
Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of
their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their
substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies
without the Consent of our legislatures . He has affected to render
the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
30.
- He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction
foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving
his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For quartering
large bodies of armed troops among us: For protecting them, by a
mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit
on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with
all parts of the world: For imposing Taxes on us without our
Consent: For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by
Jury: For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once
an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute
rule into these Colonies For taking away our Charters, abolishing
our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our
Governments: For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever. He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out
of his Protection and waging War against us.
31.
- He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts burnt our towns,
and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time
transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the
works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with
circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized
nation. He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the
high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the
executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves
by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,
and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an
undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions. In
every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in
the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked
by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of
a free people. Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our
British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts
by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration
and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and
magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common
kindred. to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably
interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been
deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must,
therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies
in War, in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the
United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing
to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our
intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of
these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States,
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown,
and that all political connection between them and the State of
Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as
Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do
all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.
--And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on
the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
32.
- New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett , William Whipple, Matthew
Thornton Massachusetts : John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams,
Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins,
William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman , Samuel Huntington,
William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip
Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard
Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham
Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin
Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor,
James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read,
Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry
Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr.,
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William
Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge,
Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
33. John Hancock
- John Hancock, 1765. Boston merchant; Harvard;
Congregationalist; radical Whig; representative; very high
wealth.
- John Hancock was the richest man in the Colonies.He had hoped
to be named Commander-in-Chief of the Army, but was passed over for
George Washington, a Virginian.
- He will be the first and most legible signer of the Declaration
and President of the Continental Congress.
34.
- There, on July 9, Washington had the Declaration read to the
army. Afterwards, revelers in the city pulled down the statue of
George III, which resided in New York's bowling green, and
subsequently melted George and his horse into several thousand lead
balls for Continental army muskets. The first official printer of
the Declaration, designated by the Congress some months later, was
a woman, Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore. Goddard edited
theMaryland Journaland had been in the printer's trade for over ten
years when Congress called upon her services.
35. Pulling Down the Statue of King George III, N.Y.C.,ca.
1859
- Artist Johannes A. S. Oertel, working in the mid-nineteenth
century, provides an imagined depiction of the destruction of
George IIIs statue in Bowling Green, the first victim of New
Yorkers reaction to hearing news of the Declaration of
Independence.
- Oertel places women, children and Native Americans among what
eyewitnesses recorded as a rowdy crowd of soldiers and civilians.
No true image of the statue itself survives. However, contemporary
descriptions inform us that the King was sculpted in Roman garb,
not the eighteenth-century royal dress shown in the painting.
- The statue was melted down for minie-balls.
36. Disadvantages
- 2.America had no navyJohn Paul Jones was it
- 5.only one third of the population were Patriots, the rest were
apathetic or rabid Tories/Loyalists
37. Advantages
- 2.War of Attritionwe dont have to win, just wear them down
until they give up
- 4.Guerilla warfare tactics
- 5.France may become our ally
- 6.George Washingtonwhat a guy!!!!
- 7.Uncommon valor from common folks
38. Nathan Hale
- Nathan Haleis probably the best known but least successful
American agent in the War of Independence. He embarked on his
espionage mission into British-held New York as a volunteer,
impelled by a strong sense of patriotism and duty.
- But dedication was not enough. Captain Hale had no training
experience, no contacts in New York, no channels of communication,
and no cover story to explain his absence from camp-only his Yale
diploma supported his contention that he was a "Dutch
schoolmaster."
- He was captured while trying to slip out of New York with
papers in his shoes, was convicted as a spy and went to the gallows
on September 22, 1776.
- Witnesses to the execution reported the dying words that gained
him immortality:
- "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my
country."
- He was 21 and he left behind a fiance named Alicia Adams, whose
last words as an aged Granny were, Wheres Nathan?
39. John Paul Jones
- John Paul Jones is famous in the United States as the 'Father
of the American Navy'.
- The'Serapis'had superior fire powder and Jones had to maneuver
skillfully to bring his ship alongside and lash her to
the'Serapis'.
- During the dreadful 3 1/2 hour fight on a millpond sea, the
'Alliance', part of Jones' squadron, fired at the'Bonhomme Richard
,'holing her so badly that she later sank. Over half of the crews
of the two ships, including Jones himself, were either killed or
wounded and many men were horribly burned.ChallengingSerapis ,
Jones deftly maneuveredBonhomme Richardalongside the larger British
vessel and lashed the two ships together. With the muzzles of their
guns touching, the two warships fired into each other's insides.
