The glorious cause, p.95
The Glorious Cause, page 95
27. Jensen, Founding, 535–36.
28. Ibid., 563–67.
29. The history of the informers told in Allen French, General Gage’s Informers (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1932).
30. Ibid., 24.
31. Dartmouth to Gage, Jan. 27, 1775, in Carter, ed., Gage Correspondence, II, 178–83.
32. Ward, I, 33–35.
33. Ibid., 33–34.
34. Ibid., 34.
35. Allen French, The Day of Concord and Lexington (Boston, 1925), 68–70, 100–102, for the beginnings of the march.
36. Ward, I, 36–37; French, Day of Concord and Lexington, passim, for these details.
37. Ward, I, 37; A Narrative of the Excursion and Ravages of the King’s Troops . . . (Worcester, Mass., [1775]), 6–7. A Narrative contains depositions by participants.
38. A Narrative, 7–14; Ward, I, 38.
39. Ward, I, 40–41
40. Ibid., 42–44; A Narrative, 14–17.
41. French, Day of Concord and Lexington, 220–39; Ward, I, 44–46.
42. A Narrative, 211, a deposition on British plundering; Ward, I, 50, for the number of casualties. Peckham, Toll, 3, gives slightly different figures.
1. Peter Force, ed., American Archives, 4th Ser. (6 vols., Washington, D.C., 1837–46), II, 363 Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (2 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1930), I, 23, describes Percy as behaving with “great spirit” and with “great coolness.”
2. Force, ed., American Archives, 4th Ser., II, 363–70. See also Elizabeth Merritt, “The Lexington Alarm, April 19, 1775.. . . ,” MdHM, 41 (1946), 89. . . 114.
3. TJ Papers, I, 165.
4. Ward, I, 63.
5. (Bennington, Vt., 1784). There is a helpful modern biography by Charles A. Jellison, Ethan Allen: Frontier Rebel (Syracuse, N.Y., 1969).
6. Ward, I, 64–69. For Arnold, Willard Wallace, Traitorous Hero; The Life and Fortunes of Benedict Arnold (New York, 1954).
7. Lyman H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence (2 vols. to date, Cambridge, Mass., 1963–), I, 195.
8. Ibid., 207.
9. Force, ed., American Archives, 4th Ser., II, 444–45.
10. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Corr., I, 216.
11. JCC, II, 24–25.
12. Ibid., 52.
13. Ibid., 56.
14. Ibid., 68–70, 75, 109–10.
15. Ibid., 91–92, 93–94. On all the matters discussed in this sectiion, see Burnett, Continental Congress, 60–79.
16. Ward, I, 73; Allen French, The First Year of the American Revolution (Boston and New York, 1934), 212–13.
17. Ward, I, 74–75 and 76–78, for the details about Putnam and Prescott.
18. Peter Brown to his mother, June 28, 1775, in Sheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 60.
19. Clarence E. Carter, ed., The Correspondence of General Thomas Gage . . . (2 vols., New Haven, Conn., 1931), I, 401.
20. For British planning, see French, First Year of the American Revolution, 221–22; Ward, I, 82–84
21. Ward, I, 84.
22. Ibid., 86–87.
23. French, First Year of the American Revolution, 235.
24. Ward, I, 89.
25. Howe to ?, June 22, 24, 1775, in Fortescue, ed., Correspondence of George the Third, III, 220–24.
26. Sheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 62–63; Ward, I, 91.
27. Fortescue, ed., Correspondence of George the Third, III, 222.
28. Ibid.
29. Sheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 62. French and Ward agree that the British made three attacks.
30. French, First Year of the American Revolution, 247.
31. Ibid., 249–52.
32. Ibid., 253. My account of Bunker Hill rests on the studies of Ward and French. Bernard Knollenberg, “Bunker Hill Re-viewed: A Study in the Conflict of Historical Evidence,” MHS, Procs., 72 (Boston, 1963), 84–100, is also helpful, although Knollenberg’s conclusion is surely in error. Among the participants’ accounts, General Howe’s letters of June 22 and 24, in Fortescue, ed., Correspondence of George the Third, and the diaries and letters in Sheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, are especially valuable.
33. GW Writings, III, 292, 294.
34. (7th impression, London, 1661).
