The American Military

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  After ordering the expulsion of the French-speaking Acadians from Nova Scotia, Great Britain officially declared war against France on May 18, 1756. The next year, French General Louis-Joseph Marquis de Montcalm besieged Fort William Henry at the head of Lake George in New York. The British commander, Lieutenant Colonel George Munro, finally capitulated on August 9. In a formal ceremony, the British forces turned Fort William Henry over to the French in exchange for safe passage to Fort Edward. The next morning, the British soldiers, families, and followers began a 16-mile march with their baggage, arms, and horses. To the surprise of the commander, Montcalm's Indian allies pursued them and attacked them with French escorts watching. Munro survived, but more than 200 people died in the massacre. In the aftermath, Indian warfare against the outer settlements of British America intensified.

  British warfare changed dramatically after William Pitt became the Secretary of State. Unlike his predecessors, Pitt understood that North America – not Europe – was central to the outcome of the war. He helped to change the strategic outlook by ordering the Royal Army on campaigns to seize French forts and the Royal Navy to blockade French ports. The home government assumed responsibility for the increased costs of the military, pledging to reimburse colonial governments for most of their expenses and providing pay and supplies for many provincial units to ensure their continued service.

  Provincials augmented the British regiments, who assumed primary responsibility for fighting in the North American theater. Between 1758 and 1759, the colonies armed, trained, and equipped more than 42,000 recruits. As a result, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York furnished over two-thirds of the total force structure. British officers repeatedly characterized the locals in uniform as lazy, shiftless, and unfit, although many expressed eagerness to defend hearth and home. The four battalions of “The Royal Americans” served under the Swiss-born Colonel Henry Bouquet, who advocated French tactics for petite guerre, or guerrilla war. Though relegated to support and auxiliary functions, colonial volunteers actively participated in major combat operations for Great Britain.

  One volunteer company from New Hampshire was commanded by Robert Rogers, who inspired the nickname, Rogers' Rangers. Whatever his questionable reputation, Rogers took responsibility for mustering, arming, and leading them. They trained at an island fortress identified today as Rogers Island, which loomed across from Fort Edward in the Hudson River. They prepared to maneuver undetected, to scout locations, to capture prisoners, and to gather intelligence. Disrespected by many British regulars, they represented one of the few forces able to overcome harsh conditions and mountainous terrain. They undertook long and seemingly impossible winter marches, trekking with crude snowshoes across frozen waters. Skillful at ambush, evasion, and misdirection in battle, they preferred to operate in small groups while making use of forests and mountains for cover. They sometimes scalped Indian foes, who referred to Rogers as the “white devil.” In fact, Colonel Thomas Gage organized a British regiment of light infantry modeled after Rogers' Rangers.

  During 1758, General Jeffery Amherst commanded a force of 9,000 regulars and 500 colonials in a new offensive to capture Louisbourg. The Royal Navy established a tight blockade of Canada, while British forces scrambled ashore at Gabarus Bay. Beginning on June 8, British sappers under General James Wolfe began to besiege the Vauban fortress. In one of the finest examples of siege warfare in history, they avoided launching dangerous infantry attacks by instead digging a series of alternating parallel and approach trenches. With gradual yet relentless pressure, the British cannons breached the fortress walls. After six weeks, Louisbourg fell. Cape Breton and Ile St. Jean passed into British hands.

  The British landed more blows against the French. On August 26, 1758, Lieutenant Colonel John Bradstreet and a mixed force that included Indian auxiliaries attacked Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario. They permitted the French to depart before demolishing the fortress. Elsewhere, General John Forbes constructed a road to approach Fort Duquesne, which the French decided to burn after fleeing. Occupying the ruins on November 25, 1758, Forbes rebuilt the walls and renamed it Fort Pitt. Hundreds of Iroquois warriors aided Lieutenant Colonel Eyre Massey, who captured Fort Niagara on July 23, 1759. Amherst also drove a French garrison from Fort Carillon by occupying the high ground nearby. A few days later, the French mined the fortress and blew it up. The ruined stronghold was renamed Ticonderoga, an Iroquois word meaning “the junction of two waterways.” With the French in retreat, Wolfe conducted a spectacular campaign that resulted in the capture of Quebec on September 16, 1759. The next year, Montreal surrendered as well. Finally, Rogers' Rangers took command of Fort Detroit and raised the British flag in triumph.