Although his smaller vessel was on fire and sinking, Jones rejected
the British demand for surrender; "I have not yet begun to fight,"
he replied. More than three hours after the bloody battle
began,Serapissurrendered, and Jones took command of it.
- Jones had to transfer his crew to the'Serapis'and together with
her sister ship the'Pallas'which had captured the 'Scarborough' he
sailed to the Texel in Holland with over 500 prisoners.
40.
- John Paul Jones capturing theSerapis . Engraving from painting
by Alonzo Chappel.
41. Diversity
- In 1700, there were about 250,000 Europeans and African
Americans in the colonies. By 1775, that number had increased
10-fold to 2.5 million. This huge increase was due in part to a
prolific birth rate and in part to a steady flow of immigrants into
the country. The most concentrated period of migration to America
occurred in the fifteen years prior to the American Revolution,
when approximately 220,000 new faces arrived on the eastern
seaboard. About 85,000 of these were African Americans.
Scotch-Irish, Scots, English and Germans constituted the bulk of
the remaining immigrants. The 13 British colonies in which they
arrived were different in a variety of ways. Congregational
churches dominated New England, while Anglicans were prevalent in
Virginia. Quakers settled Pennsylvania and Catholics were tolerated
primarily in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
- The great majority of African Americans lived, and were
enslaved, in the southern colonies, though slavery itself was
practiced north and south. In Virginia, in 1790, slaves numbered
about 300,000. At approximately the same time, a majority of South
Carolina was African American.
Over 5,000 African American menwill participate in the
Revolution.Althoughwomen and African-Americans will playimportant
roles in the Revolution,therights will mainly go to middle class
whitemen. 42. George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River in
December 1776 and the resulting destruction of the Hessian garrison
of Trenton and defeat of a British brigade at Princeton. 918
captured, 106 killedJohann Rall among them in Trenton. 43. Emmanuel
Leutze
- (1816-68), German-born historical painter. Chiefly known for
his painting ofWashington Crossing the Delaware(1851), one of his
several works depicting scenes from American history, Leutze
settled in the United States in 1859 after being commissioned by
Congress to paint a mural for the U.S. Capitol.
44. CalledWestward Ho the Course of Empire Takes Its Way,the
allegorical mural represents the settlement of the frontier.
45.
- The image that he had in mind is one of the folk-memories that
most Americans share. It represents an event that happened on
Christmas night in 1776, when a winter storm was lashing the
Delaware Valley with sleet and snow. In our mind's eye, we see a
great river choked with ice, and a long line of little boats filled
with horses, guns, and soldiers. In the foreground is the heroic
figure of George Washington.
- The painting is familiar to us in a general way, but when we
look again its details take us by surprise. Washington's small boat
is crowded with thirteen men. Their dress tells us that they are
soldiers from many parts of America, and each of them has a story
that is revealed by a few strokes of the artist's brush. One man
wears the short tarpaulin jacket of a New England seaman; we look
again and discover that he is of African descent. Another is a
recent Scottish immigrant, still wearing his Balmoral bonnet. A
third is an androgynous figure in a loose red shirt, maybe a woman
in man's clothing, pulling at an oar.
- At the bow and stern of the boat are hard-faced western
riflemen in hunting shirts and deerskin leggings. Huddled between
the thwarts are farmers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in
blanket coats and broad-brimmed hats. One carries a countryman's
double-barreled shotgun. The other looks very ill, and his head is
swathed in a bandage. A soldier beside them is in full uniform, a
rarity in this army; he wears the blue coat and red facings of
Haslet's Delaware Regiment. Another figure wears a boat cloak and
an oiled hat that a prosperous Baltimore merchant might have used
on a West Indian voyage; his sleeve reveals the facings of
Smallwood's silk-stocking Maryland Regiment. Hidden behind them is
a mysterious thirteenth man. Only his weapon is visible; one
wonders who he might have been.
- The dominant figures in the painting are two gentlemen of
Virginia who stand tall above the rest. One of them is Lieutenant
James Monroe, holding a big American flag upright against the
storm. The other is Washington in his Continental uniform of buff
and blue. He holds a brass telescope and wears a heavy saber,
symbolic of a statesman's vision and a soldier's strength. The
artist invites us to see each of these soldiers as an individual,
but he also reminds us that they are all in the same boat, working
desperately together against the wind and current. He has given
them a common sense of mission, and in the stormy sky above he has
painted a bright prophetic star, shining through a veil of
cloud.