35. Washington copied this passage which appears, in slightly different form, in ibid., 1–3
36. Quoted in Samuel Eliot Morison, By Land and By Sea: Essays and Addresses (New York, 1954), 173. For my conclusions about Washington, I have drawn on his writings and from two splendid biographies, Freeman, GW; and James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 1732–1775 (Boston, 1965) and George Washington in the American Revolution, 1775–1783 (Boston, 1968)
37. GW Writings, III, 294.
38. Knollenberg, “Bunker Hill Re-viewed,” MHS, Procs., 72 (1963), 85 states that on June 17, 1775, the British had 4500 rank and file in Boston. Rank and file was a technical term for privates and corporals; it did not include sergeants, fifers, and drummers. The British lost 226 killed and 828 wounded at Bunker Hill. For the March 1776 figures, see Ward, I, 125.
39. R. R. Palmer, “Frederick the Great, Guibert, Bulow: From Dynastic to National War,” in Edward Mead Earle, ed., Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler (Princeton, N.J., 1943), 49–74; Walter L. Dorn, Competition for Empire, 1740–1763 (New York, 1940) chap. 3, esp. 80–81. Much that follows about eighteenth-century warfare is based on these two excellent studies.
40. Humphrey Bland, An Abstract of Military Discipline . . . (Boston, 1747), especially chap. 4; [Edward Harvey], The Manual Exercise, As Ordered by His Majesty in 1764 (Boston, 1774), 3–14, and passim. There were several similar guides, or manuals, published in America during the revolutionary crisis. They provide instructions on firing, marching, and maneuvering troops. See Timothy Pickering, An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia (Salem, Mass., 1775); [Lewis Nichola], A Treatise of Military Exercise, Calculated for the Use of the Americans (Philadelphia, 1776); Thomas Hanson, The Prussian Evolutions in Actual Engagements . . . (Philadelphia, 1775).
41. Chapter 1.
42. Saxe and Frederick the Great were cited by both British and American writers.
43. GW Papers, II, 114; III, 331.
44. Ibid., III, 450.
45. Ibid., 450–51.
46. Freeman, GW, III, 493–94.
47. Ibid., 490–91. Washington began issuing General Orders July 3, 1775. These orders reveal much about the army and Washington’s conceptions of its problems. See GW Writings, III, 305–6, 314, 315, 316, 338–40; see also his letters of this period, ibid., 320–29, 330–31, 394–95, 450–51.
48. GW Writings, III, 315, 338, 309, 451.
49. Freeman, GW, IV, 19–20; GW Writings, IV, 335.
50. Freeman, GW, IV, 17 and fn. 94. For Knox, see North Callahan, Henry Knox: George Washington’s General (New York, 1958).
51. Ward, I, 126–27.
52. Ibid., 128.
53. Ibid., 128–129
54. LMCC, I, 406.
1. LMCC, I, 99–100.
2. Ibid., 118.
3. Ibid.
4. Jack N. Rakove, “The Decision for American Independence: A Reconstruction,” PAH, 10 (1975), 238–39.
5. On Jefferson’s arrival in Congress, see Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (New York, 1970), 79–81
6. The “Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms” has been reprinted in TJ Papers, I, 213–18. The quotation is on 213. See also Franklin’s assessment in a letter to Joseph Priestly, July 7, 1775, in LMCC, I, 156, and John Adams’s of July 11, 1775, ibid., 162.
7. LMCC, I, 152.
8. Ian R. Christie and Benjamin W. Labaree, Empire or Independence, 1760–1766: A British-American Dialogue on the Coming of the American Revolution (New York, 1976), 250–52.
9. EHD, 850–51.
10. Ibid., 853.
11. The words in quotation were used by both king and Parliament.
12. There is an excellent account of events discussed in this paragraph in Jensen, Founding, 643–45.
13. JCC, III, 319, 325–27.
14. These events and those discussed in the previous paragraph are discussed in Jensen, Founding, 641–43.
15. First published in Philadelphia and many times reprinted.
16. There are useful studies by Eric Foner, Thomas Paine and Revolutionary America (New York, 1976), and David Freeman Hawke, Paine (New York, 1974).
17. BF Papers, XXI, 325–26.
18. The quotations are from the W. & T. Bradford edition of Common Sense, reprinted by Dolphin Books. Robert Bell of Philadelphia printed the first two editions. He and Paine fell out and Paine then turned to Bradford. The Bradford edition is about onethird longer than the Bell edition. See especially 13–27.
19. Ibid., 27, 34.
20. Ibid., 59 (Appendix).
21. See especially Pennsylvania Gazette (Phila.), March 26, April 24, May 1, 1776.
22. Richard Allen Ryerson, The Revolution Is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765–1776 (Philadelphia, 1978), chap. 7, for the newspapers.
23. LMCC, I, 471.
24. Butterfield et al., eds., Diary of John Adams, II, 231.
25. JCC, IV, 134–46. Richard Smith, a member from New Jersey, said the report was “very long, badly written and full against Independency,” LMCC, I, 348; see also ibid., 366.