  Despite the triumph of British America, a number of Indian tribes continued to resist the encroachment on their lands. Although the Cherokee became British allies, colonial governments wanted to drive them from the valleys of the southern Appalachians. In 1760, Cherokee raiders struck the garrison at Fort Prince George. Amherst dispatched more than 1,300 Highlanders and Royal Scots from New York to Charleston under the command of Colonel Archibald Montgomery and Major James Grant. They looted and burned the Lower Cherokee towns and briefly campaigned against the Middle and Overhill Cherokee towns. However, the Cherokee captured Fort Loudoun and killed dozens of soldiers. The next year, Grant returned with a force of 2,800 British regulars, colonial volunteers, and Indian auxiliaries. After crossing the Cowee Range, they destroyed a total of 15 towns and more than 1,000 acres of corn belonging to the Cherokee. Unable to gain allies from neighboring Indian tribes, the Cherokee prudently agreed to peace with British negotiators.

  Near the Great Lakes, many Indian tribes joined the conspiracy of Pontiac, an Ottawa leader. He was inspired by Neolin, a Delaware prophet, who claimed that the Great Holy Force Above called on his people to repudiate European technology and trade goods – especially alcohol. The initial uprising captured nearly every British garrison west of Fort Niagara and besieged Fort Detroit. At the Battle of Bloody Run on July 31, 1763, Indian warriors defeated British regulars and forced settlers to flee the backcountry. Amherst, the commander of the British Army in North America, allowed the distribution of smallpox-infested blankets from Fort Pitt during that summer. Over the winter, the smallpox contagion turned the tide against the belligerent tribes. The military operations the next year broke the resistance movement.

  Victory in the French and Indian War gave the British formal dominion from the Atlantic seaboard to the Mississippi River. Thanks to the mettle of the British forces on land and at sea, the empire doubled in size. According to the Peace of Paris in 1763, France ceded all claims to the interior of the continent. While the British won the prized land along the Great Lakes, the French abandoned their Indian allies.

  Martial Law

  In the wake of the French and Indian War, the colonial population dreaded the contin­uing presence of British regulars in their communities. Although they benefited from the increased security, they disputed the legality of the new taxes and the unexpected imposition of standing armies and navies. They perceived the empire as an overbearing giant, even if they previously celebrated its military triumphs.

  Faced with massive debt and backcountry unrest, London pursued a series of measures to reform colonial administration. Abandoning the tradition of salutary neglect, the government levied duties on the colonies to finance the defense of the far-flung empire. New orders in council tightened the enforcement of maritime trade and navigation laws. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 forbade settlers from advancing beyond the mountains that divided the Atlantic Coast from the inland forests. Growing unruly and discontented, many provincials concluded that the reforms violated their legitimate interests.

  Most alarming to the populations of New England and the middle colonies, the presence of British regulars exacerbated the problems with Royal authority. As the new commander of the British Army in North America, General Gage asked Parliament to pass the Quartering Act
in 1765. The Act required the colonial assemblies to pay for certain supplies given to regiments stationed within their borders. To the dismay of King George III, it was circumvented in each of the colonies except Pennsylvania. When the New York assembly refused to comply, Parliament prohibited the Royal governor from signing any further legislation until the assembly implemented it. In Massachusetts, British officers carefully followed the new stipulations to quarter the red-coated soldiers in public spaces, not in private homes. They pitched tents on the Boston Commons and waited for tensions to ease. However, off-duty soldiers competed with urban laborers for low-wage jobs near the waterfront. With boycotts of imports leaving seaport workers unemployed, baiting the troops became a popular diversion for the sort of men carousing at the taverns. Trouble was brewing in the port city.