- Most Americans recognize this image, and many remember its
name. It isWashington Crossing the Delaware , painted by Emanuel
Leutze in 1850. Today it hangs in New York's Metropolitan Museum of
Art. Visitors who are used to seeing it in reproduction are
startled by its size, twelve feet high and twenty feet wide.
46.
- Washington -- and many other Americans -- refused to let the
Revolution die. Even as the British and Germans spread their troops
across New Jersey, the people of the colony began to rise against
them. George Washington saw his opportunity and seized it. On
Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware
Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted
Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand
men. A second Battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans
held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then
were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night,
Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again,
defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In
twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage,
their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was
ruined.
- Washington had had to make the grand playhe needed
re-enlistments or he would have to fold.
Map of Trenton 47. NEAR TRENTON, NEW JERSEY Christmas week,
1776
- -George Washington and his beleaguered Continental Army are
spending a grim holiday season on the road. Four long months of
harassment and battle with the British Army have left the 6,000
rebels tired, footsore and hungry. To make matters worse for
Washington, he can expect more than half of his volunteers to drift
home by the New Year, their enlistments up.
- An evaporating army is just the latest in a long string of
misfortunes to beset Washington. Since the signing of the
Declaration of Independence in July, American forces have been
mostly on their heels. The sobering sight of a huge British fleet
in New York harbor in the wake of the celebration was the first
indication that the road to American independence would be no
promenade for the Continentals. Washington and his troops were
subsequently swept off Long Island, and chased the length of
Manhattan. The disaster in New York was capped by American defeats
at Forts Washington and Lee on the Hudson. The Continental Army has
subsequently limped through New Jersey, on the road to its present
encampment here on the Delaware River, close to nearbyTrenton , and
a brigade of1000 Hessiansgarrisoned there. Through all of this,
Washington supporters could be forgiven for wondering what Congress
has been doing to relieve the abject condition of the army. While
much criticism has been leveled at Washington's pitiful defense of
New York, the general's friends insist that the current state of
the army would be dramatically improved if Congress would put aside
its bickering over the pros and cons of a standing army and find a
way to keep the Continentals in the field. Meanwhile observers are
speculating that Washington will have to shelve his dream of a
"European-style" army disciplined enough to effectively engage the
British regulars in field combat. Already the sense is that new
tactics are evolving. "Unless we are absolutely forced into,"
Washington wrote recently, "we shall avoid a large battle. With the
fate of America at stake, our job is to prolong this war as much as
possible." Inspiration for the cause was recently provided by the
brilliant pamphleteer Thomas Paine. Paine, who's essay "Common
Sense" helped inspire the colonials to independence a year ago,
recently penned another essay, "The Crisis," which Washington
subsequently ordered read to his troops. Said to have been written
on a drumhead, Paine's opening refrain has a stirring beat of its
own: "These are the times that try men's souls. . ." It is
doubtful, however, whether Paine's words alone will be enough to
invigorate the American cause.The sense here is that Washington
needs to take a gamble. He desperately needs a victory to hold his
troops together, and to keep the hopes of the revolution alive.
Meanwhile, the Hessian force across the Delaware is preparing a
sumptuous Christmas feast . . .
48. Hessians= from Hesse, Germany
- The Hessians' services were bought and paid for by George III,
who simply did not have enough soldiers in his own army to supply
the needs of his commanders in America. German soldiers had served
many European nations in a similar fashion for years, but they were
not true mercenaries. Most of the Hessians received no compensation
for their services beyond their daily bread. It was the Prince of
Hesse-Cassel, Frederick II, who made off like a bandit in his
dealings with George III. He sold the services of 12,000 Hessians
to the English at [sterling]7 4s. a head. In total, nearly 30,000
German soldiers fought for the British in North America. Once
there, they discovered a thriving German-American community of
almost 200,000 people. For many Hessians, the possibilities in this
rich, new land with its growing German population was a great
enticement to desertiona fact that Americans worked hard to promote
with promises of free land for Hessians willing to switch
sides.
- An estimated 5,000 Germans stayed in this country, when their
fellow countrymen returned home.