Killing England

by Bill O'Reilly

  It is thought that almost 7,000 American soldiers were killed in action during the war, with many more deaths coming from disease or from the harsh conditions endured as prisoners of war. Those mortality figures are roughly 17,000 and 12,000, respectively, bringing the total casualty figure to an estimated 36,000.

  British casualties were estimated to be 24,000 killed in battle, missing in action, and dead from disease. Of the 30,000 Hessians who fought in the war, one-fourth either were killed in action or died from illness. Some 5,500 Hessian soldiers chose to remain in America following the war.

  Many soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War were given tracts of land by the new federal government, settling America and continuing the growth made possible by their service.

  Busts of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson located in the White House. Photographs by Bill O’Reilly.

  Notes

  Prologue

    1. Among others: Iroquois, Nipissing, Huron, Abenakis, Odawa, Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Shawnee, Delaware, Osage, Sac, and Fox. The Indians preferred fighting for the French because the British were more insistent on confiscating tribal lands so that they might be settled by colonists. The French, on the other hand, controlled their frontier territories with small forts whose military population had little effect on Indian hunting grounds.

    2. George Washington’s single gunshot escalated the rivalry between Britain and France, which had been simmering for some time as the two nations jockeyed for world leadership. The Seven Years’ War, as it would become known in Europe—or the French and Indian War, as the American portion of the worldwide conflict is known—was at first confined to a series of frontier skirmishes in the American wilderness. Spain entered the war on the French side in 1761, causing the British Navy to seize French and Spanish territories in the Caribbean and Pacific. Portugal, which entered the war on the side of the British, thwarted an attempted Spanish invasion shortly thereafter, leading the French and Spanish to sue for peace. The British victory gave them control of most of North America—though, for a short time. They needed revenue to fund military installations on the newly established western border of the colonies and attempted to raise those funds by taxing their American colonists. Dispute over the legality of these taxes led to the Revolutionary War.

    3. As a young man, Franklin was a boarder in the Read family home. He was seventeen at the time, and Deborah was fifteen. Franklin fell in love with her and requested her hand in marriage, but her widowed mother denied this request because Franklin was financially unstable. Deborah was instead married off to a man named John Rodgers, who turned out to be a thief and ran out on her after two years. Franklin reentered her life soon after. Colonial laws prohibited a divorced woman from remarrying, so instead, the couple declared a common-law marriage in 1730, when Franklin was twenty-four. This arrangement legally bound them to one another, though it was not formally recognized by church or civil officials as a true marriage. They would remain together for the rest of their lives.

    4. Franklin saved the day by posting an advertisement stating that the British required wagons and drivers, and were willing to pay a decent wage. Knowing this would not be enough, the flyer added that the British would take by force whatever wagons they needed, at the loss of compensation. Though written in a whimsical style that was meant to charm farmers into volunteering to relinquish their wagons, the subtext was quite clear. Within two weeks, Braddock was outfitted with two hundred wagons, with Franklin giving his personal bond as security to indemnify the wagon owners in case of any loss. The clash between these independent civilian wagoners and their military superiors would be a major cause of conflict during the Braddock campaign. In addition to Daniel Boone, there was also Daniel Morgan, a hard-drinking wagon driver fond of fistfights who would go on to become one of America’s top generals in the Revolutionary War. His hatred for the British was legendary, dating to the time when he received 499 lashes for punching a British officer in 1756.

    5. The practice of taking a human body part as a trophy of war is a global phenomenon dating back thousands of years. It was often customary to present the severed head of an enemy to a king in exchange for a share of the plunder. However, it was impractical to carry human heads for any great distance or period of time, so taking just the scalp became more prevalent. This was done by grasping the victim’s hair and making deep cuts into the flesh on the front and sides of the skull before yanking the scalp free. The Indians were not the only side taking scalps during the French and Indian War. The governor of Massachusetts offered a bounty for the scalp of any Indian warrior, woman, or child.

    6. Washington held the rank of colonel in the Virginia militia in 1754, during his initial foray into the Ohio Country. After being criticized for his military ineptitude and naked ambition on the failed expedition, he resigned his commission. Even if he had not, the hierarchy of the relationship between the British Army and the colonial militias was such that even as a colonel, Washington would have been junior in rank to any other British officer. Nevertheless, it was Washington’s hope one day to secure a commission in the British Army. Seeking to gain an influential friend in Braddock while at the same time salvaging his pride, Washington arranged for the volunteer position as the general’s aide.

    7. The lopsided nature of the French and Indian victory over Braddock’s army is best viewed through the number of fatalities. Though exact statistics are unknown, it is estimated that the French and Indians suffered approximately thirty deaths. The British and colonial armies lost more than five hundred. An equal number of British were wounded. Those female members of the British caravan were either wives accompanying their husbands or “necessary women,” whose duties were consistent with those traditionally associated with maids. It is believed that thirteen of these women were taken captive by the Indians, among them, one who was clubbed to death on the way back to Fort Duquesne for walking too slowly.