  By 1770, street brawls between British regulars and local mobs culminated in the Boston Massacre. Radical groups such as the Sons of Liberty encouraged demonstrations by angry “Jack Tars,” who sometimes roamed the neighborhoods carrying cudgels. In early March, members of the 29th Regiment attempted to find work at a ropewalk but instead scuffled with Bostonians hurling insults. On the evening of March 5, dockworkers came out to King Street to pitch snowballs at “Lobster-backs” guarding the Customs House. Liquor seemed to reinforce their courage to challenge the sentries. Captain Thomas Preston and his squad formed a “half-cocked” line, while a voice in the night yelled “Fire!” Five rioters on King Street were killed, including a 6-foot 2-inch former slave named Crispus Attucks. After a sensational trial in Boston, a local jury determined that the soldiers acted in self-defense, which acquitted them of the murder charges. In fact, Preston's squad benefited from the legal defense presented by John Adams, a lawyer from Braintree, Massachusetts. For Bostonians, the tragic event crystallized colonial fears about the dangers of a standing military.

  Tensions continued to escalate and eventually led to martial law in Boston. After the Boston Tea Party dumped a ship's cargo into the harbor, Parliament passed a series of Coercive Acts in 1774. In addition to suspending the Massachusetts charter and closing the port of Boston, the Acts appointed General Gage to the position of military governor. Committees of Correspondence, which formed previously to disseminate information about local resistance and to promote the non-importation of British goods, denounced his dictatorial powers. In opposition to the “intolerable Acts,” colonial delegations assembled for the first Continental Congress later that year. The delegates issued a “Declaration of Rights and Grievances” to no avail. They not only called for a colonial union in support of a continental boycott but also insisted that “keeping a standing army” was against the will of the people. Accordingly, martial law seemed to arouse rather than to subdue their passions.

  The militia of Massachusetts prepared to actively resist the enforcement of martial law. Outside of Gage's reach in Boston, communities began collecting ammunition, powder, cannons, and stores in their arsenals. One of the most important arsenals in the countryside lay at Concord, about 20 miles inland from Boston. Local officials began to identify militia officers to entrust with command, as opposed to the ones known to be loyal to the military governor. Wherever possible, companies reorganized to form rapid response units. Asking them to turn out armed and ready “in a minute's notice,” commanders christened their special forces the “Minutemen.” As winter turned into spring, Massachusetts readied its armed citizenry to oppose the British Army in the field.

  On April 19, 1775, Gage dispatched a column of 700 soldiers to seize the weaponry held by the militia in Concord. Placing Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith in command of the column, the military governor also ordered the arrest of opposition leaders, Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Forewarned by midnight riders, 70 Minutemen under Captain John Parker intercepted the British regulars about 6 miles away from Concord. At dawn on Lexington's village green, they gathered to demonstrate their resolve but not necessarily to provoke a fight. “Stand your ground,” ordered Parker. Major Thomas Pitcairn ordered the “damn rebels” to lay down their weapons and to disperse from the field. Suddenly, a volley of gunfire erupted. His Majesty's troops delivered a bayonet charge. As a result of the “shots heard around the world,” eight Minutemen perished. Ten more suffered wounds in the Battle of Lexington.

  As news of the bloodshed spread quickly, the British column marched onward to Concord. They burned a number of wooden gun carriages in storage, although locals had removed most of the powder previously. Smoke from the pyre rose into the morning sky, which convinced residents that the British intended to set the town ablaze. Around 8:30 a.m., Captain David Brown and 400 militiamen from Concord attacked British infantry at the North Bridge. Their shots ignited the Battle of Concord. Shortly before noon, Smith ordered the British column to withdraw.

  Militiamen converged on the 17-mile road connecting Concord to Boston. Thousands assumed positions at critical points along the route, which slowed the withdrawal of the redcoats. From behind fences, rocks, and trees, they poured rolling fire onto the British column. Frustrated by an elusive foe, the marching infantry found few targets for their customary volleys or bayonet charges. Their flankers suffered ambushing and scalping in the surrounding woods. Only the arrival of reinforcements enabled most of them to reach the safety of Boston by dusk. At the end of the day, Gage's troops counted as many as 273 killed, wounded, or missing. The losses among the regulars totaled nearly three times the number among the militia.