26. JCC, IV, 229–33.
27. LMCC, I, 405–6.
28. Jensen, Founding, 677–79 (the quotation is on 679).
29. Ibid., 681.
30. David J. Mays, Edmund Pendleton, 1721–1803: A Biography (2 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1952), I, 106–10; TJ Papers, I, 291.
31. JCC, IV, 342.
32. Ibid., 357–58.
33. Butterfield et al., eds., Diary of John Adams, II, 237–40. Adams reported that James Duane of New York protested: “Why all this Haste? Why this Urging? Why this driving?—Disputes about Independence are in all the Colonies. What is this owing to, but our Indiscretion?”
34. JCC, V, 425–26. See also TJ Papers, I, 298–99, for Lee’s resolution and a valuable editorial note.
35. Jefferson’s notes on proceedings in Congress between June 7 and Aug. 1, 1776, are invaluable. Julian Boyd’s commentary in TJ Papers, I, 299’308, is perceptive and thorough. The quotations are from Jefferson’s notes at ibid., I, 309, 312.
36. Jensen, Founding, 682–701.
37. Pauline Maier, American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (New York, 1997), 47–96. These actions survive in documents; it seems likely that other similar statements were made but have not been discovered or have not survived in documentary form.
38. Ibid., 229–30, for the quotations.
39. Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence (1922; Vintage ed., New York, 1958), chaps. 1–3.
40. For the rough draft, see TJ Papers, I, 315–19, 423–27. (I have made several minor changes in capitalization and punctuation.)
41. See ibid., 429–33. Much of my interpretation of the Declaration is indebted to Garry Wills, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (New York, 1978).
42. Wills, Inventing America, 219–28.
1. GW Writings, VI, 28.
2. Washington’s letter to the President of Congress, Sept. 8, 1776, raises many of these questions, ibid., 27–32.
3. Ibid., 28–29, for the quotations.
4. Further aspects of the organization of the army are discussed later in this volume, especially in chap. 20.
5. For representative statements by Washington about the militia, see GW Writings, VI, 4–5, 6, 32, 38.
6. For British strategy, see Willcox, Portrait of a General, 42–43, 94–97; and Willcox, “Why Did the British Lose the American Revolution?” in Michigan Alumnus Quarterly Review LXII (1956), 317–24. See also Piers Mackesy, The War for America 1775–1783 (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), 32–40, and passim.
7. Ira D. Gruber, The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution (New York, 1972), 45–53, 72–80, for this and the next two paragraphs. For William Howe, ibid., 56–59, and passim.
8. Quoted in Mackesy, War for America, 85.
9. Ibid.
10. Ward, I, 196–201; Freeman, GW, IV, 121–22.
11. GW Writings, V, 198–99, 201, 205, 209, 230.
12. Freeman, GW, IV, 132–34; Ward, I, 211–12.
13. Ward, I, 213–14. My account of the Battle of Brooklyn, including the preliminaries discussed here and in the following paragraphs, owes much to Ward’s thorough treatment and perhaps even more to Freeman’s account. Washington’s letters in GW Writings, V, are helpful on certain points.
14. GW Writings, V, 479.
15. Ibid., 480.
16. His appeals to his troops throughout the war, however, do not reflect disillusionment.
17. Diary of Frederick Mackenzie (2 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1930), I, 45.
18. Ward, I, 216–30, for this paragraph and the three following.
19. Ibid., 232.
20. Freeman, GW, IV, 173–75.
21. GW Writings, VI, 6–7, for Washington’s thinking about the defense of Manhattan.
22. Ibid., 22, 30.
23. Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I, 45.
24. The quotation is from GW Writings, VI, 58. For the landing at Kip’s Bay, see Ward, I, 238–45, and Freeman, GW, IV, 189–95.
25. Diary of Frederick Mackenzie, I, 51. For Harlem Heights, Ward, I, 246–52, and Washington’s description in GW Writings, VI, 67–69.
26. Freeman, GW, IV, 206–10.
27. Ward, I, 254–56.
28. GW Writings, VI, 249 (“retreat”l); Ward, I, 256–66.
29. GW Writings, VI, 255, for Washington’s question about Howe.
30. Ibid., 258.
31. On Greene’s responsibility for the loss of the fort, see Richard K. Showman et al., eds., The Papers of Nathanael Greene (2 vols. to date, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1976–), I, 352n–359, and the sources cited. See also Ward, I, 269.