  The French later returned to the battlefield and buried their dead. Some were interred where they fell. The body of Capt. Daniel-Hyacinthe-Marie Liénard de Beaujeu was carried back to Fort Duquesne (now the site of modern-day Pittsburgh) for burial. The bodies of the British, however, were left to rot. For three years, the decaying bones of British and colonial soldiers littered the forest. It was only in 1758 that a British force returned to the area and buried them all in a common grave. Among the deceased was Sir Peter Halkett, shot from his horse early in the battle. His son James was mortally wounded while coming to Halkett’s aid and collapsed atop his dead father’s chest. Their two skeletons were found in the same position by the burial party. The elder Halkett, a former member of Parliament, was positively identified by a false tooth still embedded in his jaw. Both men were wrapped in the tartan cloth of their Scottish homeland and laid to rest in a ceremony featuring drum and pipe.

  Chapter 1

    1. Construction on the Pennsylvania State House began in 1732 but was not completed for more than twenty years. At the time, it was one of the most ambitious buildings in the colonies. In 1824, the Assembly Room was rechristened the “Hall of Independence,” which was later shorted to “Independence Hall,” a name that became synonymous with the entire building. On February 22, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln visited Independence Hall on his way to Washington, DC. Four years later, on April 22–24, 1865, Lincoln’s body lay in state in the same room on its way back to Illinois for burial. More than eighty-five thousand mourners filed through to pay their respects. A bronze marker indicates the spot where another fallen American president, John F. Kennedy, spoke while visiting Independence Hall on July 4, 1962.

    2. In England, it will be known as the War of American Independence.

    3. “Regulars” are so-called because they are career soldiers who serve on a daily basis rather than being called out only when needed.

    4. More than fifteen thousand dollars per month in moder
n currency.

    5. Philadelphia’s population at the time was approximately thirty thousand. The bulk of the city was located along the waterfront, while the area now known as Independence Hall was several blocks inland, close to what was then the city’s outskirts.

    6. The man who nominated Washington was the remarkable Thomas Johnson of Maryland. Forty-two at the time, Johnson would later go on to lead troops in the Revolutionary War, serve as the first governor of Maryland once it became a state, serve as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and insist that a new national capital known as “Federal City” be renamed in honor of George Washington.

    7. Although there is no proof the couple consummated their relationship, Washington openly professed his love to Mrs. Fairfax in writing. “The world has no business to know the object of my love, declared in this manner to you,” he stated in a secret letter to Fairfax while engaged to Martha Custis. Sally Fairfax visited Washington and Martha frequently after their marriage, but moved to England with her husband, George William Fairfax, in 1773. She remained there long after Fairfax’s death. In 1798, Washington wrote her, urging a return to Virginia, reminding her of “those happy moments, the happiest of my life, that I have enjoyed in your company.” She ignored him, dying alone in England in 1811.

    8. In 1759 Mount Vernon was approximately 3,170 acres. Over the next thirty-plus years, Washington added various parcels of land that increased the size to almost 7,600 acres.

    9. Shortly after Washington’s death, a series of suspicious fires was set at Mount Vernon. This led many to believe that his slaves were growing restless. Martha granted them their freedom on January 1, 1801, and many said it was because she feared for her life. However, by law, she could not free the slaves she had inherited from her first husband forty years earlier. These individuals were passed down to her heirs upon her death.

  10. Martha was first married to Daniel Parke Custis, twenty years her senior, when she was just eighteen years old. He died in 1757 after seven years of marriage. Martha gave birth to four children during that time. However, even in an age when fewer than 60 percent of children lived to the age of twenty, the deaths of her two oldest children before they turned five was a staggering loss. Martha’s two remaining children, John Parke “Jacky” Custis, and Martha Parke “Patsy” Custis lived to see her marry George Washington. However, Patsy died of seizures in 1773 at the age of seventeen. Jacky Custis died in 1781 at the age of twenty-six.

  Chapter 2

    1. Also called ermine. A stoat is a member of the weasel family.

    2. The official royal residence was St. James’s Palace, but George III found it confining. He purchased Buckingham House in 1761, so named because it had once belonged to the Duke of Buckingham. The estate was also called the “Queen’s House” because of Charlotte’s deep affection for the property. The structure was greatly expanded in the nineteenth century. For a time, it was proposed that it house Parliament after a blaze in 1834 destroyed the Palace of Westminster. Instead, it became Buckingham Palace, the official royal residence to this day.

    3. The roots of Charlotte’s African lineage are unclear. Thanks to the intermarrying of Europe’s royal families, it was not uncommon for houses from far-flung lands to be joined. Thus, Charlotte is thought to be either a distant descendant of the black Portuguese noblewoman Margarita y Castro de Sousa, or of Portuguese king Alfonso III and his mistress Mourana Gil, who was of Berber descent. Although portrait artists during her lifetime softened Charlotte’s features to make them more British, one physician with close ties to the royal family stated for the record that she had the face of a mulatto. A poem written to commemorate Charlotte’s wedding to George III included these lines alluding to her appearance: “Descended from the warlike Vandal race, She still preserves that title in her face.”