  Elsewhere in New England, the militia assailed Fort Ticonderoga at the juncture of Lake Champlain and Lake George. Colonel Benedict Arnold, a merchant from New Haven, Connecticut, accepted orders from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety to seize artillery from the British garrison. He linked up with Colonel Ethan Allen and his gang of about 100 “Green Mountain Boys” in New York. Even though Arnold and Allen squabbled over command, they captured the key outpost on May 10, 1775.

  Although reconciliation remained a possibility, martial law failed to suppress the resistance movement. The skirmishes between the colonists and the empire indicated that the former would stand defiantly against the latter. When Royal authorities decided to punish Massachusetts, they incited an open and armed rebellion.

  Rebel Forces

  More than 10,000 provincials poured into the militia camps on the outskirts of Boston. Though poorly organized and quarrelsome, they began to construct a ring of siege works from shore to shore. Under the direction of Colonel Artemas Ward, the mob of New England patriots formed an arc around Boston to keep the British regulars at bay.

  While toiling, the mob enjoyed a song native to the colonial era variously titled “A Visit to Camp,” “The Lexington March,” and even “Doodle Dandy.” Certain lines were attributable to Richard Shuckburgh, an army surgeon for a British regiment, which parodied training days and camp life. Moreover, the chorus offered a derisive epithet for the militiamen. “Yankee” probably derived from a Dutch nickname for the provincials, whereas “doodle” in English denoted playful, shiftless, or menial activities. Given a martial beat with fife and drums, the cadences involved dancing, gesturing, mocking, and frolicking. The lyrics questioned authority with a distinguishing mix of satire and irony, which insinuated that the outfitted regulars, not the armed citizenry, were the foolish ones.

  The armed citizenry occupied the Charlestown peninsula, where two heights, Bunker's Hill and Breed's Hill, overlooked Boston from the north. Originally, they intended to fortify the former, which loomed nearest the narrow neck of land connecting the peninsula with the mainland. The latter rose nearer to the shoreline, but the terrain left the defenders exposed to a possible British landing to the rear. Arriving on the night of June 16, 1775, the militia companies dug trenches and erected redoubts across Breed's Hill by mistake.

  Meanwhile, reinforcements to Gage's troops inside Boston raised their numbers to 6,500. The reinforcements included three major generals – William Howe, Henry Clinton, and Johnny Burgoyne. As a public demonstrati
on of military prowess, the “council of war” planned a frontal assault on the high ground. They assumed that the assembled “rabble in arms” would disintegrate in the face of a disciplined attack by British regulars. On June 17, Gage detailed 2,500 soldiers under the command of Howe and ferried them to the Charlestown peninsula under the cover of a Royal Navy bombardment. Convinced that the rebels would retreat from their hillside dispositions, Howe landed his redcoats at the tip of the peninsula and marched them up the slope.

  Figure 1.3 View of the Attack on Bunker's Hill, 1783. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

  That sunny afternoon, the residents of Boston mounted rooftops to witness what was incorrectly called the Battle of Bunker Hill. Colonel William Prescott, a Massachusetts farmer who once had been offered a commission in the British Army, resolved to make a defiant stand. When a flying cannonball tore off one comrade's head, Prescott stood erect on a parapet to steady the rebel line. They charged their weapons with rusty nails and scrap metal, while their balls were encrusted at times with poisonous mixtures. Brigadier General Israel Putnam of Connecticut told them: “Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes.” His advice seemed prudent, because they lacked sufficient ammunition for numerous volleys. Their aim proved deadly, as withering fire shattered the first British advance. After a quick regrouping, they repelled the second. Finally, a third attempt pushed them from the hillside. Running out of ammunition, they fell back to Bunker's Hill before withdrawing to Cambridge.

  British casualties totaled a staggering 1,054 – almost half of the force engaged – compared with rebel losses of 411. Shaken by the carnage of the battle, the British regulars never forgot the costly assault. Clearly, Royal authorities miscalculated the challenges that they faced in New England.