32. Quoted in Theodore Thayer, Nathanael Greene: Strategist of the American Revolution (New York, 1960), 119.
33. Ward, I, 267–74. For casualties, Peckham, Toll, 26. Washington’s account in GW Writings, VI, 243–45, is valuable.
34. Ward, I, 276–77; GW Writings, VI, 298.
35. Ward, I, 280–82; Wickwires, Cornwallis, 90–93.
36. Ward, I, 283–84; Wickwires, Cornwallis, 93–94.
37. GW Writings, VI, 330–32, 345–46.
38. Ibid., 264–66, 299, 309, for the quotations and the substance of this paragraph.
39. Ibid., 299.
40. Freeman, GW, IV, 306n, fn. 15, suggests that Washington may have thought of an attack several weeks before Christmas. Ward, I, 292, agrees.
41. GW Writings, VI, 346, 355, 393, 397, for the quotations.
42. William S. Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton (Boston, 1898), 328.
43. Ibid., 317.
44. Ibid., 329–32.
45. GW Writings, VI, 429, 434, 440–44; Freeman, GW, IV, 306–10; Ward, I, 292–93.
46. This account of the battle of Trenton is based on GW Writings, VI, 441–44; Freeman, GW, IV, 310–24; Ward, I, 294–305; Stryker, Battles of Trenton and Princeton, 361–64, 371–72.
47. Wickwires, Cornwallis, 95–96.
48. Freeman, GW, IV, 338–59, for this paragraph and the next.
1. Ward, I, 319–20; Freeman, GW, IV, 388–89
2. Ward, I, 321.
3. Ibid., 319–21; Freeman, GW, IV, 380–402.
4. James Murray, a Scottish officer, wrote bitterly of army life in New Jersey in February 1777: “. . . we have a pretty amusement known by the name of foraging or fighting for our daily bread.” See Eric Robson, ed., Letters from America, 1773 to 1780 (Manchester, Eng., 1951), 38. On the June 1777 maneuvers of Howe and Washington, Ward, I, 325–28
5. Willcox, Portrait of a General, chap. 4 especially 147–52; Ira D. Gruber, The Howe Brothers and the American Revolution (New York, 1972).
6. Willcox, Portrait of a General, 143–47.
7. Ibid., 133–41.
8. Ibid., 150–52; Gruber, Howe Brothers, 199–200
9. Willcox, Portrait of a General, 149
10. Gruber, Howe Brothers, 222–23
11. This paragraph and the two before it are based on Willcox, Portrait of a General, 143–46; and Gerald Saxon Brown, The American Secretary: The Colonial Policy of Lord George Germain, 1775–1778 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1963), 93–114.
12. Ward, I, 398–401
13. Ibid., 401–4.
14. For Gates, see Paul David Nelson, General Horatio Gates: A Biography (Baton Rouge, La., 1976).
15. S. Sydney Bradford, ed., “Lord Francis Napier’s Journal of the Burgoyne Campaign,” MdHM, 57 (1962), 324.
16. Ibid., 324–25
17. Ibid., 296–97
18. Quoted in Ward, I, 405.
19. James Hadden, Hadden’s Journal and Orderly Books. A Journal Kept in Canada and Upon Burgoyne’s Campaign in 1776 and 1777 (Albany, N.Y., 1884), 74.
20. Ward, I, 408–9.
21. Ibid., 409–12
22. John Burgoyne, A State of the Expedition from Canada (2d ed., London, 1780), 39. A part of the value of this work lies in the testimony it reports that was given in a Parliamentary hearing.
23. Hadden’s Journal, 91–92; Bradford, ed., “Napier’s Journal,” MdHM, 57 (1962),300–301. Ward, I, 412–14, is excellent.
24. Burgoyne, State of the Expedition, 17.
Bradford, ed., “Napier’s Journal”, MdHM 57 (1962), 303–4; Hadden’s Journal, 94–95.
26.Hadden’s Journal, 95 (”deliberately”); Ward, I, 418–21.
27. Ward, I, 421–22
28. Ibid., 422–23
29. Hadden’s Journal, 136; Bradford, ed., “Napier’s Journal,” MdHM, 57 (1962), 309–11
30. Ward, II, 501.
31. Ibid., 501–3
32. Ibid., 504–5; Hadden’s Journal, 144–48; Bradford, ed., “Napier’s Journal”, MdHM, 57 (1962), 310–11.
33. Ward, II, 506–8
34. For the battle of Freeman’s Farm, see Hadden’s Journal, 164–66; Bradford, ed., Napier’s Journal,” MdHM, 57 (1962), 315–18; Burgoyne State of the Expedition, 41, 57. Ward, II, 504–12, provides a superb account.