    4. British regular army soldiers often traveled with their families. Wives did washing, worked as nurses, and sold alcoholic beverages. Children were allowed to remain with their fathers until the age of fourteen, when they were turned out to make a living for themselves. The widows of Bunker Hill, like all women who had lost a husband in combat, might remain with the army if they had gainful employment but were entitled to passage back to Great Britain if they chose, as did the women returning home on the Charming Nancy.

    5. The phrase “don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” is said to have been coined at Bunker Hill by Continental Army colonel Israel Putnam. This myth was propagated by nineteenth-century writer Mason Weems, the same man who concocted the legend about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree. In fact, the rebels were told to wait until they could see the tops of the gaiters the British troops wore around their ankles. Gaiters worn in America were black. Only those of the foot guards in London were white. In any case, “whites of their eyes” was first uttered by Prince Charles of Prussia in 1745 and Frederick the Great in 1757.

    6. Arsenic (from the Greek word for “potent”) was once considered a medicine. It was long used to treat syphilis, asthma, and eczema. It is still in use today as an aggressive treatment for acute leukemia. During his reign, George was often given a medicine known as James Fever Powder, which contained high levels of arsenic. A powder form of arsenic was also sprinkled on the royal wigs to protect them from decay and insects.

  Chapter 3

    1. At a time when superior equestrian skills were required of all true gentlemen, Washington was known for his prowess on horseback. He was fond of leaping fences and galloping across fields during daylong fox and stag hunts. The general had two primary mounts during the Revolutionary War, Blueskin and Nelson, a chestnut gelding who was known for his calm under fire. Washington rotated the daily use of the two horses in order not to overwork them. He also refused to whip his mounts, and made it a habit to visit their stables first thing every morning to check on their well-being.

    2. Rather than rely solely on his own wisdom, and recognizing the need for good advice before making major decisions, Washington convened a council of war. Its members consisted of Maj. Gen. Charles Lee, Maj. Gen. Artemas Ward, and four other men who would rise to prominence as generals in the Continental Army: farmer William Heath, lawyer John Sullivan, physician John Thomas, and Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene. Washington was not bound by their decisions, but he tended to defer to the council.

    3. Incredibly, Mount Whoredom is now one of Boston’s most affluent neighborhoods, Beacon Hill.

    4. The actual extent of Howe’s relationship with Mrs. Loring is uncertain. Allegations began in New York in early 1777; although they were both in Boston before that, it is not certain whether their affair began there. The authors of this book have used the version of events put forth by most modern writers.

    5. It was not uncommon for British generals to leave their spouses at home and take a mistress while away at war. Sometimes these affairs were in the open, as with the unmarried Howe and Mrs. Loring. Other times, the consorts were disguised as “cousins” and took up residence at a general’s headquarters. However, the case of Mrs. Loring became such a public distraction that it attracted the attention of both the Continental Army and the British Parliament. American general Charles Lee said of Howe, “He shut his eyes, fought his battles, drank his bottle and had his little whore.” Parliament condemned Mrs. Loring as a “Cleopatra to this Antony of ours.”

    6. British soldiers enlisted for life, with terrible pay (the modern equivalent of twenty cents per day) and cramped living conditions. Thus, the need to maintain strict discipline to prevent mutiny was paramount. Even during the siege of Boston, General Howe inflicted severe punishments upon British soldiers for breaking the rules. Methods of discipline ranged from whippings to hanging, depending on the offense. Hangings were carried out on the Boston Common, for all to see. If the punishment was flogging, the accused was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree or post, then lashed
across the back with a whip known as a cat-o’-nine-tails. The name comes from the number of knotted cord tentacles attached to the whip handle. It was not uncommon for a soldier to receive several hundred lashes. It was considered bad form to cry out or flinch during this punishment, so soldiers very often crushed a lead bullet between their teeth while being whipped, to counter the pain. In some extreme cases, the lashings were administered over the course of several days, which would not allow the wounds to close before the administration of more punishment, thus making the ordeal far more painful. The cat-o’-nine-tails would become covered in blood during a whipping. When not in use, the “cat” was very often kept in a bag made of coarse crimson cloth. The color was deliberate, meant to blend with the blood seeping through the fabric. The act of removing the whip from this storage pouch gave rise to the term “cat’s out of the bag,” as a method of referring to a revelation.

    7. Washington contracted smallpox in 1751, while visiting Barbados with his half brother. The two men had traveled to the Caribbean island seeking a cure for Lawrence Washington’s tuberculosis. On November 17 of that year, the nineteen-year-old George was stricken with smallpox. He endured three weeks of suffering before the illness passed, but in the process, he became an ardent believer in smallpox inoculation, a highly controversial practice at the time. It involved placing a small amount of pus from an infected victim into an incision on the body of a healthy person. This would result in a mild form of smallpox, one that could sometimes be fatal, but when successful, it gave the individual a lifetime of immunity from the disease. Thus, in 1776, as Martha Washington came to stay with her husband in Massachusetts, the general vigorously urged her to get inoculated. Despite great misgivings, she did, with no ill effects. It should be noted that Lawrence Washington’s trip to Barbados was unsuccessful. He died of tuberculosis upon his return to Virginia in 1752.